New MacBook Pro's Dedicated AMD Graphics Chips Are 'Significantly' Faster and Support Dual 5K Displays

[StayPuft]

To be fair, Macs are not gaming laptops.

GPUS aren't just used for gaming. I don't know why people have that idea stuck in their heads. An example is the Mac Pro and Apple designing Final Cut Pro to specifically take full advantage of the dual GPUs. People want a better GPU ... as an option at the very least ... for more intensive applications.

 

[341328]

lol. Waiting for proper DisplayPort 1.3 monitors.

 

[AxiomaticRubric]

lol. Waiting for proper DisplayPort 1.3 monitors.

This ^ +1

 

[Fzang]

This is why I advocate buying the 13" with touchbar and use the cash saved on an external Thunderbolt 3 GPU such as the Wolfe.

Feels like they've been talking about external GPUs for eternities now. Will it ever take off?

 

[AxiomaticRubric]

GPUS aren't just used for gaming. I don't know why people have that idea stuck in their heads. An example is the Mac Pro and Apple designing Final Cut Pro to specifically take full advantage of the dual GPUs. People want a better GPU ... as an option at the very least ... for more intensive applications.

It's from years of conditioning during the Microsoft PC monopoly era. There are some external Thunderbolt 3 GPUs like the Wolfe that can be used for gaming. Usually though it's better to just build a gaming PC, if games are such a priority (not for me anymore).
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Feels like they've been talking about external GPUs for eternities now. Will it ever take off?

It certainly seems so, now that the technology to support it is finally here.

 

[StayPuft]

It's from years of conditioning during the Microsoft PC monopoly era. There are some external Thunderbolt 3 GPUs like the Wolfe that can be used for gaming. Usually though it's better to just build a gaming PC, if games are such a priority (not for me anymore).

I've given up waiting for Apple to release a product with a decent GPU (sans Mac Pro as it hasn't been updated in several years). I have a Hackintosh right now and I have dual GPUs ... one for Windows (1080) and one specifically supported in OS X (980 Ti). It's been working great so far. I just have a really hard time replicating my workflow in Windows like I do in OS X, so OS X is still crucial. I don't mind supporting Apple, but their computers are certainly pissing me off these days. For travel, I'll probably always stick with Apple laptops. I just wish they'd put more horsepower in the dGPU department. The build quality of their laptops has always been on another level.

 

[AxiomaticRubric]

I've given up waiting for Apple to release a product with a decent GPU (sans Mac Pro as it hasn't been updated in several years). I have a Hackintosh right now and I have dual GPUs ... one for Windows (1080) and one specifically supported in OS X (980 Ti). It's been working great so far. I just have a really hard time replicating my workflow in Windows like I do in OS X, so OS X is still crucial. I don't mind supporting Apple, but their computers are certainly pissing me off these days. For travel, I'll probably always stick with Apple laptops. I just wish they'd put more horsepower in the dGPU department. The build quality of their laptops has always been on another level.

Agreed. There are definitely tradeoffs using Apple hardware but for what I do career-wise they are a perfect fit.

 

[itdk92]

Glad to read my 2015 MBP is faster than the new 2016 MBP

No? It showes that even the 455 is faster than the 390.

 

[smoledman]

I love how everyone is suddenly a Final Cut Pro user. Give me a break.

 

[QCassidy352]

I still remember when May 2015 iMac came out and MacWorld's review said the entry level was almost as fast as the 2014 model. They tried to make it sound like an amazing feat not losing too much performance in the new model.

There was neither a May 2015 iMac nor a 2014 iMac. Fall 2013 and fall 2015. Are you thinking of MacBook pros?

 

[duervo]

The big takeaway as I saw it was that this laptop is "unsuitable for hardcore gamers" (roughly paraphrased). But are hardcore gamers seem to me like they'd be hardly driven by portability and battery life, which is what this machine offers. Seems like the hardcore gamers would be more interested in the refreshed mac Pro, whenever that happens.

All the people I've known over the years that have been "hard core gamers" never bothered to game on a laptop for very long, if at all ... or even a Mac at all, for that matter.

If one wants to "game", and they want to be "hardcore", a Mac is most definitely not the way to do so, whether it's a MacBook Pro or a Mac Pro.

 

[bill44]

Yeah well but then you had TB3 ports for fast storage and separate (m)DP ports for high-res displays. The vast majority of complaints about the new MBPs are actually requests to add additional hardware, and if you followed all requests you'd something like a kitchen sink with 15 ports, 150 W power supply and/or three different case versions.

It's a Type-C port.
It can function as an TB3 port. But TB3 supports DP v1.2 only.
Or, it could work as DisplayPort Alt Mode that supports version 1.4. No need for TB3 for display purposes.

 

[itdk92]

This is why I advocate buying the 13" with touchbar and use the cash saved on an external Thunderbolt 3 GPU such as the Wolfe.

It really depends on what monitors you'd like to connect with straight out of the box.

Ehm the Wolfe has been cancelled for now

There's hope from the Bizon liers tho
/s

 

[iChrist]

My 2010 15" MBP cost $2,499. The equivalent model now costs $2,399.

lol, and the powerbook in 2001 cost $xxx and this is way cheaper based on processing power.

I'm comparing it to the LAST update, not something that came out over half a decade ago. But yeah. the new MBP has about the same processing power as the 2010 MBP, that much we can agree on, lol.
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form factor, improved performance, brighter screen, improved track pad, double the storage, touch bar. if you want the entry level new pro, which adds all of those improvements with the exception of the touch bar, it's exactly the same price as the previous 256GB model - $1499. just repeating 'pumped up the price by $500' simply isn't like-for-like accurate.

Look matey. I am pretty sure the price of memory has dropped significantly over this time period, so don't go acting like Apple is now giving you a better value. Nevermind LCD specs and graphics cards are the same price or cheaper for better quality. Bloody hell.

 

[neoly19833]

The graph in this article is misleading: it looks mbp 15 2016 is slower than the mbp 15 2015.
But that's only for onscreen test which is not fair. The overall result can be found here:
http://arstechnica.com/video/2016/11/the-2016-13-and-15-inch-touch-bar-macbook-pros-reviewed/

The conclusion is right.

 

[Val-kyrie]

It's a Type-C port.
It can function as an TB3 port. But TB3 supports DP v1.2 only.
Or, it could work as DisplayPort Alt Mode that supports version 1.4. No need for TB3 for display purposes.

Does the new MBP support DisplayPort Alt Mode (via miniDP adapter)?

 

[StayPuft]

All the people I've known over the years that have been "hard core gamers" never bothered to game on a laptop for very long, if at all ... or even a Mac at all, for that matter.

If one wants to "game", and they want to be "hardcore", a Mac is most definitely not the way to do so, whether it's a MacBook Pro or a Mac Pro.

There's an entire store full of games for Mac.

 

[daveedjackson]

It's just a huge shame that adobe cc can't fully use the AMD graphics cards. For a "pro" laptop that's kinda crap. I spent 8k on a fully configured MacPro and its is painfully slow in any adobe application. Really disappointing. Also don't seem to have any luck With fully supported 4K/5k monitors. When will they stop pissing off/neglecting us pro users?

 

[cult hero]

What quality can it reasonably play Heroes of the Storm or League of Legends?

I would argue nothing can "reasonably" play League of Legends. LOL

 

[magbarn]

That's absolute horse hockey. The first-gen MacBook Air immediately disproves that statement. What about the G4 cube? The sad 28.8 modem in the G3 iMac, when it was marketed as an Internet machine?

The first Intel MacBook had less GPU performance than the iBook G4. People on MacWhiners were up in arms about it. Same story with the first Intel Mac Mini.

There are countless more.

the difference is that we had 'air' type of machines where power was readily sacrificied for thinness and size. Back then we still had pro machines to choose from. Now that Ive thinness virus has spread to the 'Pro' line, we now have Airs being marketed as pro machines.
Imagine if apple killed the more powerful macs back then and replaced them all with the G4 cube. That's what apple is going now

 

[Bubba Satori]

But... but... Pro something

Pro stands for profound not professional.
My Christmas trees are profound, too.
Design genius, I am. - Jony Ive

So, a $25 GPU in a $2,500 laptop that's faster than 3 year old GPUs.
Kinda makes sense.

 

[melodimac]

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar Geekbench Score

 

[cult hero]

There's an entire store full of games for Mac.

That may be so, even when I do game on a Mac, it's in BootCamp. The last game I was playing that was supported on both platforms was Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. Running it on the Mac was substantially slower at the same resolution. Maybe this isn't the case for games that aren't ported as an afterthought to macOS, but aside from indie games that don't matter my experience gaming in macOS has been dreadful, and this includes on a Hackintosh. It's not just the hardware.

Also, did anyone actually read the article beyond the graph posted on the front page?

 

[melodimac]

In Geekbench 4.0.1, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar scored 3927 in the single-core 64-bit CPU test, which is 5.3 percent faster than the previous generation’s score, and 4.2 percent faster than the just-released 13-inch 2GHz MacBook Pro with function keys. The 15-inch MacBook Pro scored 4216, which is just 1.5 percent better than 2015’s 15-inch MacBook Pro with 2.5GHz quad-core Core i7 with 16GB of RAM and a discrete AMD Radeon R9 M370X.
[doublepost=1479168916][/doublepost]In the multicore CPU test, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar bested last year’s 13-inch Pro by 7.9 percent, and this year’s function key model by 3.8 percent. The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar was was actually edged out by last year’s version in this test.
[doublepost=1479168967][/doublepost]In Geekbench’s OpenCL test, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar scored 30826, using the Intel Iris Graphics 550—that’s 59 percent better than the last generation. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with function keys has Intel Graphics 540, and so this Touch Bar model scored 8.6 percent better.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar scored 42827 in Geekbench’s OpenCL test when using the AMD Radeon Pro 450 graphics, which is 38.7 percent better than the last gen. This model has 2GB of dedicated graphics memory, but you can upgrade to a Radeon Pro 460 with 4GB of memory for $200. The 15-inch MacBook Pro also contains an Intel HD Graphics 530 chip that can be used to extend battery life during less-intensive tasks.

 

[dbri306]

They should have come up the same way they came with the watch. Give the old model new CPU and GPU and drop the price in addition sell this new fancy USB C laptop for dongle professionals