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Apple Launches Retina MacBook Pros with Faster Haswell Processors, More RAM Standard

HoopyFrood said:
I'd wait, honestly.

If you had bought a model with too little RAM, or too small of an SSD, then possibly. But you specified "high end", so that shouldn't be a problem.

Compared to the high end 2012 model, then, this update's high end has a slightly faster processor (but not all that much faster, because the newer Haswell architecture in the 2013 and 2014 models was mostly designed to improve battery life rather than speed), and a 750m graphics card vs a 650m.

The difference between the 750m and the 650m is surprisingly small, because they both use the Kepler architecture. NVIDIA increases the first number in their graphics cards every year (in this case, 6 to 7), regardless or not of if it's actually a major advance.

So all in all, the difference between the 2012 rMBP and the 2014 rMBP is a pretty minor spec boost, to be honest.

Next year, though, looks to be quite a bit different. Intel's finally due to release it's long awaited Broadwell architecture, which will be about 40% faster than Haswell. In addition, this update also means that Apple will have to completely update the internals of the rMBP, which means it is incredibly likely that the ageing 750m will be replaced by a GeForce 800- or 900-series GPU, based on the updated Maxwell architecture (which is both a third faster and much, much more power efficient, meaning a better battery life).

In addition to all of that, next year's update will probably be big enough to feature in a keynote, which usually means updates to the I/O, SSD, price, RAM etc. Apple loves to look good on stage. In any case, that's an all-round upgrade.

So if I were you, I'd definitely wait. This generation isn't much better than the one you have, and it's virtually indistinguishable from last year, meaning that you may as well have updated last year instead, which defeats the point of waiting two years for better tech. But that's just me.
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I've been on the fence about whether to upgrade or not with all the talk about the Broadwell processor (I have a 13" 2009 MacBook that I've upgraded the ram to 8GB and put and SSD in). I've been antsy to upgrade because I'm bottle necking at my CPU so hard as of late... But your post has definitely moved me more toward waiting till next year (if I can wait that long).

Anywho, thanks for the great post and the links to the other articles.
 
Shaun said:
The current MBP design is now 6 years old having been first introduced in Oct 2008. Removing the optical drive, moving to SSD and adding a retina display are internal changes that have not materially changed the overall design. Even the colour has remained the same throughout. It's time for a change IMO.
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Why does it need a design change? Its more important on the inside and software.
 
Applecare with the gift card?

For the educational promotion, does anyone know if the computer may be purchased and then, separately/later, apple care can be purchased using the gift card? (e.g. $100 off apple care, plus the educational discount on the AC)
 
cube said:
I blame Apple for not offering 32GiB RAM and 2TB SSD options.

This does not deserve to be called a refresh.

I'm already looking if the ThinkPad W540 gets a BIOS update for 64GiB.
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If the Clevo 13" quad core gets a BIOS update for 32GiB, that will be great too.
 
brdeveloper said:
Traditionaly, soldered-RAM Macs with base specs are suited for basic usage, like watching videos, browsing, working with spreadsheets and text editing. Launch a VM or Eclipse or Photoshop on these Macs and your performance will be compromised by severe swapping (although swapping to PCIe is not so bad).

So, yes, they make Macs with small RAM size as a way for segmenting market. If you want a premium laptop for doing ordinary stuff, that's the way to go. For anything else, you go to intermediary to highest spec ones.

Now, there are signs that 8GB Macs will became the new base Macs, that is, the poser-class, basic usage ones. I say "there are signs" and that's why I won't be an early adopter of Yosemite.
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Yosemite runs fine on 4GB. Memory footprint has been essentially indistinguishable from Mavericks in my testing, on the latest beta.
 
kappaknight said:
I've never seen so many wrong comments in statement before. So a real redesign is not a redesign in your opinion, but a change of color is? Go get it vinyl wrapped if you want a different color so bad.
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Perhaps he could buy some snazzy interchangeable colored plastic shells from a third party?
 
cmaier said:
Yosemite runs fine on 4GB. Memory footprint has been essentially indistinguishable from Mavericks in my testing, on the latest beta.
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But in my testing, Mavericks runs horribly on 6GB. I'm going to try Yosemite once I find somewhere to install it. Does your computer with 4GB of RAM have an SSD that makes virtual memory paging easier?
 
bigfatipod said:
For the educational promotion, does anyone know if the computer may be purchased and then, separately/later, apple care can be purchased using the gift card? (e.g. $100 off apple care, plus the educational discount on the AC)
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Yes. In fact, the sales rep at the retail store rang up the purchase of the computer, swiped my credit card, and handed me a gift card. Then rang up the applecare, swiped the education gift card, and then swiped my credit card for the balance ($83).
 
MACs are just getting boring. No real new look or style for years, damn at least add some touchscreen to it. I know you guys don't care for Windows, but at least your not stuck with the same played out looking laptop and same old OS, sometimes trying something new is fun.
 
PocketSand11 said:
But in my testing, Mavericks runs horribly on 6GB. I'm going to try Yosemite once I find somewhere to install it. Does your computer with 4GB of RAM have an SSD that makes virtual memory paging easier?
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Yes. It's a 2009 MBP I upgraded with an ssd. Otherwise even mountain lion is slow on it. Haven't bothered to upgrade the ram since no need.
 
Shaun said:
I'd just like to see a radical new design (and yes new colour) in the same way the Mac Pro just got a radical redesign and colour. I held out for the new Mac Pro and I really like it. I've been holding out in the hope they'll do the same with the MBP so I can upgrade. Making it thinner, lighter, retina, whatever does not constitute a new design to me whatever Apple says. Yes maybe it would make more sense to do it when they move to Broadwell processors.
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The Mac Pro's radical new design had nothing to do with looks, but everything to do with cooling design.

The wind tunnel/turbine design makes for much more efficient cooling with minimal drag in just a single fan.
 
Xytal said:
I've been on the fence about whether to upgrade or not with all the talk about the Broadwell processor (I have a 13" 2009 MacBook that I've upgraded the ram to 8GB and put and SSD in). I've been antsy to upgrade because I'm bottle necking at my CPU so hard as of late... But your post has definitely moved me more toward waiting till next year (if I can wait that long).

Anywho, thanks for the great post and the links to the other articles.
Click to expand...

The Broadwell CPU is supposed to be more efficient than Haswell, and only a little bit more powerful. (Meaning: better battery life and/or smaller design.)

That 40% number in the link refers to the integrated GPU, not the CPU part of the chip. This reduces the need for a discrete GPU. So only things that are taxing the current integrated GPU will benefit. I wonder if it eliminates the need for a discrete GPU altogether? That would allow for a smaller design.

So: Broadwell is mainly about mobility, not performance.
 
sxiss said:
Nice that you got price cuts, in czech republic the price is almost 150 euros more :mad:
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What? Even in Poland it got cheaper (and it has always been a bit more pricy than in Czech Rep.).

Anyway, the update is as it was expected to be. Nice that they've reduced the price and added RAM to base models. Nothing to complain about, except... the storage. I mean, I know it's Apple and it's their thing to be skimp on storage, but come on already... Throw in more storage for God's sake! These are supposed to be premium machines. Throwing my whole salary (in Poland) on the base Macbook Pro with 128GB... just doesn't feel premium. Feels like getting robbed:)
 
ValSalva said:
Sadly this is all we are likely to see as far as MacBook Pro (and Air) updates in 2014. And we can thank Intel for that.
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SMIDG3T said:
Why are the majority of people on here blaming Apple for the lack of updates? It's Intel's fault, it's really as simple as that.

Just be grateful that Apple are updating them and stop being grumpy.
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xmichaelp said:
I see everyone is whining per usual. :rolleyes: Blame intel.
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I can blame Intel for the Broadwell delay. Can Apple at least be at fault for not updating the standard Macbook Pro 13" or the Mac Mini, which could benefit from using a 2014 CPU/iGPU?
 
kreasonos said:
It should be a sign to everyone that unless you buy a new mbp DO NOT upgrade to Yosemite! If you do, your computer will slow down and not work as well. Apple does this on purpose so that you will buy a new mbp with the hardware needed to run the new software properly. They do it with iPhones too. Never upgrade the OS to a version newer than your computer came with.
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I am sorry, kreasonos, but I am still happily desiging in architecture, drawing presentation posters, doing lots of graphic design and a tiny bit of developing on my 2006 MBP1,1 which came with 10.4 and runs now 10.6 (in my opinion one of the best releases of Mac OS X ever). Apple did put a stop on upgrading, because of my hardware. So no Lion, no Mountain Lion et cetera because of Apple. And that's why my computer is still working like a charm!
 
It's nice to see the 16GB standard in the 15" model, although I really hoped that SSD prices would have come way down by now.

Lower cost high capacity SSDs are the bottleneck to affordable high end Apple laptops, at least for me :)
 
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