Question on graphic card

[dcaccount]

Hello,
I am about to purchase a MBP 15".

I know that I need 512 Gb storage but I am still doubtful if I need to purchase the version with the extra graphic NVIDIa card or if the version with the Iris "Pro" HD 5200 graphics would be ok for me.

I usually watch videos, edit and work on family clips taken from cams, edit and listen to music and do some gaming, nothing extraordinary, mostly flight simulators.

Would would you do? Can I save the money for the extra card or shall I invest and go for the full version?

Thanks a lot for helping, daniele

 

[henryNZ]

Definitely if you are planning to run flight simulators such as FSX and X-Plane you will want the extra graphics

 

[yjchua95]

Hello,
I am about to purchase a MBP 15".

I know that I need 512 Gb storage but I am still doubtful if I need to purchase the version with the extra graphic NVIDIa card or if the version with the Iris "Pro" HD 5200 graphics would be ok for me.

I usually watch videos, edit and work on family clips taken from cams, edit and listen to music and do some gaming, nothing extraordinary, mostly flight simulators.

Would would you do? Can I save the money for the extra card or shall I invest and go for the full version?

Thanks a lot for helping, daniele

Flight simulators? Go for the dGPU, especially if you're playing X-plane or Flightgear.

 

[maflynn]

I'd say if you have some games in mind, with your MBP, then yeah a dGPU is a better choice.

 

[dcaccount]

I'd say if you have some games in mind, with your MBP, then yeah a dGPU is a better choice.

Thanks all for replying.

One question, what does dGPU stand for?

Thanks, daniele

 

[MartinAppleGuy]

Hello,
I am about to purchase a MBP 15".

I know that I need 512 Gb storage but I am still doubtful if I need to purchase the version with the extra graphic NVIDIa card or if the version with the Iris "Pro" HD 5200 graphics would be ok for me.

I usually watch videos, edit and work on family clips taken from cams, edit and listen to music and do some gaming, nothing extraordinary, mostly flight simulators.

Would would you do? Can I save the money for the extra card or shall I invest and go for the full version?

Thanks a lot for helping, daniele

I run X-Plane 10 with my 750m and I get around 45-90fps on average. I'm running at 1080p with 4X AA, 4X AF, textures set to very high, almost every box ticked (apart from HDR). I have also added more traffic.

----------

Thanks all for replying.

One question, what does dGPU stand for?

Thanks, daniele

Dedicated Graphics Processing Unit. To put it in simple terms, the Intel Iris Pro does not come with VRAM, it uses system RAM which is much slower. The 750m comes with 2GB of GDDR5 VRAM which is a must for X-Plane (it uses around 1.5GB of VRAM if you have the settings cranked up).

 

[leman]

According to these benchmarks, Iris Pro is not that much behind dedicated cards.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/X-Plane-10-Benchmarked.111450.0.html

http://www.barefeats.com/rmbpc2.html

X-Plane is not a very GPU intensive game, but it's certainly a quite inefficient one. It uses insane amounts if VRAM, because they don't use LOD streaming. But it does not have much overdraw, so it's demands on VRAM bandwidth are lower than most modern games. So Iris Pro should do an okish job here. Not to mention that Iris Pro essentially has unlimited VRAM, unlike the dedicated GPU. It would be interesting if someone here could try to benchmark X-Plane on Iris Pro and see if they can replicate the results.

 

[saturnotaku]

According to these benchmarks, Iris Pro is not that much behind dedicated cards.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/X-Plane-10-Benchmarked.111450.0.html

http://www.barefeats.com/rmbpc2.html

X-Plane is not a very GPU intensive game, but it's certainly a quite inefficient one. It uses insane amounts if VRAM, because they don't use LOD streaming. But it does not have much overdraw, so it's demands on VRAM bandwidth are lower than most modern games. So Iris Pro should do an okish job here. Not to mention that Iris Pro essentially has unlimited VRAM, unlike the dedicated GPU. It would be interesting if someone here could try to benchmark X-Plane on Iris Pro and see if they can replicate the results.

While that might be true, if the OP is going to go for 512 GB of storage, she might as well go for the model with the dGPU (which can also stand for Discreet Graphics Processing Unit) because the cost differential essentially makes the 750M a "free" upgrade.