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dGPU - in what cases it improves performance?
- Thread starter tadziak
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I've had my new MBP with the dGPU for a couple of days now and I can say the discrete graphics makes a resounding difference. I notice the difference in supposedly lightweight activities like using Chrome to browse sites like this, NY Times, or The Onion, not just known heavy duty sites like The Verge. When using the iGPU I'll see very slight stuttering when I'm scrolling through the page whereas the dGPU will be buttery smooth. So it's not just the hardcore activities like 3D rendering or gaming where you'll see the benefits. The iGPU is tolerable but I'll resort to that when I'm seeing my battery run low and can't easily plug the notebook into an outlet. FYI I'm using gfxCardStatus to explicitly use the discrete graphics otherwise the OS's automatic switching will only utilize the iGPU unless the discrete is needed.
There is a difference actually, after using it for a while and really opening up all of my apps, the AMD dGPU is perseptively smoother. I've actually used gfxCardStatus to manually set the dGPU because of the difference it makes.
In my experience, 1-3 spaces is nice and smooth with iGPU. But any intense apps or even Chrome on certain webpages, and you'll notice the difference having the dGPU on. It just seems to handle scrolling, mission control, and apps more efficiently. I'm kind of a UI snob and I can tell when things are jittery, so I'm leaving it on lol. I've heard some people say that the dGPU causes the fans to run, risks burning out over time etc etc, but not in my experience. The fans don't kick on unless I'm doing some crazy rendering or encoding, and my 2010 with dGPU is still kicking.
tl;dr: If you're a UI snob like me, and you like the buttery smoothness in OS X, I highly recommend getting the dGPU version. Also, here's to hoping Apple actually polishes OS X with the newest update and performance improves
That's the prime example for when the dGPU is preferred. Like photo rendering, 3D modeling will take advantage of the dGPU, which will result in faster rendering and performance on the system.
Many thanks guys for the report! I'm also very sensitive to UI smoothness, and that is exactly the information I was looking for. I'm gonna take the dGPU model then.
i'm confused by the resolutions on the rMBP. Out of the box it runs at 1440x900, but you can set it to different resolutions, both higher and lower. What is the native resolution of this 15" rMBP display? All the others are scaled?
It used to be very easy to tell; all other resolutions would look really fuzzy compared to the native one. But that doesn't seem to be the case on the rMBPs.
Native resolution is 2880x1800. Apple's hidpi scaling renders at whatever the scaled resolution is (example 1440x900) and then renders it at double that resolution and then outputs it onto the display.