15" MBP - Iris Pro vs GT750M

[Teuthos]

I had the same dilemma and went with the 750M.

I'm glad I did. When running a game once, I accidentally switched gfxCardStatus to integrated only. The game started running on the Iris Pro and my CPU temperature was somewhere around 85-95 degrees Celsius and the fans were at 4000 rpm.

Then I turned on the 750M, noticing that it was inactive.

The fans drop to 3000 rpm AND the CPU temperature drops to 80-85 degrees. The 750M is about 60-70 degrees after a couple minutes.

By the way, with gfxCardStatus if you set it to integrated only BEFORE you launch an application that requires the dGPU, it will run with the Iris Pro, so that is always an option (though an external display will force the dGPU NO MATTER WHAT).

 

[jjahshik32]

I'm in the market for a new mbp and originally looked at the 13" but now I'm looking at the 15" instead. Now that I have my eyes set on the 15" I do not know which one to get, Iris Pro only or the 750m model!

I do most of my gaming on a dedicated desktop that I've built a 6 months ago so gaming is no problem so I'm leaning towards the Iris Pro only model.

Anyone with the Iris Pro only model, did you regret it even if you do light gaming on the 15"?

 

[-Matt-]

I'm pretty sure I'm going with the 750m. I'll be keeping the MBP for at least 5 years, so having the extra storage and little bit of oomph with the dGPU will be worth it.

I've noticed "GFXCardStatus" being thrown around a lot on here. Is this a third party app, like GPU-Z, or CPU-ID?

I've never used a Mac in my life, so I'm really excited to learn a new ecosystem after being with Windows since 98/2000. You can all expect me to be on here a lot more when I get my MBP, probably asking the daftest questions!

 

[poematik13]

You def want to spring for the dGPU if you want to keep it for as long as you mentioned

 

[NathanA]

I've noticed "GFXCardStatus" being thrown around a lot on here. Is this a third party app,

Yes: http://gfx.io

First result on Google if you search for that word.

-- Nathan

 

[-Matt-]

Yes: http://gfx.io

First result on Google if you search for that word.

-- Nathan

Thanks for that.

Out of interest, hows the speakers on the 15" MBP Retina?

 

[nudoru]

Thanks for that.

Out of interest, hows the speakers on the 15" MBP Retina?

I just came from a 2011 to a 2014 Retina - and was really surprised by the improvement in the speakers. So much better! They still lack bass, but not that bad for laptop speakers.

 

[uller6]

Extra processing power

All 15" rMBP models with the Iris pro had 128 MB eDRAM on the CPU package. This acts as a shared L4 cache between the CPU and GPU. Since the Iris pro and eDRAM is included in the 750M configuration, when you're using the dedicated video card the CPU is free to utilize the entire L4 cache. I went with the 750M to give my CPU more cache for number crunching, since I use the machine with an external display 90% of the time and wanted the fastest portable mac I could get.