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Every year we get a new iPhone. They've made their own Tick-Tock cycle like Intel. New design, then next year same design but upgraded internals. There is no such cadance when it comes to the Macs.

Part of the reason for that is that Apple controls the A-series chips in the iOS devices but relies on Intel for the chips in macs. Not the whole reason, but part of it.
 
There is one question that needs to be asked when buying a Mac, or any computer: "Will it suit my needs now, and suit my anticipated needs of as long as I want to own this thing?" If the answer is yes, buy it. Just because a new design is down the road (and there's is always a new design down the road), it doesn't mean your existing computer will suddenly stop working.



You're right on with this statement. I bought a new, top of the line, 15 in rMBP a few days ago. It's such a beautiful upgrade from the mid 2007 MBP that I'm writing this on. I like to future proof myself, and even with the "old" chip, the new machine would last for years.

That's why it killed me to return it. It's so much better than what I have now. I know it will suit my needs for years to come. And it defies logic for me to return it. But, emotionally I just can't help feeling like I got screwed. So, I'm going to ride it out until my old machine completely dies in hopes that something better will come along.

I'm an idiot.
 
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You're right on with this statement. I bought a new, top of the line, 15 in rMBP a few days ago. It's such a beautiful upgrade from the mid 2007 MBP that I'm writing this on. I like to future proof myself, and even with the "old" chip, the new machine would last for years.

That's why it killed me to return it. It's so much better than what I have now. I know it will suit my needs for years to come. And it defies logic for me to return it. But, emotionally I just can't help feeling like I got screwed. So, I'm going to ride it out until my old machine completely dies in hopes that something better will come along.

I'm an idiot.

If I was in your position would have kept the 2015, "if" Apple redesigns the rMBP on Skylake`s release it may not be all good, new product, new problems and Apple`s infamous Gen-1 experiments. Sometimes it`s better to buy end of line as all the engineering issues are solved and the product is extremely stable.

If Apple does redesign the rMBP you can guarantee it will be thiner, the thermal envelope will be pushed harder, USB C is a given, they may up the resolution to 4K and crucify the GPU further, and likely not optimise OS X for it. Being straight faster hardware is useless if the TDP is exceeded and Apple`s focus is aesthetics first we all know this. I am considering upgrading my 2012 Retina to the 2015 2.5 for the same reason, stability & performance, equally I have time on my side as my 15" is still a fast portable and I also have high end 13" Retina MBP & 12" MB.

All very much depends on your needs & use, think your 07 MBP has probably run it`s course, same as my Early 08 MBP did, and I retired that in 2011 :)

Q-6
 
You're right on with this statement. I bought a new, top of the line, 15 in rMBP a few days ago. It's such a beautiful upgrade from the mid 2007 MBP that I'm writing this on. I like to future proof myself, and even with the "old" chip, the new machine would last for years.

That's why it killed me to return it. It's so much better than what I have now. I know it will suit my needs for years to come. And it defies logic for me to return it. But, emotionally I just can't help feeling like I got screwed. So, I'm going to ride it out until my old machine completely dies in hopes that something better will come along.

I'm an idiot.

You're not an idiot - it's a big purchase to make and you have to be happy with what you choose. You are going to be waiting at the very minimum two months for a new one though (a silent refresh to these CPUs) or, generously, 6 or 7 months for any whiff of a Skylake one.
 
You're right on with this statement. I bought a new, top of the line, 15 in rMBP a few days ago. It's such a beautiful upgrade from the mid 2007 MBP that I'm writing this on. I like to future proof myself, and even with the "old" chip, the new machine would last for years.

That's why it killed me to return it. It's so much better than what I have now. I know it will suit my needs for years to come. And it defies logic for me to return it. But, emotionally I just can't help feeling like I got screwed. So, I'm going to ride it out until my old machine completely dies in hopes that something better will come along.

I'm an idiot.

Nah, your not an idiot Sully.

It may have been better to not have purchased that updated 2015 first but as long as your current laptop is serving you 'well enough' then it's better to save your money for now and see what materializes in the coming months. That's what I'm doing with my 2008 MBP, patiently waiting for the fog of rumors to clear and the actual facts to come out before I invest thousands into my next laptop.

If nothing materializes in the coming months then the current MBP will still be (as you have already experienced) pleasantly leaps and bounds ahead of what you and I have now.
 
Just as an FYI, Broadwell is already shipping. Currently the only models I know of are gaming notebooks (traditional and slim) such as the MSI GS60, Gigabyte P55, P35W/X v4, and P34W v4. Considering the design of none of these has changed, I think its fair to assume the CPU upgrade is just a drop in.
 
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Just as an FYI, Broadwell is already shipping. Currently the only models I know of are gaming notebooks (traditional and slim) such as the MSI GS60, Gigabyte P55, P35W/X v4, and P34W v4. Considering the design of none of these has changed, I think its fair to assume the CPU upgrade is just a drop in.


It seems likely enough that future 15 in rMBPs will ship with Broadwell chips that waiting to see what happens makes sense even though many of us will not notice the incremental performance improvement.

A new Broadwell chip would satisfy my emotional need to feel like I got fair value for my money notwithstanding the aging dGPU.
 
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... "if" Apple redesigns the rMBP on Skylake`s release it may not be all good, new product, new problems and Apple`s infamous Gen-1 experiments. Sometimes it`s better to buy end of line as all the engineering issues are solved and the product is extremely stable.

.... I am considering upgrading my 2012 Retina to the 2015 2.5 for the same reason, stability & performance, equally I have time on my side as my 15" is still a fast portable .......Q-6
Totally makes sense, and this is exactly what I did last week.
Over the years I have purchased three "new model" MacBook Pros (the original in 2006, the first unibody in 2008, and the first Retina in 2012) and came to regret all three when the next versions appeared.
  • The original Core Duo MBP was superseded by the far superior fall 2006 model with Intel's Core2Duo Merom processor, as well as a much faster DVD drive -- slimline 8x DVD drives weren't available when MBP1 was released. (Aw shucks!)
  • The 1st Unibody was kicked to the curb by the 2009 model which featured the then innovative sealed-in battery offering far longer battery life. (Doh!)
  • Finally, the Late 2013 Retina came with Haswell (better battery life), PCI SSD, 802.11ac wireless and Thunderbolt 2. A HUGE upgrade! (Dammit!!)
Apple follows this pattern on new products: The first version is "Holy crap! We ACTUALLY DID IT". The second version is: "Okay, now that the euphoria is over, and the bug reports are in from users, how can we make it BETTER?"
I believe the 2nd iteration of the "Skylake" Redesign will be so superior to the 1st, those who waited for it will be quite happy they did. I intend to be among them. In the meantime, I'm loving my new super-fast, stable, mature 2.5GHz rMBP 2015!
 
Just as an FYI, Broadwell is already shipping. Currently the only models I know of are gaming notebooks (traditional and slim) such as the MSI GS60, Gigabyte P55, P35W/X v4, and P34W v4. Considering the design of none of these has changed, I think its fair to assume the CPU upgrade is just a drop in.

Where is it already shipping? Source?
 
If I was in your position would have kept the 2015, "if" Apple redesigns the rMBP on Skylake`s release it may not be all good, new product, new problems and Apple`s infamous Gen-1 experiments. Sometimes it`s better to buy end of line as all the engineering issues are solved and the product is extremely stable.

If Apple does redesign the rMBP you can guarantee it will be thiner, the thermal envelope will be pushed harder, USB C is a given, they may up the resolution to 4K and crucify the GPU further, and likely not optimise OS X for it. Being straight faster hardware is useless if the TDP is exceeded and Apple`s focus is aesthetics first we all know this. I am considering upgrading my 2012 Retina to the 2015 2.5 for the same reason, stability & performance, equally I have time on my side as my 15" is still a fast portable and I also have high end 13" Retina MBP & 12" MB.

All very much depends on your needs & use, think your 07 MBP has probably run it`s course, same as my Early 08 MBP did, and I retired that in 2011 :)

Q-6

This is exactly what I was saying a few posts back. When Apple finally does redesign the rMBP, I will be able to sell my machine for a nice return because people will be mad over the change or I will be mad over the change and keep my 2015. Simple.
 
This is exactly what I was saying a few posts back. When Apple finally does redesign the rMBP, I will be able to sell my machine for a nice return because people will be mad over the change or I will be mad over the change and keep my 2015. Simple.

Especially if you bought it somewhere without sales tax. That takes most of the 'depreciation' out of the equation :)
 
Yep! I personally ended up deciding on a barely-used Crystalwell rMBP 15" for $1600 on eBay (no tax!)to hold me off until Skylake. I just couldn't discern enough performance improvements on the 2015 to justify the $900 price difference. But I will sell this laptop for nearly the same amount when Skylake comes out, in which case I will buy that baby fully loaded.
 
Yep! I personally ended up deciding on a barely-used Crystalwell rMBP 15" for $1600 on eBay (no tax!)to hold me off until Skylake. I just couldn't discern enough performance improvements on the 2015 to justify the $900 price difference. But I will sell this laptop for nearly the same amount when Skylake comes out, in which case I will buy that baby fully loaded.

It also didn't help that my boss told me to stop spending so much on new Apple products :(
 
Yep! I personally ended up deciding on a barely-used Crystalwell rMBP 15" for $1600 on eBay (no tax!)to hold me off until Skylake. I just couldn't discern enough performance improvements on the 2015 to justify the $900 price difference. But I will sell this laptop for nearly the same amount when Skylake comes out, in which case I will buy that baby fully loaded.
Good choice. Other than a little bit more battery and the touchpad,there's no difference. You'll also take the least hit on depreciation.
 
After reading a number of sources, it seems the only real story with the 370x is that AMD has put their weight behind OpenCL (which is why suddenly all macs are running AMD gpu's.) And Apple has done a lot of work in OS X refining OpenCL libraries for their Pro apps. Basically, you are going to see minor speed increases using anything that doesn't support OpenCL, and then large speed increases in native OpenCL apps (this is where the 60-80% speed increase Apple claimed came from.) But as bummers would have it, game makers aren't doing anything in OpenCL because Nvidia is using CUDA and there just isn't a large enough market for a native OpenCL games.
 
After reading a number of sources, it seems the only real story with the 370x is that AMD has put their weight behind OpenCL (which is why suddenly all macs are running AMD gpu's.) And Apple has done a lot of work in OS X refining OpenCL libraries for their Pro apps. Basically, you are going to see minor speed increases using anything that doesn't support OpenCL, and then large speed increases in native OpenCL apps (this is where the 60-80% speed increase Apple claimed came from.) But as bummers would have it, game makers aren't doing anything in OpenCL because Nvidia is using CUDA and there just isn't a large enough market for a native OpenCL games.

Also, I think Adobe users might be screwed on this one and stuck with the 5-10% bump too :(
 
hmm ...I was under the impression that OpenCL enjoyed popular use among game devs.
You would actually be correct in a console context. It seems to be commonplace on the PS4 for example, but when it comes to PC game development it's not being used as much *yet. Apparently game developers are starting to consider it after success on consoles, but we're still in a waiting period.

There is a great thread on the subject over at Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/2aabpc/why_dont_more_games_use_gpgpu_opencl/
 
You would actually be correct in a console context. It seems to be commonplace on the PS4 for example, but when it comes to PC game development it's not being used as much *yet. Apparently game developers are starting to consider it after success on consoles, but we're still in a waiting period.

There is a great thread on the subject over at Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/2aabpc/why_dont_more_games_use_gpgpu_opencl/

I wish Apple would have kept Aperture around.
 
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