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Retina MacBook Pro Pushes the Limits of its Graphics Capabilities

Why are ppl trying so hard to prove the MBPr runs just fine?

If you are not sure and want to get one you could just visit a store?
Most people would first take a look before spending 2K I guess.
(I didn't though :rolleyes:)

After when I ordered I went to the local store to check it out, and the MBPr ran just fine I notiched some minor lag sometimes when scrolling in iPhoto, but the OS was just very smooth, also tried some webpages and it was just smooth (haven't tried Facebook)
 
iBug2 said:
Actually Cinebench is known to perform better on slower GPU's and this happened many times before which basically made Cinebench's Open GL test obsolete. So it's a Cinebench issue. rMBP's gaming performance on full resolution compared to 2011 MBP's is better. So the GPU is more than enough to handle the full resolution at better framerates. Hence this is totally about the CPU, if it was about the GPU, I would be seeing better framerates scrolling Facebook on my Mac Pro with a 5870, which is 3.5 times faster than GT650M and it's pushing even less pixels on my 30".
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You simply have no idea what you're talking about. Go back and read this thread, see what resolution scaling is, Quartz, and why the rMBP is choppy. It is the GPU.
 
CodeBreaker said:
Because the "old clunk MacBook" is 4 times faster than the new "clunk" MacBook.

And AnandTech is not a troll :rolleyes:
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Where is your proof of this. Apart from the sluggish UI. When running a game or photoshop your sayin the old model is faster.please!!
 
Agreed

I totally agree with what most of you guys have said. 1st: wait for the second revision. and 2nd: Let them put in an Nvidia GTX 675 2GB card or 4GB GTX 680. I think then apple will have a laptop to reckon with.
 
gimlifn said:
I totally agree with what most of you guys have said. 1st: wait for the second revision. and 2nd: Let them put in an Nvidia GTX 675 2GB card or 4GB GTX 680. I think then apple will have a laptop to reckon with.
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They can, but then you are gonna whine about the battery life.
 
I guess this is what I noticed at Best Buy the other day.

New MBA 13" base model ran perfect, web pages were quick.

New rMBP base model ran native applications OK (not great, just OK) but web browsing was HORRIBLE. Even bumping the resolution to the lowest I still noticed slight hitching/fps drop. On the recommended setting it was like a mid grade laptop from 4+ years ago depending on the website.

To be honest, I was swooning over the specs and preordered but feel somewhat relieved that they are delaying orders now.

The specs are much better on the PRO but due to the Retina display or whatever other reasons it performs worse than any other Mac laptop currently available for the highest price.

What am I missing here? What should I get at this point?

I was looking for something powerful yet very light due to the fact I would be taking to and from work daily (mostly office products, some very light adobe work and remote access). At home, I wanted to play games such as Diablo 3, Skyrim and the COD series on mid-max settings. Lastly I would use this as backup for most vacation media while actually on vacation.

The only thing selling me with this over the MBA was the dedicated nVidia chip, which seems to be mostly useless as it is working overtime to render the additional pixels.

I would never use the additional real estate, just stick with the recommended setting.
 
MEgaMacMan said:
Where is your proof of this. Apart from the sluggish UI. When running a game or photoshop your sayin the old model is faster.please!!
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Well, sadly, I am not quite rich to own both new and old MacBooks (I haven't yet decided which one to put my money on). But the higher end MBP has the same GPU with the same amount if VRAM as the retina MBP. And it has to drive 4 times less pixels than the retina. So 4 times faster.

There will obviously be cases where the retina one is faster than the non retina one, but that will only be due to the SSD and the extra RAM.
 
For what it's worth, running full 2880x1800 on Windows 8 on my rMBP (I don't use OS X) and I can scroll facebook at high speed with no lag.
 
iChrist said:
Why buy old clunk MacBook??? Apple made perfect thin notebook with retinas. If some say is slow they lie. Anandtech is known to be troll.
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You are wrong in so many ways... its actually quite sad... the old macbooks are perfectly fine for the same uses as the current ones. They are however also cheaper and just as durable.

Anandtech is more trustable than you are, thats for sure....
 
maril1111 said:
You are wrong in so many ways... its actually quite sad... the old macbooks are perfectly fine for the same uses as the current ones. They are however also cheaper and just as durable.

Anandtech is more trustable than you are, thats for sure....
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Just to be clear, the non retina MBP is not less expensive than the rMBP. The non retina comes with an hdd in the base configuration, while the rMBP comes with an ssd in the base config. With identical configs (both with same ssd), the rMBP is cheaper actually.

Mind you, you get an optical drive and more ports in the old, and a retina display, thinner profile and HDMI in the new. Take your pick I guess, though without the potential lag issue the rMBP would look like the better value for money in my view.

With the lag issue, it looks like a wait and see situation. This long thread has had a lot of conflicting reports and opinions and it looks more time will be needed to arrive at a clear concensus.
 
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pesos said:
For what it's worth, running full 2880x1800 on Windows 8 on my rMBP (I don't use OS X) and I can scroll facebook at high speed with no lag.
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Based on another discussion I just had, it seems web browsing in OS X doesn't kick in the 650m. With such high resolution, even web surfing certain pages can be cumbersome.

With boot camp, my understanding is that it is locked to the 650m. This results in better overall performance but worse battery life.
 
Drempel said:
Goodday Gents,

When i've removed the adobe flash plugin the scroll lag is much less a problem for me. Good example website for me was the one noticed below. The above part of that websites goes smooth but if the comments start it begins to stutter.

http://chris.pirillo.com/skype-audio-problems-on-the-macbook-pro/

Kind regards,
Drempel
Click to expand...

I was thinking to myself, how come an os x/apple has an issue thread hasn't turned into attack flash and adobe yet. :D
 
Pyrophor2011 said:
Based on another discussion I just had, it seems web browsing in OS X doesn't kick in the 650m. With such high resolution, even web surfing certain pages can be cumbersome.

With boot camp, my understanding is that it is locked to the 650m. This results in better overall performance but worse battery life.
Click to expand...

it's the fact that windows do not upscale to twice the resolution and then half it and adjust it to screen size. Windows just goes full res. That's the real culprit here, i.e. the gpu can't handle this that well. :)

Reading everyone's comments I just think that apple messed this up (once again, see iphone 4 antenna) with their obsession with thinness. Why the hell didn't they just stick a better card in a bigger battery and make it as thick or slightly less thicker than the previous gen. Then by rev. 2 they could slim it down even more with a less power hungry gfx card that would require a smaller battery. :)

It would make more sense, and I am sure no one would have a problem with it, if the "old model" or the non retina model got slimmer but the new one stayed as thick or just thinner because of the retina and the need for better thermals, better gpu and bigger battery, not the other way around...:cool:

Seems anyway you look at it that it's not a well designed product by virtue of it having to be that slim. The battery had to be less, no better gfx could be fitted, gone was the option for an adjunct hdd for storage (of course that could be put down to apple's greed to control storage and thus purchases a la ipod/ipad), the ssd is not an industry standard, and the memory is soldered. And the machine stutters and lags, and even after a software update I foresee this issue is only going to be masked not solved....:(

Such an utter shame this is of course. :(
 
Sasoon said:
I don't know what is all this fuss about 2880x1800 resolution. I was runing 15 years ago monitor at 1600x1200 resolution. You would expect that 15 years later, graphics cards will work with 10,000x6,000 pixels without problem :)
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So true.
 
MrNomNoms said:
IMHO I don't see the attraction to Retina... [it's] little more than d-ck waving rather than genuinely beneficial.
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Can you honestly, truly not see a difference between the RMBP and the 'standard' 15" MBP in the store? I honestly can't understand why it's taken THIS long to produce a screen with a moderately pleasing resolution. In *my* humble opinion, I wouldn't even consider anything but the RMPB *IF* it functioned without fault as it should. The countless posts about its inability to keep up, however, have me pretty skeptical.
 
Well I'll get my retina in around three days, can't cancel my order but may have to return it If I don't like what I see. Sure it has it's problems but I just hope this won't put me off and force me to return it. hope mountain lion atleast helps with the problem or future updates. If not it means this whole year would be not very good. The display is gorgeous but can't believe apple released a new mac pro that wasn't ready to handle simple UI tasks such as resizing a window or flicking between spaces. Just hope they don't disappoint me too much. Otherwise I suspect apple will be getting plenty of returns.
 
blow45 said:
... I just think that apple messed this up (once again, see iphone 4 antenna) with their obsession with thinness...
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Apple is utterly obsessed with thinness, beyond the point of practicality. Half their presentations are about how thin their newest hardware is. I think they have begun putting anorexic aluminum over functionality. Does the Retina look great? It looks awesome. But it is a disposable computer; you can't repair or upgrade it at all. Is the screen thin? Razor. If something goes wrong with it, buy a new one. And they probably should have just called it at day at 1920x1200. It would have been an amazing display, and the 650M would have been much more steady driving it.
 
Nungster said:
Don't run the screen at the higher resolution and voila, MBP Retina w/o retina-ish.
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How does the relate to performance and battery usage? [not rhetorical]

I would have assumed the retina would use more power regardless of the resolution and power consumption is my primary concern with the retina.

This being said it is an assumption and I'm not familiar with the retina design and how it works.
 
Asia8 said:
How does the relate to performance and battery usage? [not rhetorical]

I would have assumed the retina would use more power regardless of the resolution and power consumption is my primary concern with the retina.

This being said it is an assumption and I'm not familiar with the retina design and how it works.
Click to expand...

Given the rMBP has a significantly larger battery...
 
SirHaakon said:
Can you honestly, truly not see a difference between the RMBP and the 'standard' 15" MBP in the store? I honestly can't understand why it's taken THIS long to produce a screen with a moderately pleasing resolution. In *my* humble opinion, I wouldn't even consider anything but the RMPB *IF* it functioned without fault as it should. The countless posts about its inability to keep up, however, have me pretty skeptical.
Click to expand...

I haven't been considering buying anything but a retina mac, or any hidpi monitor mac (or windows pc for that matter - there's always hackintosh), for the past year or so, and I 've been patiently enduring older macs and sub par external monitors, because I couldn't throw money on a sub 100ppi monitor, not anymore... and the 27" imac to me is unacceptable with that glass cover (another rumor still yet to materialize... treated less reflective glass on macs...)...:eek:

I have been waiting, and waiting, and checking the rumors, and waiting...

So I am very disappointed at apple that when the time comes and I am like, finally here take my money, how much $2,200, oops that's a tad steep but anyway take my money....with custom ssd and no ability to put one of ocz's or intels ultra fast and much better babies on in a year? Ok bummer, this is not an air but I all handle it. Soldered ram? Are they joking? But fine I ll pay up for the 16gbs. No extra hd storage and I am down to 256gbs as if I am running a mac circa 2007 (cause I can't afford the higher end model, it doesn't make financial sense to me)...ok I ll handle that too... now bring me that otherwise flawless retina pro...ooopss wait, we made it even thinner and didn't really put the very best gpu we could get our hands on because of battery life (make it thicker then an put a larger battery in...duhhhh) and it has a bit of problem with lags and choppiness but we ll get the os update and we'll mask the problem a bit...

Thanks a whole effing lot apple. :cool:
 
freudling said:
You simply have no idea what you're talking about. Go back and read this thread, see what resolution scaling is, Quartz, and why the rMBP is choppy. It is the GPU.
Click to expand...

So it seems like the RMBP is Cook's first major failure worth a RECALL, just like the good ol' fire-catching PBs of the late 90s. Is it gonna happen? No. Guinea pigs will just need to suck it and perhaps get a free $25 laptop cover for their brand new lemons.

SJ IS GONE. AND APPLE IS DEAD.
 
I'll tell all of you something. With the shortcomings of this machine, namely its performance, it's virtually impossible for me to go back to my 2011 MBP 15". I just turned it on again and the screen looks horrible. The Retina has totally ruined it for me.

While it wasn't as pronounced having been using Retina iPhones and iPads for a while, having it on such a large screen and using it everyday... the non-retina screens are brutal. I mean, Passive Matrix brutal. The difference is that big. It's basically impossible to go back.

The thinness, lightness and cool temps of this also make it impossible to use any other machine at this point.

But the performance makes me want to smash my head into a wall many times over.

----------
BRLawyer said:
So it seems like the RMBP is Cook's first major failure worth a RECALL, just like the good ol' fire-catching PBs of the late 90s. Is it gonna happen? No. Guinea pigs will just need to suck it and perhaps get a free $25 laptop cover for their brand new lemons.

SJ IS GONE. AND APPLE IS DEAD.
Click to expand...

Time will tell if it turns out to be a lemon.
 
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