MBP Retina

[IGotBush]

Can someone just tell me why Apple doesnt offer the legacy mbp with retina too? Like I don't get it, why not have two options, you know for those people who want more storage space and who wants a ssd plus hdd and who likes their ethernet port, for those people who a few lb difference doesnt make a difference at all(and I think complaining that 5lbs is too heavy means you have to hit the free weights before you become one of those old people who cant get up from the toilot bc of a lack of musculture strength) thats all rants over

[simsaladimbamba]

Probably due to the smaller battery in the cMBP, which would offer less battery time with a retina display. And probably due to differentiating the two models and getting it done one way.

[Arnezie]

Wasteland here we come

[bill-p]

Because the Retina display needs a hardware redesign.

To power the display, a bigger battery is necessary in order to keep the same battery life.

To handle the resolution, performance needs to be kept at higher level -> cooling system needs to be redesigned.

Bigger battery means more mass, more mass means heavier. That being the case, they might as well redesign the whole thing. The end result is what we have now.

[Ploki]

Originally Posted by bill-p

Because the Retina display needs a hardware redesign.

To power the display, a bigger battery is necessary in order to keep the same battery life.

To handle the resolution, performance needs to be kept at higher level -> cooling system needs to be redesigned.

Bigger battery means more mass, more mass means heavier. That being the case, they might as well redesign the whole thing. The end result is what we have now.

To be honest cMBP is completely able to handle the retina display. 13" handles it and its not even remotely as good.

HOW would it turn out is another thing. Probably hotter, louder, but just a tad lighter.

[nickftw8686]

the rmbpfirst gen was to show the preview of where apple is going to take the macbook pro product line. Putting a retina screen in them all would of taken away from the new product. On top of that the new cooling system and design all works together to deliver the retina experience, less heat, more power, bigger battery, etc.I would think that this summer they won't offer cmbp anymore it will all be the new rmbp body style.

[chrise2]

Polycarbonite MacBook, where'd you go? Start ripping all of your DVDs now before the 10.8.3 update permanently disables the super drive.

[bill-p]

Originally Posted by Ploki

To be honest cMBP is completely able to handle the retina display. 13" handles it and its not even remotely as good.

HOW would it turn out is another thing. Probably hotter, louder, but just a tad lighter.

The rMBP 13" has a slightly tweaked GPU. It has 768MB VRAM, and God knows how much faster it is compared to HD 4000 chips of the same tiers. The extra VRAM makes sense because the internal display is already very high-resolution, and it needs more VRAM for an external display. The 15" rMBP doesn't need a modified HD 4000 core because it has a discrete GPU.

So I don't think stock cMBP can handle the Retina display. At least not the models without a dGPU.

[Ploki]

Originally Posted by bill-p

The rMBP 13" has a slightly tweaked GPU. It has 768MB VRAM, and God knows how much faster it is compared to HD 4000 chips of the same tiers. The extra VRAM makes sense because the internal display is already very high-resolution, and it needs more VRAM for an external display. The 15" rMBP doesn't need a modified HD 4000 core because it has a discrete GPU.

So I don't think stock cMBP can handle the Retina display. At least not the models without a dGPU.

From personal experience the discrete GPU doesn't even turn on when poking around with normal day-to-day tasks. It doesn't even turn on when I patch in Max/MSP. It turns on with un-optimized apps like Logic, the moment I open it.

I don't think the 13" rMBP has a tweaked GPU, if 15" can handle it fine with a stock HD4000.

That's why I believe this few mhz of overclock aren't as imporant as one would think.
But yes, the internal GPU does turn on when connected to an external. However the 15" already has the dGPU with 1GB RAM so it should suffice, albeit with a tad slower performance.

[bill-p]

Originally Posted by Ploki

From personal experience the discrete GPU doesn't even turn on when poking around with normal day-to-day tasks. It doesn't even turn on when I patch in Max/MSP. It turns on with un-optimized apps like Logic, the moment I open it.

I don't think the 13" rMBP has a tweaked GPU, if 15" can handle it fine with a stock HD4000.

That's why I believe this few mhz of overclock aren't as imporant as one would think.
But yes, the internal GPU does turn on when connected to an external. However the 15" already has the dGPU with 1GB RAM so it should suffice, albeit with a tad slower performance.

It's important because when you connect an external display, the iGPU of the rMBP 13" has to handle a lot more pixels.

The 15" has the dGPU to take care of that, that's why Apple didn't tweak the HD 4000 on it.

It's fine if HD 4000 is used only to deal with interface on one display, but it's not possible for you to shove too many pixels on a single HD 4000 and still expect good performance.

If you don't believe the 13" rMBP has a tweaked GPU, go and look at system report. It has 768MB VRAM for starters. All HD 4000 chips max out at 512MB.