rMBP, MBA or other?

[Pyrophor2011]

I've ordered the rMBP based model but am no questioning my decision based on performance from a Best Buy display model.

Side-by-side
___________

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.

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.

 

[Dangerous Theory]

The fact that you want to run skyrim/cod/d3 at mid-max instantly puts the MBA out of the equation. You're only choice is the 15" MBP, either retina or not.

 

[Pyrophor2011]

The fact that you want to run skyrim/cod/d3 at mid-max instantly puts the MBA out of the equation. You're only choice is the 15" MBP, either retina or not.

I could see the non retina MBP as being an improvement but why would the rMBP be one? If its spending all that extra power rendering the extra pixels, whats the point? Its such a drastic performance hog outside of gaming, why would it be different with gaming?

 

[b0blndsy]

How is it that the dedicated NVIDIA is working overtime to render the pixels?

 

[Dangerous Theory]

I could see the non retina MBP as being an improvement but why would the rMBP be one? If its spending all that extra power rendering the extra pixels, whats the point? Its such a drastic performance hog outside of gaming, why would it be different with gaming?

It doesn't use every single drop of the 650M's power to JUST push double the pixels - that would be insane (especially considering it CAN run on integrated). It's stretched more to it's limits to handle them, yes, but it still performs leaps and bounds above an Air with simply HD4000. I'm not saying the retina version is better than the same spec non retina 15" - I don't know. Just saying the MBA is way out for high quality gaming.

 

[Pyrophor2011]

It doesn't use every single drop of the 650M's power to JUST push double the pixels - that would be insane (especially considering it CAN run on integrated). It's stretched more to it's limits to handle them, yes, but it still performs leaps and bounds above an Air with simply HD4000. I'm not saying the retina version is better than the same spec non retina 15" - I don't know. Just saying the MBA is way out for high quality gaming.

Gotcha!

Does the rMBP use only the 4000 for web display? I forgot that the 650 is powered down to conserve battery life.

 

[Dangerous Theory]

Gotcha!

Does the rMBP use only the 4000 for web display? I forgot that the 650 is powered down to conserve battery life.

I think it depends on whats going on in the webpage. I can't imagine it uses it for macrumours though! I don't have one to confirm things though - you're better getting a response from someone who's using one.

 

[Pyrophor2011]

I think it depends on whats going on in the webpage. I can't imagine it uses it for macrumours though! I don't have one to confirm things though - you're better getting a response from someone who's using one.

Yeah, MacRumors ran fine. I frequent Skyrim Nexus for mods and it was horrible. Dropping below 10fps occasionally. Although, they are using new code for the side so that could be part of the problem. Anything running flash seemed to take a huge hit at the default resolution.

 

[scarred]

The HD 4000 can handle some light gaming. Diablo 3 and skyrim work quite well with it (search youtube). The 650M is certainly a lot better, but for a gaming rig, it isn't anything to call home about either.

On another note, I just went to the store and saw the rMBP... man it is much bigger and heavier then I thought. I'm kind of glad I finally got to see it in person... it is a definite pass for me. I'm happy with my MBA 13 (2011... the 2012 would be nice, but oh well).

 

[Stetrain]

I could see the non retina MBP as being an improvement but why would the rMBP be one? If its spending all that extra power rendering the extra pixels, whats the point? Its such a drastic performance hog outside of gaming, why would it be different with gaming?

You also don't have to run games at 2880x1800. They should look pretty good in other 16:10 resolutions as well, like 1920x1200, 1680x1050, or 1440x900.

A lot of the web browser lag issues seem to actually come down to lack of GPU acceleration in Safari on Lion. The NVidia chip is quite powerful and seems to run games pretty well for a mobile GPU.

 

[Pyrophor2011]

You also don't have to run games at 2880x1800. They should look pretty good in other 16:10 resolutions as well, like 1920x1200, 1680x1050, or 1440x900.

A lot of the web browser lag issues seem to actually come down to lack of GPU acceleration in Safari on Lion. The NVidia chip is quite powerful and seems to run games pretty well for a mobile GPU.

Gotcha, yeah I misunderstood the description and thought the "best" retina setting (default) was actually 1440x900. That would explain a little of the slowdown.

With gaming, I planned to run at 1440x900. Mainly, I just don't want the lowest settings. The problem with Skyrim is I use a lot of mods and therefore it might not be a good match for any laptop other than strictly gaming.

With web surfing, is there any way to force gpu acceleration or have they rumored fixed thing the issue with either ML or later down the road? We mindlessly web surf sometimes and I can see the performance hitching being a huge problem for us.

 

[Stetrain]

Safari in ML supposedly uses more GPU acceleration, and people who have tried out developer versions of ML say that it helps.

Chrome is also pretty good with using GPU acceleration, but it needs to be fixed to work well with the HD4000 graphics chip.