Could the new Intel Integrated Graphics power a 17" retina display?

[Michael Goff]

I know that the HD 4000 initially had trouble with the doubled pixels of the 15", but the improved integrated graphics (mixed with the extremely high resolution displays recently) had me thinking that an HD 5200 might be powerful enough to push the pixels needed.

What do you guys think?

 

[dusk007]

The Hd 4000 can power a 4k display. It is not an issue of pixels.
The issue with framerates on the Retina was a software problem. Most likely because of the way Apple implemented their own scaling or the CPU limit in the largely single threaded web rendering.

Much slower GPUs have been powering much more displays and pixels for years now.
The 17" was an issue of price, demand and initially probably also yield on the new displays. They can throw them out now. Whether they actually do depends on demand. I think they don't like the low volume of such a product and that as tradition commands want to price it a significantly bove the 15" although it is only a couple dollars more expensive to make.
The speed of the GPU is definitely not the issue for why there isn't a 17". They cut the old because it would have competed with the 15" rMBP and a new 17" rMBP is probably not coming because of the low volume they expect with the strange pricing they employ.

With an extra thin bezel and a reasonable price markup, of just enough to cover the extra battery and display costs, it would probably be quite the seller. Big screen reasonable size and consumers can decide for themselves whether they want more mobile or bigger screen and not just have it a decision dictated by price for many.
It is not like Apple do that though, so I wouldn't keep my hopes up.

 

[someguy50]

I know that the HD 4000 initially had trouble with the doubled pixels of the 15", but the improved integrated graphics (mixed with the extremely high resolution displays recently) had me thinking that an HD 5200 might be powerful enough to push the pixels needed.

What do you guys think?

To clarify, number of pixels quadrupled under the Retina MBP. Vertical and horizontal were increased by 100% each, which translates to a quadrupling of total pixels. The 15" also has a discrete GPU, while the 13" is powered by HD4000 alone.

And as the above mentioned, it's not just a hardware issue, it's also a software issue. Apple did a fantastic implementation of super high res options in OSX, but it comes with some drawbacks. There's an article on anandtech I believe, but when using something other than the ideal "retina" scaling option, it's actually up-sampling to something above the screen's resolution, then downsampling to the screen's resolution. It's a resource intensive process, and it's no surprise the hardware sometimes struggles with it. The new Haswell IGPs will handle it better than HD4000, but that alone wont resolve the issue.