Slow MacBook Pro

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Level 1

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Slow MacBook Pro

Hi,

I have a mid '07 MBP 17", which I think is terribly slow. Would anyone with a MacBook Pro be so kind as to post their geekbench scores if they have them? Thanks!

The reason is, I have a mid '07 17" 2.6GHz C2D Macbook Pro, and I am beginning to think it's performing waaaaayyy below spec. I have worked with a number of other C2D macs, laptops and iMacs, and ALL are way faster than my machine. For example, I can't playback 1080p (full HD) Quicktime video at normal framerates. Even a Mac Mini can do that! Logic Studio 8 won't let me play more than 5 notes at a time in a single EXS24 patch, not using any other plugins at all, and so on.

I've done the (free) 32-bit Geekbench test three times, and I get scores of 1093, 1100 and 1097. According to my information, it should be a score of around 3300.

Can anyone shed some light on this? Do I have a normal score after all, or should I use my Apple Care Protection Plan to try and fix my MBP?

One other question I have, is that I have 4GB of 667MHz RAM. Shouldn't that be 800MHz?? And could that explain the low performance?

Also, using iStat Pro, I find my CPU running a little hot when idle, around 55ºC. GPU a good ten degrees more at around 65ºC when idle. That seems a little high, am I right?

Thanks!

James.

17" MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.7), C2D 2.6GHz, 4GB, 200GB 7200 rpm

Posted on Aug 3, 2009 12:01 PM

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Answer 1

tjk

Level 9

51,282 points

Aug 3, 2009 1:06 PM in response to Jamesblond1

Hi James,

That is a bad score. Have you compared it to others at GB? (My early 2007 15" 2.5GHz got a score of 3366).

By any chance, are you running on battery? Or running on the power adapter with the battery removed? Or a dead battery?

Yes, I would call AppleCare.

667MHz RAM is correct.

Temps might be a tiny bit higher than the "average," but well with specs.

Message was edited by: tjk

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Answer 2

Jamesblond1 Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 7, 2009 8:00 AM in response to tjk

Hi tjk

I'm running on mainspower when I do the benchmark. GB Is the only app running, second monitor disconnected, just like any peripherals like printers and such. I also run on mains without battery from time to time, but that doesn't change anything about the score, or performance.

I've been told that a re-installation of Mac OS-X might solve the problem. I haven't tried that yet, though. But I kind of suspect that it's a hardware problem rather than software/driver related.

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Answer 3

tjk

Level 9

51,282 points

Aug 7, 2009 10:13 AM in response to Jamesblond1

Jamesblond1 wrote:
I also run on mains without battery from time to time, but that doesn't change anything about the score, or performance.

Now that's a very interesting tidbit. Several people have posted here that running on the power adapter without the battery installed reduces their CPU speed to 1GHz . . . .

I've been told that a re-installation of Mac OS-X might solve the problem. I haven't tried that yet, though. But I kind of suspect that it's a hardware problem rather than software/driver related.

I understand your hardware suspicion, and reluctance to re-install, but an Archive and Install is rather painless, and if you do a clone beforehand (I recommend it), worst case is cloning back the "old" installation. If you do these when you don't need to use the machine, the only downside is your time, and even then it's very little of your time, as it's only a few clicks and the rest is letting the install/clones do their thing. I'd recommend an A and I and see what happens.

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Answer 4

JoeyR

Level 6

8,325 points

Aug 7, 2009 10:55 AM in response to Jamesblond1

Actually running without the battery "should" reduce your performance significantly. That is directly from Apple...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2332

Are you sure your machine is running at 2.6GHz?

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Answer 5

Allan Jones

Level 10

83,692 points

Aug 7, 2009 12:04 PM in response to Jamesblond1

Let's try the easy thing first. Have you used Activity Monitor (in your Utilities folder) to see if any background processes are eating up cycles. To get an accurate reading, you must change AM's default of "Show User Processes" to "Show All Processes."

When my MBP started running hot and creeping along like a Mac 128, Activity Monitor showed that the process syslogd was overactive and I found out that a game demo I'd downloaded was causing the logger to constantly write to system.log, even after I quit the came. It ballooned the log file from a normal size of maybe 200k to over 60MB. The computer was hanging as it saved a too-large file almost continuously. Deleting the game demo and its associated files, followed by a restart, restored normal function and temps.

FWIW, the offending demo was for "Prey." Looked cool, but I couldn't deal with the problems it caused. Don't know if the full version would have the same effect.

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Answer 6

Jamesblond1 Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 8, 2009 1:34 AM in response to Jamesblond1

[quote]
Now that's a very interesting tidbit. Several people have posted here that running on the power adapter without the battery installed reduces their CPU speed to 1GHz . . . .
[/quote]

I've read the post by Apple, and it sounds quite logical, really. But I can't see whether or not my system runs at 1GHz or faster. iStat Pro doesn't say anything about speeds and "about this Mac" says I'm doing 2.6GHz. So nothing out of the ordinary there. Is there a way to see my actual processor speed?

Activity monitor is also quite normal, averaging at about 92% idle. Seems fine to me.

I'll try to do an Archive and Install tomorrow and see what happens. Is there, by any chance, a way to do a clean install and restore all my files and settings from a Time Machine backup?

Also, I once ran a demo of Doom 3. It ran at a pathetic framerate of about 4 - 5 fps. My 4.5 yr old 3.2GHz P4 Wintendows pc with an ATI X850XT is capable of running Doom 3 at over 100 fps, with all eyecandy at maximum. Just to shed another light at the problem...

Thanks!

James.

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Answer 7

PatBe

Level 1

20 points

Aug 8, 2009 5:55 AM in response to Jamesblond1

The logic is the Apple post is not so clear for me :
If you run on AC power, and charging your battery, you will ask the ac adaptor a lot of more power ...
😉
And as you will run at full speed, it will heat, so fans will ask a little bit more power too 😉

btw, have you check your memory usage in activity monitor, and do you stop your mac, or just put it to sleep ?

p-s : geekbench have never wanted to start on my mbp rev a , os X 10.4.11

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Answer 8

Jamesblond1 Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 8, 2009 10:05 AM in response to Jamesblond1

Hi all!

Problem solved! It seems that I myself am the culprit of this issue. I re-installed my battery, connected to mainspower and ran Geekbench again. Result: a nice score of 3527! 🙂

So it appears that the MBP3.1 indeed only runs on one processor core or is plain stuck at 1GHz when operating from mains without the battery installed. Just so you know.

Thanks for all your help and insights!

James.

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