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MacBook Pro 15 Nvidia 2012 vs Iris Pro 2013

A

ayusuf

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 25, 2013
8
0
So I recently went the Apple's refurbished site and got this:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/F...-23ghz-Quad-core-Intel-i7-with-retina-Display

The Macbook Pro 15 inch with Nvidia graphics card.

They also had this:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/F...-20ghz-quad-core-intel-i7-with-retina-display

Macbook Pro 15 inch with Intel Iris Pro graphics.

I got the first one but now I'm thinking if I should have gotten the 2nd one. The only difference is the graphics.

I had a Macbook Air 13 2012 before I spilled coffee on it and ruined it. Should I just get a Macbook Air 13 2013 which is 799, 1/2 off the price of the Macbook Pro 15 inch and stick with that? I was happy with my Macbook Air before the incident.

Thanks.
 
The GeForce GT 650M is much faster than the Iris Pro.
If you play video games , you'll definitely want to keep the GT 650M.
 
When it comes to 2012/Early 2013 vs Late 2013, It all just depends on how important gaming and 3D modeling is to you. The Late 2013 will be better in every other category.
 
Last edited:
This video is worth a watch:


Neither option is bad tbh. If you need it, the 650m is clearly better than Iris Pro, but the latter is reassuringly decent for an integrated graphics option. The Iris Pro machine also benefits from PCI-e which makes it faster for certain things.
 
750m and 650m are almost the same, but they're better than Intel's offerings.
 
That video does not show the 650m being superior in any significant way to Iris Pro. The only areas where the 650m has any real advantage are some types of gaming and 3D work - neither of which are the intended use. In every other area it either is so close it is a tie or beats the 650m. In fact in Open CL Iris Pro is a boss.

Intel is getting exactly what they wanted out of Iris Pro - an iGPU that actually can function in the dGPU space. The Broadwell iteration should be very interesting to see.
 
Tsuchiya said:
This video is worth a watch:

YouTube: video

Neither option is bad tbh. If you need it, the 650m is clearly better than Iris Pro, but the latter is reassuringly decent for an integrated graphics option. The Iris Pro machine also benefits from PCI-e which makes it faster for certain things.
Click to expand...

Wow, that really details some of the speed differences and how in general Iris Pro is a great option.
 
Joelist said:
That video does not show the 650m being superior in any significant way to Iris Pro. The only areas where the 650m has any real advantage are some types of gaming and 3D work - neither of which are the intended use. In every other area it either is so close it is a tie or beats the 650m. In fact in Open CL Iris Pro is a boss.

Intel is getting exactly what they wanted out of Iris Pro - an iGPU that actually can function in the dGPU space. The Broadwell iteration should be very interesting to see.
Click to expand...

BTW Nvidia drivers for graphics related stuff is much better than Intel's.
 
Some might suggest that a big chunk of the difference in performance between the 650 and Iris Pro is due to driver optimization. Perhaps Intel will invest more in driver development as they invest more in integrated GPUs as Broadwell and Skylake come to market? We can hope! It certainly is possible that a lot of performance is left to be unlocked with these newer intel GPUs and better drivers.
 
Angriff said:
Some might suggest that a big chunk of the difference in performance between the 650 and Iris Pro is due to driver optimization.
...
It certainly is possible that a lot of performance is left to be unlocked with these newer intel GPUs and better drivers.
Click to expand...
AFAIK, Apple develops the OS X drivers for the Intel iGPUs. Intel develops only the Windows and Linux versions, which provide a higher performance than the OS X drivers for the same iGPUs.
 
If you game at all, get the 650m without a doubt. People will try to say that Iris pro is not far off the 650m in games, but the 650m will be far better.

If you don't game, or don't do anything which benefits from the extra GPU power, the 2013 will be the better machine. For me, I'd personally go for the 2012, but it really depends on your usage. If battery life is a concern remember that the 2012 still has HD4000 graphics which it uses when you're not doing anything that needs the nvidia card.
 
Also, the 650 is factory overclocked to 900 MHz effectively making it a GTX 660, make sure any benchmark you see comparing both gpus are using the rMBP GT 650.
 
Sorry, but I do also game and have not seen any reason to get a discrete GPU - my rMBP 15 Iris Pro is doing just fine for me. Granted I tend towards Strategy Games but it runs them beautifully (Paradox Games).

The thing about Iris Pro is for the scenarios it is intended for it is a champ. And it will get even stronger in Broadwell. It's not intended to displace gaming GPUs but rather to remove the need for the low end GPUs and to basically remove the need for dedicated GPUs in all but Gaming and heavy duty 3D work rigs. It's already come a good distance towards that and Broadwell will make it even closer.
 
Joelist said:
Sorry, but I do also game and have not seen any reason to get a discrete GPU - my rMBP 15 Iris Pro is doing just fine for me. Granted I tend towards Strategy Games but it runs them beautifully (Paradox Games).
Click to expand...
When people say they game, its usually for those FPS and other games that stress a GPU. Strategy games aren't the type that usually push a GPU harder.

In any event, if you're happy with your selection thats all that counts :)
 
maflynn said:
When people say they game, its usually for those FPS and other games that stress a GPU. Strategy games aren't the type that usually push a GPU harder.

In any event, if you're happy with your selection thats all that counts :)
Click to expand...

Gaming is a vague-ass term anyway. People going around saying the Iris Pro isn't good probably are the people who want to play Metro Last Light or Battlefield 4.

The person playing Counter Strike, Civ V, StarCraft 2, or a paradox strategy game aren't any less of a gamer than the person playing battlefield 4.
 
TechZeke said:
Gaming is a vague-ass term anyway. People going around saying the Iris Pro isn't good probably are the people who want to play Metro Last Light or Battlefield 4.

The person playing Counter Strike, Civ V, StarCraft 2, or a paradox strategy game aren't any less of a gamer than the person playing battlefield 4.
Click to expand...

Definitely depends on the game, but 650M performance is much better. Iris pro is enough for sc2, but in 3 years the new game you want to play might not run as well. The performance difference is even more noticeable in windows, as the nvidia drivers are so much better than intel's.

However, other factors are also at play here. For instance, the newer one has 802.11ac and better battery life with haswell.
 
Freyqq said:
Definitely depends on the game, but 650M performance is much better. Iris pro is enough for sc2, but in 3 years the new game you want to play might not run as well. The performance difference is even more noticeable in windows, as the nvidia drivers are so much better than intel's.
Click to expand...

It's already established that the 650M is better at gaming than the Iris Pro, You entirely missed the point. A GT 750M is enough for battlefield 4 but in 3 years Battlefield 6 may not run as well. Get a gaming PC laptop with a GTX 780M. You could make this argument all day.

The point is that for some of us that are gamers, the Iris Pro is enough. We don't need to spend $500 just to get a 750M to run the games we want to play.
 
TechZeke said:
It's already established that the 650M is better at gaming than the Iris Pro, You entirely missed the point. A GT 750M is enough for battlefield 4 but in 3 years Battlefield 6 may not run as well. Get a gaming PC laptop with a GTX 780M. You could make this argument all day.

The point is that for some of us that are gamers, the Iris Pro is enough. We don't need to spend $500 just to get a 750M to run the games we want to play.
Click to expand...

I never said anything about the 750M. I was describing the difference between the 650M model and the Iris Pro model, which is the entire point of this thread.

No one can truly know what the requirements will look like in 3 years, but we can know for certain that a 650M/750M will be closer than an Iris Pro at running those games well.
 
I'm planning to buy an Iris Pro in the coming week or so.

If I want to do any serious gaming, I have a Win8 desktop for that.
 
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