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Apple's New 16-Inch MacBook Pro to Replace Current 15-Inch Model, Will Cost 'About the Same'
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Nah it’s arrived. Leaving it in the box for the next few days to see what goes down
Anyone suckered in by the gimmick of a touch bar feature made excuses for the 13” being as expensive as the previous 15” when it was launched and the fact the 15” has been over £2,200 for several generations now. Going up to 6 or 8 core CPUs doesn’t justify the price either.
complaining works, have you not heard of the Sonic movie?
Well color me shocked, but these have the 9th gen CPUs.
Again, there are no appropriate 10th gen parts yet, and there won't be until around April.
Why are you shocked? Apple has kept the MacBook Pros current as quickly as Intel has put out new CPUs and been shipping them in volume to OEMs. Without a newer 9th Gen avail or and Comet Lake-H almost 6 months out, this is what we get.
The more interesting thing is whether the improved cooling really helps get the most out of the 9980HK in sustained workloads.
I know man... It sucks.
Having said that, the wait was just too long.
But all of this seems to be about to change: I just saw the early impressions of the MacBook Pro 16" come out, and you know what?
They're making good hardware again. I have no problems recommending that laptop. GPU twice as fast as the old one, great screen, and the new keyboard looks great, too.
Thank **** - maybe we can get back to some sanity around here.
Good job, Apple.
Unfortunately, there are no 10th gen high-wattage mobile processors available right now. There had been some mild speculation that Intel would try and move up the schedule for their upcoming 10-core Comet Lake processor (currently expected Q2 2020). A brand new high-end 16" MBP would have made a great launch device for a surprise early release of Comet Lake, but alas, it's apparently not to be.
I agree on both counts but I’d hardly call the scissor switch retro
Anyway, we got (hopefully) a good keyboard today but don’t hold your breath for MagSafe I’m afraid.
Hard to say. These seem to be Navi parts. https://wccftech.com/amd-navi-14-radeon-pro-5500m-gpu-apple-macbook-pro-16-inch/
No, especially on bad GPU's like the ones in notebooks it literally has no added benefit to have 8 over 4GB of VRAM.
Sure on high end desktop GPU's in combination with high resolution screens there's an added benefit, but saying that you need 8GB VRAM in a small and thin notebook is just categorically false. No situation is gonna change that it just shows a completely wrong understanding of what VRAM is.
This has nothing to do with what you are displaying on your actual screen... I agree that for the average user which uses the GPU only to render end-user content 8GB is overkill, but especially on a "pro" machine this is not the only use case.
Not having enough VRAM can have massive performance consequences e.g. when editing in 4k+ with complex timelines. For such a task 4GB of VRAM can be exceeded, leading to the processing being unable to run on the GPU.
i can only hope these do not sell well.. so maybe they will continue to bring back things a professional laptop should have.. like a sd slot, magsafe, 1080p (or better) webcam, mini-hdmi. There is nothing slim and minimal about having to carry a bag of dongles.
I understand the sentiment, but these are going to sell like hot cakes.
what is sad is this laptop is just not up to the task at being a true professional-grade laptop. What is also sad is that current apple users will continue to buy these things knowing it's just not what it could be.. there was a time when apple was the "could be and actually is" brand/manufacturer.
I remember getting one of my first macbook pros, thinking, there is just nothing like this on the market--between specs, ports, aesthetics, etc. Unfortunately, since Steve Jobs' passing and the products, primarily macs, have just not been that impressive.
I believe you are right, but I wish more people would wake up and really give a go at some of the windows machine's on the market. they are just-as-good or better. Windows 10 is a perfectly capable operating system and has been solid for a while. I develop on both regularly and easily find windows 10 pretty damn good.
At any rate, I guess, I am just ranting because I would love to see the genuine passion that Jobs or even Panos Panay has for products and how users will use them. Apple definitely needs some new blood or something because it seems they could be flatlining in regards to design/usability. Just my .02.
For what it's worth, I think you're way off base. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, though!
The 5300M seems to be about the same as the Vega 20; the 5500M somewhat faster than the Vega 20, significantly faster than the Vega 16.
AMD details the 16-inch MacBook Pro's Radeon Pro 5000M-series GPUs | Appleinsider
AMD has revealed the specifications of the new Radeon Pro 5000M-series GPU options available in the just-launched 16-inch MacBook Pro, with the Radeon Pro 5300M and 5500M offering better graphics performance and an option for up to 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM.
iphone.appleinsider.com
The 5300M seems to be about the same as the Vega 20; the 5500M somewhat faster than the Vega 20, significantly faster than the Vega 16.
View attachment 877153
AMD details the 16-inch MacBook Pro's Radeon Pro 5000M-series GPUs | Appleinsider
AMD has revealed the specifications of the new Radeon Pro 5000M-series GPU options available in the just-launched 16-inch MacBook Pro, with the Radeon Pro 5300M and 5500M offering better graphics performance and an option for up to 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM.
Yeah, it seems a bit of an unsung hero that what used to be a $400 upgrade + $350 BTO option (the Vega 20) is now the new low-end GPU, and at a better process at that.
(Not sure what happened to HBM, though. Did AMD abandon it? Or is that a high-end thing Apple is no longer interested in?)
Good point. Though the Vega 20’s non-availability on the entry level 15” MBP is best ascribed to Apple’s market segmentation strategy, it’s perfectly valid to observe that the GPU performance available now at $2,400 on the 16” was previously only offered at $3,150+ on the 15”. The migration down-market is welcome, and it’s a legit $350 value, just as the 256GB—>512GB SSD bump saves $200 on the 16”.
Of course the Apple-hate crowd will downplay this and say it’s to be expected, since technology gets more powerful and cheaper over time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But compared to the 15” model being sold just a few days ago, it’s fair to say the specs for the $2,400 entry level 16” model are equivalent to a $2,950 15”. The new model also has the added benefits of the larger battery; a larger, higher density, higher resolution display; (reportedly) noticeably improved speakers/mics; and not insignificantly, the keyboard improvements.
(It’s also worth noting that a side benefit of the updated GPUs is support for two Apple 32” XDR displays at 6016 x 3384 @ 60Hz. Note also the new refresh rates available in the internal display in addition to 60Hz: 47.95Hz, 48.00Hz, 50.00Hz and 59.94Hz.)
All in all, it’s hard (for me, anyway) to see this as anything other than a solid update and at least a 25% better value for the entry level model, though not strictly a $550 discount over the 15” equivalent config.
GDDR6 offers similar performance to HBM2 in this case, though it requires more power and a larger die area than would HBM2 (both issues are largely offset with the move from GloFo’s 14nm to TSMC’s 7nm process). Also, since it doesn’t require an expensive interposer, GDDR6 is not as expensive to implement.
I’m reasonably sure AMD is forgoing HBM2 across the board with Navi. It’s an AMD design decision, separate from Apple. AMD can get the performance it needs without having to use the more expensive HBM2, and no doubt Apple is on board with the resulting cost savings.
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Yup. We got more than we bargained for.
I wish they'd gone for a higher ppi (which they probably won't touch again for another 3+ years!), but other than that, most quibbles seem iterative. E.g., Wi-Fi 6? We'll probably get that with Comet Lake-H in summer.