I don't think I'm going to buy 13.3" rMBP until they have dedicated GPU's

[ayeying]

I don't see much of the lag that you and a few others keep complaining about.

Here's a video of my late-2013 rMBP 13" (2.8GHz i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD): https://www.dropbox.com/s/2yq9f5z2uq1t7jy/IMG_6220.MOV?dl=0

Run it at 1680x1050 (HiDPi). You'll notice some, not major, lag.

Furthermore, just having a lot of VRAM doesn't mean the performance would be better. You still need a powerful and effective GPU to process that information. It's like having a large room with boxes and boxes to be shipped but you only have one person processing the boxes.

 

[yjchua95]

Run it at 1680x1050 (HiDPi). You'll notice some, not major, lag.

Furthermore, just having a lot of VRAM doesn't mean the performance would be better. You still need a powerful and effective GPU to process that information. It's like having a large room with boxes and boxes to be shipped but you only have one person processing the boxes.

I know that.

Obviously running at 1680x1050, HiDPI would translate to 3360x2100, which would be pretty much pushing the Iris.

I'm just highlighting that I don't see any lag at 1280x800 HiDPI.

But then, 1680x1050 HiDPI would be pretty small for most people's eyes, I suppose.

 

[ayeying]

I know that.

Obviously running at 1680x1050, HiDPI would translate to 3360x2100, which would be pretty much pushing the Iris.

I'm just highlighting that I don't see any lag at 1280x800 HiDPI.

But then, 1680x1050 HiDPI would be pretty small for most people's eyes, I suppose.

Not really. It seems small but it's not at all. I ran it on 1680x1050 HiDPI all the time when I had the 13" rMBP and it didn't even have the Iris GPU, it had the HD4000.

Right now, I run it at 1920x1200 HiDPI on the 15" and the Iris Pro has trouble pushing so much pixels at once and occasionally lag.

 

[TheIguana]

The point i was trying to make is that right now, it needs a dedicated video card. but in the next 2-3 years or whenever intel creates a proper dedicated memory for the gpu is when apple should go back to igpu.

Intel already has... it is called Crystalwell - dedicated on chip eDRAM that acts as a graphics dump and when not being used for that L4 cache. Sadly it is not on the 13" models but its likely to be making its way to more processors in Intel's line up.

Check out Anand's overview of Crystalwell

 

[blooperz]

Very unlikely to see a dGPU in the 13"....more likely to happen will be the loss of the dGPU in the 15"... Apple has a history of ditching performance in favor of sleekness and form factor these days

 

[nando4]

Very unlikely to see a dGPU in the 13"....more likely to happen will be the loss of the dGPU in the 15"... Apple has a history of ditching performance in favor of sleekness and form factor these days

Yup. I'd much rather they stuff a quad-core CPU into a 13". Then it would be similar to the much anticipated 13" MSI GS30 which combines ultrabook sleekness with an external GPU dock.

The 13" Macbook Pro's Thunderbolt2 port is more than capable of hosting an eGPU if need CUDA/OpenCL processing or for gaming as can be seen by the many examples (inc NVidia Titan Z) at DIY eGPU Implementations Hub: Thunderbolt (Tech|Inferno).

 

[yjchua95]

Yup. I'd much rather they stuff a quad-core CPU into a 13". Then it would be similar to the much anticipated 13" MSI GS30 which combines ultrabook sleekness with an external GPU dock.

The 13" Macbook Pro's Thunderbolt2 port is more than capable of hosting an eGPU if need CUDA/OpenCL processing or for gaming as can be seen by the many examples (inc NVidia Titan Z) at DIY eGPU Implementations Hub: Thunderbolt (Tech|Inferno).

Until they bring the TDP of quad-core mobile CPUs down the the current level of Haswell-U processors, I doubt we're likely to see it.

And by the time that happens, 13" rMBPs will have quad core CPUs and 15" rMBPs will have octa-core CPUs. And then there'll be people clamoring for an octa-core CPU in a 13". And the cycle continues.

I saw squinks' posts in the TI forums, and got myself the exact same setup running on my 3 rMBPs via TB2 (Sonnet IIID and GTX 780 Ti).

 

[leman]

Until they bring the TDP of quad-core mobile CPUs down the the current level of Haswell-U processors, I doubt we're likely to see it.

Skylake was supposed to be quad-core CPUs for all models, but it seems that it has changed.

And by the time that happens, 13" rMBPs will have quad core CPUs and 15" rMBPs will have octa-core CPUs. And then there'll be people clamoring for an octa-core CPU in a 13". And the cycle continues.

I somehow doubt that. Given the computational tasks the average user performs now (and the profile is unlikely to change in the next decade, unless some principally new computer interaction methods are invented), there is little reason to go beyond quad core. Workflows like word processing and web browsing require strong single-thread processing ability. And the multi-processing demands of applications like video/audio editing can be satisfied with GPUs and increasingly more powerful vector processing units. E.g. Skykale with its AXV-512 instruction set will rival many mid-range GPUs in terms of processing power. To put it differently, modern CPUs already have much more then 4 cores if you look at their execution units. For most applications that require multi-processing, it the number of these execution cores that is most relevant.

 

[mcarling]

Until they bring the TDP of quad-core mobile CPUs down the the current level of Haswell-U processors, I doubt we're likely to see it.

The Haswell 2704EC CPU is quad-core and has the TDP of a Haswell-U processor (27W), however, it is only 2.0GHz and has no integrated GPU. Intel's strategic priority is improving the integrated GPUs to complete the elimination of the discrete GPU market now in progress.

And by the time that happens, 13" rMBPs will have quad core CPUs and 15" rMBPs will have octa-core CPUs. And then there'll be people clamoring for an octa-core CPU in a 13".

There is currently no competitive pressure to go to six-core CPUs in laptops, let alone octa-core CPUs. That probably won't happen until the mobile discrete GPU market is completely dead and buried -- at least two years from now.

 

[FrozenDarkness]

hm, maybe the right thing to ask for is an external dedicated GPU like what alienware made. I think it'd be awesome if apple came out with a display that included its own graphics card.

 

[freeskier93]

It is my personal belief that dedicated graphics won't be around much longer. I know most people on this forum probably aren't AMD fans but I think they are doing really awesome things with their APUs and is one area where they are ahead of Intel. I have an APU in my desktop and am continually impressed by what it will do. Integrated just makes more sense in the long run, I think Apple knows this and is why you'll never see dedicated in the 13". It's only a matter of time before it's phased out of the 15".

 

[Yoshi Yogurt]

dedicated dGPU's are on the way out and reduce longevity of the laptop.

I hardly ever use mine, but I am glad I have it for the occasional gaming and in case I need it in the future. Next mac laptop I buy will likely be a smaller 11" macbook air to be a companion to a desktop if that size is still around in 6-7 years...

 

[nando4]

hm, maybe the right thing to ask for is an external dedicated GPU like what alienware made. I think it'd be awesome if apple came out with a display that included its own graphics card.

Alienware 13 uses a proprietory x4 3.0 PCIe link. Thunderbolt2 is x4 2.0 (16Gbps) and far more universal. There are plenty of existing Macbook eGPU implementations linked off my sig. These a DIY rigs since it seems Intel is holding off NVidia/AMD cannabalizing their processing market via CUDA/OpenCL.