Comparison Apple MacBook Pro 15 2015 [MJLT2] vs Apple MacBook Pro 15 2014 [MGXC2]

The maximum brightness that a laptop screen can provide.

The brighter the ambient light, the brighter the laptop screen should be, otherwise the image on it may be difficult to read. And vice versa: in dim ambient light, high brightness is unnecessary — it greatly burdens the eyes (however, in this case, modern laptops provide brightness control). Thus, the higher this indicator, the more versatile the screen is, the wider the range of conditions in which it can be effectively used. The downside of these benefits is an increase in price and energy consumption.

As for specific values, many modern laptops have a brightness of 250 – 300 nt and even lower. This is quite enough for working under artificial lighting of medium intensity, but in bright natural light, visibility may already be a problem. For use in sunny weather (especially outdoors), it is desirable to have a brightness margin of at least 300 – 350 nt. And in the most advanced models, this parameter can be 350 – 400 nt and even more.

The contrast of the screen installed in the laptop.

Contrast is the largest difference in brightness between the lightest white and darkest black that can be achieved on a single screen. It is written as a fraction, for example, 560:1; while the larger the first number, the higher the contrast, the more advanced the screen is and the better the image quality can be achieved on it. This is especially noticeable with large differences in brightness within a single frame: with low contrast, individual details located in the darkest or brightest parts of the picture may be lost, increasing the contrast allows you to eliminate this phenomenon to a certain extent. The flip side of these benefits is an increase in cost.

Separately, we emphasize that in this case only static contrast is indicated — the difference provided within one frame in normal operation, at constant brightness and without the use of special technologies. For advertising purposes, some manufacturers may also provide data on the so-called dynamic contrast — it can be measured in very impressive numbers (seven-digit or more). However, you should focus primarily on static contrast — this is the basic characteristic of any display.

As for specific values, even in the most advanced screens, this indicator does not exceed 2000: 1. But in general, modern laptops have a rather low contrast ratio — it is assumed that for tasks that require more advanced image characteristics, it is more...reasonable to use an external screen (monitor or TV).

The specific model of the processor installed in the laptop, or rather, the processor index within its series (see above). Knowing the full name of the processor (series and model), you can find detailed information on it (up to practical reviews) and clarify its capabilities.

The result shown by the laptop processor in 3DMark06.

This test is primarily focused on testing performance in games — in particular, the ability of the processor to process advanced graphics and artificial intelligence elements. Test scores are reported as scores; the higher this number, the higher the performance of the tested chip. Good 3DMark06 results are especially important for gaming laptops.

The result shown by the laptop processor in the Passmark CPU Mark test.

Passmark CPU Mark is a comprehensive test that is more detailed and reliable than the popular 3DMark06 (see above). It checks not only the gaming capabilities of the CPU, but also its performance in other modes, based on which it displays the overall score; this score can be used to fairly reliably evaluate the processor as a whole (the more points, the higher the performance).

The result shown by the laptop processor in the SuperPI 1M test.

The essence of this test is to calculate the number "pi" to the millionth decimal place. The time spent on this calculation is the final result. Accordingly, the more powerful the processor, the smaller the result will be (this SuperPI 1M is fundamentally different from many other tests).

The total number of slots for RAM modules provided in the laptop; in fact — the maximum number of slats that can be installed simultaneously in this model.

Features for upgrading RAM directly depend on this indicator. So, in low-cost models, there is often only 1 slot, and the only upgrade option is to replace the "native" bar. In more advanced devices, two or even four slots may be provided, while some of them may be free in the initial configuration.

A special case is embedded RAM; it is more compact and cheaper than removable modules, but does not imply replacement at all. At the same time, in some laptops, the “RAM” is only built-in, in others it can be supplemented with one or even two slots for interchangeable strips.

A series of video cards installed in a laptop. Different models of video cards within the same series can vary significantly in performance, but their key features are usually the same.

— Intel HD Graphics. Integrated graphics cards, the first solution in the Intel line to be built directly into the processor (before that, integrated graphics were part of the motherboard).

— Intel Iris Graphics. Integrated graphics cards introduced in 2013 at the same time as some Haswell microarchitecture processors. In fact, this series is an advanced version of the Intel HD Graphics described above, with increased performance.

— Intel Arc. Graphics accelerators based on the Xe HPG architecture, produced since 2022. The Intel Arc series is aimed at providing high performance graphics rendering (including gaming). Mobile video adapters of the line are supplied with hardware modules Matrix Engines (XMX) - they support the Intel XeSS image reconstruction method based on artificial intelligence algorithms.

— nVIDIA GeForce. A series of graphics cards that includes exclusively discrete solutions (see "Graphics card type"). At the same time, such models are quite capable of operating in hybrid graphics mode, in combination with a video chip built into the processor.

— nVIDIA Quadro. The latest generation o...f graphics adapters from nVIDIA are positioned by the developer as professional solutions primarily for 3D graphics.

— NVIDIA RTX A. A high-performance line of graphics cards for graphics, video processing, scientific discoveries and projects in VR. Maximally accelerates the execution of graphic and computational tasks when operating with large data arrays.

— AMD FirePro. Discrete graphics cards originally designed as high-end workstation solutions. Among laptops, they are found in premium-level models that focus on increased performance.

— AMD Radeon. A family of video cards from AMD, used primarily in laptops with processors from the same brand. Includes solutions of various types (integrated and discrete) and level (from low-cost to high-end).

— Qualcomm Adreno. Integrated graphics found in Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors (see "Processor Series"). It is primarily a solution for mobile gadgets, so it does not differ in performance, but it is very efficient in terms of power consumption.

— Apple. Usually, in this case, it means the graphics core built into the Apple M1 processor (see "Processor series"). The first generation of these processors used eight-core (rarely seven-core) integrated GPUs with support for up to 25,000 threads simultaneously.

GeForce graphics cards from NVIDIA: RTX represented by RTX 2060, RTX 2060 Max-Q, RTX 2070, RTX 2070 Max-Q, RTX 2070 Super, RTX 2070 Super Max-Q, RTX 2080, RTX 2080 Max-Q, RTX 2080 Super, RTX 2080 Super Max-Q, RTX 3050, RTX 3050 Ti, RTX 3060, RTX 3060 Max-Q, RTX 3070, RTX 3070 Max-Q, RTX 3070 Ti, RTX 3080, RTX 3080 Ti, RTX 4050, RTX 4060, R TX 4070, RTX 4080, RTX 4090 ; MX1xx represented by MX110, MX130 and MX150, MX2xx(MX230 and MX250), MX3xx(MX330 and MX350), MX450, GTX which represent GTX 1050, GTX 1060, GTX 1060 Max-Q, GTX 1070, GTX 1070 Max-Q, GTX 1080, GTX 1080 Max-Q, GTX 1650, GTX 1650 Max-Q, GTX 1650 Ti, GTX 1660 Ti, GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q and. AMD also offers video cards Radeon 520, Radeon 530(535), Radeon 540X, Radeon 610(625, 630), Radeon RX 550 (550X, 560), Radeon RX 640, Radeon RX 5500M, Radeon RX 6800M and Radeon Pro.

Note that all the above models are discrete. Actually, for a configuration with discrete graphics, it is the model of a separate video adapter that is indicated; if it is supplemented by an integrated module, the name of this module can be clarified by the official characteristics of the processor.

It is also worth mentioning that this paragraph does not give the full name of the model, but only its name within the series (the series itself is given separately - see above). However, knowing the series and model, one can easily find detailed information about the graphics card.