I've been absolutely loving every minute of using my Retina Macbook Pro. It's simply the best computer I've ever owned or used. If this report is discouraging you, and you don't mind spending the money on it, let me just say you won't regret your purchase (unless you plan on doing heavy gaming, which I don't).
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Retina MacBook Pro Pushes the Limits of its Graphics Capabilities
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Who are you to expect this compensation?
Poor baby can't handle a weekend alone without his MBP?
Poor baby can't handle a weekend alone without his MBP?
Worst MacRumors Article EVER
I've been a MacRumors reader for years and I think this is the absolute worst article they've ever posted. The snippets taken from the Anandtech review are taken completely out of context and focus entirely on what were described as minor issues that don't have an impact on day-to-day use.
My advice is that if you were on the fence about buying one, get it. You won't regret it. Besides, you have 14 days to return.
I think this article should be revised with a different title and include more of the positive aspects included in the source material like say for instance, the bronze award, the first ever given to a mac by Anandtech.
I've been a MacRumors reader for years and I think this is the absolute worst article they've ever posted. The snippets taken from the Anandtech review are taken completely out of context and focus entirely on what were described as minor issues that don't have an impact on day-to-day use.
My advice is that if you were on the fence about buying one, get it. You won't regret it. Besides, you have 14 days to return.
I think this article should be revised with a different title and include more of the positive aspects included in the source material like say for instance, the bronze award, the first ever given to a mac by Anandtech.
You need to take the review with a grain of salt. It is more than good enough even in retina mode for your "college" work and if you want "faster" performance, you can downgrade to the 1440X900 non-retina mode. You don't have to use one of the scaled modes all the time or even retina mode.
You are still getting a better display panel even if you have it in double res with no scaling.
It sound likes the product was rushed a little bit... but looking back first revision Apple products are always like a beta. Remember the first revision Intel MBP?
You're planning on carrying around a device larger than the laptop? No, I didn't think so.
I amazes me how many people just don't understand what the TB port is. The TB port is a 4-lane PCIe path, at best. Graphics cards are 16 lane. So unless you are planning on only utilizing 25% of the bandwidth, this is a failure. This is also why a Retina external monitor is likely going to come with stickers "for direct connection to the computer only" Go take a look at benchmarks where the benchmark user saturates the TB bus and has the monitor running at maximum resolution.
The TB port, as-is, is not in a state where you're going to be able to just dump anything on it and get 100% of the performance. Adding a retina display goes from 5.8Gbit/sec at 1920x1200 to 21.4Gbit/sec at 3840x2160. Display port supports only 17Gbit/sec of video bandwidth. The TB interface only supports 40Gbits of half duplex communications. So where are you going to get the bandwidth to run a video card when it can't even push the pixels required for the retina display?
The reason for Safari's performance to be pretty poor on a high resolution display, lies in the underlying way web browsers render things. They are not natively using the video card at all. All of it is done on the CPU. Things like Adobe flash, even when they are GPU aware don't even scale beyond 720p because of limitations of the flash platform. Go take any old flash cartoon made with Flash 8 or earlier, newgrounds has plenty of them, maximize the flash animation. You'll see several issues:
1. If it contains flash video, it will tear into "bands" across the number of cpu cores in the system
2. If it contains vector animation, it will drop frames at all quality levels once it gets past 720p. Expanding it to 1080p or the Retina display will likely see it drop into single-digit framerates. This is because Flash, is only as fast as a single core in the system, which we've gone from 3Ghz cores in the Pentium 4 down to 1.7Ghz cores in Ivy Bridge.
As a result, Webkit is also only as fast as a single core in the system. You may get separate threads working on different tabs, or separate threads working on separate flash animations in the page, but ultimately, only one thread is ever used to render a web page. Even Javascript implementations in other browsers have gone from supporting multiple threads to only a single thread , so the reason facebook gets slower with the larger the screen real estate, comes back to only one thread being used for a script. Little of the page can be rendered directly on the GPU since it has to interact with the web browser DOM anyway.
So you're seeing the slow down because more has to be done by the CPU. Not the GPU. 4 cores don't render a page, only one does. When you make that page 4 times larger in area, you don't magically get that for free.
Everyone has their little quirks. I for one harbor a secret desire to punch slow moving people in the back of the head.
Apple has always had a pathetic amount of VRAM over the years but you also have to take into account the tiny logic boards. VRAM densities are up but how much PCB space does Apple have when compared to Dell or HP for the GPU + VRAM?
I'd speculate he oversaw most of the rMBP development and implementation of the display. But let's for a moment assume that this idea never even occurred to Apple until after Jobs' passing. Even if that were the case your comment is a typical bash that I expect to see against every product release from this company for as long as I live.
Thanks for your remarkable insight.
Having bought Macs for many years now, they are always graphics crippled or marginal. Since the technology exists to add some variant of Crossfire to laptops, this is clearly a cost saving feature. I have been posting here for over a decade that Apple should put far better graphics in all computers and devices as that one part improves the overall experience and supports advanced features such as external displays for various purposes.
I would like to see Apple come out with a 4 core GPU ASAP (A6G). They finally addressed I/O with TB, albiet at delayed and high cost and limited accessory availability, but be careful what you wish for. Apple is clearly leading displays, production features and even supplier availability issues.
Now a little graphics love please?
Rocketman
Lol, software doesn't fix everything. It's sad how a lot of Apple people think this is the case.
Does this mean that the rMBP is crap at least until its second rev launches? Guinea pigs anyone?
I'd saved up waiting for the new MBP to arrive, but because I needed it for my business I couldn't risk the lack of repair options, and the spec I needed would have cost more that I could easily afford. My 2008 MBP is creaking, and I needed to do something. So I popped into the local PC World and they're having a clearance sale of the late 2011 models. £350 knocked off the 15" i7 2.2 Ghz. Not the highest spec, but another £50 bought be 8GB of RAM, the screen colour saturation is much improved over my old model, and I still have my optical drive. A wise decision and a bargain to boot. I realised I could have got it, plus the top of the range MBA for the same price as the MBP Retina 512GB with an upgraded 16GB of RAM. Two years from now, I'll go for the retina, but I think version 1 is maybe just too much of a risk and way too expensive.
This is non sense, if you tested it personally and it was OK why listen to this crap?
Beyond that there is a thing called Mountain Lion coming which greatly expands GPU usage, performance of all Macs should be better with Mountain Lion.
You can wait if you want but there is no certainty that lower power GPUs will arrive in that time frame. TSMC has or is having enough problems at its current node.
Mac Rumors is apparently trolling for page hits or something because the article isn't balanced at all. Give Mountain Lion a chance when it comes out.
Actually the article is crap, read the source material instead.
Beyond that there is a thing called Mountain Lion coming which greatly expands GPU usage, performance of all Macs should be better with Mountain Lion.
You can wait if you want but there is no certainty that lower power GPUs will arrive in that time frame. TSMC has or is having enough problems at its current node.
Mac Rumors is apparently trolling for page hits or something because the article isn't balanced at all. Give Mountain Lion a chance when it comes out.
Yet more bad news for Pro Retina
Yikes...Apple's getting a LOT of bad PR on the new, ultra expensive laptop.
Releasing a product that can't even do what it is touted/flaunted by the CEO of the company is just bad. Not to mention you have to wait 6+ weeks for delivery which is an eternity in the technology and computer worlds.
Apple likely should have beefed the system up even more and cut Apple's profits by a few percentage points in order to be the first Retina laptop in the world...rather than try to build seemingly the bare minimum to get the technical hurdles done.
I know the tech specs and equations for # pixels, resolution, and all that fun stuff...but it makes you wonder, as a consumer, how Apple can achieve Retina on a $499 10" screen but not a $2200+ 15" screen.
Yikes...Apple's getting a LOT of bad PR on the new, ultra expensive laptop.
Releasing a product that can't even do what it is touted/flaunted by the CEO of the company is just bad. Not to mention you have to wait 6+ weeks for delivery which is an eternity in the technology and computer worlds.
Apple likely should have beefed the system up even more and cut Apple's profits by a few percentage points in order to be the first Retina laptop in the world...rather than try to build seemingly the bare minimum to get the technical hurdles done.
I know the tech specs and equations for # pixels, resolution, and all that fun stuff...but it makes you wonder, as a consumer, how Apple can achieve Retina on a $499 10" screen but not a $2200+ 15" screen.
Yep software doesn't fix everything!
However there are enough people running Mountain Lion right now that one can say it will make a big difference.
In any event what people need to realize is that it could be a couple of years before significantly faster hardware can be had.
Lol, software doesn't fix everything. It's sad how a lot of Apple people think this is the case.
However there are enough people running Mountain Lion right now that one can say it will make a big difference.
In any event what people need to realize is that it could be a couple of years before significantly faster hardware can be had.
I agree with what "wizard" said above me. It's unfortunate how many people are taking this article at face value and passing on what is the best Apple notebook ever produced.
MacRumors is doing its readers a great disservice by posting this one-sided steaming pile of crap.
Read the source article on Anandtech before you folks draw any conclusions, please.
MacRumors is doing its readers a great disservice by posting this one-sided steaming pile of crap.
Read the source article on Anandtech before you folks draw any conclusions, please.
So let me get this straight...Apple releases a product that doesn't work right as advertised/promised and expects its customers to upgrade the OS months down the road in order to (supposedly) perform the way it was supposed to perform in the first place. Mmmmmm, sorry...that's either misleading advertising or if it's a bug, Apple should claim it a bug and address it.
Calm down. Breathe. The situation is fine. Once you've upgraded to Mountain Lion, you probably wouldn't notice a problem unless someone pointed it out. The fact there is a front page article about it shows the issue is overblown. It's a great computer and is very fast.
Huh? They reported news about a reputable testing site and picked out probably the only area where the RMBP is less than stellar.
Mountain Lion is not today tech, so your comment is silly. Twice.
That was definitely page one news for two reasons. The latest performance news on the newest poster child for Apple going forward. Honest reporting about its limitations. Hmmm FB at 20fps instead of 50fps. Shocking!
It couldn't possibly be spotty FB coding . . . . .
Rocketman
Maybe I'm just less sensitive to these things than other people, but I spend literally all day on mine as it's my main work machine. I'm enjoying every minute of it at the moment.[/QUOTE]
I agree! If Apple is pushing the envelope they can push it all they want because this user experience is great and the screen is crispy clear! Will be hard to go back to anything else. Old screens look fuzzy by comparison.
I agree! If Apple is pushing the envelope they can push it all they want because this user experience is great and the screen is crispy clear! Will be hard to go back to anything else. Old screens look fuzzy by comparison.