After spec bump of 15 rMBP: buy now or wait to Haswell?

I think I'll wait for Haswell or maybe Broadwell. The 15" rMBP might get cheaper with the next refresh, it's a never ending cycle with tech isn't it?

If the 15" retina fits your needs and there's a promo you might as well get it rather than waiting for 7-8 months.

If you happen to get a screen with image retention you can always return it, so where's the harm?

I wouldn't buy a rMBP until they

1) kill the classic MBP

and

2) Upgrade the GPU in the rMBP to one that can actually drive all those pixels efficiently and effectively.

demosthenes80 said:

I wouldn't buy a rMBP until they

1) kill the classic MBP

and

2) Upgrade the GPU in the rMBP to one that can actually drive all those pixels efficiently and effectively.

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Good thinking.

The OP could buy a 15" rMBP now, and then only essentially pay 200 pounds or so to upgrade to Haswell or something?

demosthenes80 said:

I wouldn't buy a rMBP until they


2) Upgrade the GPU in the rMBP to one that can actually drive all those pixels efficiently and effectively.

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Is it really a GPU issue with the 15"? I thought the problem was the LG screen and the Sammies were fine?

cntwtfrmynwmbp said:

As there is a spec bump update in Februar, does this mean that the Haswell update could wait until really late in 2013 (and not in June/July as was generally expected)? Why would they update now if they plan to update with Haswell in June??

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It feels weird that they should update to Haswell in about 4 months if they bump it now, although it wasn't such a big bump in hardware, just a decreased price. Maybe they decreased the price now to sell some more before they upgrade it to Haswell and sell even more.

In the best of worlds they lower the price now, put Haswell in it at WWDC in June and I buy it happily shortly thereafter! But what do you guys think?

cntwtfrmynwmbp said:

Thanks.

Not really any serious harm. I only would regret it if the Haswell base model would come with 500 GB SSD.

Or if they add an option for anti-glare retina screens. But this seems unlikely.

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No worries!

Fat chance Apple are far too stingy to hand out 500 GB SSD by default

If you have a yen for it go and get it! On delivery you can assess it and in the unlikely event you're underwhelmed for any reason return it, wait for Haswell or a better configuration.

The two laptops I absolutely wouldn't buy right now are the retina 13 (silly pricing) and the classics (too dated) but the airs and the retina 15 are awesome machines IMO.

jemesouviens said:

Is it really a GPU issue with the 15"? I thought the problem was the LG screen and the Sammies were fine?

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I don't think it's a GPU issue. Any modern GPU can run rMBP resolutions for non-gaming applications. The slow uptake has been on the software side. For example Webkit resolves lag issues in web browsing.

Gaming is more of an issue, you need at least a 680M (i.e. the latest graphics cards) to run anything decent at 2880x1800.

timsaxman said:

It feels weird that they should update to Haswell in about 4 months if they bump it now, although it wasn't such a big bump in hardware, just a decreased price. Maybe they decreased the price now to sell some more before they upgrade it to Haswell and sell even more.

In the best of worlds they lower the price now, put Haswell in it at WWDC in June and I buy it happily shortly thereafter! But what do you guys think?

Click to expand...

I dunno, Intel are likely to be late to market - aren't they always?

My gut feeling is that it's more likely to be September than June.

demosthenes80 said:

I wouldn't buy a rMBP until they

1) kill the classic MBP

and

2) Upgrade the GPU in the rMBP to one that can actually drive all those pixels efficiently and effectively.

Click to expand...

I hate that kind of uninformed crap. The CPU and GPU are more than capable to drive all those pixels

jemesouviens said:

I dunno, Intel are likely to be late to market - aren't they always?

My gut feeling is that it's more likely to be September than June.

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So it's mostly up to Intel? And Apple will put Haswell in all their laptops as soon as it is released? But Ivy Bridge came in time to WWDC in June, why not Haswell?

swerve147 said:

I don't think it's a GPU issue. Any modern GPU can run rMBP resolutions for non-gaming applications. The slow uptake has been on the software side. For example Webkit resolves lag issues in web browsing.

Gaming is more of an issue, you need at least a 680M (i.e. the latest graphics cards) to run anything decent at 2880x1800.

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Thanks, that ties in with what I understood. Thankfully it's a non issue for rme since I decided to stop trying to buy one machine that does absolutley everything.

Ploki said:

I hate that kind of uninformed crap. The CPU and GPU are more than capable to drive all those pixels

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True, it is only a software problem. For those who experienced scroll-lag when browsing for example Facebook they fixed it by updating webkit. And I guess that OS X 10.9 will resolve more of those problems.

Haswell roadmap looks like they'll roll out mobile chips gradually starting in June. Apple typically takes at least a month to implement them... but then Apple also typically refreshes all of their computers at once, and not just each of them gradually, unless they're announcing a new model (redesigned). So it's looking more like October/November for the next spec-bump/upgrade.

Furthermore, Haswell would do almost nothing to the performance of the 15" rMBP. It'll only give the 13" rMBP a graphics performance bump. But that's still not enough for the 13" rMBP to comfortably push all of the pixels on its display in 3D applications and games.

The other problem is... there is no GPU this generation that can be considered a substantial upgrade to whatever that's in the 15" rMBP now. Most of the higher performing parts come with higher thermal profiles, so those can't be fitted into the 15" rMBP anyway. So Apple has nothing to upgrade the GPU with. If they go integrated-only, then... I think it's going to be a tough sale.

So my advice? Buy the 15" rMBP now if you can afford it. You'll get half a year of use before the next refresh, which isn't guaranteed to do much.

timsaxman said:

So it's mostly up to Intel? And Apple will put Haswell in all their laptops as soon as it is released? But Ivy Bridge came in time to WWDC in June, why not Haswell?

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Yeah - Intel are ultimately responsible for rolling out the chip so they are the limiting factor.

I don't have any inside info or anything and you're right, certainly they intend to make it for Computex, but they've delayed once already, hence my pessimism.

bill-p said:

So my advice? Buy the 15" rMBP now if you can afford it. You'll get half a year of use before the next refresh, which isn't guaranteed to do much.

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I have Amazon delivering a 512GB ssd for my 2009 2.8GHz Core2Duo Macbook Pro. I have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for 16GB RAM and 512GB ssd prices to come down some. The prices have come down now.

Since The ssd is still to arrive at my door and I have not yet installed it, the decision as to whether to use the ssd for to wait for new MBPro has become urgent.

If it appears that MB Pro is unlikely to see much of an upgrade in the next year or so, then perhaps I should buy now.
- As I see it, retina display is already there. I care for the display.
- Ssd is already there - at best can become 10-20% cheaper.
- CPU series can be upgraded to Haswell - more battery life but I am not sure how much of a performance bump it will be.
Agree?

Also, I hope to buy a 27" retina display monitor when it becomes available. Will the current rMBP drive that?

All-in-all, it appears that the time to upgrade may be now.

Oh one more reason to wait - back-to-school sale that apple runs every year.

Thoughts? Thanks for the discussion on this timely topic!

jemesouviens said:

Thanks, that ties in with what I understood. Thankfully it's a non issue for rme since I decided to stop trying to buy one machine that does absolutley everything.

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Gaming is also a non-issue really . I'm not giving the 650M enough credit, as it runs games at 1080p fluently, which makes it better than 85-90% of the mobile video cards out there right now.

You can also downscale resolutions in which case the 650M is even better. Overall the rMBP is a machine that really does everything, I firmly believe this.

Ploki said:

I hate that kind of uninformed crap. The CPU and GPU are more than capable to drive all those pixels

Click to expand...

Uninformed crap? I beg to differ.

I didn't say it was a CPU issue, but it IS a GPU one. When I had an rMBP, there was noticeable lag during OS-level animations and movement. Now, that same GPU on the regular MBP doesn't have that issue, and can actually perform better in games or programs like Motion because it doesn't have to drive 4x the pixels to display the animation.

msim20 said:

I have Amazon delivering a 512GB ssd for my 2009 2.8GHz Core2Duo Macbook Pro. I have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for 16GB RAM and 512GB ssd prices to come down some. The prices have come down now.

Since The ssd is still to arrive at my door and I have not yet installed it, the decision as to whether to use the ssd for to wait for new MBPro has become urgent.

If it appears that MB Pro is unlikely to see much of an upgrade in the next year or so, then perhaps I should buy now.
- As I see it, retina display is already there. I care for the display.
- Ssd is already there - at best can become 10-20% cheaper.
- CPU series can be upgraded to Haswell - more battery life but I am not sure how much of a performance bump it will be.
Agree?

Also, I hope to buy a 27" retina display monitor when it becomes available. Will the current rMBP drive that?

All-in-all, it appears that the time to upgrade may be now.

Oh one more reason to wait - back-to-school sale that apple runs every year.

Thoughts? Thanks for the discussion on this timely topic!

Click to expand...

Waiting will buy you a better machine that's for sure.

Looks like my 2012 cMBPs are still the newest version until Apple kill it.

cntwtfrmynwmbp said:

Should I buy one now or wait to Haswell?

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Really wasn't much of a bump.

Liquinn said:

Waiting will buy you a better machine that's for sure.

Looks like my 2012 cMBPs are still the newest version until Apple kill it.

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Yeah. And since most of my work is looking at a larger monitor driven by my 2009 MBP, the retina display aspect of the rMBP is not as important.

So, I am inclined to think that waiting to upgrade my MBP until a retina display monitor is available may be a better approach.

I do not do much video processing. Aperture with a large library is my most intensive process. And Parallels every now and then. I suppose the 512GB ssd should help there.

swerve147 said:

Gaming is also a non-issue really . I'm not giving the 650M enough credit, as it runs games at 1080p fluently, which makes it better than 85-90% of the mobile video cards out there right now.

You can also downscale resolutions in which case the 650M is even better. Overall the rMBP is a machine that really does everything, I firmly believe this.

Click to expand...

You know as soon as I posted that I meant to add that if there was one machine that would tempt me into my old ways of looing for a single solution for all my computing needs it would be the retina 15. It is quite an amazing machine, I totally agree.

As things stand though I am very happy with the 2012 Air; to paraphrase the saying about cameras, I'm finding the best laptop to be the one you have with you!

I would either get it now or wait for Intel's Skylake.