Any chances of MBPr 15" update on the coming WWDC?

[seong]

I saw the buyer's guide and searched the forums, and came across little to no info on the 15". Looks like Apple hasn't updated the laptop for about a year (with the exception of 13" this spring,) and when looking through Skylake thread, the new redesign (similar to that of the new Macbook) will come next year.
With no rumors around (not that I know of yet,) would the chances of seeing a MBPr 15" update in this coming WWDC be slim?

 

[Freyqq]

It has nothing to do with WWDC and everything to do with Intel releasing the chips that go in it. They're not out yet. No one can make a computer using them right now because they're not available for purchase.

That said, there are rumors that intel will release them in June-July.

 

[seong]

It has nothing to do with WWDC and everything to do with Intel releasing the chips that go in it. They're not out yet. No one can make a computer using them right now because they're not available for purchase.

That said, there are rumors that intel will release them in June-July.

Right, thats exactly the rumor i was hoping for; intel releasing a new one in June-July. If I remember correctly, Apple had special access to newly announced Intel chips before (that weren't available for other manufacturers) and released macbook updates with it. I'm hoping they will at least update with force touch trackpad/butterfly mechanism/USB-C charging.

EDIT:
http://www.ecumenicalnews.com/artic...ipad-pro-tipped-for-launch-at-wwdc-2015-29435
Found an article posted couple of hours ago!

 

[Yixian]

Are the days of Apple getting hold of the chips slightly ahead of time over?

 

[0983275]

With the Skylake not too far away, there's a chance Apple could opt to skip out on Broadwell for 15", whether they'll do this or not, we don't know.

 

[seong]

Are the days of Apple getting hold of the chips slightly ahead of time over?

I'm hoping Intel still has their love towards Apple.. I don't want to be disappointed with the upcoming WWDC

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With the Skylake not too far away, there's a chance Apple could opt to skip out on Broadwell for 15", whether they'll do this or not, we don't know.

All that left of this is for WWDC to kick off I guess. Can't wait till the rumors start churning out.

 

[t0mat0]

Computex is just before WWDC - so we may know a little/rumors prior to WWDC keynote. Can't see why Apple wouldn't want 1st dibs on Skylake.
We've had product releases at WWDC before (rMBP in 2012, nMac Pro in 2013) - if they wanted Broadwell, why didn't they refresh 15" MBP at same time - if any of the MBP would get SKylake 1st, it'd be the 15" as it's the highest end of the bunch.

 

[seong]

Computex is just before WWDC - so we may know a little/rumors prior to WWDC keynote. Can't see why Apple wouldn't want 1st dibs on Skylake.
We've had product releases at WWDC before (rMBP in 2012, nMac Pro in 2013) - if they wanted Broadwell, why didn't they refresh 15" MBP at same time - if any of the MBP would get SKylake 1st, it'd be the 15" as it's the highest end of the bunch.

Right, this is why I'm just hoping for a miracle at WWDC. I got the Apple Watch but ended up returning (had faulty speaker pop,) but I'm always down for a new rMBP 15" at WWDC.

 

[mcarling]

Are the days of Apple getting hold of the chips slightly ahead of time over?

Apple have enough market power that if they really want Broadwell-H chips this summer in order to update the 15" MBP, then Intel will provide the chips. Intel are shutting down fabs, re-equipping them to produce 14nm Broadwell and Skylake chips, and then restarting them, all on a staggered basis so that they do not have too many fabs shut down at any one time. When Apple say to Intel something like "We want to buy a million Broadwell-H chips per month from July through December" then Intel say "Of course, no problem, we'll make the capacity available." Since the Broadwell-U chips became available in March, more fabs would have been re-equipped to make 14nm Broadwell and Skylake chips. I bet Broadwell-H is next. Three months is about the right timing. While there are almost certainly still serious layout issues with Skylake (because of the new microarchitecture) there should not be any serious layout issues with Broadwell now. I bet Intel already have a Broadwell-H taping that's ready to go. Just about now, Broadwell-H samples would be passing Apple's tests to be considered production-worthy.

 

[Freyqq]

With the Skylake not too far away, there's a chance Apple could opt to skip out on Broadwell for 15", whether they'll do this or not, we don't know.

I'm sure it will be a rolling release, so who knows which chips Intel decides to release first. I doubt it would be the 15" rmbp chips if they may be releasing those in June-July.

 

[seong]

Apple have enough market power that if they really want Broadwell-H chips this summer in order to update the 15" MBP, then Intel will provide the chips. Intel are shutting down fabs, re-equipping them to produce 14nm Broadwell and Skylake chips, and then restarting them, all on a staggered basis so that they do not have too many fabs shut down at any one time. When Apple say to Intel something like "We want to buy a million Broadwell-H chips per month from July through December" then Intel say "Of course, no problem, we'll make the capacity available." Since the Broadwell-U chips became available in March, more fabs would have been re-equipped to make 14nm Broadwell and Skylake chips. I bet Broadwell-H is next. Three months is about the right timing. While there are almost certainly still serious layout issues with Skylake (because of the new microarchitecture) there should not be any serious layout issues with Broadwell now. I bet Intel already have a Broadwell-H taping that's ready to go. Just about now, Broadwell-H samples would be passing Apple's tests to be considered production-worthy.

Would be great if what you said will turn out to be the case

 

[mcmul]

I sincerely hope so. I shouldn't have bought the 13" because it's too small for my usage/preference. I nearly bought the 15" today but I know I will end up getting buyers remorse and just selling it when the new one is released so the sooner it comes the better!

 

[flur]

With the Skylake not too far away, there's a chance Apple could opt to skip out on Broadwell for 15", whether they'll do this or not, we don't know.

According to the last Intel timeline I saw a couple of months ago, the next quad core chip after Broadwell is not going to be out until 2016. So I'd hope Apple wouldn't skip Broadwell, or folks looking for an updated 15" are going to be waiting a long time.

 

[dagamer34]

Broadwell is almost assuredly at WWDC. Question is whether it will actually be available shortly after announcement or they'll make us wait a month because of Intel.

Skylake is not until 2016, as there are several things that then align together next year and are worthwhile enough for a chassis change (Thunderbolt 3, HDMI 2.0, USB Type-C)

 

[seong]

I sincerely hope so. I shouldn't have bought the 13" because it's too small for my usage/preference. I nearly bought the 15" today but I know I will end up getting buyers remorse and just selling it when the new one is released so the sooner it comes the better!

this is exactly the problem I had for the past three days; I was willing to buy the newest 13" purely because of the faster SSD and the new trackpad. I'm glad I didn't buy it

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According to the last Intel timeline I saw a couple of months ago, the next quad core chip after Broadwell is not going to be out until 2016. So I'd hope Apple wouldn't skip Broadwell, or folks looking for an updated 15" are going to be waiting a long time.

Exactly. So many developers are gonna be happy to see the new quad core Broadwell update during this WWDC. I seriously can't deal with MBA 11"/13"'s non-retina display, or MBPr 13"'s screen size.

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Broadwell is almost assuredly at WWDC. Question is whether it will actually be available shortly after announcement or they'll make us wait a month because of Intel.

Skylake is not until 2016, as there are several things that then align together next year and are worthwhile enough for a chassis change (Thunderbolt 3, HDMI 2.0, USB Type-C)

Hm, seems like Skylake is a big deal? I don't know why Apple wouldn't have the new Macbook design applied to the new MBPr 15". If they are just waiting for Intel to release and update the CPU chips during WWDC, well, I guess that will do too. I was really looking forward to the USB Type-C charging thing.

 

[dagamer34]

this is exactly the problem I had for the past three days; I was willing to buy the newest 13" purely because of the faster SSD and the new trackpad. I'm glad I didn't buy it

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Exactly. So many developers are gonna be happy to see the new quad core Broadwell update during this WWDC. I seriously can't deal with MBA 11"/13"'s non-retina display, or MBPr 13"'s screen size.

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Hm, seems like Skylake is a big deal? I don't know why Apple wouldn't have the new Macbook design applied to the new MBPr 15". If they are just waiting for Intel to release and update the CPU chips during WWDC, well, I guess that will do too. I was really looking forward to the USB Type-C charging thing.

Broadwell is the middle of the year. Intel is promising Skylake in Q3, but I find that hard to believe. Realistically, it's Q1 2016.

A redesign isn't coming with Broadwell when they would need to redo the CNC milling machines again to fit the Thunderbolt 3 ports which are getting a smaller form factor. Zero chance of that happening twice in a row.

 

[Kal-037]

I've been on the fence about this whole thing, I bought and returned a rMPB 15" in anticipation for a Skylake update (the rumors I heard were that Apple would skip Broadwell in favor of the better features of Skylake and since Broadwell has been riddled with issues since first announced.) I would love a force touch trackpad and the faster SSD, but in all reality I kind of like the current trackpad that relies a tad bit less on software to function. As for the faster SSD. The speeds look good on paper but in real world performance they were just about the same speed as the current 2014 rMBP. (Boot time speed is the main thing I like about the SSD.) I think I may buy the 2014 one again as it was beyond fast already. If a WWDC announcement includes some REALLY good upgrades I may get it then, but aside from the slight iGPU performance... I'm not too concerned about the upcoming refresh.

 

[seong]

Broadwell is the middle of the year. Intel is promising Skylake in Q3, but I find that hard to believe. Realistically, it's Q1 2016.

A redesign isn't coming with Broadwell when they would need to redo the CNC milling machines again to fit the Thunderbolt 3 ports which are getting a smaller form factor. Zero chance of that happening twice in a row.

Hm I see, I would most likely get a low power laptop (probably rMB) for my development purposes and switch to dedicated GPU for the Skylake version. I've been waiting too long for the revision of the rMBP 15".

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I've been on the fence about this whole thing, I bought and returned a rMPB 15" in anticipation for a Skylake update (the rumors I heard were that Apple would skip Broadwell in favor of the better features of Skylake and since Broadwell has been riddled with issues since first announced.) I would love a force touch trackpad and the faster SSD, but in all reality I kind of like the current trackpad that relies a tad bit less on software to function. As for the faster SSD. The speeds look good on paper but in real world performance they were just about the same speed as the current 2014 rMBP. (Boot time speed is the main thing I like about the SSD.) I think I may buy the 2014 one again as it was beyond fast already. If a WWDC announcement includes some REALLY good upgrades I may get it then, but aside from the slight iGPU performance... I'm not too concerned about the upcoming refresh.

Right, I'm really in for the new dGPU that they will be putting in (I have no idea which one though,) since iGPU isn't gonna cut for me later in my coursework + video editing, etc.

 

[Kal-037]

Hm I see, I would most likely get a low power laptop (probably rMB) for my development purposes and switch to dedicated GPU for the Skylake version. I've been waiting too long for the revision of the rMBP 15".

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Right, I'm really in for the new dGPU that they will be putting in (I have no idea which one though,) since iGPU isn't gonna cut for me later in my coursework + video editing, etc.

Yeah, I would like a newer dGPU, (it hopefully will happen,) but just incase I am keeping the 750 model as Apple is really pushing this iGPU stuff and who knows if they'll continue to put dGPUs in their laptops (sure the current model they have it's not the fastest or greatest but it still handles a lot of stuff really well.) A 900 series chip would be great though.

Kal.

 

[seong]

Yeah, I would like a newer dGPU, (it hopefully will happen,) but just incase I am keeping the 750 model as Apple is really pushing this iGPU stuff and who knows if they'll continue to put dGPUs in their laptops (sure the current model they have it's not the fastest or greatest but it still handles a lot of stuff really well.) A 900 series chip would be great though.

Kal.

Yes haha, I remember the days back in 2010(?) when Apple dropped nVidia 320m for iGPU which pissed a lot of people off
I'm at to the point where I'm even considering having a MacBook Retina and an iMac 5K for my setup.

 

[clovehitch]

My 2₵ prediction or at least what I hope for, is Skylake will bring a new and slightly thinner/smaller form factor.

 

[Kal-037]

Yes haha, I remember the days back in 2010(?) when Apple dropped nVidia 320m for iGPU which pissed a lot of people off
I'm at to the point where I'm even considering having a MacBook Retina and an iMac 5K for my setup.

I want an iMac 5k so bad, but that will be when I am making good money and actually getting paid for what I do, lol. So I went to BB today and they have 3 left of the MacBook Pros with dGPUs... I'm starting to think many people are worried Apple will give the axe to dGPUs, so they are buying them all. lol
... (I myself doubt they will, but I guess there are stranger things Apple have done. Ha ha)

My 2₵ prediction or at least what I hope for, is Skylake will bring a new and slightly thinner/smaller form factor.

I could see it maybe being like 2-3mm more thin at most, (I guess if Apple don't do dGPUs for Skylake... they could shave off a tiny bit more,) but they will still need the space for fans.

Kal.