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

[pendragon1984]

I'd buy one, but the last time I bought a Macbook Pro back in 2013 I had to go through 5 of them to find one without yellow blotches all over the screen. So, I think I'll pass for now.

This said, for those complaining about the 450 and 460 graphics options, I think it's good to keep in mind that these are super thin, super light weight ultra portable machines. They aren't normal laptops. There are thermal constraints to a package like that, and probably those chips are about as much as the design can handle.

Apple could make thicker laptops. Actually I wish they would. But they don't.

 

[spiritlevel]

Most professionals would be doing cartwheels if their employer gave them a laptop with a quad-core Skylake with 16GB RAM and a Polaris video card.

I'm lucky enough to be in this position but I will limit my celebrations to jumping up and down. Last time I tried a cartwheel I gave myself a hernia.

 

[Freida]

I think pretty much anyone in here can see how ridiculous you're being. Here's something you can do ... please explain to me why it's NOT innovative?

Nope, I'm going through this thread and all I see here is others trying to be constructive whilst you throw fits and insults. He made a valid point whilst you gave us one laptop that can NOT be compared to the new MBP. I'm not a fanboy as I don't like the new ones either. They are outrageously expensive for whats inside but I DO understand the technical challenge for the topic we are discussing (GPU) and for that you are simply wrong. You have us a laptop that is thicker, has more surface area (17") for heat dissipation and is probably louder (mu guess). That GPU will suck the laptop's juice very quickly I guess.
If you wanna be "intelligent" and taken seriously then offer constructive feedback as to which GPU would fit in the current form factor of the new MPB because Apple WON'T go thicker for the GPU! The form is set and most people benefit from thinness, lightness and better battery life which is something your razor can't and won't offer.

Seeing, that you are probably gonna be out of depth here, I assume you will again start to be generic and will give us your usual "what are you guys not getting etc." Trust me, in this case you are the wrong one here as you don't support your claims with real info so I would suggest you to take a step back, breathe in and then come back with some real info to back up your claims, ok? Can you be mature about it and do it like that, please?

And don't get me wrong, I hate what Apple are doing right now. I would love to see 17" back with proper PRO specs and beefed up options but Apple is just not going there which is something I'm truly unhappy about.

Anyway, please take a step back and come back refreshed with better arguments. Ok?

 

[spiritlevel]

My view on the "Pro" moniker is this... Most pros I know don't use laptops as their main machine. They have laptops for when they need portability but have a desktop as their main machine. That's certainly my use case and because of that I really do appreciate a thinner and lighter MacBook Pro - even if that does mean some compromises on having the latest and most powerful CPU/GPU.

 

[pendragon1984]

Nope, I'm going through this thread and all I see here is others trying to be constructive whilst you throw fits and insults. He made a valid point whilst you gave us one laptop that can NOT be compared to the new MBP. I'm not a fanboy as I don't like the new ones either. They are outrageously expensive for whats inside but I DO understand the technical challenge for the topic we are discussing (GPU) and for that you are simply wrong. You have us a laptop that is thicker, has more surface area (17") for heat dissipation and is probably louder (mu guess). That GPU will suck the laptop's juice very quickly I guess.
If you wanna be "intelligent" and taken seriously then offer constructive feedback as to which GPU would fit in the current form factor of the new MPB because Apple WON'T go thicker for the GPU! The form is set and most people benefit from thinness, lightness and better battery life which is something your razor can't and won't offer.

Seeing, that you are probably gonna be out of depth here, I assume you will again start to be generic and will give us your usual "what are you guys not getting etc." Trust me, in this case you are the wrong one here as you don't support your claims with real info so I would suggest you to take a step back, breathe in and then come back with some real info to back up your claims, ok? Can you be mature about it and do it like that, please?

And don't get me wrong, I hate what Apple are doing right now. I would love to see 17" back with proper PRO specs and beefed up options but Apple is just not going there which is something I'm truly unhappy about.

Anyway, please take a step back and come back refreshed with better arguments. Ok?

Right. This is correct. The new Macbook Pros aren't razor size. People forget that apple is going for the lightest and thinest machines they think are reasonable. They think the small size is more important than having high end graphics. Probably this is what their data suggests most of their customers want.

 

[Maxx Power]

The thread is too long already, so I will ask:

Is this just an RX 460 ?

Not exactly. The desktop Rx460 has 14/16 CUs enabled. The top Radeon Pro, the 460, has 16/16 CUs enabled. However, it is likely clocked slightly slower and uses 5 Ghz GDDR5 instead of 7 Ghz GDDR5. There is no equivalent from Nvidia currently, as there are no portable machines bearing the 1050 GPU (desktop version just came out). It is probably as fast as you can get from 50 Watts TDP.

 

[gnipgnop]

I'm lucky enough to be in this position but I will limit my celebrations to jumping up and down. Last time I tried a cartwheel I gave myself a hernia.

Awesome. I'm guessing my company will phase out the 2012 MBP in the 2018/19 range, which means the replacement might be a refurb 2016 MBP. I'll take it!

 

[cube]

Not exactly. The desktop Rx460 has 14/16 CUs enabled. The top Radeon Pro, the 460, has 16/16 CUs enabled. However, it is likely clocked slightly slower and uses 5 Ghz GDDR5 instead of 7 Ghz GDDR5. There is no equivalent from Nvidia currently, as there are no portable machines bearing the 1050 GPU (desktop version just came out). It is probably as fast as you can get from 50 Watts TDP.

50 watts? That sounds like the second process iteration maybe.

 

[Cineplex]

Of all the things I could care less about, this tops it. VR is a gimmick at best so far.

So you do care a bit then?

 

[greglo]

Right. This is correct. The new Macbook Pros aren't razor size. People forget that apple is going for the lightest and thinest machines they think are reasonable. They think the small size is more important than having high end graphics. Probably this is what their data suggests most of their customers want.

You do know Razor does a 14" too? And MSI, Gigabyte, etc? In fact all those laptops are thinner and lighter than the 15" 2011... that's the point. Their idea of thin and light has become unreasonable to many of us.

 

[fokmik]

yep, and if you dont care about carry them around, if you dont mind to have a perfect balance between weight/dimensions+battery and performance, then you can go desktop and you should

 

[Ishayu]

This said, for those complaining about the 450 and 460 graphics options, I think it's good to keep in mind that these are super thin, super light weight ultra portable machines.

That's what we're complaining about. We wanted a performance machine that wasn't necessarily ultraportable. Portable, fine, but we didn't want to make a very big compromise on performance to make it a little more portable. If we wanted that the MacBook Air and MacBook were great offers already.

 

[fokmik]

That's what we're complaining about. We wanted a performance machine that wasn't necessarily ultraportable. Portable, fine, but we didn't want to make a very big compromise on performance to make it a little more portable. If we wanted that the MacBook Air and MacBook were great offers already.

its still heavy and thicker if you compare to other 13" and 15" laptops...but not such a overall balance between weight/dimensions+battery and performance

 

[TheDoktorn]

Some Macs can if you supply the right GPU and run Windows

You can use last years macbook pro with the oculus headset and the Nokia OZO to create the best VR/360 videos, it all depends on what you mean by run VR.
This is laptops for professionals and creators. It's more than enough to create videos, graphics and most other things.
As always if you are a spec geek, don't buy a mac. If you want a stable operating system that you can create on(without going insane), buy a mac.
If you think that macs are crap, then don't buy one(and don't hang around on a site thats only about them).

 

[gnipgnop]

That's what we're complaining about. We wanted a performance machine that wasn't necessarily ultraportable. Portable, fine, but we didn't want to make a very big compromise on performance to make it a little more portable.

What type of software do you think is going to be compromised in terms of performance?

 

[imronburgundy]

I think Apple has forgotten not everyone is loaded as they are.
As a student, it would have been a lot to pay €2250 for the 15", but with the new one, it jumped to €2699.
Yeah, not gonna happen. Looking into a 2015 model.

Problem is, either way they win.

 

[Sakurambo-kun]

1.8 tflops? Oh boy, that's miserable. That's slower than a PS4, which is 3 years old at this point. By contrast, had Apple used one of NVidia's new mobile GTX 1080s they would have ended up with 6 tflops.

ATI are way, way behind the curve now, and their slow hardware is exacerbated by Apple's absurdly slow and 5 years out of date OpenGL driver. Vulkan could have made a huge difference, but Apple are still stuck in their walled garden with Metal, the API no pro developer is even slightly interested in.

 

[greglo]

yep, and if you dont care about carry them around, if you dont mind to have a perfect balance between weight/dimensions+battery and performance, then you can go desktop and you should

Not everyone can go desktop in order to solve their problems. And those laptops are very portable already.

 

[fokmik]

Not everyone can go desktop in order to solve their problems. And those laptops are very portable already.

why not? what a desktop hasn't and a laptop has beside, like you said,the portability

 

[Sakurambo-kun]

The 395x is 3.7 Tflops, the best new MBP option the radeon 460 is 1.8Tflops

The m395x more like 3tflops, and you can shave 25% off that when running on MacOS due to the useless OpenGL driver. Contrast that to a mobile GTX 1080 and it's comical.

 

[andreyush]

So...

Cons: Backlit Logo is dead ( yes, i am a huge fan)
Magsafe is gone ( rip my friend)
Only 16GB RAM
I don't like the speakers design and the upper part above the OLED touch bar of the 15 rmbp. So ugly and so big.
No SD card slot
And the lack of diversity in ports is subjective
You can buy the 13" rmbp (oled touch) with only 256gb. wtf?

Pros: A better SSD?
A better CPU ? ( but what is the difference between the new CPU and the mid 2015 rmbp's CPU? is that big?)
A better screen? ( I can't wait to see the differences if there are any)
Thinner and lighter? ( i don't really care about this :/)
THE PRICES!!!

Neutral: OLED touch display ( not usefull or useless). It's there and.... nothing :/
A bigger trackpad...Same thoughts. I think that the previous model of trackpad is perfect.


What are the pros and cons in your opinion guys ?

 

[satchow]

After looking at the "New Razer Blade" laptops all last week with their GTX1060 GPUs, I was so disappointed to see these MBPs with their budget tier AMD cards. Been waiting for this keynote to see how I would replace my current MBP with GTX750M GPU and this sealed the deal. What a shame, I really wanted that new Touch Bar and humungous trackpad.

Also, why is the headphone port on the right now? Usually the cord comes out of the left earcup when there's only 1 cord so it made sense to have the port on the left.

 

[imronburgundy]

$1800 for a 1080p version and a comedy rainbow keyboard.

View attachment 668631

Keyboard should programmable to custom key colors. It's a standard on gaming keyboards.

 

[greglo]

why not? what a desktop hasn't and a laptop has beside, like you said,the portability

Size, efficiency, portability, battery, convenience. There are many reasons to buy a laptop over a desktop. I don't have the luxury of having a desktop. A laptop is vital to me. Apple's were always the best, but it's tough to tell now.

 

[Maxx Power]

50 watts? That sounds like the second process iteration maybe.

Maybe. Although this was the trend for a long time now. The mobile parts are binned differently and uses a bunch of tricks to achieve a lower TDP - lowering core and memory clocks, lowering the operating voltages, using lower leakage dies, tighter power targets in the firmware, etc.