Why is my 17"MBP soooo much faster than the 15"

[jonoslack]

Hi there
It's not that important, but maybe someone can explain.
I was using a unibody 15" MBP (2.53, 320Gb 7200 HD 4gb). Fine machine (from november).

I've recently changed to a 17" (2.66 320Gb 5400 HD 4gb) anti glare.

Fine - love the new screen, and although I did like the glass, this is so much better with reflections and pictures.

However, the big surprise is that the new machine is much much faster than the old one? Especially running Aperture - it has a slightly faster processor but a slower hard drive (I thought I'd update that with the ram later when prices come down a bit). I was expecting it to be the same.

Does anyone have an answer to this?

 

[Jack]

Jono,

Frankly it makes no sense... There must be some other conflict on your 15" unibody.
Unless you have it backwards and the 5400 RPM drive is in the 15" and the 7200 in the 17" --- ?

 

[trisberg]

I agree with Jack. According to these benchmarks http://www.macworld.com/article/139139/2009/03/unibody_17_inch_macbook_pro.html they should be close in performance.

Have you tried running XBench on them?

-Thomas

 

[apocolibri]

Jono,
It's probably the video card. Compare what was in the 15" and what you have in your 17". Aperture is a vram hog. It requires a fast video card to work efficiently. That's my guess.
Lawrence

 

[kweide]

Check the CPU. The new system has a Core 2 Duo !!! And that is much faster than the older one Core Duo or Core lonesome
And Yes: the new graphiccars are much faster as well....
So be happy to have a real fast system !!
I feel. it is time for me as well to do an upgrade....