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Advice: exchange 13'' for 15''? Here's why to. Or why not to.

Tears Apart

Tears Apart

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 10, 2009
564
13
Outside Closer
One week ago I received my maxxed out 13''. I am blown away by display quality and build.

But.

I am also negatively blown away by 3-4 hours of battery life at medium-intensive work and 1-2 hours at intensive work.

And by a constant lagging UI.

I am taking it to the Apple Store in a couple of days, to at least get the screen replaced for a minor yellow tint along the whole left edge of the screen, but I am now thinking whether I should replace it with a discrete GPU 15''.

My concern is the size. 13'' is just right for me. Bigger than that I would't feel comfortable carrying it around.

So I feel like I am in an impossible situation. Stay 13'' and suffer? Or go 15'' and get used to size?

Any advice is much appreciated.
 
You need to go to an Apple Store, stare at the 13" and 15" and then make a decision, only you can make the decision since it's your laptop. There are compromises with either. I personally switched from the maxed out 13" to a maxed out 15". I went through a similar situation as you, and ultimately picked the 15" for the dGPU and larger screen.
 
Do you have a friend with a 2012 or later rMBP 15"? I would suggest carrying it around at their place to see if portability is still a concern. I doubt the Apple store would let you take one of their display units & it around the store for 15 minutes :) .

Or just exchange it for the 15" - and try it out for a few days. Last year, I bought the 13" but was unhappy with it after a few days. I didn't like the smaller real estate. I kept my old 15" and waited for the new rMBP to come out. But it's all a matter of personal preference.
 
GoCubsGo said:
There is UI lag? Is this common or is this perhaps a defect?
Click to expand...

I wonder. Some say there is no lag. Some say there is.

The lag I mention takes place whenever scrolling. Be that iTunes or Chrome.

To me is very noticeable and annoying. But I can imagine that to others it would not be.

Somehow I don't think mine is a defective unit in this sense, but I will check at the Apple Store this Thursday.
 
Tears Apart said:
I wonder. Some say there is no lag. Some say there is.

The lag I mention takes place whenever scrolling. Be that iTunes or Chrome.

To me is very noticeable and annoying. But I can imagine that to others it would not be.

Somehow I don't think mine is a defective unit in this sense, but I will check at the Apple Store this Thursday.
Click to expand...

Just to take note, I believe wherever you will read in this forum Chrome is not optimised whatsoever for the retina display and there is stutter scrolling. I can confirm that it happens to me too. Try using safari, works way better. :) No idea about iTunes though.
 
tlink91 said:
Just to take note, I believe wherever you will read in this forum Chrome is not optimised whatsoever for the retina display and there is stutter scrolling. I can confirm that it happens to me too. Try using safari, works way better. :) No idea about iTunes though.
Click to expand...

I'm aware of that. I mentioned iTunes for that reason. I notice the lag everywhere, even in Finder, although I didn't open Safari admittedly yet.
 
The maxed out 15 inch with the student discount would be over $3000 in Canada, which for a laptop with decent specs, is just outrageous. I think the best bang for your buck is the 13" high-end or the 13" mid-range. The 13" mid-range for $1400 is so much sweeter. Imagine what you could do with the $1130 or so you saved. You could put in a few hundred more and get yourself a proper custom PC that would destroy the 15"
 
Are you running scaled resolution - and if so, 1440 or 1680? 1680 seems to be the one that causes lag, I find 1440 on the 13" optimal.

But if you want/need the higher resolution, the 15" is probably a better choice. Running on battery for serious work is pretty pointless IMO... you don't want the CPU throttling down to save power/etc.
 
I think there's something else wrong with your machine, such as something eating all your resources, ultimately causing your issue. I have a middle processor, 16 gig, 512 13" and I don't experience any of that. Anytime my computer is on I also have vmware fusion with Windows 7 Pro running (for office products and Outlook). I also run 2 monitors. I've been working since 5am right on the money and it's now 9:22am. My battery is at 58% and it shows 4:22 remaining. I also charged up my iPhone from 8% to full from the USB port during the morning. I consider myself a pretty "intense" user as much of my work requires signficant bandwidth. I always have at least a handful of RDP sessions to other systems, terminal sessions, and of course surfing and email. Granted I'm not compiling code (typically) or trying to edit video which is probably a better definition of "intense".
 
By maxxed out, do you mean the i7 version? And are you running a scaled resolution?

iTunes is not (yet) GPU accelerated, that's why it lags. The same applies to some parts of the App Store.
 
I Just switched the other way around. I had a 15" and i've switched it to a 13". The 13" is so much more portable. Now i take it everywhere i go, i found the 15" to large and it was way to overpowered for the things i use.

I would recommend to stay at the 13" inch unless you really need the extra power :)
 
My brother has the older (slower) 13in retina with no problems or lag under Mavericks, so it must be a driver or software but for the new, faster, machine to have lag.
 
Do you use a mouse or other scrolling device that your built in track pad that could cause a UI lag...All the machines I have tested in various stores seem to run very smoothly. I trust me...I have been watching closely :cool:
 
phero said:
By maxxed out, do you mean the i7 version? And are you running a scaled resolution?

iTunes is not (yet) GPU accelerated, that's why it lags. The same applies to some parts of the App Store.
Click to expand...

Have the i7, and run it at max resolution. Wouldn't run it at lower resolution.

----------
EatingApples said:
Do you use a mouse or other scrolling device that your built in track pad that could cause a UI lag...All the machines I have tested in various stores seem to run very smoothly. I trust me...I have been watching closely :cool:
Click to expand...

No devices. Perhaps my unit is a bit wrong. Have an appointment with a genius to check it out.

----------
vandoorn said:
I Just switched the other way around. I had a 15" and i've switched it to a 13". The 13" is so much more portable. Now i take it everywhere i go, i found the 15" to large and it was way to overpowered for the things i use.

I would recommend to stay at the 13" inch unless you really need the extra power :)
Click to expand...

I know! That's what makes this choice difficult. Bring out the dGPU 13'' please :)
 
I have the maxed out i7 as well, i permanently run scaled at max space, and not once have I managed to make any app, scrolling, mission control etc ever lag. With my definition of medium intensive stuff, I also get between 8-9 hours on a charge.
 
Tears Apart said:
I wonder. Some say there is no lag. Some say there is.

The lag I mention takes place whenever scrolling. Be that iTunes or Chrome.

To me is very noticeable and annoying. But I can imagine that to others it would not be.

Somehow I don't think mine is a defective unit in this sense, but I will check at the Apple Store this Thursday.
Click to expand...

I can make my girlfriends' 13" rMBP lag while doing basic web development on it. Apple rushed the retina display, and the algorithms for scaling just weren't ready, or the hardware was too underpowered. It's nice if you use your computer as a digital picture frame, but it doesn't really cut it if you want to get work done and expect a $2000 machine to work well.
 
Tears Apart said:
Have the i7, and run it at max resolution. Wouldn't run it at lower resolution.
Click to expand...

Well, it is stated that scaled resolutions decrease performance. To quote Anandtech: "At the higher scaled resolutions, since the GPU has to render as much as 9.2MP, even UI performance can be sluggish."

Also, the i7 might have less battery life than the i5. This article is about the MBA, but the processors are very similair (except for TDP): http://www.anandtech.com/show/7113/2013-macbook-air-core-i5-4250u-vs-core-i7-4650u/4
 
I can make my girlfriends' 13" rMBP lag while doing basic web development on it. Apple rushed the retina display, and the algorithms for scaling just weren't ready, or the hardware was too underpowered. It's nice if you use your computer as a digital picture frame, but it doesn't really cut it if you want to get work done and expect a $2000 machine to work well.
Click to expand...

You got it.

Get an app that lets you turn off the struggling HiDPI. You lose the amazingly crisp text but all signs of frame dropping, which we're calling lag, disappears. If you adjust your viewing distance the text is still clear enough and you lose all the annoying retina quirks but always keep the ability to go back to retina when you want it.

I keep my face a comfortable distance from the screen so I much prefer the UI smoothness over the unnecessary super crisp text. Unless coding of course.

Hopefully apple figures this one out one day but they don't seem too concerned unfortunatly.
 
The 15" is so light and thin, I can't picture any circumstances at all where a 15" would be rendered unusable and a 13" would work. You don't need a separate bag. You don't need to haul around a table. What gives?

Go for the 15.
 
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