As nifty as the 2023 MacBook Pro might be, its SSD speeds may be lacking.
A quick set of benchmark tests has shown that the SSD speeds on the 2023 14-inch MacBook Pro yields slower read and write speeds than the M2-based MacBook Air. The reason for this comes as Apple trades off using fewer NAND chips, which offer a higher capacity storage space, than the last generation. This, in turn, leads to SSD read and write performance that are dramatically lower than the previous generation.
Per 9to5Mac:
“The base model M1 and M2 MacBook Air provide just 256GB of storage. With the M1 MacBook Air, that storage was split between two 128GB Kioxia NAND chips. As Apple moved to the M2, they switched to newer NAND chips that provided 256GB of storage per chip. This meant that the base model M2 MacBook Air with just 256GB of storage had only one NAND chip, and the performance of the SSD was impacted as a result.”
While most users won’t see the impact of this in everyday use and the read and write speeds on the drive are still extremely fast, Apple is contending with assorted challenges between using fewer NAND chips with higher densities and trading off on speed. Granted, the difference might only be noticeable in extreme cases and under heavier data and processor loads, but it’s still a hurdle to be overcome.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via 9to5Mac