Steve Jobs has sent another of his off-the-cuff customer emails, this time about the not-so-fast chip in the new 13-inch MacBook Pro.
Some observers are complaining that the 13-inch MacBook still sports a rather lowly Core 2 Duo chip, which also powered the previous generation machine. Meanwhile, the 15-inch and 17-inch MacBooks got speedy Intel Core i5 and i7 processors.
One MacRumors reader sent Steve Jobs a note about it, who responded that Apple chose to offer better graphics and battery life rather than an increase in CPU performance.
We chose killer graphics plus 10 hour battery life over a very small CPU speed increase. Users will see far more performance boost from the speedy graphics.
The 13-inch MacBook comes with a custom NVIDIA GeForce 320 integrated graphics chipset, custom made for Apple. Apple claims the new chipset is 80% better than the previous model, while offering comparable battery life — up to 10 hours on a single charge. The 320M is the “fastest integrated graphics processor on the market,” Apple claims.
As well as Core i5 and i7 processors, the updated 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro models get two graphics systems: an integrated Intel graphics chipset for everyday display tasks, and a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M card for high-performance tasks. The machines automatically switch between the systems, prefering the lower-power integrated chipset whenever possible to increase battery life.
Meanwhile, early benchmarks from Gizmodo show a massive speed boost for the Core i7-based MacBook: MacBook Pro 15-inch Core i7 Benchmarked: It’s So Fast.