So, I got my 16" MBP (i9-9880H, 16GB RAM, Pro 5500M with 8GB GDDR6) and I only managed to run a quick test using Total War: Three Kingdoms under macOS, but I am
very impressed with the results.
Running at all high present @1920x1200, the 16" maintains the average 30fps in the battle scene. This is 10 fps more than what the Vega Pro 20 can do. Most importantly, the framerate on the 16" is stable, without noticeable dips even in most intense parts of the benchmark. My 2018 with Vega Pro 20 can't handle large unit sizes as you get these random stuttering when masses of units collide. The 16" is perfectly smooth and playable. In fact, it is faster than my external Vega 54 GPU (when used to accelerate the internal display).
To give you some perspective, look at notebook check benchmarks for this game (I have been usign their methodology exactly):
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Total-War-Three-Kingdoms-Laptop-and-Desktop-Benchmarks.428193.0.html
According to the table, the Pro 5500M performs close to the desktop 1050 Ti. However, please keep in mind:
- This is under macOS — the Windows scores will be 20-20% higher once Mat releases up to date drivers. More importantly, the Windows version of the game has higher peak fps, so this will push the average even higher. I'd expect to see somewhere close to 40-45fps which is nothing to sneeze about for a laptop with this form factor
- The MBP is running 1920x1200 while the notebook check benchmarks are run at 1920x1080. That's 10% more pixels to push
To sum it up, in this particular game, the 5500M is a
massive (one could say
game-changing) improvement over the Vega Pro 20 as it allows you to smoothly play the game on qualitatively higher settings. It competes very well with the likes of Dell XPS and X1 Extreme. In fact, this is probably the first Mac laptop that you can comfortably run current AAA titles on under macOS, without needing to install Bootcamp (of course, Bootcamp will give you more performance — still need to test how much though).
