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Buy now or wait?

M

maul0r

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 8, 2014
4
0
Hi guys,

I am looking into buying the MacBook Pro 15 inch Retina with its dedicated graphics card. The question is, should I wait?

Haswell might see a slight refresh, but performance increase, if at all, will be minor. As such that is not a factor. The one thing I am really interested in is the dedicated Graphics Upgrade if any? Currently the GT750m is employed, I haven't found anything about an 850m, and and the GTX 850 uses the same GK107 core I believe... Do you think that it is likely that we will see a noticeable performance increase in graphics for the refresh in October?

Thanks your help!
 
maul0r said:
Hi guys,

I am looking into buying the MacBook Pro 15 inch Retina with its dedicated graphics card. The question is, should I wait?
Click to expand...
Its up to you to wait. If you don't need one now, there's no reason to buy one now. You hadn't stated your needs, timing or what you'll be using it for.

Do you think that it is likely that we will see a noticeable performance increase in graphics for the refresh in October?
Click to expand...
I think so, the iGPU is going to be better then the one that's in Haswell, and I think apple to differentiate between the iGPU only model and the one with the dGPU will need to use a faster GPU so I think we'll see a better dGPU
 
maflynn said:
Its up to you to wait. If you don't need one now, there's no reason to buy one now. You hadn't stated your needs, timing or what you'll be using it for.
Click to expand...

well I currently use a 2012 MacBook Air. It does the job, there are certainly no performance issues, but I do want a bigger screen. Since it's ageing, I am trying to score a good price selling it, before it gets too old. That is why I am looking at buying a new 15inch MacBook Pro.
I do like to virtualise on it, so the 16GB and the fast PCI Express storage are very interesting. The reason why I am asking about the dedicated graphics, but I travel quite a bit, and I'd like to take my game with me every once and a while. The game runs sluggish on the Intel 4000, the Iris Pro is better, but not significantly as far as I have read it. If a new GPU can crunch out 5 to 10 frame more, that'd be worth the wait for me.

I think so, the iGPU is going to be better then the one that's in Haswell, and I think apple to differentiate between the iGPU only model and the one with the dGPU will need to use a faster GPU so I think we'll see a better dGPU
Click to expand...

I know all of this is highly speculative, but I have been looking at some of the newer graphics... The GTX 850 is only marginally better - If that's the upgrade, I don't really have to wait. Do you think its going to be the GTX 850 - any other potential candidates?

Edit: Thanks for the quick reply :)
 
maul0r said:
Do you think its going to be the GTX 850 - any other potential candidates?
Click to expand...
I don't know details of what GPUs are out there, but if I were a betting man, I'd say that apple would NOT use the fastest and best dGPU out in the market.

They have a long history of using middle of the road graphic processors in both the laptops and desktop models. Macs are not known for gaming and as such I think apple doesn't shoot for the moon for the GPU selection.

I will say depending on the game the Iris Pro is an excellent GPU and I would expect from what I've read the Broadwell gpu is going to be much better. Like I said Apple will have to up its dGPU selection to keep pace - unless they opt to kill of the dGPU altogether (which is a possibility - a remote one but its still a possibility).
 
Just buy now. The current systems are excellent performers and quite capable. Waiting to "catch" the perfect system at the perfect time is a suckers game, IMO. Life is short. But and enjoy now.
 
maflynn said:
I will say depending on the game the Iris Pro is an excellent GPU and I would expect from what I've read the Broadwell gpu is going to be much better. Like I said Apple will have to up its dGPU selection to keep pace - unless they opt to kill of the dGPU altogether (which is a possibility - a remote one but its still a possibility).
Click to expand...

Just to clarify, as far as I understand Broadwell is haswell, just smaller and more power efficient and is due to ship end of 2014 and as such it's unlikely that it will make it into this year's refresh, correct?
 
It is a die shrink, but I thought I read somewhere they also improved the iGPU.

You'll see a small increase in performance, better battery and as I mentioned better iGPU with Broadwell.

Edit: here's one such write up on the improved iGPU
 
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