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AMD Details Radeon Pro Graphics in New 15-inch MacBook Pro Models
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New Adobe and Avid NLE versions are optimized for both CUDA and Open CL. However CUDA for some reason, is faster than Open CL. I don't know why.
Are they? I am running an RX 480 in my VR rig and you are probably aware of the power consumption fiasco those endured at launch.
Seems to me Apple is trying to bail AMD because no creative professional uses them. The editors I've talked to use Nvidia cards and nothing else.
Well thank god Apple are still the kings of I/O performance. SSD read/write speeds are best in the industry and 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports, wow. Just compare it with the Surface Studio, no native SSD and no Thunderbolt ports. Apple fans, you are f-en spoiled!
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Surface Studio costs $4200 for no native SSD, woof!
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Surface Studio costs $4200 for no native SSD, woof!
Say what...THEY'RE STILL USING DDR3???!!! Every PC manufacture uses DDR4 now. That's so disappointing
Not completely true. The full Polaris 11 chip features 16 CUs, which is what Apple's Radeon Pro 460 offers. That's a plus because no desktop versions of the Rx460 ever featured full 16 CUs, they all offer only 14. The negative is that the memory speed is down drastically compared to the desktop (5 Ghz vs. 7 Ghz). As the desktop version of the Rx460 is close to Gtx1050 in terms of gaming performance (somewhat faster in Vulkan/Dx12, somewhat slower in Dx11), it is not clear how the full 16 CUs will compare with the mobile versions of the 1050, especially because a mobile version of the 1050 does not exist yet.
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Say what...THEY'RE STILL USING DDR3???!!! Every PC manufacture uses DDR4 now. That's so disappointing
I think there may be an issue with LPDDDR4 support/supply. At any rate, LPDDR3 at 2133 Mhz may actually be faster than LPDDR4 at 2133 Mhz because of the reduction in latency in DDR3 compared to DDR4.
Yes! Less than 35 watts for 1.86 tflops is very impressive.
Except for ... you know ... everything else. Also, why on earth are you comparing the Surface Studio to a laptop? Other laptops have Samsung 960 SSDs with 3.5 GB/sec speeds. They also have Thunderbolt ports. They also have astronomically more powerful GPUs. They also have faster and more RAM. What point are you trying to make exactly? The only point you made is Apple has fast SSDs ... speeds that you can get on other laptops as well. I hardly feel spoiled as an Apple customer right now.
35 watts is impressive. 1.86 Teraflops is not.
i dont understand why anyone is surprised by this?
1 - mobile GPUs on macbooks have been a joke for a while now. prior gen was nothing special, previous IIRC was a 750M which wasnt even a real 750 but a prior-gen rebrand, and also the last nvidia chip on mac, likely forever.
2 - nvidia and apple havent played nice together for a long, long time now
3 - macs make like, what, 15% of apple's revenue? the bread and butter is in the iDevices and "consistency" across the platform - why bother putting a high-end GPU in the machines? this creates an uneven experience. cant have that now or the "reputation" will be harmed. its easier to let the handful of tech heads complain endlessly on the forums than it is to have hordes of average people who make up most of their customer base complaining about things they dont understand (and shouldnt have to) most people buying these laptops are average users. "Pro" label is just a marketing term. Apple sells throwaway consumer devices now, not tools.
4 - anybody who actually has researched this knows this already - Apple's graphics drivers for 3rd party GPU are junk, so even if you had a decent GPU in there, you'd be getting lesser performance than you would on the PC side - again, this is not because they cant do it, this is because they are all about "consistency" in the experience - performance tweaks for the handful of high-end machines they might sell is not justifiable for the return. This is also why 3D on the mac is a non-starter for pro houses. there's simply no support from Apple there, hasnt been in a long time.
this is the price we pay for Apple being popular. from a business perspective, it makes 100% sense - just look at the stock price. for us power users, it hurts, and it hurts a lot - but for me at least, ive long since moved my workflow away from OSX simply because I do not have the time to sit around waiting for things to change. They will not, they will continue as they have been, and we'll continue to see lackluster specs on Apple products, because to put it as plain as possible: they do not need your "pro" money to succeed any longer. It doesnt matter to the average buyer.
I still use my mavericks-based Mac and my Ipad, but the days of me using them as professional tools are long over at this point. Either accept it, or move on, or some halfway between.
1 - mobile GPUs on macbooks have been a joke for a while now. prior gen was nothing special, previous IIRC was a 750M which wasnt even a real 750 but a prior-gen rebrand, and also the last nvidia chip on mac, likely forever.
2 - nvidia and apple havent played nice together for a long, long time now
3 - macs make like, what, 15% of apple's revenue? the bread and butter is in the iDevices and "consistency" across the platform - why bother putting a high-end GPU in the machines? this creates an uneven experience. cant have that now or the "reputation" will be harmed. its easier to let the handful of tech heads complain endlessly on the forums than it is to have hordes of average people who make up most of their customer base complaining about things they dont understand (and shouldnt have to) most people buying these laptops are average users. "Pro" label is just a marketing term. Apple sells throwaway consumer devices now, not tools.
4 - anybody who actually has researched this knows this already - Apple's graphics drivers for 3rd party GPU are junk, so even if you had a decent GPU in there, you'd be getting lesser performance than you would on the PC side - again, this is not because they cant do it, this is because they are all about "consistency" in the experience - performance tweaks for the handful of high-end machines they might sell is not justifiable for the return. This is also why 3D on the mac is a non-starter for pro houses. there's simply no support from Apple there, hasnt been in a long time.
this is the price we pay for Apple being popular. from a business perspective, it makes 100% sense - just look at the stock price. for us power users, it hurts, and it hurts a lot - but for me at least, ive long since moved my workflow away from OSX simply because I do not have the time to sit around waiting for things to change. They will not, they will continue as they have been, and we'll continue to see lackluster specs on Apple products, because to put it as plain as possible: they do not need your "pro" money to succeed any longer. It doesnt matter to the average buyer.
I still use my mavericks-based Mac and my Ipad, but the days of me using them as professional tools are long over at this point. Either accept it, or move on, or some halfway between.
I'll chime in, not that it counts for much.
I used to do some creative/media work professionally. I do not work in such a field anymore. I love the apple ecosystem and it works well for my needs.
I can see why many creative's and professionals would be upset with such a release.
If I was still in the same field, it would be an easy choice. I would build a massive custom PC for video editing and other creative needs. That would be my work horse and go to stream. I never used a laptop to do any of my real work on. I might still stay in the apple ecosystem but only for my personal devices.
Always an option.
I used to do some creative/media work professionally. I do not work in such a field anymore. I love the apple ecosystem and it works well for my needs.
I can see why many creative's and professionals would be upset with such a release.
If I was still in the same field, it would be an easy choice. I would build a massive custom PC for video editing and other creative needs. That would be my work horse and go to stream. I never used a laptop to do any of my real work on. I might still stay in the apple ecosystem but only for my personal devices.
Always an option.
And they don't have the incredible list of innovations in the Surface Studio screen which you claimed which are, um, they're, err. Oh, nothing.
That's impressive... but still only 1.86 TFLOPS! With the RX 480 offering 5.8 TFLOPS as a "midrange" GPU... and mobile Pascal NVIDIA chips offering up to 7.9...
I know you couldn't get that performance in a laptop so thin, but still... one wonders what Apple could have done with a mobile 1060 or 1050? variant...
They probably preferred the AMD Polaris architecture over the NVIDIA Pascal architecture because of its support for asynchronous compute.
A lot of this has to do with the chosen form factor. Who knows, may be Apple will launch a proper workstation someday.
I think technically the Rx480 is classified as "Highend Performance" while the Rx470 is "Mainstream Performance".
A mobile 1050 from Nvidia isn't likely any faster than the Radeon Pro 460, because the desktop version is faster in Dx11 than the Rx460 but slower in Dx12/Vulkan. In addition, the desktop Rx460 has only 14/16 CUs enabled, while the Radeon Pro 460 has the full 16/16 CUs enabled. Who knows what the eventual mobile 1050 will actually feature for a proper comparison.
Just think... it's only 12-18 months until the next Macbook Pro is announced...
I wonder how long the "Waiting for Kaby Lake" thread will be by then?
I wonder how long the "Waiting for Kaby Lake" thread will be by then?
No more Iris Pro (128 eDRAM) parts for the 15 inch MBPs either, by the way. It is now only Intel HD Graphics 530. However, now all 15 inch MBPs feature dGPUs, so may be this won't matter. This sort of corroborates with rumors that Intel is about to axe the Iris Pro parts in some way.
Can someone please post SOME INFORMATION on the GPU? So far I've seen a lot of rambling but 0 proof, facts, or information. A Google search returns nothing. The GPUs seem to be new into the market.
I bought the top end MacBook Pro in late 2013 and it only had an NVIDIA 750M in it. Did the MacBook Pro ever come with a decent gaming GPU (x60/x70/x80)?
If a 4 GB 460 has the ability to drive a workflow with two 5K monitors and two RAID boxes...what's the problem?
It's not a gaming notebook. I don't recall Apple ever catering to the gameophiles with their pro laptops.
It's not a gaming notebook. I don't recall Apple ever catering to the gameophiles with their pro laptops.