Iris vs. HD 5000

[Yixian]

As someone who was considering upgrading from my Air 2013 to a new 13" rMBP, this thread just saved me money. Performance wise you seemingly get next to nothing for the "Pro" moniker.

 

[Yourt]

As someone who was considering upgrading from my Air 2013 to a new 13" rMBP, this thread just saved me money. Performance wise you seemingly get next to nothing for the "Pro" moniker.

Plain and simple: go to any shop where you can see a 13" rMBP next to a 13" Air. See no difference: great for you! See any difference but not interested because of surfing-mailing-texting routine: still great

Macworld tests seem to indicate a 20% difference on most applications that require some power (iTunes encoding, Photoshop, Aperture import, gaming,...). On top of that comes a retina display, so what's the fuzz about 100 to 150 $?

 

[Yixian]

Plain and simple: go to any shop where you can see a 13" rMBP next to a 13" Air. See no difference: great for you! See any difference but not interested because of surfing-mailing-texting routine: still great

Macworld tests seem to indicate a 20% difference on most applications that require some power (iTunes encoding, Photoshop, Aperture import, gaming,...). On top of that comes a retina display, so what's the fuzz about 100 to 150 $?

The issue is when you're looking to upgrade from an Air you already own, to a MBP, because you want the "Pro" in MacBook Pro.

I appreciate the retina screen is very nice but when it offers only the same performance at native resolution as an older, cheaper laptop that is designed primarily around being as thin as possible.. Against a laptop nominally aimed at "Professionals", it's a bit disappointing.

 

[bax2003]

The issue is when you're looking to upgrade from an Air you already own, to a MBP, because you want the "Pro" in MacBook Pro.

I appreciate the retina screen is very nice but when it offers only the same performance at native resolution as an older, cheaper laptop that is designed primarily around being as thin as possible.. Against a laptop nominally aimed at "Professionals", it's a bit disappointing.

Differences Air - rMBP 13"

Faster CPU, faster GPU, more Thunderbolt ports (v1 vs v2) = more peripherals and more displays, 2560x1600 vs 1440x900, native HDMI port.

 

[icyvirtuoso23]

In my opinion the biggest difference in the Air vs 13" Pro comes down to the fact that the Air uses a TN display and the Pro uses an IPS display. This means the the Pro has much better colour reproduction and better viewing angles. That alone is reason enough for me personally to prefer the Pro, but some people may not care about these things.

 

[robeddie]

Tempted to buy the 13 inch MBP, but I'll wait for the next generation when (hopefully) they'll come with an iris pro GPU. The speed jump is notable enough that it's worth holding out for imo.

 

[cjmillsnun]

Here are some results comparing the Intel 5000 in an 11" MacBook Air with two new rMBP 13 inchers with the Intel Iris 5100 graphics chip.

But there are still more pixels being driven in the rMBPs. They may not be part of the benchmark, however they are there and displaying something.

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Uhh... is this showing the 5000 as having the best graphic capabilities?
This is incorrect, right?

The 5100 is driving more pixels.