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15" rMBP 2.2 vs 2.5 (Mechanical Engineering)

C

close2reality

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 21, 2012
307
3
I recently purchased the base 15" rMBP. I'm still within the return period and am reaching out to others who are either in this field or have valid knowledge of the demands of CAD software such as Solidworks etc.

I also know I will be running MatLab and I believe Mathematica.

I just started my program so it will be a bit before I'm in those main courses but I do believe I have my intro to CAD next semester and it only gets more technical moving forward.

Could also be overplaying this as I could end up using strictly lab computers, but I'm just trying to guage the laptop based on if I did need to utilize that software on my personal laptop.

Question is, am I crippled not having that dGPU? Or is it more with gaming?

I'm not looking for an excuse to get the upgrade, I'm just looking to hear the facts incase that it would be best for me to grab it.

Thanks.
 
If you are going to be doing any sort of 3d modeling, the discrete gpu will come in handy. With that said, I do know some mechanical engineering students who use only the iris pro graphics card and have no issues.
 
it'll probably depend on how intense your workload is.

I would guess a typical student wouldn't need such powerful hardware tho.

also for the cost, you would be better off just building a mini pc with a good nvidia or amd gpu.
 
close2reality said:
I recently purchased the base 15" rMBP. I'm still within the return period and am reaching out to others who are either in this field or have valid knowledge of the demands of CAD software such as Solidworks etc.

I also know I will be running MatLab and I believe Mathematica.

I just started my program so it will be a bit before I'm in those main courses but I do believe I have my intro to CAD next semester and it only gets more technical moving forward.

Could also be overplaying this as I could end up using strictly lab computers, but I'm just trying to guage the laptop based on if I did need to utilize that software on my personal laptop.

Question is, am I crippled not having that dGPU? Or is it more with gaming?

I'm not looking for an excuse to get the upgrade, I'm just looking to hear the facts incase that it would be best for me to grab it.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
I'm a mechanical engineer myself, came out of school about 2 years ago. Here's my take on it:

Whatever it is you'll be modeling is likely to be very lightweight and more for academic purposes than anything else. The base model will suit your needs fine.

A discrete GPU only really comes in handy when asemblies get into the 100's of parts, before that most modern computers can keep up fine, with maybe a small stutter here and there.

Matlab and mathematica are more CPU bound than anything else, but the diference between a 2.2 and a 2.5 would be marginal at best, unless you get into complicated Matlab programming.
 
Raunien said:
Not necessarily more noise, but it will bring more heat and lower battery life when it is active, yes.
Click to expand...

More heat, my a**.

On Iris Pro only, I found that CPU temperatures were much higher and caused throttling to kick in.

On 750M, I found that CPU temperatures were quite a fair bit lower and throttling never occurred at all. Overall temperature may be higher, but CPU temperature is what matters most to avoid throttling.

Measured when running a stress-test utility called Macoh.

Tasks spread out across two chips are better then tasks consolidated all into a single chip.
 
yjchua95 said:
More heat, my a**.

On Iris Pro only, I found that CPU temperatures were much higher and caused throttling to kick in.

On 750M, I found that CPU temperatures were quite a fair bit lower and throttling never occurred at all. Overall temperature may be higher, but CPU temperature is what matters most to avoid throttling.

Measured when running a stress-test utility called Macoh.

Tasks spread out across two chips are better then tasks consolidated all into a single chip.
Click to expand...

No need to become an enraged psychopath. In my experience, the iris pro only machine has better temperatures than the one with 750M and the discrete active. You do you, I'm just reporting what I have experienced.
 
Raunien said:
No need to become an enraged psychopath.
Click to expand...
Methinks thou hast best to take a few moments away from the computer, perhaps drink a glass of water, then reread what yjchua95 wrote a bit more objectively. The post begins with a Phil Schiller-inspired quip, then continues to a rational and justified explanation of a viewpoint.

In other words, it would quite behoove you, Raunien, to learn how to disagree with someone without resorting to insults and name-calling.
 
Qaanol said:
Methinks thou hast best to take a few moments away from the computer, perhaps drink a glass of water, then reread what yjchua95 wrote a bit more objectively. The post begins with a Phil Schiller-inspired quip, then continues to a rational and justified explanation of a viewpoint.

In other words, it would quite behoove you, Raunien, to learn how to disagree with someone without resorting to insults and name-calling.
Click to expand...

Apologies to yjchua95 if I misinterpreted his "joke". Did not come off that way to me.
 
I have heard that even though Apple classifies there dGPU as their top base model, consumers such as those on this board classify it an outdated/obsolete dGPU for todays standards.

Is the bump worth the money? Is this dGPU that outdated?

Also I've heard that the Iris Pro outperforms the dGPU model when it comes to CAD software, is this valid?
 
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close2reality said:
I have heard that even though Apple classifies there dGPU as their top base model, consumers such as those on this board classify it an outdated/obsolete dGPU for todays standards.

Is the bump worth the money? Is this dGPU that outdated?

Also I've heard that the Iris Pro outperforms the dGPU model when it comes to CAD software, is this valid?
Click to expand...

Why not just get the model with dGPU?

The dGPU model has both Iris Pro and 750M.

Besides, when stressing it out, the dGPU model actually throttles less since tasks are spread out across two chips instead of one.

The GT 750M in the rMBP is slightly above the GTX 660M, because Apple uses the GDDR5 variant.
 
yjchua95 said:
Why not just get the model with dGPU?

The dGPU model has both Iris Pro and 750M.

Besides, when stressing it out, the dGPU model actually throttles less since tasks are spread out across two chips instead of one.

The GT 750M in the rMBP is slightly above the GTX 660M, because Apple uses the GDDR5 variant.
Click to expand...

heat, noise?
 
Considering Matlab and Mathematica, AutoCAD and most other CAD software runs mostly on the CPU, getting a dGPU just for that is a complete waste of money. Don't do it unless you're looking for an excuse to get a more capable gaming machine and even then there are considerably faster alternatives on Windows side.

As for the person trying to justify the dGPU with higher temps under stress... It's obvious that you're going to have the GPU and CPU running hotter when they're on the same piece of silicon than when they're on separate pieces of silicon. Even when the GPU isn't as hungry as the dedicated piece of silicon. As for the total power generation of the system, we're still looking at lower figures with the iGPU than the dGPU, the only real difference is that this hear production is mostly in one very specific area.
 
yjchua95 said:
I'd rather have heat and noise than throttling of the CPU.

Overall temps may be higher but at least the CPU is actually running a tad bit cooler.
Click to expand...

thanks for the feedback, as joe said i do not think i would benefit from the dGPU with what I'm doing.
 
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