Comments on: Quad Core Macbook Pros, Seriously? Why Quad Core Laptops Are a Joke Today

By: John Sawyer

John Sawyer — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:30:42 +0000

Even the somewhat average person doing somewhat average web browsing might benefit from four processors–on a dual core, with just one or two dozen browser windows open, and many of those windows running stupid slow Javascripts, the entire computer can slow to a crawl. Yes, I know the “prudent” user should just bookmark and close some of those browser windows, but what if they don't want to?

By: Peter Morris

Peter Morris — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:46:08 +0000

quad core is not about running a single application faster (at least for me).

My (aging and aged, first gen) macbookpro is my main development workhorse, and at any time it will be running a couple of different db servers, a web server or 3, development tools, mail, irc, skype, web browser, twitter, neo office, itunes etc. That situation would benefit from quad cores very well.

By: John M

John M — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:10:27 +0000

There is a perfectly valid use for quad core on a laptop, where the software can use all of the cores: virtualization. I use VMware every day on the job. I am a systems engineer that needs to keep multiple, separate environments running on my laptop.

On a daily basis I run Mac OS X with a separate Windows XP VM for my work stuff. When I go out to a customer I will generally have 3 VMs running on top of OS X:
* An Oracle database running under Linux
* WebLogic Server running under Linux
* Eclipse and other development tools running under Windows XP

Some of those virtual machines could really use more than one core as well. When I demo all of these at once I require a LOT of RAM and a LOT of processor power.

Perhaps I am a power user, but I know thousands of people within just my company that could use every ounce of that quad-core!

One note though: if you are going to put a quad-core processor in a laptop, the processor should be smart enough to only fire up the cores that it needs at the time. For example, if I am just cruising the web on OS X, I only need one or two cores at most. If I start firing up virtual machines under VMware, it should allocate a core to each VM until all four cores are in use. That would help with the battery life immensely.

By: ChaosInMind

ChaosInMind — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:56:42 +0000

Seriously? I'm tired of hearing “quad core processors are un-needed at this time”
#1) You don't think the fully 64bit Unix based operating system by Apple is capable of using 4 cores? The OS itself will see benefits from the extra power!
#2) This is probably going into their Pro series because people that buy the pro usually do high end graphics work or digital audio production, not to mention the price of such a system.
#3) This would be a mobile quad core chip, not a desktop chip. This means it can probably disable unused cores and throttle back speed depending on use and power state.
#4) Can you say, Solid State Harddrive, 4gb DDR2 Memory, Quad Core CPU… Oh no, we don't need all that to see performance gains, just throw it away and pick up a Powerbook G3.

By: Guy

Guy — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:46:54 +0000

well….If the speeds going to be the Increased…and well due to the 45nm changes the benefits would be: Faster speeds…Downsides: The heat is around the same and well the Battery Life would be around the same…Pointless argument….Improve one part leave the other two around about the same…It's a win win situation….

By: William Shaw

William Shaw — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:50:11 +0000

Robert: The option of running in 2-core or even 1-core mode while under batteries is a very good idea. Somebody tell Apple. I can read/compose e-mail off-line on a long flight on 1-core cycled down to 1 GHz, and do HPC demos at full tilt plugged in when I arrive.

By: Robert

Robert — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 12:59:08 +0000

Macbook pro with quad is going to bi like a dream for users like me who uses it for a workstation with logic 8. and by the way: don’t you think apple will make it possible to disable at least two of the cores when it runs on battery? it certainly would be smart.

By: pete23

pete23 — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:00:18 +0000

mmmf. ableton live has good multicore support - there’s always room for more CPU power for VSTs…

i think that you’re neglecting an important usecase for laptops - that of the portable desktop replacement. my laptop probably spends 90%+ of its time connected to the mains.

general computer users can live with a macbook. the pro is for people who need the extra welly.

By: Devindra

Devindra — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:37:07 +0000

William, it’ll certainly be useful for users like yourself, my point is that it’s not that wise of a release among general computer users. Most laptops today already run obscenely hot, and battery life hasn’t been improved much recently, on dual core chips.

Unless significant changes occur to quad core chip architecture, they won’t be a good addition to laptops. I’m sure it will happen eventually, just not sure if that will be this year.

By: William Shaw

William Shaw — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 09:26:49 +0000

Bizarre article. I use a cluster of Macs to do mathematical work with GridMathematica and the sooner one of these comes out the better - that way I can travel and do demos of parallel computation applications without replying on a local setup. I rarely work off batteries, and the benefits of four processors massively outweigh slightly faster clock speed. Can’t wait for quad myself!