The New MacBook Pro Features 'Fastest SSD Ever' In a Laptop (macrumors.com)

Last week, Apple refreshed the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models, bringing newer Intel processors and quieter keyboards. The new 13-inch MacBook Pro also just so happens to feature the fastest SSD ever in a laptop, according to benchmarks from Laptop Mag. Mac Rumors summarizes the findings: The site's tests were performed on the $2,499 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar equipped with a 2.7GHz quad-core 8th-generation Core i7 processor, 16GB RAM, Intel Iris Plus 655, and a 512GB SSD. A file copy test of the SSD in the new MacBook Pro, which Apple says supports sequential read speeds of up to 3.2GB/s and sequential write speeds up to 2.2GB/s, led Laptop Mag to declare the SSD in the MacBook Pro "the fastest ever" in a laptop. Higher capacity SSDs may see even faster speeds on disk speeds tests. A BlackMagic Disk Speed test was also conducted, resulting in an average write speed of 2,682 MB/s.

On a Geekbench 4 CPU benchmark, the 13-inch MacBook Pro earned a score of 18,055 on the multi-core test, outperforming 13-inch machines from companies like Dell, HP, Asus, and Microsoft. That score beats out all 2017 MacBook Pro models and is faster than some iMac configurations. 15-inch MacBook Pro models with 6-core 8th-generation Intel chips will show even more impressive speeds. With that said, the 13-inch MacBook Pro didn't quite measure up to other machines when it came to GPU performance. "The 13-inch 2018 MacBook Pro uses Intel's Iris Plus Graphics 655 with 128MB of embedded DRAM and was unable to compete in a Dirt 3 graphics test, getting only 38.8 frames per second," reports Mac Rumors. "All Windows-based machines tested offered much better performance."

Comments

No it's not

[Solandri]

Explanation given in TFA (and omitted in summary and other articles crowing over this):

To be fair, Apple's relatively new APFS file system is designed to speed up file file copies using a technology Apple calls Instant Cloning. But a win is a win.

Some research turns up that:

the technology used in the new cloning feature makes it easier to store multiple versions of a file in a minimum of space

In other words, the files weren't copied. A hard link (similar to a shortcut for you Windows users) was created. The whole story is an error by non-techie journalists who noticed something wildly odd in their test results, and rather than spend 30 seconds researching it online like I did, decided "it must be because it's Apple!" and published it. The reality distortion field is alive and well.

Apple has been using Sandisk NAND lately as a bid to try to reduce dependence on Samsung. Both Sandisk and Toshiba SSDs (also used frequently by Apple) regularly benchmark slower than Samsung SSDs.

Re:Having just bought a new MacBoo Pro...

[serviscope_minor]

My work laptop also has SSDs, and it doesn't install Windows 10 into a VM that fast - and it's a Lenovo W530; not exactly a slouch.

You're on the wrong side of the PCIe attached storage divide. The W530 has a weedy 6Gb/s SATA-III interface (my W510 has weedier SATA-II). The good Samsung drives can manage about 5x SATA-III speed on writes and more on reads.

Actually looking that up, I notived that the benchmark for the supposed "fastest SSD in a laptop" almost exactly matches the Samsung 970 EVO drive benchmarks.

Re:overpriced

[BronsCon]

Well, yeah, because every decent manufacturer buys the same panels from Samsung that Apple is using. I don't know why anyone ever thought Apple's displays were some special magic that nobody else had access to... it's not like they make them in-house.

Re: Great.

[Anonymous Coward]

Surely you're not that incompetent that you can't look it up yourself?

Anyway, similarly spec'd machines come in at:

Macbook Pro $4399:
6 Core i7
32GB RAM
2TB SSD
4GB Radeon 560X

Oryx $3381:
6 Core i7
32GB RAM
2TB NVME
8GB Geforce GTX 1070

So there's a big price gulf there and the Oryx provides a MUCH higher performance GPU (in terms of both graphics and compute) by a **very** wide margin.