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Keeping 13" rMBP on Scaled Resolution?

T

thomasec

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 15, 2011
71
20
I'm just curious how many of you guys keep your 13" rMBP on a scaled resolution 100% of the time, and how this affects performance and usability.

I'd gone through just about every option for my next setup, and finally settled on a 13" rMBP + thunderbolt display for home use, but after reading that people are still having display and animation issues, I'm starting to rethink things.

I rely significantly on Excel and Parallels, so screen real estate and performance are both very important, but the 15" feels like too much to lug around.

Thanks in advance!
 
I keep my 13" in Retina all the time, but I'm not working on large spreadsheets etc. I think you might be better off with the 15" if you do this type of work. It's not really that heavy...I USED to lug a 17" cMBP around with me...that IS heavy.:)
 
Do 1440x900 scaled. Open up multiple desktops and switch between them for each full-screen VM.
 
If you do 1440x900 or 1680x1050, make sure you turn OFF lcd smoothing in system preferences - general! That alone made it 1000x better.
 
I run scaled at max space. And also use it with my cinema display. I've never been able to make it lag anywhere. I also have font smoothing turned on
 
secretanchitman said:
If you do 1440x900 or 1680x1050, make sure you turn OFF lcd smoothing in system preferences - general! That alone made it 1000x better.
Click to expand...

I have mine in 1440x900. I traded in my air, so i couldn't live with the 1280x800.


What does the "Use LCD font smoothing when available" do?
 
secretanchitman said:
If you do 1440x900 or 1680x1050, make sure you turn OFF lcd smoothing in system preferences - general! That alone made it 1000x better.
Click to expand...

I didn't see any difference when I unchecked that setting.


I have a 2012 13" rMBP, I'm now running in 1440x900 full time. It's every bit as smooth as the native retina resolution now. No lag except in certain crappy apps that aren't optimized (chrome, MS Office).

1680x1050 is choppy as heck. It wasn't that way in Mountain Lion so I hope they fix it in 10.9.1.
 
I can see a clear difference between font smoothing when i type something in iMessage. The font with font smoothing on is much thicker than off. Try it yourself :) I wonder if it matters...
 
vandoorn said:
I can see a clear difference between font smoothing when i type something in iMessage. The font with font smoothing on is much thicker than off. Try it yourself :) I wonder if it matters...
Click to expand...

Yeah... now that I explored around a bit more I see many places where the fonts are improved by unchecking that box. The URL bar in browsers, MS Outlook, iMessage... they look nice and crisp now and eliminate the one little nitpick I had with running in a scaled resolution, that some of the fonts became inexplicably bolder.
 
Do you have any lags issue when just using the native res on the 27" and not the builtin lcd.

thomasec said:
I'm just curious how many of you guys keep your 13" rMBP on a scaled resolution 100% of the time, and how this affects performance and usability.

I'd gone through just about every option for my next setup, and finally settled on a 13" rMBP + thunderbolt display for home use, but after reading that people are still having display and animation issues, I'm starting to rethink things.

I rely significantly on Excel and Parallels, so screen real estate and performance are both very important, but the 15" feels like too much to lug around.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
 
I have used a 13 MBPr and a thunderbolt display setup, no issues. I carry my laptop around the house with ease and it is not too heavy. I used to have the 15 MBPr. I think the 13 MBPr is the best all rounder.

I have 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD, run parallels and MS Office.
 
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