AMD Details Radeon Pro Graphics in New 15-inch MacBook Pro Models

[gnasher729]

It's a niche, massive workstation with a tiny market. You think Apple discontinued 17" MBP's because they hate you and they don't like money? Newsflash. They didn't sell enough of them.

When they stopped building the 17" MBP, they were available on the UK refurbished store for over a year, at good prices. So what they had left over after they stopped selling officially lasted for a year, at reduced prices. It was the laptop that everyone wanted and nobody bought. Like the Homer Simpson car.
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I know everyone here is whining about how horrible the graphics chipset is, but can someone please answer a few practical questions for those who are contemplating a purchase....

Does it make sense to upgrade to the 460 if you are not a gamer? Would programs like photoshop or premiere run any better?

Does the 460 allow you to run higher res displays at a higher refresh rate or does the increased graphic memory not matter?

Thanks in advance.

It seems that all the graphics cards on the 15" allow using the built-in display plus either two 5K external displays or four 4K external displays at 60Hz.

 

[fokmik]

very nice attention to details to trademark the name with the lid perfect cut to see "macbook Pro"

 

[delegagtor]

Apple has really lost the plot when it comes to innovation. Removing the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 took "courage." The ridiculous wait for the MacBook "pro" delivers a system that is limited to 16GB, uses a GPU that is 2 notches below what is available for mobile use, and requires users to carry a utility belt full of dongles. Oh, and it costs 25-30% more than similarly configured Windows PCs. But gee, it's pretty isn't it?

 

[villicodelirant]

hest end products for the lowest prices? Name me a "socially progressive" country (one which purports to provide the best for less, to everyone...) that produces the kind of massive technological advancement that companies like Apple, and countries like ours do?

Denmark.

 

[Eightarmedpet]

Just look for any Radeon 460 RX review. The 460 Pro should perform around 10% less. Which means that you can basically play any modern game with decent resolution and get very good performance.

Ok, thanks for the info, maybe it's not such a bad GPU after all? I will do some research...

 

[canopic]

This looks hugely powerful for what is essentially an ultrabook. Lets wait for benchmarks.

 

[anthorumor]

If Apple made us wait all these years, then release a new form factor, then bravo.
The touchbar is nice and I like the extra large trackpad, but not at the price they're asking for!

 

[darksithpro]

I think this is what a lot of people may have missed here. The 1060 is 160% of the TDP of the Radeon M370X (80 Watts vs. 50 Watts). The previous generation Geforce 960M is rated at 75 Watts and that figure alone would have prevented Apple from considering that chip in their thin MBPs. The generation before that - 750M was rated at 50 Watts and was the last generation to be featured inside Apple's MBPs.

Also people need to understand the limitations of high end gpus. Yea, the 1060/1070 laptops are beasts, that can play games like Doom 2016, Battlefield 4, Witcher, or whatever at amazing frame rates. But here's the catch, as soon as you unplug that massive power brick from the wall your frame rate will literally tank. Your fps will go from 100+ fps down to like 30. The laptop batteries cannot handle those powerful chips. You need to be plugged in all the time.

 

[Snowshiro]

Really, this site used to at least make an attempt to present an objective view, but it's nothing more than a copy/paste of Apple Press Releases these days.

 

[Maxx Power]

Also people need to understand the limitations of high end gpus. Yea, the 1060/1070 laptops are beasts, that can play games like Doom 2016, Battlefield 4, Witcher, or whatever at amazing frame rates. But here's the catch, as soon as you unplug that massive power brick from the wall your frame rate will literally tank. Your fps will go from 100+ fps down to like 30. The laptop batteries cannot handle those powerful chips. You need to be plugged in all the time.

Absolutely. I have my own DIY desktop to game on, and I need my MBP for work and reliability. I suppose some may not feel that way.

That said, I would love to see them introduce a workstation-class laptop again, with socket-ed RAM, M.2 SSD slots (not sure if the new MBPs use this common standard) and more powerful GPUs. These do not have to be as thin and light, just something reasonable.

 

[fokmik]

Also people need to understand the limitations of high end gpus. Yea, the 1060/1070 laptops are beasts, that can play games like Doom 2016, Battlefield 4, Witcher, or whatever at amazing frame rates. But here's the catch, as soon as you unplug that massive power brick from the wall your frame rate will literally tank. Your fps will go from 100+ fps down to like 30. The laptop batteries cannot handle those powerful chips. You need to be plugged in all the time.

same here...i had the last year razer blade....you could game or do some renderings at full spec only connected to the power, i tried a game, im not a gamer, but for the curiosity sake, and that thing got v hot...and after i unplugged it after the battery was 100%, after 1 hour and 40 minutes i had the battery below 10%

 

[bsolar]

Really, this site used to at least make an attempt to present an objective view, but it's nothing more than a copy/paste of Apple Press Releases these days.

The title of the article is "AMD Details...", so it's 100% objective for MacRumors to report exactly what AMD claims and let readers form their personal opinion on the matter.

AMD and Apple are of course not objective, but MacRumors' report of their press release is.

 

[\-V-/]

Also people need to understand the limitations of high end gpus. Yea, the 1060/1070 laptops are beasts, that can play games like Doom 2016, Battlefield 4, Witcher, or whatever at amazing frame rates. But here's the catch, as soon as you unplug that massive power brick from the wall your frame rate will literally tank. Your fps will go from 100+ fps down to like 30. The laptop batteries cannot handle those powerful chips. You need to be plugged in all the time.

That would be the limitation of any GPU ... even the 460. If you're doing anything intensive like that your battery is going to go down at an alarming rate. That's just how it works. If you're going to be pushing the GPU, you're going to need to be plugged in.

 

[Essaux]

Integrated graphics on a 1800+ laptop
Can't plug in my iPhone without a dongle on a laptop of the same brand
3200 euros for their top of the line Mbp

Apple apple you've outdone yourself in stupidity.

 

[kk1ro]

I think this is what a lot of people may have missed here. The 1060 is 160% of the TDP of the Radeon M370X (80 Watts vs. 50 Watts). The previous generation Geforce 960M is rated at 75 Watts and that figure alone would have prevented Apple from considering that chip in their thin MBPs. The generation before that - 750M was rated at 50 Watts and was the last generation to be featured inside Apple's MBPs.

I think that what a lot of people miss is that "Pros" want (nay, NEED) performance. "Pro" hardware with low performance is not really aimed at "Pros".

The "Pro" in "MacBook Pro" has become more and more just a branding buzzword, rather than an accurate description of the hardware's capabilities and target audience.

Professional users are being driven out of the Apple ecosystem, because Apple refuses to make hardware for them. There's nothing wrong with making an overpriced and underpowered laptop. Just don't market it as a machine for video editing, music production and 3D modelling, because it will struggle in any of those tasks.

A true Pro laptop would go for performance rather than thinness. If they kept the thickness on the current rMBP, coupled with the new design, new advancements in heat dissipation, new keyboard, etc, they could easily fit a GTX 1060 or a Radeon RX/Pro 470 in there. The volume would also allow for a bigger battery to offset the GPU's increased power usage.

That would be a Pro machine.

As I said before, I'm lucky that my 2011 MBP is still functional and, as much as I'd like to upgrade, I don't need a new machine. If I did, though, I wouldn't even consider spending 3400€ on an MBP, when that money buys me a Windows laptop with almost 4x the performance (and a bunch of drawbacks, sure, but it would allow me to work up to four times as fast and that makes a big difference in productivity and efficiency).

 

[Eightarmedpet]

Denmark.

Touché.
Wouldn't expect any less from a Vonnegut fan.

 

[uwdude]

Well Apple has always typically put mid to high-mid graphics cards in the MacBook Pros, this is nothing new. They like to make the trade off of super thinness and design over larger battery and more space to dissipate heat and get higher performance.

In a laptop that thin you're just not going to be able to put something like a gtx 1080 in there without melting the thing. Especially not a desktop version. I just bought an Alienware Alpha to use just for gaming, and even that has a compromised graphics card and CPU in order to stuff it into a small gaming console case instead of a tower desktop computer. Now granted I was able to get a latest gen CPU and a gtx 960 for about half the price of the entry level MacBook, lol, but that's apples to oranges I guess.

 

[jetho]

It is unreal how people are freaking out over a product release. On the other hand, people are apparently also freaking out about clowns, so I'm actually not that surprised.

 

[sbuttler77]

-

 

[darksithpro]

I think that what a lot of people miss is that "Pros" want (nay, NEED) performance. "Pro" hardware with low performance is not really aimed at "Pros".

The "Pro" in "MacBook Pro" has become more and more just a branding buzzword, rather than an accurate description of the hardware's capabilities and target audience.

Professional users are being driven out of the Apple ecosystem, because Apple refuses to make hardware for them. There's nothing wrong with making an overpriced and underpowered laptop. Just don't market it as a machine for video editing, music production and 3D modelling, because it will struggle in any of those tasks.

A true Pro laptop would go for performance rather than thinness. If they kept the thickness on the current rMBP, coupled with the new design, new advancements in heat dissipation, new keyboard, etc, they could easily fit a GTX 1060 or a Radeon RX/Pro 470 in there. The volume would also allow for a bigger battery to offset the GPU's increased power usage.

That would be a Pro machine.

As I said before, I'm lucky that my 2011 MBP is still functional and, as much as I'd like to upgrade, I don't need a new machine. If I did, though, I wouldn't even consider spending 3400€ on an MBP, when that money buys me a Windows laptop with almost 4x the performance (and a bunch of drawbacks, sure, but it would allow me to work up to four times as fast and that makes a big difference in productivity and efficiency).

But the 1060/1070, the 480/470 are consumer gaming graphics cards. Not professional cards. That would be the Quadro and the Firepro cards, which are waaayyy more expensive that use special drivers and ECC memory. But then again Apple has an outdated Opengl API and and no Vulkan support, right?

 

[dantroline]

It is unreal how people are freaking out over a product release. On the other hand, people are apparently also freaking out about clowns, so I'm actually not that surprised.

It's not unreal. We waited for years for this. Yes, fools that we are, we WAITED. And I have to say I am unimpressed, not so much because the update has underwhelming hardware upgrades but that it has overwhelming price increases in a low-inflationary (even deflationary) world economy and by a company that is drowning in cash. Is this all they could do? Pathetic! Not buying it and I am angry because I have to break out of the ecosystem, but it will still be cheaper than remaining in it.

 

[Kobayagi]

you could sell your Maserati.

Unfortuanlly it was never mine, my uncle had a beautiful 3200GT. ^^ Loved that car.

 

[drumcat]

Just one... just ONE frickin' USB-A, and no one would have bitched about anything other than the CPU. Instead, it's

 

[kk1ro]

But the 1060/1070, the 480/470 are consumer gaming graphics cards. Not professional cards. That would be the Quadro and the Firepro cards, which are waaayyy more expensive that use special drivers and ECC memory. But then again Apple has an outdated Opengl API and and no Vulkan support, right?

That is absolutely true! The only difference between Quadro and GeForce, though, is the amount of RAM (much higher in Quadro, usually, which is what makes them so expensive) and the fact that it is ECC. In terms of architecture and performance (in non RAM-bound tasks), they are pretty much the same.

I would say, however, that ECC VRAM would only be important if the MBP was actually using ECC RAM and CPUs that support it (Xeon Mobile). The sort of tasks that ECC is actually important for (scientific and financial calculations, among other things) aren't the ones that Apple's supposed target customers - professional creatives - are doing.

My point remains: professional creatives need powerful CPUs and GPUs for their tasks. If the MBP doesn't have a powerful GPU, it's not really meant for professional creatives.

I'll put it this way: the MBP is great for the hobbyist filmmaker that shoots short films with his friends on his DSLR, not for the video professional that works for a major production house. The MBP is great for the hobbyist photographer that shoots a couple of weddings per month to make a few bucks, not for the one shooting for major publications. The MBP is great for the hobbyist game developer that makes 2D or low-poly 3D games for fun, not for the ones working on high-end (or VR) games for big audiences.

The new MBP is a laptop for hobbyist creatives, not professional ones, and I believe the amateurs/hobbyists are probably not the ones with the expendable income to splurge on a 3400€ laptop.

 

[maflynn]

I think the GPU is one of the few bright spots in the new MBP, I was impressed with the numbers being provided, though my needs are probably not as much as others.