Surface Book vs. MacBook Pro: It isn't twice as fast. It's three times as fast (Ruh-roh!)

PC World ^ | Oct 22, 2015 | Gordon Mah Ung

[dayglored]

Of course we had to pit the Surface Book vs. the MacBook Pro. It’s like Ford vs. Chevy, or Coke vs. Pepsi. Each side has its diehard fans, plus others who just want to know which is better.

Microsoft claims its new Surface Book is “twice” as fast as its equivalent MacBook Pro. Well, we ran some benchmarks, and hate to say it, but Microsoft lied. The Surface Book isn’t twice as fast.

It’s three times as fast. Read on for the details.

What Microsoft meant

First, let’s clarify what Microsoft meant when it said the Surface Book would smoke the MacBook Pro. The company specifically means the MacBook Pro 13 inch model. That’s a very important distinction, because the MacBook Pro 15 is a different class of laptop. It’s larger, heavier, and packs a quad-core CPU and fairly beefy AMD discrete graphics. For Microsoft to say the Surface Book out performed the MacBook Pro 15 would be absurd. It would be like Apple saying the MacBook Pro 15 outperforms, oh, an MSI GT 80 Titan SLI laptop in gaming. So the target for the Surface Book is the MacBook Pro 13. Microsoft even compares the two directly in its reviewers guide.

How I tested

...

(Lots and lots of detail at the source...)

[dayglored]

Ruh-roh. This could mean war!! :-)

[dayglored]

Hi Sword... better get over here pronto! :-)

[dayglored]

THREE times as fast?!? ... PING!

You can find all the Windows Ping list threads with FR search: just search on keyword "windowspinglist".

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Flame war to ensue.

[Billthedrill]

Incoming.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Flame war to ensue.

Flame Warriors

[VanDeKoik]

I just wish I didnt have to have Trump money to get one, but then again I guess I really dont need that much power to just use Visual Studio and some graphics programs.

[dayglored]

The devil made me do it.

[Darteaus94025]

And it gives the Blue Screen of Death how often?
Installation includes viruses, malware and adware-free of charge!

You need to setup your phone wn printers, find the right drivers, etc. all on your own?

It can’t be all upside, no?

I run on an Mac-and they have problems also, but MANY fewer. For corporate work I run VMWare with multiple MS environments.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

You win! Nice cast on that first stone.

[dayglored]

Yeah.... I hear ya. I have a perfectly suitable laptop (Fujitsu Lifebook, Win7 Ultimate and Ubuntu Linux dual-boot, 4GB RAM, SSD, very lightweight, etc.) so I can't justify replacing it until it breaks.

But when it does... [cue evil grin]

[justlurking]

They are comparing a laptop without a separate GPU (the Macbook Pro 13) to a laptop that has a separate GPU(the Surface Pro).

The benchmarks that don't can't use a GPU show almost no difference. The graphic benchmarks show a big difference.

What a surprise.

The MacBook Pro 15 has an optional AMD Radeon GPU. But, it's also quad-core and substantially more expensive than the Surface Pro and the Macbook Pro 13.

So yes: it's nice that Microsoft managed to cram a GPU in a laptop and keep the price down. But, you have to decide if your typical usage can take advantage of the GPU.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Hmmm... Does the Surface time include regular daily system updates, virus scans, driver updates, malware scans, etc?

[ThunderSleeps]

Linux guy here, sitting back with popcorn...

Not going to get into this, my computer I built from parts is "fast enough." But I do love a good show...

[detch]

So, one takes three blinks of an eye, the other two.

Microsoft still has a crappy OS, mainly because they are always a couple decades (or more) behind Apple in ease of use of their machines.

Yawn.

[dayglored]

> Linux guy here, sitting back with popcorn... Not going to get into this, my computer I built from parts is "fast enough." But I do love a good show...

LOL. I posted this thread from my CentOS box...

[CodeToad]

“Microsoft still has a crappy OS, mainly because they are always a couple decades (or more) behind Apple in ease of use of their machines.”

I guess that’s just another way of saying Apple users are retards that can’t handle more than one mouse button at a time.

[Made In The USA]

Awww dangit... Can’t we just talk about something less controversial, like religion or politics?

[dayglored]

> ...another way of saying Apple users are retards...

Now, now. You know the forum rules... Flame the technology if you wish, but let's not get personal. Even "indirectly".

[dayglored]

> ...something less controversial, like religion or politics

Computers are controversial? Wow, who knew?...