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2018 MacBook Pro: IntegrityChecker Verify
Related: 2015 MacBook Pro, 2017 iMac 5K, 2018 MacBook Pro, 4K and 5K display, backup, CPU cores, data integrity, diglloydTools, iMac, iMac 5K, IntegrityChecker, laptop, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Macs, Thunderbolt
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Mac wish list • all 15" Apple MacBook Pro 2018 models • MPG gets credit if you buy through those links. Suggested accessories include the OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock and the Envoy Pro EX Thunderbolt 3 .
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MPG tested a fully-loaded Apple 2018 MacBook Pro 15-inch 2.9 GHz 32GB 2TB Radeon Pro 560X. The only better model is the same configuration with a 4TB SSD.
Cross-platform (any computer with Java) DiglloydTools IntegrityChecker runs SHA1 hashes on files to maintain data integrity checks. These days with so many Apple bugs, any professional should be using it to validate their data integrity, especially with macOS Finder silent data-loss risks and outright bugs when copying files.
The verify command of diglloydTools IntegrityChecker utilizes all CPU cores as efficiently as any application ever can, using sophisticated I/O algorithms to feed data to the CPU as fast as the OS can go. Performance will thus be gated by I/O speed unless all CPU cores are fed data fast enough to be fully utilized.
Results
At 4.2 GHz (turbo boost 4.5 GHz), the 2017 iMac 5K is in theory a little less fast than the 2.9 GHz 2018 MacBook Pro (turbo boost to 4.8GHz), but those turbo boost speeds apply only to extremely bursty short efforts and cannot be maintained for any multi-CPU intensive task.
This test is extremely interesting: the java version of IntegrityChecker is as fast or faster than the native version. That’s because Apple has degraded the performance of various file system APIs (starting in macOS 10.12), along with introducing highly variable performance—Apple Core Rot at its finest.
The main thing to note here is that the CPU and its six cores of the 2018 MacBook Pro deliver a major boost to Java-based performance for this task—the 2015 MacBook Pro takes 61% longer than the 2018 MacBook Pro.
See the notes on CPU utilization that follow.
* Models of the 2013 Mac Pro built in 2015 or so or later may might have somewhat faster SSDs. The 3.3 GHz 8-core Mac Pro used for this test is faste than any model that can be purcahsed at Apple.
Below, Intel Power Gadget shows that while running IntegrityChecker Java (icj), clock speed drops to the 3.2 to 3.4 GHz range with all 6 CPU cores (12 threads) banging away. Toggle to see the native version, whose performance is degraded by degraded macOS file system performance—speed remains closer to 4 GHz becuse of less than 50% CPU utilization—I/O-bound.
