15-Inch Mid 2014 Retina MacBook Pro Benchmark Shows Decent Entry-Level Speed Gains

[12dylan34]

Probably not. You will be gaining x2 storage and going to a Haswell. I cannot claim expert to my opinion. I currently have the 2012 2.7/16GB/768GB and cannot pull the trigger. Gazelle offered me $1,281 for mine but that won't offset enough to pay for going to a 2.8/16GB/1TB.

Maybe we both should wait until next year.

Don't EVER sell your Mac to Gazelle, unless you want to be paid a lowball price. Compare the prices that your machine is selling for on eBay to what gazelle offers, and you'll see what I mean.

 

[thekev]

Any thoughts on how a maxed out Early 2013 15" compares to the current base model? 2.7 Ivy Bridge vs. 2.2 Haswell, 650M vs Iris Pro. Ram is equal.

That configuration Early 2013 is $100 less than a new base model, so the comparison is relevant, and I'm trying to make a decision.

You can find cpu specs on geekbench. CPU is technically faster on the Ivy, but maxed out cpu on a notebook is typically a huge waste of money. Iris will be slower for OpenGL or DirectX under bootcamp and obviously lacks all CUDA support if that matters. The 650m may be slower with OpenCL computation, due to it not being well optimized there. Usually the only reason people update notebooks on an annual basis is to never deal with a machine that is outside of warranty without paying for Applecare. It's a structured expense, so I understand why people do that. Doing it for performance reasons would suggest they purchased the wrong machine.

Don't EVER sell your Mac to Gazelle, unless you want to be paid a lowball price. Compare the prices that your machine is selling for on eBay to what gazelle offers, and you'll see what I mean.

Trade in companies have to do that by their nature. Otherwise they wouldn't be in business.

 

[iOSaddict]

Highly annoyed they didn't stick the 850M in there. The card has been out for several months now. They just want to make it a bigger deal for the full refresh in Summer 2015.

Before any of you comment protecting Apple - the 850M is similar in size and more efficient than the 750M.

Then don't buy it. It's maddening to see people complain about products that they probably wouldn't buy to begin with.........

 

[ToroidalZeus]

Any thoughts on how a maxed out Early 2013 15" compares to the current base model? 2.7 Ivy Bridge vs. 2.2 Haswell, 650M vs Iris Pro. Ram is equal.

That configuration Early 2013 is $100 less than a new base model, so the comparison is relevant, and I'm trying to make a decision.

The maxed our Early 2013 will feature a dedicated Nvidia GPU whereas the current base model only have integrated graphics.

From what I have seen the new base model will get slightly better battery life and the Intel iris actually benchmarks slightly (10%) faster for video editing / rendering but it's like -50% for FPS in gaming.

I bought the base model Mid 2012 MacBook Pro Retina a year ago and until today I never used the dedicated GPU, that is until I install boot camp and loaded up some video games, all I can say is I sure am happy I have the option of gaming on this laptop.

In short only get the base model if you aren't a gamer and you know 100% you will NEVER EVER play a video game.

 

[defecta]

What about battery life improvements? If any?

 

[zephonic]

Dear Apple,

Please make a 13" with quadcore CPU.
Thanks,

Power-Users With Small Bags

 

[JoshObra]

I'm running a Macbook Late '09 with 8GB upgraded RAM and new battery, HD is still stock. Lately been doing 2.7k videos from my GoPro and my Macbook can't handle it at all. Also watching Netflix or anything at 1080p while working on schoolwork tends to make everything lag, so I suppose it's time for a new one.

Is the ME866LL/A (8GB/512MB rMBP, Late 2013) worth getting since the price just dropped at Best Buy, or go for this years model, or just wait until next year for the sake of being on the "next generation"?

 

[ThatGuyInLa]

Look! They're all basically the same!!!

Add to cart! Add to cart!!!

 

[mdriftmeyer]

There's only enough room for one memory channel. Have you seen the logic boards? They're super small.



----------

I have the classic and I think it's worth ugprading just for the retina display alone heh.

Yes, it's a conscious design choice that I see as a flaw by Apple. They should have long supported the spec to it's configuration of 4 x 8GB configurations.

 

[orthorim]

Wow!

This is totally crazy. Intel has officially stopped innovating.

My 2 year old Mid 2012 Retina MacBoook Pro 2.6 has a GeekBench score higher than the new 2.2GHz entry model - 11,591

Two years used to be an eternity in CPU development. There was the myth that performance would double every 18 months. That has now, apparently, ended, and we are stuck with improvements so small that the the top model from 2 years ago is faster than today's entry level notebook (not that any MBP is cheap by the way).

I also have 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD. I guess the good news is, there's absolutely no reason to upgrade.

 

[smulji]

Dear Apple,

Please make a 13" with quadcore CPU.
Thanks,

Power-Users With Small Bags

Dear Intel,

Please make a mobile quad-core CPU that will go within the 28W power envelope of a 13" rMBP.

Thanks.

 

[meekeen]

Guys

do we know if the the just announced mid2014 refresh has different panels or the same LG and Samsung again (again I mean to early2013 version as I cannot find info anywhere on the net if they did change those when late2013 refresh came around)?

I am just worried they haven't been changed and still have ghosting/burn in problems and yellow tint problems.

I don't wanna be spending 2.5k on a laptop which is not top quality.
Not to mention:
-fan issues (random activation, speeding and so on)
-graphics problems (freezing, crashing)
-battery life problems
that early 2013 versions were bugged with (again, not sure if Apple resolve any of these issues while doing late 2013 refresh).

plz advise
thx

 

[orthorim]

I'm running a Macbook Late '09 with 8GB upgraded RAM and new battery, HD is still stock. Lately been doing 2.7k videos from my GoPro and my Macbook can't handle it at all. Also watching Netflix or anything at 1080p while working on schoolwork tends to make everything lag, so I suppose it's time for a new one.

Is the ME866LL/A (8GB/512MB rMBP, Late 2013) worth getting since the price just dropped at Best Buy, or go for this years model, or just wait until next year for the sake of being on the "next generation"?

Not sure you are talking about 13" or 15". If 15, I'd definitely get the new one, for one they come standard with 16GB RAM. That makes more of a difference than raw CPU speed.

Although - video encoding is actually one of the very few things that needs a fast CPU.

I have a 2009 iMac which works fine. But if I use Handbrake Batch to re-encode videos so they run on the iPad, the rMBP quad core runs circles around it, it's 12x to 15x faster. For that you want the most cores, and the highest speeds.

Recently did a show with 5 minute episodes. iMac wanted to take 6 minutes for each one; rMBP less than 30 seconds. This stuff adds up!

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Not sure you are talking about 13" or 15". If 15, I'd definitely get the new one, for one they come standard with 16GB RAM. That makes more of a difference than raw CPU speed.

Although - video encoding is actually one of the very few things that needs a fast CPU.

I have a 2009 iMac which works fine. But if I use Handbrake Batch to re-encode videos so they run on the iPad, the rMBP quad core runs circles around it, it's 12x to 15x faster. For that you want the most cores, and the highest speeds.

Recently did a show with 5 minute episodes. iMac wanted to take 6 minutes for each one; rMBP less than 30 seconds. This stuff adds up!

Video encoding offloads to the GPGPU in any modern solution that leverages OpenCL.

 

[cgc]

Video encoding offloads to the GPGPU in any modern solution that leverages OpenCL.

Handbrake is working on OpenCL support but I don't think it has it ATM. It really does need a powerful multi-core CPU to make it's transcode times tolerable.

 

[Dilster3k]

Why is everyone complaining? These kind of updates have been around for a very long time.

 

[wizard]

When will I stop expecting more?

When you are pushing up daisies.

Seriously I don't really understand people that claim to be satisfied with their old machines. We are a long way from the systems so common in science fiction where a powerful AI is part of yiur computer. A little closer to reality, things like Appples new Swift programming environment need lots of muscle for smooth operation. Beyond that any number of apps could use unlimited gains in processing power.

I think you will stop expecting more when your computer responses fluidly to any request you make of it. Here I'm talking less than 25 milliseconds.

 

[wizard]

You can find cpu specs on geekbench. CPU is technically faster on the Ivy, but maxed out cpu on a notebook is typically a huge waste of money. Iris will be slower for OpenGL or DirectX under bootcamp and obviously lacks all CUDA support if that matters. The 650m may be slower with OpenCL computation, due to it not being well optimized there. Usually the only reason people update notebooks on an annual basis is to never deal with a machine that is outside of warranty without paying for Applecare. It's a structured expense, so I understand why people do that. Doing it for performance reasons would suggest they purchased the wrong machine.

I would tend to agree that upgrading every year for performance reasons doesn't make sense in most cases. However Intels new chips do very well in some types of OpenCL code. As such there is a case where they may have purchased the right machine and simply have a use case that justifies a Haswell purchase. This is not a normal situation though.

Beyond that if a person has the money to buy a new laptop every year, they also,have the money to self insure. In that case one would simply run the Mac until hardware updates are performance justified. AppleCare is certainly justified for certain classes of users but like most extended warranties you really have to question the value of the service. The average Apple users, with multiple pieces of Apple hardware, is better off without tying a lot of money up in extended warranties.

Trade in companies have to do that by their nature. Otherwise they wouldn't be in business.

For some users the service they provide is highly worth it. It is no different than trading in your car with a dealership, you most likely won't get the best deal, but you will avoid a lot of hassle.

 

[Chmeeee]

You can find cpu specs on geekbench. CPU is technically faster on the Ivy, but maxed out cpu on a notebook is typically a huge waste of money. Iris will be slower for OpenGL or DirectX under bootcamp and obviously lacks all CUDA support if that matters. The 650m may be slower with OpenCL computation, due to it not being well optimized there. Usually the only reason people update notebooks on an annual basis is to never deal with a machine that is outside of warranty without paying for Applecare. It's a structured expense, so I understand why people do that. Doing it for performance reasons would suggest they purchased the wrong machine.

To be clear, I'm looking to buy one of the two, not upgrade from one to the other. My current POS is a Macbook 1,1 CoreDuo.

The maxed our Early 2013 will feature a dedicated Nvidia GPU whereas the current base model only have integrated graphics.

From what I have seen the new base model will get slightly better battery life and the Intel iris actually benchmarks slightly (10%) faster for video editing / rendering but it's like -50% for FPS in gaming.

I bought the base model Mid 2012 MacBook Pro Retina a year ago and until today I never used the dedicated GPU, that is until I install boot camp and loaded up some video games, all I can say is I sure am happy I have the option of gaming on this laptop.

In short only get the base model if you aren't a gamer and you know 100% you will NEVER EVER play a video game.

Thanks, I've decided I'm definitely going with the refurb model for the graphics card. Hoping that it can handle GTA V when it comes out.

 

[wizard]

I'm running a Macbook Late '09 with 8GB upgraded RAM and new battery, HD is still stock. Lately been doing 2.7k videos from my GoPro and my Macbook can't handle it at all. Also watching Netflix or anything at 1080p while working on schoolwork tends to make everything lag, so I suppose it's time for a new one.

Try running a 2008 MBP!

One option to consider is a cheap machine to support Netflix. Something that literally just has enough performance to get the job done.

Is the ME866LL/A (8GB/512MB rMBP, Late 2013) worth getting since the price just dropped at Best Buy, or go for this years model, or just wait until next year for the sake of being on the "next generation"?

If you are sitting here seriously thinking about considering the next generation then you don't have a the need for an immediate update. If it ever ships from Intel, 14 nm technology will allow for some really impressive notebooks. This especially the case of you can wait for SkyLake based machines with DDR4 support.

 

[wizard]

Guys

do we know if the the just announced mid2014 refresh has different panels or the same LG and Samsung again (again I mean to early2013 version as I cannot find info anywhere on the net if they did change those when late2013 refresh came around)?

I don't know so can't help there.

I am just worried they haven't been changed and still have ghosting/burn in problems and yellow tint problems.

I don't wanna be spending 2.5k on a laptop which is not top quality.
Not to mention:
-fan issues (random activation, speeding and so on)

You do realize why the fan is there right?

-graphics problems (freezing, crashing)

Even on my old MBP I'm finding that Mavericks is not as stable as I would expect from Apple. However you need to separate driver and operating system issues from hardware ones here. There is no reason to believe that the Intel hardware is especially bad here.

-battery life problems

What are you talking about here, these machines get excellent battery life. If not there is a problem probably correctable under warranty.

that early 2013 versions were bugged with (again, not sure if Apple resolve any of these issues while doing late 2013 refresh).

plz advise
thx

Seriously you want advice on hardware that hasn't even reach user hands yet. Especially when you are asking questions about non starter problems or issues corrected long ago.

It would be one thing to ask after a couple of weeks of public experience with the machines. Right now though you basically have no one that can offer you any valid experiences with the machines. If there are glitches it could take weeks for them to be identified.

Lastly these are fairly simple updates, as such you will benefit from extensive debugging already done on the platform. A transition to a new platform would be of a far larger concern.

 

[wizard]

Broadwell MacBook Pros aren't going to be released for another 8 months at least. People who really want a MacBook Pro should just get one now. These are perfectly good machines.

Maybe! Broadwell has been delayed several times now. I don't even think Intel knows when they will ship. Given that I'm expecting the machines around February.

They aren't especially bad, but it is basically a disappointment to see this stagnation in CPU performance for so many years now. Part of this has been caused by Intels focus on the GPU but that doesn't benefit everybody. So the fact that they are good machines isn't really a factor here. What is is going for so long without significant CPU upgrades.

 

[Naimfan]

Worth upgrading from 2012 2.6/16GB/256GB to 2014 2.8/16GB/512GB?

No.

 

[wizard]

Highly annoyed they didn't stick the 850M in there. The card has been out for several months now. They just want to make it a bigger deal for the full refresh in Summer 2015.

Apple won't ship until it has a stable driver for the chip. Beyond that for most users getting the base RAM up there is far more important than.

Before any of you comment protecting Apple - the 850M is similar in size and more efficient than the 750M.

What does that have to do with anything? It is still a crappy NVidia chip that has to be integrated into the system. Honestly Apple would be better off with an AMD solution anyways. Especially if that solution is compatible with the Mac Pros GPUs. It would be nice to execute the same code on a MBP as we do on a Mac Pro with a minimal of fuss.

 

[digitalfx]

worth the upgrade from a Mid 2012 MBPr 15" 16GB/512?
2.7 GHz Intel Core i7
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB

to the:
2.8GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.0GHz
16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
1TB PCIe-based Flash Storage
Intel Iris Pro Graphics and NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2GB of GDDR5 memory