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Greg.

macrumors 6502
Sep 12, 2010
404
54
London, UK
Hmm... This is a little bit frustrating. I NEED a laptop for college this year (current is a 08 MBP on its last legs). I'm most likely going for the MBPR simply because it's barely cheaper to get the MBP with the specs I want. Frustrating knowing Apple decided to ship with hardware that isn't ready./sigh.

No you don't NEED a $2000 laptop for college. Jesus.
 

orthorim

Suspended
Feb 27, 2008
733
350
As a user, I'm pretty confused.

- problems with USB-Ports (incompatibility with hardware)
- kernel panics ( most likely drivers )
- Ghost images on the screen (most likely a start-up production problem)
- Short battery life in some cases ( the extreme 2,5 hours )

The apple support forum is full of problems with the new hardware . I think I will wait little bit. Could be, that the new OS X version brings also solutions. I need a new computer, but I don't like to be a Release Candidate tester.

Well the support forums are always full of problems. They're not called "happy, satisfied users" forum for a reason...
 

blow45

macrumors 68000
Jan 18, 2011
1,576
0
Well the support forums are always full of problems. They're not called "happy, satisfied users" forum for a reason...

these are related to the the product in question, you don't get to read these on imac support forums, to say that all support forums are littered with such threads is simply wrong.
 

sambaphoto

macrumors newbie
Jun 12, 2012
25
0
Before I purchase a new Apple product, I always check the support forums if there exist major or minor problems. In my opinion this time there are more issues related to the new hardware than with the hardware generations before.

Where are the statements from Apple? Especially in the case of the kernel panic problem. Are new drivers on the way. No matter whose fault it is, whether Apple's, Intel's or whoever's, they should inform the customers that they are doing something.
To bring in the product and get a new one, go back, install another 2 hours and then fail again is simple frustrating, only because Apple doesn't inform that it is or could be a software problem and it will be solved with ML or so. In my opinion both sides are loosing. Or the "image ghost" problem with the retina? What's about this, problem solved? I never read a statement from apple. Was it a start-up problem or it's a general issue of the product?

Don't get me wrong. I do not criticize the Apple products only the way of apples information policy. There will be always problems with new products, what makes the difference, is the way how to deal with these issues publicly. To get the right information at the right time is also a sign of quality and helps both sides.
 

MEgaMacMan

macrumors newbie
Jan 7, 2012
22
0
nah, you dont need it... you want it

stop being an ******, he wants a rMBP, what's the big deal.All humans want for things we don't need.ok he needs a laptop, your saying, he doesn't need an expensive laptop, he wants one. well in this case he really does need a laptop for college, he wants an expensive one. there's a lot of things I bet you don't need but you want, like chocolate bars. ok they don't cost over 2 grand upfront but over the course of your life, how much money does one spend on chocolate, something, they don't even need. that's one example. there's many more. so stop being so patronising, like your any better a humanbeing.
 

Inconsequential

macrumors 68000
Sep 12, 2007
1,978
1
stop being an ******, he wants a rMBP, what's the big deal.All humans want for things we don't need.ok he needs a laptop, your saying, he doesn't need an expensive laptop, he wants one. well in this case he really does need a laptop for college, he wants an expensive one. there's a lot of things I bet you don't need but you want, like chocolate bars. ok they don't cost over 2 grand upfront but over the course of your life, how much money does one spend on chocolate, something, they don't even need. that's one example. there's many more. so stop being so patronising, like your any better a humanbeing.

He'd have to buy a chocolate bar every day of the year based on the 3-year depreciation of my MBPs...

Besides, I have to agree with Greg. No-body at collage needs a MBP at all. Period. People at collage WANT...

If it is so important that his 2008 MBP is replaced then he should buy a 2011 MacBook Pro which has had all the bugs ironed out. Plus it isn't that much slower than the 2012 MBP, it is much cheaper and he can use the money left over to put 8/16GB ram in it an a nice fast SSD.

I want and can afford a rMBP, but logic dictates that I don't NEED it.
 

gotluck

macrumors 603
Dec 8, 2011
5,712
1,204
East Central Florida
stop being an ******, he wants a rMBP, what's the big deal.All humans want for things we don't need.ok he needs a laptop, your saying, he doesn't need an expensive laptop, he wants one. well in this case he really does need a laptop for college, he wants an expensive one. there's a lot of things I bet you don't need but you want, like chocolate bars. ok they don't cost over 2 grand upfront but over the course of your life, how much money does one spend on chocolate, something, they don't even need. that's one example. there's many more. so stop being so patronising, like your any better a humanbeing.

nah its more like i'm mature enough to realize that my (and most people's) computer choice is based on wants not needs.

I'd be interested to hear what exactly is 'necessary' regarding rMBP specs. TomTom hasn't said a peep about what he actually needs. Honestly the 2008 MBP is fine unless he's doing 3d rendering / video editing, which I doubt because he would have already said that if it were the case, instead of dodging it with cute remarks. If it's gaming, god bless you for buying a mac :D. Gaming weighs heavily upon my computer choice, but I can realize that's not a need.

TLDR - most people won't be utilizing rMBP's full potential, so therefore don't need it. Yeah it's semantics

I need a car for college, so I'm buying a Ferrari!


You know what they say about assuming.

Denial isn't just a river in egypt.
 
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hchung

macrumors 6502a
Oct 2, 2008
689
1
Doesn't intel quicksync help mitigate this?

QuickSync could help. It'd depend on a few things:
1) How easy would it be to integrate into the OS?
2) What are its limitations? (ASICs like these typically only work up to a certain bitrate/resolution/input format/output format/etc.)

----------

Hmmm. I didn't really mean to say packets, but objects, like html, each image, any live feeds. If webkit were to run 3-4 instances of Java on the basis that if you have 4 processors you probably also have a bit more memory and storage associated with that hardware.

FB code is far from optimized for resources and yes it is annoying it keeps feeding down a single page of "infinite scroll". Recently I was on a FB page and wanted to click on one of those items on the very bottom of the page. It was hard to catch! That is a UI error.

When I am on finance.google.com and am watching a stock live, it often hangs and fails to refresh after I work with a variety of other browser tabs or windows. The process sharing or threading is weak on browser to date.

I do think having the browser initiate more than one instance of java (or gag, flash) could speed things up quite a bit.

Rocketman

I see what you mean.

For plugins like Flash, Quicktime, and Java (not javascript), they're already on a separate process, at least in Chrome and Safari on Mac. Why they don't instantiate more than one of each, I'm not sure. But rarely does that peak out for me anyways so it wouldn't have helped.

The plugins arn't what's causing the behavior on facebook.
The bottleneck is what I mentioned above: Javascript. Since the design allows for only one javascript interpreter per page, there's no way to run more than one instance per page to spread out the load.

This isn't something that's a design of the browser, but rather how javascript itself is supposed to function.

As for the finance.google.com problem you're observing, there's multiple possible explanations:
1) The stock graph is Flash and written poorly. Partly because it's written in Flash.
2) The recent quotes on the left is in javascript and probably also written poorly. May not have handled a delay in update retrieval all that well. (maybe bad internet connection?)
 

MEgaMacMan

macrumors newbie
Jan 7, 2012
22
0
"I want and can afford a rMBP, but logic dictates that I don't NEED it"

you could say the same thing about buying any Apple product in the first place, including macbook pro's. makes you kind of a hypocrite considering you could have bought a much cheaper windows based machine.
 
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astrorider

macrumors 6502a
Sep 25, 2008
591
126
"I want and can afford a rMBP, but logic dictates that I don't NEED it"

you could say the same thing about buying any Apple product in the first place, including macbook pro's. makes you kind of a hypocrite considering you could have bought a much cheaper windows based machine.

No you can't, for example, there's plenty of software that's Mac only.
 

Mr Walker

macrumors newbie
Aug 3, 2012
3
0
I've been to the Apple Store a few times to review these things. They are sick. Going to be ordering mine soon. I only experienced the FPS drop when using iTunes album view on the high resolution. I also experience drops on my 2008 MBP, as well as sub 40 FPS on Facebook. I'm not too worried about it.

How's video playback?

I don't know if Apple has done something wrong with iTunes. As you say there is serious lag when using the album view in high resolution (in particular if you go full-screen) and what is more strange is that when I watched a movie (standard DVD resolution encoded with Handbrake, ATV-settings) from iTunes with the high resolution setting on and full screen, the video lagged a couple of times. I have not experienced that on any other Mac. If played in a window and not at full screen I could not notice any lag in the same movie. I still have to test HD-content from iTunes.

Edit: I have now tested with a HD-movie from iTunes (an episode of Firefly). If I use the "Best for retina" setting it is relatively smooth, but I found it choppy when played with the "More space" setting (I use the Swedish version of OSX so the names might be translated slightly wrong). I think that is 1920x1200. I would not say that it is acceptable for such an otherwise nice computer.

Edit 2: I ran the same test with the dedicated graphics card activated.. It is night and day difference! iTunes album view scrolls smooth, HD video playback works also at the high resolution.. !!!
 
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takezo808

macrumors member
Aug 7, 2011
98
0
On the desktop front you are looking at a GTX 670/680 for this kind of power in 3D. I know this is on the 2D/desktop rendering side but going from 1356 shaders down to 384 and at lower clocks is going have a large impact.

1440 x 900 or 900p is going to be the native turf for a GT 640/650M

Mac Book pro has alwas switch GPUs. Basicaly when not using open gl or specific apps that utilise Nvidia's CUDA capabilities. It's using the Intel HD 4000. So web browsing, watching movies, and other mundane workloads are done on Intel GPU. this is to improve battery life. Increasing Memory is key as it auto increases the Intel GPU's alocation of memory for video memory. 8GB will enable 512GB of video memory wich will smoothen out basic GUI performance and basic mundane processes.


When a game starts up Open GL is used. MBP switches to 650M for the extra game horsepower. It's a very fast GPU for a mobile unit. Desktop video cards are all dual slot and come with a rediculously large cooling solution attached. Not somthing you can stick into a laptop, much less a MBP.

Many games will run very well on 650M. Just not in uber geek mode (graphics settings maxed out).
 

GadgetGuy1981

macrumors newbie
May 6, 2012
9
0
In summary...

After 16+ pages of this, I've learned two things:

- People that cannot afford something, or can't justify the purchase, immediately must rationalize their lack of funds or use case by putting down those that do, or the product itself.

- People with this machine are ENAMORED with satisfaction from getting it. The issues mentioned are borderline phantom now that Mountain Lion has been released. (Lets face it - Most of us had to wait until ML was released to get one of these things from China)!

If there are remaining issues, They will likely be ironed out or effectively worked-around by subsequent software updates.

I'd put this thing up against ANY mobile built in the past year. Sagers, Clevos, Bring it! I'll spank you in overall horsepower!

-Sent from my Retina MacBook Pro: 2.7/16/768
 

Compton1113

macrumors newbie
Aug 10, 2012
5
0
I'd put this thing up against ANY mobile built in the past year. Sagers, Clevos, Bring it! I'll spank you in overall horsepower!

-Sent from my Retina MacBook Pro: 2.7/16/768

Sorry bro, I am a Apple fan boy to the max but this thing cannot touch a Clevo/Sager 9150 with GTX680m 4GB w/Optimus, i7-3920XM, 16GB, and 2x 512GB Crucial M4 SSD for the same price as the 2.7/16/768 15" rMBP.
 

2IS

macrumors 68030
Jan 9, 2011
2,938
433
After 16+ pages of this, I've learned two things:

- People that cannot afford something, or can't justify the purchase, immediately must rationalize their lack of funds or use case by putting down those that do, or the product itself.

- People with this machine are ENAMORED with satisfaction from getting it. The issues mentioned are borderline phantom now that Mountain Lion has been released. (Lets face it - Most of us had to wait until ML was released to get one of these things from China)!

If there are remaining issues, They will likely be ironed out or effectively worked-around by subsequent software updates.

I'd put this thing up against ANY mobile built in the past year. Sagers, Clevos, Bring it! I'll spank you in overall horsepower!

-Sent from my Retina MacBook Pro: 2.7/16/768

I don't think you learned what you think you learned.

Then there's the ML claim which you just completely made up.
 

orthorim

Suspended
Feb 27, 2008
733
350
rMBP's GT 650m GPU is too weak, what good is the retina resolution when you can only run 2d applications at the native res?

Huh? What mobile GPU can run 3D games with all options at a full 2800x1800 pixels? Most desktop cards would struggle, and most games don't even go that high. I don't really get the point of this complaint.

The card is basically the best money can buy for the rMBP form factor and battery life. I'd think that the trade-offs involved are pretty obvious.

Anyway ... all you naysayers are absolutely wrong, the display on this machine is the best I've ever seen. Period. I am running at 1680 - a lot of room but still comfortable to look at, and it's just perfect.

----------

Sorry bro, I am a Apple fan boy to the max but this thing cannot touch a Clevo/Sager 9150 with GTX680m 4GB w/Optimus, i7-3920XM, 16GB, and 2x 512GB Crucial M4 SSD for the same price as the 2.7/16/768 15" rMBP.

Not even going to actually look up the specs but does this Clevo
- have a retina display with 5 megapixels? Five. Megapixels. 2800x1800.
- weigh 2kg?
- Last 7 hours on battery?

I am guessing the answer to all those question is no. And let's not even talk about build quality, quality of the keyboard, etc etc. Apple know what they're doing with laptops, nothing can compare. By that I mean if you are trying to find a competitor that offers similar features as the rMBP - there is none.

If want a huge, heavy gaming monster laptop there's plenty of PCs to choose from, and the rMBP is probably not what you're looking for.
 

Compton1113

macrumors newbie
Aug 10, 2012
5
0
Huh? What mobile GPU can run 3D games with all options at a full 2800x1800 pixels? Most desktop cards would struggle, and most games don't even go that high. I don't really get the point of this complaint.

The card is basically the best money can buy for the rMBP form factor and battery life. I'd think that the trade-offs involved are pretty obvious.

Anyway ... all you naysayers are absolutely wrong, the display on this machine is the best I've ever seen. Period. I am running at 1680 - a lot of room but still comfortable to look at, and it's just perfect.

----------



Not even going to actually look up the specs but does this Clevo
- have a retina display with 5 megapixels? Five. Megapixels. 2800x1800.
- weigh 2kg?
- Last 7 hours on battery?

I am guessing the answer to all those question is no. And let's not even talk about build quality, quality of the keyboard, etc etc. Apple know what they're doing with laptops, nothing can compare. By that I mean if you are trying to find a competitor that offers similar features as the rMBP - there is none.

If want a huge, heavy gaming monster laptop there's plenty of PCs to choose from, and the rMBP is probably not what you're looking for.

The Clevo/Sager
15.6" (16:9) Full HD (1920x1080) LED-Backlit Display features 95% NTSC Color Gamut
5 hours battery with Optimus
3.09 kg

You are missing the point. The original post claimed a 15 rMBP 2.7/16/768 would "spank" any current laptop in overall horsepower. This is simply not true and the things you have listed have nothing to do with "horsepower". I have a 15 rMBP 2.7/16/512 and I love it, but I purposely picked the Clevo/Sager 9150 because it is similar in size/weight and has great battery life (w/Optimus) for a gaming rig. Like I said in my original post I am a hardcore Apple fanboy but it is stupid make ridiculous claims about the rMBP. It makes the Apple community look uneducated and like the sheep they claim us to be.
 
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