First look at Intel’s Yonah processor – Less “power” in our PowerBooks?
Posted by Lab Rat
Now that Apple is moving its line over to Intel, we have to start paying more attention to the Intel side of the rumor world. AnandTech posts an Exclusive First Look at Yonah, the Intel processor believed to be making its way into the upcoming Apple laptops. AnandTech posts some extensive benchmarks comparing a 2 GHz Yonah chip to a Pentium D, as well as to two AMD desktop chips (an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ and an X2 3800+).
Hopeful Mac fans looking for a resounding victory of the dual-core Yonah over AMD’s chips will be a bit let down as the Yonah lags behind AMD’s chips in almost every test (although to be fair, the Yonah chip is expected to appear in portables, so the fact that it can compete at all with AMD’s 64-bit dektop chips is reason enough to celebrate). Most notably (and unfortunately for PowerBook users) the Yonah seems to be ill suited for video editing/encoding tasks, at least in the early Yonah system AnandTech tested. However, the performance is very close over all, and in power consumption (a key area for laptops) the Yonah blows the AMDs away. In fact, while running at a full 100%, the Yonah uses less power than the AMD chips while idle.
That is pretty amazing.
We asked our source at Apple if this could mean we will start hearing rumors of dual Yonah processors in upcoming Apple laptops. He admitted he didn’t know, but that if performance was less than stellar, he would not be surprised to see a special amped-up version of the 17-inch PowerBook geared specifically towards editors and media professionals. We’ll let you know as soon as we hear anything on that front, but in the meantime, the Yonah benchmarks do seem to back Steve Jobs’ claim that Intel was the right move for competitive performance with low power consumption. It remains to be seen, however, if the move will ultimately mean less “power� in our PowerBooks.
The best thing about being a poor Mac fan is looking for rumors about the next “big thing” from Apple to give me a reason to not buy any of the current offerings. So I am going to go with the assumption the dual Yonah PowerBook is a “Go”, and I will just stick with my Umax clone for now while I save.
🙂
> Intel 2 GHz Yonah chip v AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ and an X2 3800+.
> In fact, while running at a full 100%, the Yonah uses less power than the
> AMD chips while idle.
For power consumption and performance, this test is unfair and misleading to Intel and AMD – to compare a Intels Mobile Yonah chip to AMD’s desktop chip.
This test should only be done against a Mobile Dual-Core (Intel Yonah & AMD Turion equal when released)
Right.
However, I’d be more interested in seeing the first benchmarks between Yonah and the current PPC chips in the Mac portables.
While I want Intel to outperform AMD to help justify in my mind Jobs’ choice of Intel over AMD, as long as it is a significant improvemnt over the current processors, I will be happy.