Finally upgraded my ageing MacBook Air mid-2011 to a brand new rMBP 2015 15", the higher-end 2.5ghz model with AMD discrete graphics (gave up on waiting for the 2016 rMBP refresh/redesign and have always been a bit circumspect about buying first-generation new models anyway).
Totally satisfied with my choice but a couple of things I've run into after using the machine for a month have surprised me:
I was under the impression that, with automatic graphics switching selected in system prefs, only graphically demanding applications such as Photoshop and Final Cut would cause the AMD to kick in. However, and this happens only occasionally rather than consistently, Safari will cause the AMD GPU to activate (a look at 'Energy' in Activity Monitor confirms this). I've also seen Reeder activate the AMD on one occasion. This is a little bit of a pain when running on battery power and I can't think why this might be... anyone have any ideas? Flash isn't installed on the rMBP incidentally.
And then something that presents no problem at all yet did surprise me: given that I have the highest spec'ed MBP currently available (with the exception of BT0 upgrading the CPU slightly to 2.8ghz) I was very surprised to see Illustrator (CS6) beachballing for a couple of seconds when saving an AI file of rather moderate size (80mb). I had one or two other apps open at this point but nothing demanding; just Safari and Mail iirc. Is this to be expected despite having a highly-spec'ed machine (no carping about my new purchase containing outdated hardware please!)
Any thoughts appreciated, cheers.
Saru-san
EDIT: it appears that Safari is causing the AMD GPU to kick in when I have a tab open showing Google Maps; the minute I close that tab the rMBP switches back to internal graphics. That doesn't explain what caused Reeder to use AMD though since I've never once accessed Google Maps via Reeder.
I'd hoped that by choosing Safari over Chrome I would avoid the memory and energy over-hungriness that Google's apps/services seem to be infamous for! Unfortunately though I need Google Maps in my workflow since my work requires me to look up the longitude/latitude of locations; this functionality isn't offered by Apple's Maps application AFAIK.
Totally satisfied with my choice but a couple of things I've run into after using the machine for a month have surprised me:
I was under the impression that, with automatic graphics switching selected in system prefs, only graphically demanding applications such as Photoshop and Final Cut would cause the AMD to kick in. However, and this happens only occasionally rather than consistently, Safari will cause the AMD GPU to activate (a look at 'Energy' in Activity Monitor confirms this). I've also seen Reeder activate the AMD on one occasion. This is a little bit of a pain when running on battery power and I can't think why this might be... anyone have any ideas? Flash isn't installed on the rMBP incidentally.
And then something that presents no problem at all yet did surprise me: given that I have the highest spec'ed MBP currently available (with the exception of BT0 upgrading the CPU slightly to 2.8ghz) I was very surprised to see Illustrator (CS6) beachballing for a couple of seconds when saving an AI file of rather moderate size (80mb). I had one or two other apps open at this point but nothing demanding; just Safari and Mail iirc. Is this to be expected despite having a highly-spec'ed machine (no carping about my new purchase containing outdated hardware please!)
Any thoughts appreciated, cheers.
Saru-san
EDIT: it appears that Safari is causing the AMD GPU to kick in when I have a tab open showing Google Maps; the minute I close that tab the rMBP switches back to internal graphics. That doesn't explain what caused Reeder to use AMD though since I've never once accessed Google Maps via Reeder.
I'd hoped that by choosing Safari over Chrome I would avoid the memory and energy over-hungriness that Google's apps/services seem to be infamous for! Unfortunately though I need Google Maps in my workflow since my work requires me to look up the longitude/latitude of locations; this functionality isn't offered by Apple's Maps application AFAIK.
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