WHAT's FASTER about the 'Early 2009' iMac, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini?
Posted March 4th, 2009, by rob-ART morgan, mad scientist
In addition to our preliminary briefing on the new "Nehalem" Mac Pro, we wanted to brief you on the other 'early 2009' Macs. What are the significant changes that affect performance?
1. 'early 2009' iMac
Key performance enhancements over the 2008 model include memory expansion up to 8GB and new graphics processor options including the GeForce GT 130 (aka 8800 GS) and the Radeon HD 4850. (Oh yeah.)
Too bad it's not available with four cores.
2. 'early 2009' MacBook Pro 15"
The main difference from the "late 2008" model is the speed bump of the top model from 2.8GHz to 2.93GHz. I'm confused, though. Why is it that the 17" 2.93GHz MacBook Pro can handle 8GB while the 15" 2.93GHZ MacBook Pro can only be ordered with only 4GB? ('Splain it to me.)
One other new option is a larger (256G) Solid State Drive.
3. 'early 2009' Mac mini
Like the 'late 2008' 13" MacBook, it now sports the Geforce 9400M integrated GPU, which is better than the previous integerated GPU but no match for "real" GPUs like the GeForce GT 130, Radeon HD 4850, or Radeon HD 4870 used in the iMac and Mac Pro. Think of it as a fat 13" MacBook with no screen or keyboard.
It does offer a faster CPU and up to 320GB storage.
