Can the new Macbook Pro 16" play this video without lag?

[goku_vegeta]

Tried this out for fun on my MacBook Pro (2017, i5-7360U, 8 GB RAM) and here’s my results plus additional testing. This was done on Chrome as well as Firefox

1080p 30 FPS = no frame drops
1080p 60 FPS = no frame drops
4K 30 FPS = no frame drops
4K 60 FPS = no frame drops
8K 30 FPS = dropping frames, unusable
8K 60 FPS = dropping frames, unusable


For comparison, here’s my desktop (Core i7-6700, GTX 1060, 16 GB RAM). Tests were conducted on Firefox.

1080p 30 FPS = no frame drops
1080p 60 FPS = no frame drops
4K 30 FPS = no frame drops
4K 60 FPS = no frame drops
8K 30 FPS = no frame drops
8K 60 FPS = no frame drops


So I’ve learned two things.

1. The MacBook Pro performed better than I expected. I uninstalled both chrome and Firefox on the MacBook because I prefer using safari and safari also has no frame drops at 1080 60 FPS, which I can live with for YouTube videos.

2. The desktop performs way better than expected. Now it’s a Skylake processor, which doesn’t have the improved 4K and 8K playback that Kaby Lake processors do, keeping in mind a mobile Kaby Lake CPU is in the MacBook Pro.



My thoughts on the differences

1. Despite the desktop using Skylake, it’s a quad core, 8 thread processor which clocks up to 3.67 GHz. About the same as the dual core CPU in the MacBook, but has more physical cores and a dedicated GPU

2. The 2019 model might fare a lot better.

 

[Steve686]

i9 MBP 16 inch. 32gb ram. 8gb 5500 vid card.

Playback at 8k and full speed, the video runs perfectly but needs to stop to buffer as my internet may be a little slow right now.

When I play the video back at 3/4 speed, there is zero buffer lag and the video has no issues whatsoever.

 

[Macbookprodude]

Some 8K video runs fine on my 2015 MacBook Pro. Depends on codec.

 

[JustAnExpat]

The peru video - I am curious if the new MBP 16" can play it at 8k @ 60fps HDR?

You may need to install chrome to see the option for 8k:

On a PC/Win10 with ~1650 graphics card it uses ~80% of the GPU but CPU stays close to 0%.

Am I missing something? I have a MacBook Air (2017), and I just played it full screen in Safari and it's using about 8% of the CPU.

 

[Steve686]

Am I missing something? I have a MacBook Air (2017), and I just played it full screen in Safari and it's using about 8% of the CPU.

Safari doesn't even play back 4k. Only 1080p.

 

[yindrameansu]

i9 MBP 16 inch. 32gb ram. 8gb 5500 vid card.

Playback at 8k and full speed, the video runs perfectly but needs to stop to buffer as my internet may be a little slow right now.

When I play the video back at 3/4 speed, there is zero buffer lag and the video has no issues whatsoever.

So it was that!
i9 32GBRAM 8GBGfx.

Same here with the vid I thought it was graphics. I am annoyed with screen stuttering and lag here and then when browsing though. Thinking about returning it, anyone else?

 

[Dhock_Holiday]

Can't play any 8K videos on any of my Mac's (MBP nor my iMac) but my Windows workstation (9700K + 2080Ti) can play 8K video smoothly. Nvidia cards have a VP9 decoder so its easier if you have a newer Nvidia card, most AMD GPU's unfortunately use some kind of inferior hybrid system for decoding VP9 unless your using a RX series card. If you're on integrated graphics it's going to be a slideshow.

Remember a lot of this will depend on your internet connection, you need a powerful computer AND a high speed connection.

 

[leman]

Nvidia cards have a VP9 decoder so its easier if you have a newer Nvidia card, most AMD GPU's unfortunately use some kind of inferior hybrid system for decoding VP9 unless your using a RX series card.

The bigger issue is that Apple simply does not provide hardware-assisted VP9 decoding due to their codec wars with Google. That's it. Has little to do with performance of the machine itself (although most people in this thread still seem to have difficulty with understanding this fairly simple fact).