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Apple MacBook Pro memory and hard drive testing by Other World Computing.

Upgrading Memory and Hard Drive
in your MacBook Pro 17"

Which offers better performance?
RAM, or a fast Hard Drive?

More Memory can make all the difference and these testing results and benchmarks are here to give an idea of just how much. More memory is consistently better, but be upgrading with a matched pair or one module at a time - pretty much whatever additional memory you end up with, you'll notice the difference it makes.

 

Apple MacBook Pro 17" Core 2 Duo Memory Testing of 1.0GB, 2.0GB, 3.0GB and 4.0GB configurations by Other World Computing.

Photoshop CS3 Results

Adobe Photoshop CS3 is the newest, Intel-native iteration of the popular image editing program.

This test measures the time (in seconds) it takes to execute a custom 21-step action script using Adobe Photoshop CS3. Lower times are better.

RAM Configuration 1024 MB
(2x 512)		 2048 MB
(2x 1024)		 3072 MB
(1024+2048)		 4096 MB
(2x 2048)
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache		 Not Tested 89.97 69.82 69.56
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 Not Tested 87.28 69.13 64.79
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache		 Not Tested 106.00 77.59 75.00
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 Not Tested 89.22 73.32 71.90

Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache

 Not Tested 99.87 77.47 74.59
Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 Not Tested 91.97 72.35 71.38

Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache

 127.28 114.78 83.28 79.69
Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 111.90 101.85 80.25 77.72
Macbook Pro 17" (Core 2 Duo)
2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache		 131.87 120.69 89.40 86.46
Macbook Pro 17" (Core 2 Duo)
2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache + 7200 RPM Drive		 113.03 117.16 83.75 80.79

Of note here is the substantial improvement that the MacBook Pro 2.33 with the upgraded hard drive showed. Photoshop certainly uses the hard drive as scratch disk space, even with lots of system RAM.

"Stress Test" Results

This test also times how long it takes Adobe Photoshop CS3 to run a series of 21 actions. However, in addition to Photoshop, the iTunes Visualizer is also set to run. This generally taxes both the video card and the processor. Lower times are better.

RAM Configuration 1024 MB
(2x 512)		 2048 MB
(2x 1024)		 3072 MB
(1024+2048)		 4096 MB
(2x 2048)
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache		 Not Tested 110.50 88.31 88.28
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 Not Tested 104.85 87.72 86.90
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache		 Not Tested 128.34 100.25 97.44
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 Not Tested 112.25 91.22 90.78

Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache

 Not Tested 131.56 110.47 108.54
Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 Not Tested 125.34 107.63 106.41

Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache

 172.56 153.31 123.75 123.63
Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 167.87 138.81 117.47 116.03
Macbook Pro 17" (Core 2 Duo)
2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache		 144.16* 134.84* 105.44* 103.60*
Macbook Pro 17" (Core 2 Duo)
2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache + 7200 RPM Drive		 132.44* 128.78* 103.75* 102.32*

*Important note - MacBook Pro systems 2.4GHz and faster are tested with the higher resolution 1920x1080 screen option versus the 2.33GHz systems which have a 1680x1050 screen resolution.

"RAM Hog" Results

This test times how long it takes to run our standard 21-step Photoshop action in Photoshop CS3 when 50% of the installed RAM is taken up with a RAM Disk. Lower times are better.

RAM Configuration 1024 MB
(2x 512)		 2048 MB
(2x 1024)		 3072 MB
(1024+2048)		 4096 MB
(2x 2048)
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache		 Not Tested 208.54 116.41 69.00
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 Not Tested 182.75 111.34 68.82
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache		 Not Tested 306.10 136.53 74.44
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 Not Tested 185.87 128.87 71.98

Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache

 Not Tested 284.90 153.13 74.67
Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 Not Tested 191.88 119.06 78.16

Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache

 483.97 257.06 85.33 78.94
Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 457.19 237.54 83.75 73.31
Macbook Pro 17" (Core 2 Duo)
2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache		 436.75 262.28 95.12 91.69
Macbook Pro 17" (Core 2 Duo)
2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache + 7200 RPM Drive		 417.41 245.19 93.87 89.40

Notice how the faster hard drive truly improves performance of the slower computer - even beating the faster processor in low memory situations. Obviously using the higher RPM hard drive as RAM swap space improves performance.

Halo Results

In order to heavily tax the video card, we ran the time demo of the Intel-native version of the popular game, Halo.

Results are the average frame rate (in frames per second) achieved. Higher results are better.

RAM Configuration 1024 MB
(2x 512)		 2048 MB
(2x 1024)		 3072 MB
(1024+2048)		 4096 MB
(2x 2048)
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache		 Not Tested 54.00 52.90 54.55
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 Not Tested 53.75

53.46

 53.77
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache		 Not Tested 53.96 53.18 53.18
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 Not Tested 53.78 54.43 54.24

Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache

 Not Tested 44.10 44.75 45.33
Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 Not Tested 46.15 45.95 46.11

Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache

 42.29 42.07 42.55 43.47
Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 42.53 42.20 42.63 43.86
Macbook Pro 17" (Core 2 Duo)
2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache		 39.69* 39.24* 39.68* 39.26*
Macbook Pro 17" (Core 2 Duo)
2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache + 7200 RPM Drive		 51.70* 56.27* 51.58* 55.46*

The faster hard drive really shines here because Halo hits the hard drive so much for it's graphics data it is displaying. *Important note - MacBook Pro systems 2.4GHz and faster are tested with the higher resolution 1920x1080 screen option versus the 2.33GHz systems which have a 1680x1050 screen resolution.

XBench Results

XBench is a standardized utility for measuring the performance of your computer, as compared to a "baseline" computer. (More information and the application, itself, can be found here.)

For this test, we checked all the options except for the Disk Test, as it was the only one that did did not either touch System memory or Video Memory. Higher Point results are better.

RAM Configuration 1024 MB
(2x 512)		 2048 MB
(2x 1024)		 3072 MB
(1024+2048)		 4096 MB
(2x 2048)
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache		 Not Tested 207.14 212.53 215.07
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 Not Tested 211.37 212.99 215.35
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache		 Not Tested 201.22 208.92 211.35
MacBook Pro 17" (Early 2008)
2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 Not Tested 208.23 207.08 212.43

Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache

 Not Tested 189.26 185.78 195.10
Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 Not Tested 189.42 185.71 189.47

Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache

 172.60 172.99 173.09 174.25
Macbook Pro 17" (Mid 2007)
2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache + 7200RPM Drive		 175.10 173.31 173.52 174.00
Macbook Pro 17" (Core 2 Duo)
2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache		 170.52 170.60 169.90 171.41
Macbook Pro 17" (Core 2 Duo)
2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo 4MB L2 Cache + 7200 RPM Drive		 170.37 172.26 171.36 172.54

 
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