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

[Jcknows0]

The nearest compatible late 2013 looks like this:

E2013: $1899 i7-2.7 16GB 512GB GT650M
L2013: $1949 i7-2.3 16GB 256GB Iris Pro

I know there are some speed improvements for the SSD and battery life improvements, but are those worth paying slightly more for half the space and 15% slower processor?

Clock speed does not mean slower, its probably closer to nil as Haswell is about 10% faster than Ivy. The Iris Pro is equal and in some cases faster than GT650M (and yes some slower). A L2013 GT750 can be had for much cheaper now, especially with new models for much cheaper and its the entire package, pcie SSD, wifi AC, TB 2 will matter in resale or in keeping machine current long term.

I ended up selling my 2012 15 rMBP that I got for a steal as soon as the Air came out because I knew this hardware would last in value and use for many years to come. I ended up going with L2013 13" 512 because I cared more about battery and portability for my laptop.

I'm glad you got what you wanted, but for that overall price, you should buy current state hardware.

 

[malexandria]

Software.

I don't know why this "statistic" gets regurgitated. When one OS is free, and the other is not, you would expect a higher adoption rate.

Amen! Yeah, its a dumb comparison. Apple sells HARDWARE not software, everything they do is based on pushing hardware and they are a closed system. So of course everyone who has an iPhone or Mac will update to whatever the latest OS is because a) it's free and 70% of the time you don't have much choice - between all the notifications to update and the fact that they brick older features and devices after awhile.

MS on the other hand is a SOFTWARE company so they make multiple flavors to fit a million different different devices and leave it up to the consumer to choose if they want it or not. For all the whining about MS, they must be making software people like and "works" if they don't feel a burning need to upgrade every year.

 

[OrangeSVTguy]

Still not a 13"...that is a 14"

Still just as thin as the 13" RMBP. Shoot the new razor even has a better GPU than the new 15" with higher resolution touchscreen too.

 

[madewell]

Just picked up the new top end rMBP15" with the upgraded i7. On my corp discount it made it a no-brainer compared to the refurbs at only $100 more for better specs and brand new. I'm just bummed I didn't get the $100 iTunes store gift card. Maybe I should go back to school.

Very impressed with performance, though I am coming from dual core i5 2.3 8gb 256 SSD 13" MBP. Can't really compare. Happy buyer though, way too impatient for broadwell.

 

[gnasher729]

Oh my god, a half a inch sacrificed for more functionality. This illusion of thinless is freaking ridiculous and just that and illusion. What is the point of "thinless" if I have to lug around a million accessories (Portable CD and HD drive, SD Cards, etc...) to actually get "use" out of it.

If got an old 15" MBP and a retina MBP. The difference in size and weight is incredible. Guess what, I'm not carrying a portable CD or HD drive or any SD cards with me.

 

[gnasher729]

dejavu

i seem to remember that is why apple dropped the ibm powerpc chips.

Apple didn't have a problem with PowerPC chips not getting any faster.
Apple did have a _huge_ problem with PowerPC chips not getting faster while Intel chips _were_ getting faster.

As long as Intel makes faster chips than AMD, they are fine. Apple (and everyone else) will buy their chips, even if they don't get any faster in the next five years. Unless ARM overtakes them

 

[hleewell]

trust me theres not enough space inside a retina chassis to put a rotational drive. but agreed, 512GB should be standard across the board.

Absolutely. 512GB for low end, 1TB for high end and 2TB for option.
Goal for the next 2 years: 4TB SSD, I can ditch my annoying plethora of external USB HDDs with cables snaking all over the place.

 

[fpsBeaTt]

I did check my facts before posting. There's no official TDP from Nvidia that I can find. notebookcheck.net have the GTX850M at 40-45W and the GT750M at 35-40W.

I don't believe that counts as "gross ignorance".

So, a five watt difference... You're right, that's not ignorance. That's just stupid, and it hurts.

 

[Naimfan]

Still just as thin as the 13" RMBP. Shoot the new razor even has a better GPU than the new 15" with higher resolution touchscreen too.

Perhaps it's time to cash out some of your Powerbook stash and buy a 14" Razer?

 

[OrangeSVTguy]

Perhaps it's time to cash out some of your Powerbook stash and buy a 14" Razer?

Thinking about it

 

[Naimfan]

Thinking about it

Looks like a great machine, albeit a bit pricey for 8 GB RAM and 128 GB of storage.

If you game, I'd think it would be hard to beat.

 

[fpsBeaTt]

Perhaps it's time to cash out some of your Powerbook stash and buy a 14" Razer?

Thinking about it

As impressed as I am with that machine, I would still never buy Razer. Their driver support, arbitrary limitations, and reliability are terrible. But yes, Apple should look at this feat of engineering, and be shamed into outputting a decent hardware refresh.

 

[MacBH928]

Have you ever been able to buy a laptop that wasn't outdated within 3 months? I haven't. And I've bought a lot of laptops.

There are the small updates like 200GHz bumps, but then there are the major upgrades like macbook --> rMBP and iMac lamp--> iMac G5 .

When you tell me Apple will abandon Broadwell and give a complete redesign of the macbook pros in less than 12 months thats a huge upgrade.

 

[downpour]

This is nonsense... There are all manner of professional uses that do not include "3D rendering and animation, video editing, music production". Try compiling and running an iOS app on the simulator while running a server VM in the background on a MBA. "Pro" doesn't only mean what you think it means.

But again you don't really 'need' a MacBook Pro to do programming, even a low-end Air could do that. I'm not saying that kind of work isn't professional, I also do similar stuff myself. I mean the only kind of professional work that actually 'requires' the power of the MacBook Pros is either orientated towards visuals or audio which need decent processing power, huge storage, and in the case of graphics, a retina display and dedicated graphics.

Programmers opt for the Macbook Pro because they can afford the best machine possible, not because it's an essential requirement for their work.

The only reason I'm making this point at all is because I think high-capacity storage is the only area where these machines really fall down. Apple should focus on bringing the price down on storage, while making the SSD upgrade options the same across the whole range, rather than forcing customers to upgrade everything else just to get more capacity. Not all of us are super-rich after all.

I suppose the Pro name is really just marketing. I'm sure the vast majority of MacBook Pro owners don't use them for 'any' professional work, but as these are the only Apple laptops which contain the components 'creative professionals' need, it would be nice if they got the balance just right for us. It's not like it's going to hurt sales for everyone else. More flexibility would only increase sales.

 

[Steve121178]

Absolutely. 512GB for low end, 1TB for high end and 2TB for option.
Goal for the next 2 years: 4TB SSD, I can ditch my annoying plethora of external USB HDDs with cables snaking all over the place.

Do you realise how much extra they would cost with the 512GB PCI-e SSD as the low end standard?

Some of you need to get in the real world.

 

[TechGod]

Still just as thin as the 13" RMBP. Shoot the new razor even has a better GPU than the new 15" with higher resolution touchscreen too.

With way less battery, not running OS X, weird scaling and an inferior trackpad.

 

[toke lahti]

I'd hope that Apple would differentiate mbp's from mba's by mbp having 2 storage units. The other one could be easily swappable. It can't be ODD for Apple and sd-slot doesn't cut it for about a decade.
I'll miss my fusion drive when it's time to let go my 17"...

 

[MacSince1990]

I don't understand all the fuss that this isn't somewhat more of a major update.

With the amount of Apple news and rumours we all read, haven't you been able to tell when a major update is coming? Usually leaks about new cases\batteries etc.

Also plenty of news about Intel floating around the daily news sites, no new significant CPU upgrades recently...

32GB RAM? Does the chipset and CPU in these suckers technically support 32GB?

Major update on the way when we see news about new CPUs from Intel, and eventually after that leaks about some new parts. Same story every time...

It does, yes. Not sure if it necessarily supports 32mbit chip density, but I think it supports that too. Ivy bridge supports 32GB too.

 

[a.phoenicis]

But again you don't really 'need' a MacBook Pro to do programming, even a low-end Air could do that.

This is factually incorrect. To do my work, I need the high-speed multi-core processor and more than 8GB RAM. I'm sometimes running multiple VMs which consume lots of RAM, and need significant parallelization. To do Mac/iOS development I need a Mac. To be portable I need a laptop. To develop for retina devices, I need a Retina machine. Therefor, I need a rMBP.

I don't particularly need a high-end graphics card, nor do I need massive disk space. So again, I'm confused why you want to deny me the options that make the rMBP a useful professional tool for me, when you can already spec the machine out to do your job.

 

[calvinsisland]

I'm looking to buy… I'm wondering if anyone on here is willing to give practical advice on the best model for your money (I've been scanning through the comments already and haven't seen any). I could care less about them not updating to an 800 series processor.

I mostly use my laptop for working on Adobe creative cloud programs (illustrator, photoshop, indesign) since I teach intro design at a university. I also sometimes use my laptop for electronic music production purposes. My instinct was to buy the high-end 13 inch model and perhaps upgrade the RAM to 16 GB or update to the Intel i7 processor… I don't know which would serve me better… Any advice? Both upgrade options are an additional $200. My second option was to go all out on the 15 inch model… Though, I'm not sure if I really need it. I would love to hear some advice from people who might be more familiar with these machines.

Thanks in-advance!

 

[a.phoenicis]

I'm looking to buy… I'm wondering if anyone on here is willing to give practical advice on the best model for your money (I've been scanning through the comments already and haven't seen any). I could care less about them not updating to an 800 series processor.

I mostly use my laptop for working on Adobe creative cloud programs (illustrator, photoshop, indesign) since I teach intro design at a university. I also sometimes use my laptop for electronic music production purposes. My instinct was to buy the high-end 13 inch model and perhaps upgrade the RAM to 16 GB or update to the Intel i7 processor… I don't know which would serve me better… Any advice? Both upgrade options are an additional $200. My second option was to go all out on the 15 inch model… Though, I'm not sure if I really need it. I would love to hear some advice from people who might be more familiar with these machines.

Thanks in-advance!

Well, a couple of things you should consider:

1. Where do you keep your files?
   If your files are typically in some sort of cloud drive, then there's no need for monster local storage. However, if you intend to keep most of your work local, you'll need big storage.
2. How important is portability vs screen size?
   The 13" is nice and small, but there's a significant difference between the screen real-estate of the 13 vs the 15. Unless portability is really important, you may regret the lack of real-estate when using palette-happy apps like PS and AI.

Other than that, all the machines can probably handle your use-cases, but I'd go for the best processor you can afford, since you can't do any updates. I just ordered the maxed out 15" (with stock flash). Really looking forward to it, as my old machine is really showing its age.

Also keep in mind that it looks like you qualify for education pricing, so that'll knock a couple of hundred off the bottom line, and you'll get the $100 gift card.

 

[Xytal]

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.

Thanks for clearing that up, that actually helps a bunch in my decision making. =D

I was in the same boat. mid 2009 MBP with 8GB and SSD.

I ended up buying a new 13" rMBP with 16GB, and I couldn't be happier.

It all depends on how much you will use it NOW.

For me, the 5 year old processor was costing me too much time. The great battery life is a huge plus for me, as well as the screen.

Glad I'm not the only one who is in/has been in that boat. =)

 

[FluJunkie]

If got an old 15" MBP and a retina MBP. The difference in size and weight is incredible. Guess what, I'm not carrying a portable CD or HD drive or any SD cards with me.

This. I went from a 15" MBP to the retina, and it's utterly a game changer. I didn't like lugging my old laptop around, but the retina just...it's light, it's thin, and I love it.

And yeah. I have an external HD and a portable CD drive. They're in a bankers box. Somewhere in my apartment. I can't remember the last time I used either.

But again you don't really 'need' a MacBook Pro to do programming, even a low-end Air could do that. I'm not saying that kind of work isn't professional, I also do similar stuff myself. I mean the only kind of professional work that actually 'requires' the power of the MacBook Pros is either orientated towards visuals or audio which need decent processing power, huge storage, and in the case of graphics, a retina display and dedicated graphics.

"Only" is a very strong word.

The programming I do, which is neither visual nor audio, routinely maxes out both the CPU and RAM of my MBP.

 

[MacModMachine]

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.

8gb was the standard....they moved to 4gb last year showing signs there new os is actually lighter on memory requirements.

 

[cube]

It does, yes. Not sure if it necessarily supports 32mbit chip density, but I think it supports that too. Ivy bridge supports 32GB too.

And with a firmware update, current 4-slot laptops should support upto 64GiB, assuming it would be similar for the mobile chips as for the top ASUS desktop motherboards, some of which support upto 128GiB RAM now with the latest BIOS revision (oops, Mac Pro).