At WWDC, we got two new iPad Pro models as well as new MacBooks. The Mac Observer has done benchmarks to compare the 12.9-inch iPad Pro in terms of Apple Pencil performance, but new benchmarks have surfaced that show both new iPad Pro models can outperform certain MacBook Pro models when it comes to CPU and GPU performance.
The models compared:
- 2017 MacBook Retina 13-inch, 3.5GHz Dual-Core i7 processor, Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650 GPU, 16GB of 2133 MHz LPDDR3 memory, 1TB PCIe based flash storage
- 2016 MacBook Retina 13-inch, 3.1GHz Dual-Core i7 processor, Intel Iris Graphics 550 GPU, 16GB of 2133 MHz LPDDR3 memory, 1TB PCIe based flash storage
- 2017 iPad Pro 12.9 inch, 2.39GHz A10X processor, 512GB flash storage, 4GB of memory
- 2017 iPad Pro 10.5 inch, 2.39GHz A10X processor, 512GB flash storage, 4GB of memory
- 2016 iPad Pro 9.7 inch, 2.24GHz A9X, 256GB flash storage, 2GB of memory
- 2015 iPad Pro 12.9 inch, 2.26GHz A9X processor, 128GB flash storage, 4GB of memory
The site that ran the tests using Geekbench and GFXBench—BareFeats—show that in single-core CPU performance, both the 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pros beat all of the iPad Pros. But the 10.5-inch iPad Pro beat the new 2017 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
Benchmarking iPad Pro
In multi-core CPU tests, the 2017 MacBook Pro beat every device at a score of 10,261. The 10.5-inch iPad Pro came in second place, and the 2017 12.9-inch iPad Pro came in third place. At the same time, both iPad Pros beat the 2016 MacBook Pro.
Now for the GPU performance in Geekbench. This is where the 10.5-inch iPad Pro reigns supreme, as it beat all other devices. The 2017 12.9-iPad Pro came in second place. Oddly, the 2016 MacBook Pro beat the 2017 MacBook Pro, which came in fourth place. In the GFXBench GPU test, the results were largely the same, with both iPad Pros beating the MacBook Pros.