Also, it appears to be bursting much less aggressively than the 2015 model, which explains perhaps the larger performance gap.So here’s a tip for you: Download CleanMyMac to quickly solve some of the issues mentioned in this article. It looks like the newer MacBook Pro 2106 runs cooler and use SIGNIFICANTLY less power, which is what you'd expect from the new Skylake processors. I ran the Intel Power Gadget to monitor clock-speeds throughout the compile process. I'm a little confused as to why it was performing so much worse earlier, but am also relieved. However, when I came back to run watch the clock speeds throughout the process, I wasn't able to reproduce those numbers. When I first wrote this post, I was consistently seeing a 27% decrease in speed. It makes me wonder if maybe there is a software issue, or the MacBook Pro I received is defective, or, perhaps, they made some compromises to how CPU overclocking is handled because the new form factor introduced additional heat distribution constraints.Īt any rate, if you regularly run CPU intensive tasks as a part of your day, then you may wish to pass on the new MacBook Pro, for now. But, when measuring CPU intensive tasks, alone, it's strange how poorly it performs compares to it’s predecessor. When I'm browsing the web or performing other non-CPU-intensive tasks, the newer 2016 MacBook Pro is up to the task and has no noticeable performance issues. It’s a very well designed device and it's a joy to use. On the positive side, the touch ID, touch bar, brighter screen, smaller form, new speakers, etc. In related news, clock speeds don't mean anything anymore. So, to see this bit of a hit on performance was a surprise to me.

The RAM in the 2016 model is significantly faster. The base clock speed is 4% slower, and the burst clock speed is 10% slower. This represents about a 12% reduction in performance from the 2015 to the 2016 model.

On average, the compile times were as follows: In a somewhat informal test, I compiled the Marathon code 4 times, from scratch, each time completely clearing the compile cache (and not re-downloading dependencies). As such I'm inclined to care about how well the hardware I'm using performs this task. A good portion of my day includes compiling Scala code, a language which, due to it's extensive feature set, can take a little longer to compile.

Mac cpu speed