Apple may have just updated its MacBook lineup with models sporting 7th-gen Intel Core “Kaby Lake” chips a few months ago. But it looks like there’s a possibility that new models with 8th-gen Intel Core “Kaby Lake Refresh” processors are on the way.
A series of listings in the Geekbench database suggest someone is running the benchmarking tool on MacBook Pro models with an Intel Core i5-8250U quad-core processor and 8GB of DDR4-2400 memory.
There’s always a chance that someone has entered false information, but if the details on Geekbench are accurate, it seems that the benchmark has been run on several computers with Apple motherboards and macOS software (with some results listed for a machine running macOS 10.12.6 and others for macOS 10.13).
It’s probably best to take the actual benchmark scores with a grain of salt, but they seem to fall somewhere between the scores for a mid-2017 MacBook Pro with a 13 inch display and a dual-core Kaby Lake processor and those for a 15 inch model with a quad-core Kaby Lake chip, at least when it comes to multi-core performance.
That makes sense, since the Core i5-8250U is a 15 watt quad-core chips that has a lower TDP than the 15 inch MacBook pro’s Core i7-7700HQ 35 watt quad-core processor… but it has twice as many CPU cores as the 13 inch MacBook’s 15 watt Core i5-7267U dual-core processor.
I’m not sure what to make of the name that shows up in Geekbench: MacBookPro 14,1 could be an indicating that the notebook has a 14 inch display. Or it could just be a placeholder name since other MacBook laptops are listed in Geekbench with more descriptive names like “MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2017)”.
Update: It probably doesn’t mean much.
thanks anonymous!
Hackintosh?
MacBookPro14,1 is the model of the mid 2017 and nothing new.
Anyone have an estimate to when apple would release the 8th gen Macbook Pro?
The only really shitty thing about the quad-core U chips of the KL-refresh series is the lack of Iris Plus/Pro iGPU, they’re all stuck with the lowly UHD 620.
I am sure apple will have these ready JUST in time for Intel to release Coffee Lake…
The 14,1 is probably not indicating that it’s a 14 inch display. Apple uses a naming convention like that to separate their models. The current revision MBP with two ports is actually (MacBookPro 14,1). The 2016 models were 13,1. My aging Mac Pro (2013) is a MacPro 6,1.
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201300
Probable.
Apple has usually been one of Intel’s first customers when it came to their chips.
Hence, the early 2015 MBP’s had Intel’s first roll-out of 14nm processors (5th gen, mostly similar to the 4th gen).
The late 2016 MBP’s had Intel’s first roll-out of their newest microarchitecture (Sky-Kaby Lake). Although these were the same 14nm processors, they indeed were slightly faster, cooler, and used less battery on-top of supporting better iGPU’s.
The mid 2017 MBP’s were only a refresh. Even Apple says so. They also introduced a slight price cut to stay competitive.
The late 2017 MBP’s will be based on Intel’s newer 8th-gen chips (KBR). Apple will as usual keep the MacBook’s relatively the same, and bump up the processors.
We should see a refresh to this KBR model in mid-2018, and by early 2019 we should see Apple release a new MacBook (not refresh) with something new/different like FaceID built-in, Wireless charging, no AUX port, and possible OLED display under the TrackPad. This is the usual Apple cycle, which goes back quite a many years : )
The 2016 MBP came really late, more than a year after the release of Sky Lake. Kaby Lake MBP was 5 months later than release.