Just few weeks before a new Mac is launched two things happen – one, benchmarking results are posted on Geekbench and two, Apple’s retailing partners drop prices of current models. And in past 24 hours these two things have happened for multiple Mac models including the much rumored upcoming MacBook Pro and Ivy Bride iMac.

Lets start with Geekbench results, MacRumors has posted benchmark results that appeared in Geekbench’s database in past few days. The first result shows a new MacBook Pro with model number MacBookPro9,1 (current model numbers are MacBookPro8,1, 8,2 and 8,3). According to Geekbench result table, the new laptop has quad core 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-3820QM processor, 8GB RAM and Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion). However, the best thing is that the CPU and memory performance of the new laptop is about 15% faster than current MacBook Pro model, scoring 12,252 compared to 10,500 scored by current top of the line Pro.

The second Geekbench result shows a new iMac model with model number iMac13,2 (current iMac has model number iMac12,x). It also features the new Ivy Bridge processor from Intel and Mac OS X 10.8. However, the Geekbench results of this new iMac only show moderate improvement over previous iMac model. The new iMac scored 12,183 compared to 11,500 scored by old model. Looking at the result table we believe that 4GB memory on the iMac is responsible for lower performance. Our guess is that this test iMac is only running on a single 4GB memory DIMM and hence memory system on the iMac is working as single channel rather than as dual channel decreasing the performance.

These two benchmarking results hint that Apple is almost ready to ship the new MacBook Pro and iMac. Normally we see an update within 4 weeks of such leak. Also adding weight to the Mac update rumors are the recent price drops on various Mac systems at Best Buy. The retailer has dropped prices of Mac mini by up to $50, MacBook Air prices by up to $100, MacBook Pro prices by up to $150, iMac prices by up to $125 and Mac Pro prices by up to $300.

This would indicate that not just MacBook Pro and iMac, but the complete Mac lineup is about to get an update in next few months. We believe MacBook Pro and iMac will be first in the line followed by other Macs.