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2.8 Retina Anyone?

Ifti

Ifti

macrumors 601
Original poster
Dec 14, 2010
4,359
3,031
UK
I use my current MacBook (in sig) mainly for editing in FCPX.
I'm after a larger screen now, and since I never use the optical drive in my current MBP, I'm considering the retina.

Since I want this one to last as long as possible, I was prepared to go for the 2.8GHz with the higher cache etc, to help with rendering as well.

Does anyone have the 2.8??
What's the heat and battery usage like?

I would assume battery usage would be the same unless I'm really pushing the CPU hard?

Is it the same principle with heat? In theory, if I'm only casually browsing the web, for example, the CPU would be underused, hence emit as much heat as the lower clock CPUs? Whereas if I'm rendering etc, then heat will be higher due to the faster CPU?

Anyone with the 2.8 have any issues??
 
Under no load, they all run around the same.

Under full load
2.3/.2.4 runs around 80 celsius,
2.6/2.7 and 2.7/2.8 run around 100 celsius.
 
Ploki said:
Under no load, they all run around the same.

Under full load
2.3/.2.4 runs around 80 celsius,
2.6/2.7 and 2.7/2.8 run around 100 celsius.
Click to expand...

What are the upper limits for the CPUs?
 
Ifti said:
They run so close to the upper limits??!
Click to expand...

Remember that full load is pretty hard to reach. What do you do with your computer? You might not even need 2.8 GHz, and in some cases it will lower the life of the computer because it runs hotter than others. Browsing the web without Flash will not get you anywhere near these temperatures.
 
B... said:
Remember that full load is pretty hard to reach. What do you do with your computer? You might not even need 2.8 GHz, and in some cases it will lower the life of the computer because it runs hotter than others. Browsing the web without Flash will not get you anywhere near these temperatures.
Click to expand...

To be honest doing anything except multi-core rendering or playing games won't get you near those.
 
B... said:
Remember that full load is pretty hard to reach. What do you do with your computer? You might not even need 2.8 GHz, and in some cases it will lower the life of the computer because it runs hotter than others. Browsing the web without Flash will not get you anywhere near these temperatures.
Click to expand...

Video editing
 
Ploki said:
To be honest doing anything except multi-core rendering or playing games won't get you near those.
Click to expand...

Also watch out for rogue processes setting your CPU on fire. My Bitcoin wallet was the latest culprit.

As soon as the fans ramp up and you're not doing anything out of the ordinary/what is expected check your Activity Monitor.
 
Ifti said:
I use my current MacBook (in sig) mainly for editing in FCPX.
I'm after a larger screen now, and since I never use the optical drive in my current MBP, I'm considering the retina.

Since I want this one to last as long as possible, I was prepared to go for the 2.8GHz with the higher cache etc, to help with rendering as well.

Does anyone have the 2.8??
What's the heat and battery usage like?

Anyone with the 2.8 have any issues??
Click to expand...

I've had the fully loaded 2013 rMBP 2.8GHz/16GB/768GB 15 inch LG SA2 for about two weeks. The best laptop I've owned so far. Nicely portable, nice screen. I managed to use all 16GB RAM on a couple occasions while running Windows 8 on parallels and a few other apps.

The cooling system does a great job, laptop seems to run cooler than others I've used, but it can get warm. Nowhere near as warm as my old late 2008. I have not done any heavy rendering yet, but the short stuff seem to move right along well. I'm comparing to rendering and converting on a MacPro. I had given up trying to do heavy lifting on a portable. I may give this rMBP a go at it when I get a larger display.

When not trying to conserve battery, running full brightness, I get about 5 hours from 100% to 15%. Haven't tried any battery conservation techniques.
 
Last edited:
swerve147 said:
Also watch out for rogue processes setting your CPU on fire. My Bitcoin wallet was the latest culprit.

As soon as the fans ramp up and you're not doing anything out of the ordinary/what is expected check your Activity Monitor.
Click to expand...
Ah, yes, that!
And flash.
Kill flash.


ColdCase said:
When not trying to conserve battery, running full brightness, I get about 5 hours from 100% to 15%. Haven't tried any battery conservation techniques.
Click to expand...

9 hours when surfing :eek:
 
Ifti said:
They run so close to the upper limits??!
Click to expand...

In fact, both higher end CPUs (2.6/2.7 or, in this case, 2.7 and 2.8) will reach temps close to 105C under load and will start to throttle. Mine 2.6 was always at 103-104C even with stock thermal paste replaced with Coollaboratory Liquid Pro :eek: And they will never actually "overheat", of course, as they can throttle all the way down to absolute minimum. System shutdown is extremely rare case and is definitely a problem. It's more likely for the entire system to hang under extreme overheating, but it's only possible with fans turned off or heatsink removed :D

2.3/2.4 (lower end) both can be handled without throttling. My current machine with LM thermal paste is 15-20C cooler under 100% load (Comsol, Matlab or, artificially, Prime95). My CPU temps are around 82-90C depending on ambient and other conditions like which GPU is activated and how long does it stay under 100% load. No throttling whatsoever! ;) Hope this helps.

P.S. Get 2.4GHz
 
Last edited:
Wow, didnt know people repaste mac laptops. So is does anyone else do this with good results?
 
Thank you all for your comments so far, you've been very helpful!

I'm considering whether to go ahead now, or wait a few months to see if Haswell comes along. Normally I just purchase as and when need be as there are always newer things round the corner, but considering I already have the laptop in my sig I'm not in an urgent need for a replacement just yet.

Its just that I don't want to risk the resale value on the one in my sig either!

----------
Ploki said:
well... yeah, it will get hot, when rendering mostly.

Look, you shouldn't have to worry too much. MacBooks have been running hot since forever and I've yet to see one that actually dies from being hot. Usually other things fail.

also if you do video editing on Laptop, look into this:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1560809/
Click to expand...

Thanks - although I heard USB3 shouldn't be used for video editing due to the way it sends data packets rather then a constant stream like FW800 or TB?!
 
Ifti said:
Thank you all for your comments so far, you've been very helpful!

I'm considering whether to go ahead now, or wait a few months to see if Haswell comes along. Normally I just purchase as and when need be as there are always newer things round the corner, but considering I already have the laptop in my sig I'm not in an urgent need for a replacement just yet.

Its just that I don't want to risk the resale value on the one in my sig either!

----------



Thanks - although I heard USB3 shouldn't be used for video editing due to the way it sends data packets rather then a constant stream like FW800 or TB?!
Click to expand...

FW800 is dated already, about TB: sure, its way better. If you can afford it go for Pegasus J2 or something among those lines. Or Delock TB enclosure + 512GB SSD. I'd go down that road in split second, but sub200 euros compared to 600 euros... Meh. I'm just too broke.
 
Ploki said:
FW800 is dated already, about TB: sure, its way better. If you can afford it go for Pegasus J2 or something among those lines. Or Delock TB enclosure + 512GB SSD. I'd go down that road in split second, but sub200 euros compared to 600 euros... Meh. I'm just too broke.
Click to expand...

I have a Drobo 5D to use as well, but like the portability of my FW800 drive as well!
 
Ifti said:
I have a Drobo 5D to use as well, but like the portability of my FW800 drive as well!
Click to expand...
Ah. Drobo is nice.

Well, FW800 WD vs CineRaid USB3.0... CineRaid wins hands down.

USB3.0 has much better access times(latency) than USB2.0. Don't know how it holds up against FW800, but I doubt its slower.

I prefer CineRaid because it houses 2 drives (on top one another), is bus-powered, and actually handles throughput of two drives in RAID0. :)
 
Ploki said:
9 hours when surfing :eek:
Click to expand...

Now that sounds awfully suspicious based on my personal experience & that of my fellow researchers at work.

We have every configuration of 15" MBPr's from base models to those like mine that are fully optioned.

Six to Seven hours is realistic, but 9?

I don't care how much one turns down the brightness & other settings.

It's not good to fib on an Apple forum...

Tends to affect ones Karma :)
 
maxosx said:
Now that sounds awfully suspicious based on my personal experience & that of my fellow researchers at work.

We have every configuration of 15" MBPr's from base models to those like mine that are fully optioned.

Six to Seven hours is realistic, but 9?

I don't care how much one turns down the brightness & other settings.

It's not good to fib on an Apple forum...

Tends to affect ones Karma :)
Click to expand...

Perhaps I was lucky to have a good wifi connection, but it started out as around 11 hours predicted and when 4 went by it was at around 55%.

No bluetooth, no keyboard brightness, just wifi, flash disabled (ClickToFlash)

Maybe it was just a lucky day, i'm usually on power anyway.

2.7/16gb/256, 10.8.3. It was really lazy browsing if that comforts you. Not even much typing. I always keep my system fairly clean all the time.
 
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