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That's what we use too, for 3d solid modeling.
Maximum oomph behind fewer pixels ist bettah.

I stumbled across something recently in the world of mobile workstations. It looks like the AMD FirePro M6100 has excellent all-around performance with a medium-high power (75W?).

This review of an HP Mobile workstation, mostly with professional apps like 3D solid modeling, but, also they did a game review, makes the M6100 sound very good all-around:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-ZBook-17-G2-J8Z55ET-Workstation-Review.133680.0.html

Glad I have my Nvidia 750M GT MBPR. I hate AMD and have avoided the like the plague as nVidia always seems better. What they forgot to tell people is that nVidia GPU's use CUDA Cores, and these are also used in Adobe applications to make these applications perform better. With AMD, CUDA Cores cannot be used as its proprietary. So anyone with Adobe applications watch out.

You have it twisted around-- OpenCL is an open standard, and, it can be used with AMD, Intel, and, Nvidia. Why celebrate being locked in to a proprietary standard.

I would never buy another mac with amd gpu. My last macbook pro early 2011 suffer radeongate.

And, I suffered twice over with Nvidia-gate on the 2007-2008 MBPs that failed in 2010-2011-- except that Apple repaired both of them.

==

Getting back to the mobile workstation thing -- several people have posted how they basically don't like Apple's 35-40W limitation in mobile GPUs, but, that is what they are limited to in order to keep the heat down, give it a long life on-battery, keep the weight down, etc.

I guess what you all want is what the industry is referring to these days as a mobile workstation. Apple doesn't seem to think the market for that is big enough, but, several companies do have such product lines. Since these GPUs are variations of the consumer lines, I'm not sure what would happen if you tried to hackintosh them, but, if gaming is really the issue, you are stuck with Windows anyway.

This review looks at the HP, and also compares it and another HP, a Dell, two MSI's, and a Schenker.

Personally, I think Apple should produce a mobile workstation line, but, I think it is futile to criticize the MBP product line for being what it is.
 
I stumbled across something recently in the world of mobile workstations. It looks like the AMD FirePro M6100 has excellent all-around performance with a medium-high power (75W?).

This review of an HP Mobile workstation, mostly with professional apps like 3D solid modeling, but, also they did a game review, makes the M6100 sound very good all-around:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-ZBook-17-G2-J8Z55ET-Workstation-Review.133680.0.html



You have it twisted around-- OpenCL is an open standard, and, it can be used with AMD, Intel, and, Nvidia. Why celebrate being locked in to a proprietary standard.



And, I suffered twice over with Nvidia-gate on the 2007-2008 MBPs that failed in 2010-2011-- except that Apple repaired both of them.

==

Getting back to the mobile workstation thing -- several people have posted how they basically don't like Apple's 35-40W limitation in mobile GPUs, but, that is what they are limited to in order to keep the heat down, give it a long life on-battery, keep the weight down, etc.

I guess what you all want is what the industry is referring to these days as a mobile workstation. Apple doesn't seem to think the market for that is big enough, but, several companies do have such product lines. Since these GPUs are variations of the consumer lines, I'm not sure what would happen if you tried to hackintosh them, but, if gaming is really the issue, you are stuck with Windows anyway.

This review looks at the HP, and also compares it and another HP, a Dell, two MSI's, and a Schenker.

Personally, I think Apple should produce a mobile workstation line, but, I think it is futile to criticize the MBP product line for being what it is.

I personally prefer using integrated gpu over dgpu. I am currently using base 15 mbp retina and so far I am satisfy.
 
This is more or less what I did - I gave up waiting for a MBP with decent graphics, and bought an XMG P505 instead (a Clevo P651SE clone), which has an Nvidia 970M GPU, 2.6Ghz i7 CPU, 16Gb RAM and a 1TB SSD, and a nice 15" 1080p IPS screen, all for around £1500, but I still use my Macbook Air for lightweight travelling and presentations (my wife uses my old Macbook Pro). It doesn't have the style of a rMBP, but it performs flawlessly with anything I've thrown at it, including the very latest PC games running on Ultra settings.

I agree, and it's what I always recommend for institutions trying to update their systems. I always tell them to compartmentalize and buy for what they need. That usually ends up being a host of PC boxes.

The machines aren't as sleek, but yes indeed they scream and for a decent price. Not everyone needs Xeon chips.

Do you actually feel the extra speed in the SSDs? I heard SSDs were always ultra-fast as is.

I don't. Most of my tasks are RAM intensive and get pushed out to TBolt connected hardware.

Unless you're buying ancient SSD tech connected to 3G SATA then I doubt you'll notice a difference between 6 month old PCIe SSDs and the current stock.

But it's nice to know that Apple is at least giving us modest updates, instead of waiting years for a redesign to push out current tech.
 
The Nvidia 980M (and even the 970M) runs too hot for the current design of the cooling system in the rMBP. I would have loved to see a rMBP with this GPU, but it ain't going to happen. I now have a laptop (XMG P505) with a 970M GPU and love it, I can play pretty much any game on it in Ultra settings, but it's much larger than the rMBP, due to the cooling system required (though considerably thinner and lighter than the fugly Alienware gaming laptops).

I checked the XMG website and I admit that I am surprised that they could put an Nvidia 980M in something that light -- 2.5 kg. Similar Dell and HP mobile workstations weigh a lot more.
 
I checked the XMG website and I admit that I am surprised that they could put an Nvidia 980M in something that light -- 2.5 kg. Similar Dell and HP mobile workstations weigh a lot more.

It's a clever design with a great cooling system, doesn't overheat or have insanely loud fans even when really pushed by a demanding game, I have the 970M model, though, as the 980M model was I think £300 more...
 
I'm having a problem with the Macbook Pro 15 inch base model that I bought and received during the first week of this month. The computer has a ticking sound that is made whenever it moves. I am going to bring it to the Apple Store, but is there any policy on whether if given a replacement it would be the 2015 model? Or if I could just upgrade to the 2015 since I've had it less than 30 days? It would be nice to have the Force Touch trackpad and battery life improvements.
Same problem with my rMBP 13" (latest model). Ticking sound sporadically and infrequently. Returned it within 14 days. Back to my MBA from 2010. Wasn't gonna take any chances.
 
i have to pick an imac for work soon. i hate the new updates. am i better off with the 27in refurb i7s than the new retina?
 
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