Iris Pro or GT 650M?

[NickPhamUK]

I'm due for a new machine, but I can't choose (base model of 2012 vs 2013). What do you think? In terms of:
1. CPU?
2. GPU? (I'd like to set Dota 2 at Ultra settings & play some games like Diablo 3, Skyrim at decent fps)
3. Battery life?
4. Scrolling lag?
5. Temperature, fan noise?

The 2012 model is $200 cheaper in my place, that's it. Not sure if I should take GT 650M or the iGPU...

 

[GSPice]

Did you see that Iris Pro FPS thread? I'd go off of that. Pretty interesting.

I'd lean towards the Iris Pro model, just because of the improvements in Haswell as well as some of the Iris Pro strengths.

What would make me lean towards the 2012 was if there was some specific game or application that for some reason just spanked the Iris Pro

 

[Serban]

I'm due for a new machine, but I can't choose (base model of 2012 vs 2013). What do you think? In terms of:
1. CPU?
2. GPU? (I'd like to set Dota 2 at Ultra settings & play some games like Diablo 3, Skyrim at decent fps)
3. Battery life?
4. Scrolling lag?
5. Temperature, fan noise?

The 2012 model is $200 cheaper in my place, that's it. Not sure if I should take GT 650M or the iGPU...

For 1) and 3) and 4) and 5) go for haswell

 

[Serban]

and for you to play those games i think better is go for 750M than 650M

 

[KPOM]

It all depends on whether gaming performance is more important to you than the other factors. If so, then go with the 2012. The CPU performance is virtually identical, and while the Iris Pro is the best Intel integrated graphics yetthe 650M outperforms the Iris Pro.

 

[Johntlc]

same dilemma

I have exactly the same decision and after interacting with this forum decided that the Feb 2013 15 in rmbp was better for me than the base Oct 2013 15 rmbp. But after reading this thread now I am not so sure.

I am buying the computer for my son who will use it in college in a few years. He loves League of legends and it sounds like either machine will handle that fine. But if some other game comes down the road, I was thinking the discrete 650 chip would be more useful than the better battery and flash of the newest machine. Does this make sense or am I missing something?

Does anyone with a feb 2013 15in mbpr with the 650 chip get tempted to trade it in for the new haswell machine?

I agree that getting the haswell with 750 chip is best, but it is nearly $1000 more than the refurbished feb 2013 device. In terms of bang for the buck I still lean toward the feb 2013 15 mbpr but as always I really appreciate the expertise of this forum. Any other thoughts?

 

[Serban]

league of legends under bootcamp i think is fine with Iris pro.
or if you play at 1050p at high settings its fine under maveriks too
if you can wait 1 day more..my haswell base 15" model is coming so i can test it

 

[thedarkhorse]

My vote is the 650. Other than TB2 which is only beneficial to the highest end of uses to me there isn't much the iris pro machine has to offer over its cheaper and more powerful 650 counterpart. Yes the flash ssd is a bit faster but it isn't like the 2012 ssd is a slouch by any means, coming from a HDD or even slower SSD based computer it will still be worlds different. Lastly I would take discrete GPU on a $2k machine over slightly better battery life any day.

 

[NickPhamUK]

Votes are so even .

 

[Freyqq]

I'm due for a new machine, but I can't choose (base model of 2012 vs 2013). What do you think? In terms of:
1. CPU?
2. GPU? (I'd like to set Dota 2 at Ultra settings & play some games like Diablo 3, Skyrim at decent fps)
3. Battery life?
4. Scrolling lag?
5. Temperature, fan noise?

The 2012 model is $200 cheaper in my place, that's it. Not sure if I should take GT 650M or the iGPU...

GPU-intensive tasks = 650M wins by a lot
CPU-intensive tasks = 2013 version wins by a little
SSD-intensive tasks = 2013 wins by a lot

take your pick based on your usage model

 

[nateo200]

Discrete Graphics for the win!!!! Seriously I give ALLOT of props to Iris Pro but if I start running GPU intensive apps or just allot of stuff at once the dGPU takes allot of stress off my CPU/RAM and turns everything butter smooth (But then again I'm running 20 tabs, FCP X, µTorrent, and COD too much). Personally I'm glad I got the early 2013 with the 650M over the same price baseline late 2013 with no dGPU option as I love me a dGPU for GPU accelerated stuff and I think the power is just so useful. I mean unless this computer is just for casual use.....

 

[iKrivetko]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ATKDuQOQw9k

 

[DayVe3000]

Having very recently bought one my vote is the 650M.

 

[Count Blah]

I would go with dGPU. I assume it's a refurb where you can get AppleCare. The speed difference between CPUs is minuscule. If you are not pushing Gigs and Gigs of files around, an extra fraction of a second difference between the SSDs is minuscule. But if he is intending to do some gaming, and what college kid is not, then playing at higher resolutions is very different between the Iris Pro and the dGPU.

 

[yabot]

I have exactly the same decision and after interacting with this forum decided that the Feb 2013 15 in rmbp was better for me than the base Oct 2013 15 rmbp. But after reading this thread now I am not so sure.

I am buying the computer for my son who will use it in college in a few years. He loves League of legends and it sounds like either machine will handle that fine. But if some other game comes down the road, I was thinking the discrete 650 chip would be more useful than the better battery and flash of the newest machine. Does this make sense or am I missing something?

Does anyone with a feb 2013 15in mbpr with the 650 chip get tempted to trade it in for the new haswell machine?

I agree that getting the haswell with 750 chip is best, but it is nearly $1000 more than the refurbished feb 2013 device. In terms of bang for the buck I still lean toward the feb 2013 15 mbpr but as always I really appreciate the expertise of this forum. Any other thoughts?

i have the feb 2013 base model, and although i love the latest and greatest tech, i had no urge to buy the october one with 750m, the updates are just too small, save yourself some money and get the 650m, it plays all games i have thrown at it very well indeed.

 

[mslide]

What do you think?

Since you mentioned gaming, none of the above. I'd get the base 13" model and build a gaming PC. Integrated graphics aren't there yet (maybe in 2 or 3 more iterations) and I can't see spending so much for a discrete GPU'd laptop just to get mediocre gaming performance. My answer would be different if you needed discrete graphics for professional reasons but it sounds like it's only coming down to gaming.

 

[Johntlc]

thanks!

Thanks for the input everyone. I decided to go with the feb 2013 15 rmbp with the 650 chip. You can always plug in for more battery time, but you can't change the fps if a game or task requires it. Also, with the refurbished, you essentially get apple care for free for the price of the base haswell 15 rmbp which makes it a win/win scenario for me.

 

[BoyKot]

Iris Pro for gaming

I was really surprised that Iris Pro runs better than 650m in some cases.
I have Iris Pro rMBP 15" 2013 and it runs Dota 2 10-15% better than my friend's rMBP 2012 with 650m. I've managed to play Dota at 60 FPS with Ultra Hight settings (Full HD resolution) everything on, while he needs to turn off anti aliasing and vsync for same result.

p.S. We are both using bootcamp. Native OS X Dota 2 loses about 50% of peformance with current build.