Apple Releases New 15-Inch MacBook Pro With Force Touch and $1,999 27-Inch iMac With Retina Display

[HenryDJP]

For one thing they should have at least added color options ala the Macbook, or at least changed it somehow from the same boring color scheme. At least give it a new Space Gray tone.

I don't think most people here frustrated with this update are hardly concerned that Apple didn't offer color options.

 

[Quu]

Considering that there are no Broadwell CPUs to upgrade the 15", I'd say this was pretty good for update.

If Broadwell was available, it would simply be the same machines except with 1866MHz RAM and a 5-10% faster CPU.

They could have atleast put a 4K panel in it or HDMI 2.0 or even enable dual 4K output on the thunderbolt ports.

There were plenty of things they could have done without changing the CPU to be honest.

 

[mayuka]

Maybe iPod 6th gen? and Apple tv plus iOS9 of course ; )

Nope. iPod 6th is reserved for the iPad event in August. Maybe it's just bla bla talk about the cool new features of iOS 9. Hopefully it won't be so desastrous, excuse me I mean overblown, like Mac OS 9....

Let's just hope it's not choppy.

 

[nikhsub1]

The second disappointing "upgrade" of the 15" MBPs in a row. Meh.

Apple is at the mercy of Intel unfortunately... Not a huge update at all but they did what they could as a stop gap solution until Skylake. I think they will skip broadwell but of course, I could be wrong. I suppose they could always silently put a broadwell upgrade into the current MBP as a silent update just not sure how likely that is.

 

[asiga]

They haven't taken away any options - they've added an economy model who's only purpose is to have boxes with a sub-$2000 sticker on the rack at Best Buy. All of the old options are still available if you start with the deluxe model - which has had a price cut.

Really? I cannot find the 4GB GPU option anymore.

 

[applesith]

Based on the number of threads about liquid spills, I'm not sure whether the cup holder would be a good idea or a really bad idea.

HAHA well played.

 

[HumpYourWayUp]

Support for up to 5120-by-2160 resolution at 60Hz on a single external display (model with AMD Radeon R9 M370X only)

Not bad.

That is f'king great! The new graphics card is one of the selling points for me.
Was sad about no HMDI 2.0 but the display port kicks ass!
Just ordered one with 2,8GHz and 1TB

 

[koyoot]

Indeed. I thought they were going to raise the max GPU memory on the iMac from 4GB to 8GB (and I'd might purchased one in that case). Instead, they lower the max GPU dedicated memory to 2GB. Sorry Apple, I'm interested in professional GPUs.

Is it? Or you've seen it completely wrong?

2GB is for Base model With M290X. Higher end model, which was the "old" Retina iMac 5K is 200USD less than before, and still has the upgrade option of M295X with 4 GB of Memory.

 

[cbrand493]

They haven't taken away any options - they've added an economy model who's only purpose is to have boxes with a sub-$2000 sticker on the rack at Best Buy. All of the old options are still available if you start with the deluxe model - which has had a price cut.

Not being able to order a 3.3GHz CPU with a M295X GPU will mildly inconvenience a tiny fraction of potential buyers and greatly simplify Apple's logistics.

They've taken away the 27" 3.4GHz non-retina, so yes they have taken away options. There's quite a price hike now from non-retina to retina iMac, whereas the gap was covered.

 

[HenryDJP]

I went to an Apple store yesterday and checked out the new keyboard. LOVE it, like comparing a Trabant to a Mercedes.

Exact, fast and faster tying. Not soggy as the present one is.

Any hope that Apple implements it on the MacBook PRO int the future?

OMG that keyboard on the new Macbook is atrocious!!! I hate it. I honestly thought some people here were exaggerating when they said it sucks but it really does SUCK. Too flat, almost no travel. Hard to type easily on it. If they ever implement that on the Macbook Pro I will have to get an external keyboard.

 

[jameskachan]

Are they really that bad?

They are in theory, fine, however Adobe is notoriously poor at supporting/updating new technologies. And many professionals use Adobe software. Nvidia cards perform faster than AMD cards because they have been supported for a long time. Hopefully Adobe fixes this. A friend tells me his 2013 Mac Pro (with AMD cards) runs slower in Photoshop than his first gen MBP 15" retina (Nvida cards).

 

[joe-h2o]

Looks like people lost the ability to get the best gaming Mac with the discontinuation of the high-end non-retina iMac that was available with the 4771/and 780M.

That's what I've taken away from this - they've dropped the non-retina entirely, which tells me that we're unlikely to see it again in the future.

This has pretty much sealed the deal for me on upgrades in the future - when my current Late 2012 (680MX) is finally retired in a couple of years there won't be a viable iMac that I can upgrade to, so I'll be forced to go back to a separate windows box for games instead of using bootcamp.

I liked the fact that I had both machines in one (a home box running OS X with a giant screen that could reboot into my gaming box) - the Late 2012 iMac was a little gem and the choice of GPU gave me hope that Apple had finally decided to really take the mid/high performance tier seriously.

 

[michaelsviews]

Refurbs can be hard to land what you want. I've been watching for weeks and over the weekend a refurb 2014 2.8 GHz/ 1 TB/ 950M came up for $2719, so I ordered it hoping that a new model would come within the 14 day return period. I guess I'll stick with saving $520 going with last year's model ... Force Touch isn't worth that kinda difference.

I'm doing the same thing. Refurbished 15" MBP's have been going fast off the site, and after today's disappointing update over mainly a cheesy trackpad there will be more people heading to the refurbished site. Or not. Some people have to have the latest and greatest. All the power to them and there wallets

 

[koyoot]

They've taken away the 27" 3.4GHz non-retina, so yes they have taken away options. There's quite a price hike now from non-retina to retina iMac, whereas the gap was covered.

How much was the highest End iMac non-retina, before? 1999$? It had 3.4 GHz CPU? It had HDD in base config? It had 8 GB of Ram? GTX 780M was slower than M290X? Yes, it was.

So right now, people are getting roughly more(dGPU and the display) for the same anount of money.

How the **** can it be wrong?

Edit. Nope I checked the benchmarks. M290X is EXACLTY the same performant as GTX780M. So, basically for the same amount of money you get better display.

Again, how the **** it can be wrong?

Edit, again. No. Its even worse for you, moaners. GTX780M was optional extra for how much? 200 quid? So, to get the same performance level you had to pay 2199USD to get 3.4 GHz CPU, 8 GB of RAM, 1 TB HDD, and M290X. And it was WITHOUT THE DISPLAY!

How can that be a bad thing?

 

[mafaky]

I think this recent 15" rMBP upgrade will end the discussions (and expectations) that there may be a Broadwell based 15" rMBP launched/announced during 2015 WWDC. It looks like there will never ever be a 15" rMBP with Broadwells.

Just wondered where they squeezed out that one hour's extra battery life (9 hrs. for the recently announced models vs. 8 hrs. for the still Haswell based 2014 models which were on sale until today...)??? Have they somewhat increased the built-in battery capacity?

Now the big questions are that: when will they launch the Skylake based 13" & 15" rMBPs? Late in 2015 or during March 2016 (early 2016). Will these Skylake models still be housed in the current casing (which already is 4 years old, with the 2015 models) or in a completely new design? If there will be a re-design, will they improve the battery life even better or go for a "slimmer, lighter & sexier" casing (Apple's everlasting strategy) and keep the current (10 hrs. & 9 hrs. battery life for the 2015 13"/15" models) performance but decrease the built-in battery capacity after benefiting from the power saving features of the Skylake family?

 

[Rogifan]

For one thing they should have at least added color options ala the Macbook, or at least changed it somehow from the same boring color scheme. At least give it a new Space Gray tone.

They would only do that for a redesign. This is just a mid-year spec bump.

 

[GoldenJoe]

AMD...and Haswell...

Haha, when will we learn.

 

[Glideslope]

I'm well up to date with the latest in semiconductor lithography, it's just a little galling just how delayed these chips are, and I no doubt believe part of it is due to a lack of competition. But if you can fire out dual core chips, then why not their quad core brethren? Surely the yields can't be that bad?

Now to wait and see if the dGPU is worth the upgrade, Apple is claiming a 70% boost. At least they didn't go with a DDR3 variant. But so little info I can dig up on this chip that I'll need to wait for Anandtech or someone to bench it and work out what exactly it is before I decide to take the plunge.

Also million dollar question now that Broadwell-H is clearly dead... When will we be seeing Skylake? 2015 or 2016?

Didn't mean to imply a lack of being up to date. Its simply IMO, Intel is having a more difficult time with 14nm than I was expecting. The yields are low. I agree it is not for a lack of competition. Intel may not want to flood the market with Broadwell Quads with if they feel Skylake will be on time.

As you know Skylake's 14nm architecture is very different from Broadwell's 14nm.

In the end it could also simply be all of us being screwed by the powers that be. One never really can be sure these days.

 

[827538]

You have no idea what you are writing about in case of Mantle. Mantle is a low-level API that is FUNCTIONAL base of every modern gaming API that exists: DirectX 12, Vulkan, Metal. AMD made it because of the constaints of workforce made to optimize drivers, for games that were coded directly for one specific vendor: Nvidia. A guy from EA to simplify work at code of a game came with an idea of Low-Level API, and went everywhere he could: Nvidia, Intel, IBM, and everybody didn't see the future in it. Everybody, apart from AMD. AMD didn't see the potential in it until they started to experiment with it. And it of it went. Mantle brings functional simplicity to game code, and can be run on every hardware that can operate on each API. AMD put it Open Source, Intel, ARM, Imagination Technologies, Apple(Metal), Nvidia. All of them took it. Apart from one company. Nvidia. Also, Nvidia payed Microsoft to lock some features of DirectX12 only for Nvidia hardware. Features, that are so meaningless, that can be used only for Marketing purposes. Guess that marketing catched you easilly. Like many, many more people.

Why not GTX965M? Because it uses 65W of power ALONE. Also, if Im counting this correctly: M370X should be around GTX950M in terms of performance.

M370X should be around 30W of power draw. So that is efficiency. 30W part is as fast as 45W chip.

I'm not here debating API's so rage and rant as you please. I don't care, I'm excited about the update and here to chat to like minded people to gauge a better idea about the capability of this new dGPU and if it's worth me upgrading.

Pretty certain the TDP of the 965M is still unknown. But its second gen Maxwell silicon which is what had me excited.
There's no way the M370 is 30W, it's still on the same 28nm architecture as the 750M which is a 50W chip (according to wiki, thought it was 45W personally).

I've found this which seems to show that the M370 is a rebranded HD 8750M
http://videocardz.com/55499/amds-hawaii-gpu-to-return-with-radeon-300-series
I was hoping for something more than GCN 1.0

 

[theluggage]

Is there any proof that skylake is going to include a massive redesign?

No. Except:

a. Its probably about time for a re-design.
b. Skylake brings support for Thunderbolt 3 which is going to have new, smaller connectors that could, along with USB-C, prompt a case re-design.

 

[t0mat0]

Last refresh before the Macbook Air, Macbook Pros get a design change?
As Gruber's said - the name "Macbook" for the new Macbook telegraphs the intention that the MBP, MBA may well get aligned to the Macbook design and styling next update. But not yet.

 

[cbrand493]

How much was the highest End iMac non-retina, before? 1999$? It had 3.4 GHz CPU? It had HDD in base config? It had 8 GB of Ram? GTX 780M was slower than M290X? Yes, it was.

So right now, people are getting roughly more(dGPU and the display) for the same anount of money.

How the **** can it be wrong?

No idea. In Australia the dropped model is A$350 less than the base 5K. 3.4GHz CPU vs 3.3GHz in 5K. Same HDD. Same ram. 780M is faster than a M290 (a M290 is not the same as an M290X). Seems you're comparing the dropped model with the top 5K, which in Australia was a A$600 price difference.

 

[yukari]

Just to make sure, the 15-inch rMBP got Broadwell chips and not a 3rd remix of Haswell, correct?

Did you read the article?

"Given that the necessary Broadwell chips are not yet available, the new 15-inch MacBook Pro and 27-inch iMac still have Intel's fourth-generation Haswell processors."

 

[The-Pro]

No more high end standard 27"?

Has anyone noticed that there is no longer a high end non retina 27" iMac.
The model that is in the store now has the 755m and the 3.2GHz i5, and you cant upgrade either!.

So anyone who want decent graphics performance HAS to by the retina iMac now.
Great.
I was actually going to get myself a i7 + 780M non retina model, but guess I cant do that anymore

edit: only read the first 3 pages of comments, seems like people noticed after that

 

[joe-h2o]

They haven't taken away any options - they've added an economy model who's only purpose is to have boxes with a sub-$2000 sticker on the rack at Best Buy. All of the old options are still available if you start with the deluxe model - which has had a price cut.

Not being able to order a 3.3GHz CPU with a M295X GPU will mildly inconvenience a tiny fraction of potential buyers and greatly simplify Apple's logistics.

Where's the 780M GPU on the non-retina 27"?

"Not taken away options my ass."