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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > Good Merom vs Yonah Article

Good Merom vs Yonah Article
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Kdog01
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Aug 21, 2006, 09:31 PM
 
Hey guys, I frequent this board everyday and have not seen this article posted. If someone has posted before I apologize. Anyways, I found it to be a very good article. I will certainly purchase a Merom macbookpro when it is released.

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid...e=expert&pid=6

From what I see the performance increase is about 10 - 15% and the power consumption improvement is about 15 - 20%
     
Simon
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Aug 22, 2006, 02:59 AM
 
Interesting. This article comes to a rather different conclusion.
AnandTech: Mobile CPU Wars: Core 2 Duo vs. Core Duo

If Merom is actually bus limited it's likely we won't see major improvements till the Santa Rosa chipset arrives next year. The advantage OTOH is, a rev B Merom MBP released soon might also not use more power than the Yonah MBP uses now.
     
SierraDragon
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Aug 22, 2006, 11:33 PM
 
Originally Posted by Simon
Interesting. This article comes to a rather different conclusion.
AnandTech: Mobile CPU Wars: Core 2 Duo vs. Core Duo

If Merom is actually bus limited it's likely we won't see major improvements till the Santa Rosa chipset arrives next year. The advantage OTOH is, a rev B Merom MBP released soon might also not use more power than the Yonah MBP uses now.
However that article intentionally measures the Merom chip on an identical PC platform as the Yonah chip. Such an approach hamstrings the Merom. Would not Merom MBPs be likely to be on a platform less limiting?
     
Simon
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Aug 23, 2006, 03:17 AM
 
Originally Posted by SierraDragon
However that article intentionally measures the Merom chip on an identical PC platform as the Yonah chip. Such an approach hamstrings the Merom.
Why that? Merom is a drop-in replacement for Yonah. It uses the exact same board and chipset (some boards need a BIOS update though). This will only change when the Santa Rosa chipset arrives next year.

Would not Merom MBPs be likely to be on a platform less limiting?
Well they will be less 'limited' when Santa Rosa arrives, mainly due to SR's 800MHz FSB. But that's still months away.

I find that actually one of the nice things about the AnandTech article (although I otherwise don't like AnandTech much at all). It makes a lot of sense to test Yonah and Merom in the same notebook because that is what's going to happen during the next few months. Manufacturers (like Apple hopefully) will use Merom together with the same chipset they're using now for Yonah. If Merom doesn't use more battery and performs better, it's as winner. If it performs equally and uses more battery or costs significantly more, it won't be worth a switch until the SR chipset arrives.

I think the AnandTech article basically comes to the conclusion that Merom will perform slightly better than Yonah, although probably no more than 15% max and sometimes there will hardly be an improvement. It however won't use more battery either. The remaining question is how much more it will cost. The Merom price points will be the same as Yonah when it was released, but AFAIK the Yonah discount once Merom ships is not yet known.

Btw, this is also what BareFeats (see Aug 19 entry) is also suggesting. They claim that the switch to Merom won't make a lot of sense until the SR chipset comes along with it.
     
analogika
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Aug 23, 2006, 10:07 AM
 
I've heard - but cannot quote - that Merom will actually be *cheaper* in bulk than Yonah.
     
smileydub
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Aug 25, 2006, 01:09 PM
 
If MacBook upgrades to Merom without any other hardware changes, would the Macbook have to go through all that teething problems as in the first 2 months; shut downs, hot bottom, moos, etc?

I know this section is for MBP and not MB, but I thought this would be a good thread to jump on. Perhaps people who tinker with processor upgrades (whether in Windows PC or Macs) know of some consequences.
     
mduell
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Aug 25, 2006, 06:33 PM
 
Originally Posted by smileydub
If MacBook upgrades to Merom without any other hardware changes, would the Macbook have to go through all that teething problems as in the first 2 months; shut downs, hot bottom, moos, etc?
Not necessarily. They could use the same logic board, so all of those issues would remain solved or unsolved (whatever their current status is). Or they could redesign it (for no obvious reason) and have tons of flaws or no flaws at all.
     
   
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