Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
There you go, opening an new post asking about the graphic card.
People are never tired of discussing about this.

Supporters of iGPU and dGPU, this is a new battle field, FIGHT!!!
 
This is the kinda stuff that's gonna blow people's minds. If real-life comparisons show the Iris Pro as being on par or slightly better than the 650m, then the only people complaining will be the ones who (rightly) point out that there "shoulda/coulda" been a bigger step up with 3D graphics performance in the new rMBP, instead of just holding the line with 1 year old performance.

I'm fully expecting, however, that with the Iris Pro there will be a handful of games or applications that greatly disappoint. Just what those applications are will be interesting to see.

Yeah. These are definitely not not real-life comparisons, so we'll see.

There you go, opening an new post asking about the graphic card.
People are never tired of discussing about this.

Supporters of iGPU and dGPU, this is a new battle field, FIGHT!!!

Definitely team dGPU, until broadwell comes out, anyway :D
 
I think Apple is pushing this 'system on a chip' design to their pro models. They've been innovators, and I think they see the future in that design.

Just like the first MBA, it was slow and people criticized it a lot. Now, the MBA is one of their best selling laptops.

If the rMBP would only have an iGPU, it would be more like an 'experimental' product like the first MBA. Maybe after a few generations there will be much more powerful iGPUs that satisfy the demand for pro users.
 
Measuring FPS on a few common games isn't real-life?

Not really, we don't even know what the source is for the Iris marks provided. I'd wait till notebook check does one, but it's likely to be similar. Seems a bit all over the place in comparison, which is why I'm skeptical.

I think Apple is pushing this 'system on a chip' design to their pro models. They've been innovators, and I think they see the future in that design.

Just like the first MBA, it was slow and people criticized it a lot. Now, the MBA is one of their best selling laptops.

If the rMBP would only have an iGPU, it would be more like an 'experimental' product like the first MBA. Maybe after a few generations there will be much more powerful iGPUs that satisfy the demand for pro users.

Yeah, in a few years. But it's never going to be faster than a dGPU would. Sure, an iGPU in 5 years might be fast enough for all types of people. But in 5 years, there are still going to be dGPU's that are much faster, which "pro" users might prefer. We'll see, at that point we could see 95% of smaller (sub 16") laptops with iGPU's.
 
Not really, we don't even know what the source is for the Iris marks provided. I'd wait till notebook check does one, but it's likely to be similar. Seems a bit all over the place in comparison, which is why I'm skeptical.

Yeah - maybe the different settings use different rendering techniques that cripple or optimize the Iris and 650m capability.. will be interesting for sure.
 
What is everyone talking about energy use? If the dGPU isn't being used, it gets turned off. That results in no extra power usage.

Sure, if I fire up a power hungry app, the dGPU gets turned back on. But that energy use is still better than that app running horribly on an Iris Pro. And a Haswell chip without Iris Pro uses even less power! So if you're not using the dGPU, your battery life is even longer than with Iris Pro.
 
New retina MacBook Pro GPU

What is everyone talking about energy use? If the dGPU isn't being used, it gets turned off. That results in no extra power usage.

Sure, if I fire up a power hungry app, the dGPU gets turned back on. But that energy use is still better than that app running horribly on an Iris Pro. And a Haswell chip without Iris Pro uses even less power! So if you're not using the dGPU, your battery life is even longer than with Iris Pro.

The problem is that automatic graphics switching doesn't work across the board. It doesn't work with Bootcamp or with external monitors, period (for example). It defeats the entire purpose of graphics switching. Why even have an additional video card hogging power and space and adding cost in your notebook if it doesn't even work in certain usage scenarios? Why even have a notebook form factor when you're exclusively using a dGPU that gives it a 2 hour battery life?

Nvidia and Apple's failure at AGS is one of the big reasons why Apple is moving away from dGPU and towards the integrated space. If the iGPU is powerful enough (and that's admittedly a big if) then you have a cleaner, simpler more elegant solution that is definitely right up Apple's alley.
 
What is everyone talking about energy use? If the dGPU isn't being used, it gets turned off. That results in no extra power usage.

Sure, if I fire up a power hungry app, the dGPU gets turned back on. But that energy use is still better than that app running horribly on an Iris Pro. And a Haswell chip without Iris Pro uses even less power! So if you're not using the dGPU, your battery life is even longer than with Iris Pro.

Wow I don't even know where to begin, but ok.
 
You can't compare 9400M and the Iris Pro. The 9400M was already slow when it was released. Iris Pro is actually a decent part, but as already discussed, most users will see a performance hit compared to the 650M/750M. The only users that would benefit are those doing GPGPU computations which are not memory-bound. Gamers will suffer most, of course.

So you're saying Final Cut Pro X won't see performance drop? That will be nice to know but the lack of 3D display support is the only reason I'll skip the haswell (going to get a 3D TV).
 
The problem is that automatic graphics switching doesn't work across the board. It doesn't work with Bootcamp or with external monitors, period (for example). It defeats the entire purpose of graphics switching. Why even have an additional video card hogging power and space and adding cost in your notebook if it doesn't even work in certain usage scenarios? Why even have a notebook form factor when you're exclusively using a dGPU that gives it a 2 hour battery life?

The problem is that an external monitor causes the card to turn on? That doesn't seem like much of a problem to me. Not worth the tradeoff of losing the dGPU.

Again, the battery life of a notebook doesn't matter if it can't deliver the necessary performance. If battery life is your biggest concern, go buy a Macbook Air... A car is more efficient than a rocket, but a car isn't going to get you to the moon.
 
So you're saying Final Cut Pro X won't see performance drop? That will be nice to know but the lack of 3D display support is the only reason I'll skip the haswell (going to get a 3D TV).

FCP X will perform better because of OpenCL optimization.
 
Why are you debating and fighting folks? At the end, most of you will buy the 15" rMBP with or without the dGPU... :D
 
The problem is that an external monitor causes the card to turn on? That doesn't seem like much of a problem to me. Not worth the tradeoff of losing the dGPU.

Again, the battery life of a notebook doesn't matter if it can't deliver the necessary performance. If battery life is your biggest concern, go buy a Macbook Air... A car is more efficient than a rocket, but a car isn't going to get you to the moon.

Agreed completely, which is why the iGPU has to be powerful enough. However once you get performance similar to a dGPU there is absolutely no reason to have a dGPU. But some posters here seem to be so dead set against the idea of an iGPU only MBP, even if it hypothetically outperformed its dedicated counterpart it wouldn't matter.

The upshot of an integrated only solution is slimmer, lighter, more power efficient, and cheaper to manufacture, which is exactly what you want a notebook to be, but no one on the dGPU side seems to acknowledge those positives.

Anyway personally I think this will happen 100% with Broadwell, but that's just pure speculation.
 
Last edited:
All I know is that if the next rMBP has a dGPU, I'm gonna start a "Apology Accepted" thread..
 
Agreed completely, which is why the iGPU has to be powerful enough. However once you get performance similar to a dGPU there is absolutely no reason to have a dGPU. But some posters here seem to be so dead set against the idea of an iGPU only MBP, even if it hypothetically outperformed its dedicated counterpart it wouldn't matter.

The upshot of an integrated only solution is slimmer, lighter, more power efficient, and cheaper to manufacture, which is exactly what you want a notebook to be, but no one on the dGPU side seems to acknowledge those positives.

Anyway personally I think this will happen 100% with Broadwell, but that's just pure speculation.

Dreaming is free... Keep on... :D
 
Dreaming is free... Keep on... :D

This is not dreaming, this is fact. Iris Pro is already faster (in terms of computing power) than a mid-range mobile GPU. The problem is memory bandwidth. Give it some dedicated memory controllers and on-board GDDR5 and it will be faster than 750M. I wonder how Intel is going to solve the memory issue though. If they manage to do it, there will be indeed no reason for a dGPU in a laptop anymore.
 
Im curious which way Apple will go just because there are so many reasons for and against both sides. I am pretty sure we will be seeing Iris Pro, but I don't know if Apple is ready to go all iGPU across its flagship laptop line. Perhaps an option for dGPU is most likely; its what I would do. Then everyone would be happy. The question is, can they cool a newer dGPU?

But in the end it doesn't matter if it is iGPU or dGPU, its the benchmarks that are going to make the difference. I don't do 3D work, but I feel for the people for whom its going to make a difference. I would love a dGPU but I think Iris Pro will be good enough for me (Aperture, Photomatix, and Tropico LOL)
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.