MBP Retina outperforms Mac Pro

Yesterday, I received the MacBook Pro Retina I had ordered a while back. Configured with 16 GB of memory, 512 GB of flash storage and a 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 quad core CPU, I thought that it will be a good solution for editing on the go. Needless to say, the display is capable of displaying full HD at 100% in the viewer while still leaving enough space for the application and looks just gorgeous.

Final Cut Pro X on the MacBook Pro Retina

After installing Final Cut Pro X, I copied the documentary project I am currently working on and had the immediate impression that the overall response of the app had increased on the Retina.

After a couple of more short tests today, I found out that it indeed smokes my mid2010 8core Mac Pro (16 GB memory) over in the studio:

Even though I am only working with a small LaCie Little Big Disk (Thunderbolt, RAID-0 configuration, approx. 160 - 190 MB/sec read/write), render times for the same tasks were impressively shorter. Mind that I'm working with larger RAID-5 disks in the studio (eSATA, 250 - 300 MB/sec read/write).

LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt performance

• Task 1 - Rendering of the FCPX stabilizer (same clip):

MacBook Pro Retina: 01min21sec
Mac Pro: 01min37sec

• Task 2 - Render cineLook S-Curve plugin (same clip):

MacBook Pro Retina: 01min35sec
Mac Pro: 02min01sec

Quite impressive!

Mobile computing has come a long way from the times when the fastest laptops would offer 1/3 - 1/2 of the performance of a (more or less) up-to-date desktop machine. Of course, there's still the Mac Pro 12c which, at a different price point, offers an even better performance, but I wouldn't have guessed that not even within a whole 2-year-cycle, my big machine would be outperformed by a laptop.