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New Haswell Macbook Pros. Will the increase in battery life be the only benefit?

thiagos

thiagos

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 20, 2007
371
0
NYC (Manhattan)
I just bought a 13" Retina Macbook Pro from Best Buy for $1299 (from $1499) and since I am a Silver Plus member I have 45 days to return. Knowing Apple's history, it is hard to find a computer in stock right away after launch.
I just want to know, by the rumors and such... Will Haswell be a big difference in speed or it pretty much only targets battery life and a small speed bump?

I researched online, but some forums are saying Apple is having a top of the line Haswell chip that will make a big difference in speed. Some are saying that, the only big benefit is the battery life.... I'm torn.

Please advise.

Thanks.:)
 
A

AlecMyrddyn

macrumors 6502
Dec 5, 2008
271
0
Southern Maine
No, there are at least a few other rumored upgrades:

  1. Intel IRIS (5100) graphics - This will be significantly faster than the Intel HD 4000 in the model you just picked up.
  2. 802.11ac WiFi - With a theoretical maximim of 1300 Mbps compared to the 450 Mbps in the current 802.11n.
  3. PCIe SSD - The model you just picked up as a SATA SSD, the new models should have PCIe SSDs like the recent refresh of the MBA. Some benchmarks of the new MBA PCIe SSD read/write speeds nearly doubling those of the older SATA units.

There is also talk about an upgraded FaceTime camera being pretty likely.

Also possible, but much less likely would be an upgrade Thunderbolt 2 and changes to the screen.

You'll hopefully find out tomorrow like the rest of us and can decide then if the new features are enough to warrant a return of your current system.
 
maz-o

maz-o

macrumors member
Jul 16, 2010
60
0
For the 13-inch model, I don't think the processing power will be "significally" increased. But I do expect it to have significally better integrated graphics performance.
 
Starfyre

Starfyre

macrumors 68030
Nov 7, 2010
2,905
1,136
Just on the Haswell processor itself, battery life is just the one that has the biggest buzz, but there is also less heat due to the shrink in die size, upgraded graphics 30% better than the previous generation.
 
F

frankiee

macrumors regular
May 31, 2008
198
94
Starfyre said:
Just on the Haswell processor itself, battery life is just the one that has the biggest buzz, but there is also less heat due to the shrink in die size, upgraded graphics 30% better than the previous generation.
Click to expand...

I agree with this, especially if you are using the dedicated GPU.

As for PCI-SSDs: yes, they have much better results in synthetical benchmarks, but that does not necessarily translate to better "real life" performance.
 
A

AlecMyrddyn

macrumors 6502
Dec 5, 2008
271
0
Southern Maine
UBS28 said:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html

The Iris Pro performs worse in Synthetic aswell in real life benchmarks (games).
Click to expand...

The OP is talking about the 13", not 15". It doesn't seem like the 13" is going to see Iris Pro (5200), only Iris (5100). Iris will beat the HD 4000 in the current model 13" rMBP by a bit. The benchmarks you posted who a 30%+ increase in performance comparing the 4000 to 5100. Some benchmarks showed an improvement of over double.
 
U

UBS28

macrumors 68030
Oct 2, 2012
2,893
2,340
AlecMyrddyn said:
The OP is talking about the 13", not 15". It doesn't seem like the 13" is going to see Iris Pro (5200), only Iris (5100). Iris will beat the HD 4000 in the current model 13" rMBP by a bit. The benchmarks you posted who a 30%+ increase in performance comparing the 4000 to 5100. Some benchmarks showed an improvement of over double.
Click to expand...

Someone said "upgraded graphics 30% better than the previous generation." Wasn't aimed at the OP.
 
A

AlecMyrddyn

macrumors 6502
Dec 5, 2008
271
0
Southern Maine
UBS28 said:
Someone said "upgraded graphics 30% better than the previous generation." Wasn't aimed at the OP.
Click to expand...

Which is true when talking about the 13". :)

You are right, if the base model 15" gets Iris Pro, it's probably not an improvement over the 650M/1GB that's there right now.

Since there's too much speculation about what the 15" is getting for graphics, it seems safe to say the 30% response was specific to the 13".
 
P

PDFierro

macrumors 68040
Sep 8, 2009
3,932
111
Haswell won't be a big jump in the speed department. But for battery life, yes. Not to mention the graphics card seeing a big increase on the 13-inch model.

Also, this will be a 2nd-gen product, and thus is going to come with a million other improvements. But I think for most consumers, battery life will be the only thing they notice.
 
Starfyre

Starfyre

macrumors 68030
Nov 7, 2010
2,905
1,136
PDFierro said:
Haswell won't be a big jump in the speed department. But for battery life, yes. Not to mention the graphics card seeing a big increase on the 13-inch model.

Also, this will be a 2nd-gen product, and thus is going to come with a million other improvements. But I think for most consumers, battery life will be the only thing they notice.
Click to expand...

Haswell will have a decent performance inccrease even though its not as high as battery life, in fact, its 7-12% over Ivy Bridge clock for clock. This is a new architecture and new core.... some of the reasons why

- Branch prediction has significantly improved so the instructions the CPU processes are better found and executed
- More execution units! Quicker processing of instructions, computation, again, reduced latency.
- Improved caching and prefetching DOUBLING L2 bandwidth, this is pretty major for speed
- TLB and cache misses are now more "expected ahead of time" so it can better handle them.
- Parallel handling of cache misses - This is pretty major as the "delay" caused by cache misses is significantly reduced, meaning better latency!
- More buffers! With the buffers being bigger than Ivy Bridge, more resources can be run on a single thread, which translates to more effective overall processing
 
D

dizmonk

macrumors 65816
Nov 26, 2010
1,068
667
ValSalva said:
Maybe we will see Thunderbolt 2 as well. But not that important unless one wants to buy a $$$ 4K display.
Click to expand...

Does this mean that there's a chance the Retina MBP will NOT be so dark in iTunes as a result of the new graphics?
 
Starfyre

Starfyre

macrumors 68030
Nov 7, 2010
2,905
1,136
PDFierro said:
Battery life is currently the same on both models. If anything, the 13-inch could have greater battery to being iGPU-only.
Click to expand...

Now if Apple incorporated Silicon Anode batteries with Haswell, they could really use the marketing of having the words longest battery, especially since the tech uses nanowires that provide a 40% increase to battery life over lithium ion. That battery tech, Mavericks, and Haswell would be pure win and innovation if they could pull it off.
 
M

melman101

macrumors 68030
Sep 3, 2009
2,751
295
I just got the late 2012 13" rMBP. It's awesome and I love it. However, I await to see what tomorrow's upgrades brings.
 
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