New MBP Owner/Thoughts/Performance Question

Hey again all.

I finally put my money where my mouth was and plunked down for the middle of the Apple shiny notebook clan. Yes I am talking about the much coveted Macbook Pro (2.4GHz/160GB/2GB/Matte/256MB VRAM)

I knew this model was the one after I saw the changes the Santa Rosa chipset brought to the fruity computer company. The big one (and the reason I spent an extra 500 bones) was the Nvidia 8600GT-M. Coming from a first generation Centrino Dell I was blown away when I first fired up the MBP but was REALLY geeked out when I installed Ghost Recon AW (1). I haven't had a lot of chance to really game on it yet (and I won't do alot anyways) but I have been using this machine full tilt since unboxing it on Monday. I have only had 2 issues.

One, this mother gets hot. In Mac OS X the temps for the CPU diode hover in the 60 deg range on normal usage. There is little chance I would ever use this machine for a "laptop" and I am glad otherwise it would get uncomfortable. I knew the Macbook Pro line got hot and I would gladly trade this for the form factor and weight so this is mostly a non-issue.

The second is a bit puzzling. While I have seen a modern game play smoothly at the native res with most eye-candy on I am getting a very different 3DMark06 score from what I have seen posted here on notebookreview. After running the stock test suite twice in (Windows XP) I only seem to manage ~3100. The review and another post both have score above 4000. What do I need to set to optimize the test parameters? Is the fact that I am running the Boot Camp graphic driver the issue? (Forceware 104.x I think).

Overall I haven't been the pleased with a major purchase in sometime. I am glad I held out until I did and glad that I had incentive to purchase this now rather than wait for Leopard (my work will benefit from it, I make my living with my computers).

BTW, I see alot of posts with people still waiting for their machines to show up. I got my MBP from Amazon with a rebate that should still be in effect in under 3 days. If you want a stock MBP with matte screen this might be the best deal (sign up for a free month of Amazon Prime and get free 2nd day shipping or overnight ship for $4).

Later!

 

Congrats on your new MBP, shomann, and thanks for your thoughts and insights !

The latest Boot Camp, 1.4, has updated graphics drivers. That may help 3DMark scores. But you're not the only one with lower-than-expected 3DMark scores, I believe its MYK who also has a low 3DMark score. He has the 2.4 GHz MBP as well.

 

As far as I can tell, the Boot Camp Beta v1.4 graphics drivers are the same as v1.3 - that is ForceWare 101.34.

shomann, What resolution did you run 3DMark06? 1400x900?

 

Jeebus guys, thanks for the ultra quick feedback for a non-problem! (and thanks for the welcome Sam - I have been lurking here for several years, biding my time *rubbing hands together menacingly*)

I am using the lastest version of 3DMark06 Basic. It didn't allow me to change anything so I think it defaults to a res of 1280x1024. That seemed odd last night as the screen didn't seem stretched...hmmm

I downloaded Forceware 162.18 as per MYK's similar thread. Unless I decide to live dangerously, I probably won't run it for another week as I have a job coming up I need this machine to be in tip-top shape for.

 

BTW, I am forced to use battery power only tonight (someone left his PS elsewhere ah-hem)

Now my processor diode reads ~46 deg C with the heatsink at ~39 - and I could easily put this thing on my lap. Very cooool

 

think it throttles down CPU and GPU when its on battery, resulting a lower comfortable temp.

 

All the Apple notebooks I've used (a 12" powerbook and some macbooks) seem to get much hotter when they are plugged in. I think it is caused by the battery heating up, but you may be right.

 

Well one way to check the battery=heat thing is just run without. It should be real obvious, real quick.

Here is a page for the 8600. According to this, mid to high 3000s are inline with proper 3Dmark06:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-8600M-GT.3986.0.html

 

OK, I know I am post-whoring myself, but I just ran an XBench or 2 (on battery no less) and it compares very favorably with the "norm". I bet its a driver issue for 3DMark06.

Also, I think its a combination of being plugged in and energy saving features in the OS that is working on the heat issue.