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2016 Macbook Pro 15" will be a lagfest in Parallels

aevan said:
Well, first of all, I obviously don't know until the reviews come up, but I what I can do is give you my best guess.

My guess is that it will work just fine. And this is why:

1. MacBook Pro Retina from 2012 uses an Intel HD 4000 to run the same resolution and the UI doesn't lag. There was some lag here and there, but it was fixed in later OS updates. I checked a few videos on YouTube (one example:
) and it's working without lag. Intel HD 4000 is a weaker card than HD 530. As I said previously, GFLOPS isn't everything, but HD 4000 has 332.8 and HD 530 has 441.6. This is the main reason I don't think the UI will lag: it works fine on a weaker card at the same resolution (by the way, if you attach a secondary display it will always use the dGPU, so don't worry about that either).

2. You may disagree with this one, but for me this next one is also a good reason to believe it won't lag. I trust Apple to give us a good experience: Sure, there were Apple devices that did lag, I agree. But mostly it was due to either lack of software optimizations or hardware limitations of that time. I seriously doubt Apple would allow their flagship Mac to lag when doing something as basic as UI stuff - when there is more capable hardware available (in other words, they can decide to use less powerful components - as long as it doesn't take away from the experience, but not if it does).

Sure, there is this argument that they value portability over performance and that they would alow their computer to be underpowered to make it thinner and lighter. This is debatable to say the least, but even if it were true - they would never do it in an area where an average user would have a bad experience. And everyone would notice UI lagging.

For example, they will - for whatever reason, not going into it here - use a Skylake chip instead of Kaby Lake because, no matter how much people here whined about it - no one will notice the difference while using the computer. But the UI lagging - that will make the whole computer seem slow. And Apple is all about perception.

3. In my experience, and from what I've read - when the UI does lag, it's rarely, if ever, because of the GPU. Since we associate GPU with framerates and graphics we always attribute lag to it, but in reality, the UI usually lags because of some background process or data collecting.
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Makes sense there, with how apple shouldn't be comprising UI performance. I guess we'll see soon!
 
monkeydax said:
Makes sense there, with how apple shouldn't be comprising UI performance. I guess we'll see soon!
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Doesn't change the fact that 2012 Retina Macbook pro stutters when scrolling heavy websites like the verge and facebook. I know because i owned one.

And 2012 iGPU is very similar in performance to HD 530
 
dark_mark said:
Doesn't change the fact that 2012 Retina Macbook pro stutters when scrolling heavy websites like the verge and facebook. I know because i owned one.

And 2012 iGPU is very similar in performance to HD 530
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Hahaha what really!! Even till today, with all the UI optimisations and what not? I'm on a mid 2013 rMBP 15" and I just tried it, smooth enough. Are you saying you're still seeing considerable amounts of lag? Worries me quite a bit should I consider to move to the new MBP 15".
 
monkeydax said:
Hahaha what really!! Even till today, with all the UI optimisations and what not? I'm on a mid 2013 rMBP 15" and I just tried it, smooth enough. Are you saying you're still seeing considerable amounts of lag? Worries me quite a bit should I consider to move to the new MBP 15".
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If your 2013 MBP has Iris Pro then it will never lag. My 2015 which i just bought never lags compared to my 2012.

No amount of optimization can fix a crappy GPU.
 
dark_mark said:
Doesn't change the fact that 2012 Retina Macbook pro stutters when scrolling heavy websites like the verge and facebook. I know because i owned one.

And 2012 iGPU is very similar in performance to HD 530
Click to expand...
umm I am using my 2012 retina right now and it doesnt lag at all. I have about 20 tabs in safari and python processing in the background and I don't notice any stutter.
Other people have already pointed out but OP you have continuously chosen to ignore: GFLOPS isn't everything! if you take a look at GTX980 vs GTX1080, the GTX1080 has about twice the floating point performance. But it is not twice as fast when you actually run benchmarks and games. it is only an aspect of overall performance.
 
dark_mark said:
Doesn't change the fact that 2012 Retina Macbook pro stutters when scrolling heavy websites like the verge and facebook. I know because i owned one.

And 2012 iGPU is very similar in performance to HD 530
Click to expand...


Um, sorry, but neither of these is true.

First of all - the 2012 Retina MacBook does not stutter any more. It runs both El Capitan and macOS Sierra really well.

Second, the 2012 iGPU is not similar in performance to HD 530. The HD 530 is quite better. From the GPU that doesn't lag.

I will be really, really surprised if there is any lag, anywhere. I'm certain it will be smooth sailing. Again, Apple would not allow for UI lag on their flagship, top of the line Mac.

Relax everyone. It is going to be fine.
 
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swein1992 said:
umm I am using my 2012 retina right now and it doesnt lag at all. I have about 20 tabs in safari and python processing in the background and I don't notice any stutter.
Other people have already pointed out but OP you have continuously chosen to ignore: GFLOPS isn't everything! if you take a look at GTX980 vs GTX1080, the GTX1080 has about twice the floating point performance. But it is not twice as fast when you actually run benchmarks and games. it is only an aspect of overall performance.
Click to expand...

Yeah seems like it was more a problem with OP's rMBP when it first launched in 2012.
 
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dark_mark said:
Doesn't change the fact that 2012 Retina Macbook pro stutters when scrolling heavy websites like the verge and facebook. I know because i owned one.

And 2012 iGPU is very similar in performance to HD 530
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It's a similar class of iGPU separated by 3 generations. That doesn't make it similar. Also as I mentioned, parallels automatically switches. That's the expected behavior.
 
Given the lower TDP, anyone got a good feel for whether it is viable to run the dGPU all the time and not loose too much battery? Does stuff like this still work: https://gfx.io/ and https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202043

Also, I was (and I am) concerned about the power of the iGP for UI stuff; the pelasure of OSX it in part its UI. But, having looked around, possible alternatives (in the UK), for example the Surface Book, or XPS15 do not have stronger iGP options; the quad core XPS15 is also with the HD530.

So, as far as I can tell, if you want a sleek 15" laptop with a decent screen, the 530 is what you'll get. Or, as I am tempted, you could stick with the 15 Retina Pro. A 15 Retina Pro with Broadwell would actually be quite tempting!
 
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Now that some people already received the new 15-inch MacBook Pro (still have to wait for probably a long time here in the EU...), any experiences with the Intel HD 530? How does it handle general UI animations, such as Mission Control, scrolling in Safari, switching Spaces, etc.?
 
GastonM said:
Now that some people already received the new 15-inch MacBook Pro (still have to wait for probably a long time here in the EU...), any experiences with the Intel HD 530? How does it handle general UI animations, such as Mission Control, scrolling in Safari, switching Spaces, etc.?
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My Windows VM's are running much faster than on my 2012 rMBP. I would estimate load times are half of what they were before. I've allocated 2 cores, 4 GB of RAM, and 512 MB of VRAM per VM. And with 2 VM's running, macOS and both VM's run smooth as butter for my use case.
 
i have the 2012 rmbp, it did lag in the beginning but they fixed that long time ago when yosemite came, it was software optimisation problem because the retina screen was brand new. Have had zero lag since then
 
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