Trey M
macrumors 6502a
Lol what? The Macbook was an example of how thin and light they can take the laptop, not about 'resolution'.
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Skylake CPUs for next MB. (merged)
- Thread starter dubydoo
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Lol what? The Macbook was an example of how thin and light they can take the laptop, not about 'resolution'.
Trey M
macrumors 6502a
I agree; I think it'd be a huge missed opportunity to skip out on the 14'' rMB. In 2012 they released the 15'' rMBP, and later that year they released the 13'' rMBP. At the time, it made more sense to release a brand new design and display into the Pro lineup for the users that demanded these features the most. However, it also allowed them to release the technology to a niche group before getting it into the hands of everyday consumers (students, casual users of the mainstream 13'' model) that make up the majority of their user base.
Now that we're in 2015, it's clear that there is a really strong demand for retina from all consumers. So, they release the first attempt in the rMacbook, and now they're primed to release the device that will be used by the majority of the user base; the 14'' rMacbook in the 13'' body. It's a really strong marketing move to build up anticipation while allowing early adopters the chance to see the most cutting edge technology months before anyone else will get their hands on it.
In order to kill the air, which will happend for sure, there are two important factors they need to solve... the cooling and the price in the macbook.
The first Macbook Air was $1,799 at the 2008 release, two years after the release, at 2010 it was 1,000$ so the rMB should start droping the price as long as the manufacture process becomes standard, 1100$ would be a perfect start point for the 12 inch price.
The real killer of the air would be a rMB 14 inch with active cooling and options from core m to i7 u-series. If there is no active cooling, we will have to wait at least 2 or 3 years before a rMB (12 or 14) could be a real replacement for the Macbook Air.
T'hain Esh Kelch
macrumors 604
Is there a cooling problem? Apple didn't mind killing of the 15" MBP, even though the retina MBP was more expensive.
The passive cooling system could be a problem if you want to work with the laptop. The one in the rMB it´s not really efficient (yet). After a short period of intensive cpu usage, the cpu gets hot and in order to to keep it below risky temperatures it downclocks the speed or turn the other core off causing the "throttle" effect. This would never happend under active cooling.
Future generations of intel core m would be more efficient, so maybe in a couple of years this effect would be solved even with passive system. But for now a rMB 14 with active cooling would be the real deal to use core m / u-series and kill the air.
Adding active cooling to the sleek, new, fanless Macbook is a non-starter. If you need spinning fans that badly, the Macbook Pro is right over there on the next display table.
And I like that product idea of sleek and silent laptop, but again we will have to wait around 2 - 3 years (even more) to have the actual mabook air performance in the upcoming macbooks.
That said, my thoughts were: active cooling only for the 14 inch, if microsoft can do it in 8mm Apple can do it in the 3,5 / 130mm for this hypothetical 14 inch macbook without making design sacrifices.
toddzrx
macrumors 6502a
I agree with you on the price, and it'll come down with Skylake for the current 12" just like it did with the Air. But putting a fan into a 14" so it can use a more powerful processor? Not happening. Being fanless is one of the key attributes of the rMB. If you need the power....get a MacBook Pro.
What I'm trying to say it's that the macbook air represent the mid point between max performance (rMBP) and max portability (rMB). If they kill it, we would lose that option. Using a fan would be a posible solution, but it is not a mandatory one. A macbook pro with a body redesign into something similar to the actual macbook air body would solve it perfectly too.
How is possible for Microsoft, Dell, Lenovo to have Skylake CPUS , Skylake U and Y and not Apple? And please do not tell me that they are waiting for the high end GPU or something similar because this is not the case. They can easily update them now and get rev 2 skylake in the summer.
Its not reasonable to go to the Christmas period with last gen cpus.
Its not reasonable to go to the Christmas period with last gen cpus.
I suppose it could be the alpine ridge tb3 controller that is still not available.
Dell xps 15 is available with 1 / 2 weeks deliver, and it comes with thunderbolt 3 so I think it has to be another reason.
Maybe the problem here is that TB3 only supports DP1.2 (x2) instead of DP1.3 and that could be problematic for 5k displays which would need a special monitor conector (upcoming thunderbolt display). So this "another reason" could be they are waiting for intel to make a revision TB3.1 which include DP1.3 or something related to this.
Yes but macbook does not have neither DP or TB :S
I think they will update the macbook, at least, by the end of the month
The USB-C in the macbook should be updated to TB3 in the next version as they use the same conector and the technology is already available, so yep, it could be next month.
But if they want it to mirror or being able to target display 5k from the usb-c macbook to a future thunderbolt display, then the update may be delayed until next year.
PD. I don´t fully understand how the lack of support for DP 1.3 (32.4 Gbps) inside the TB3 port (40 Gbps) affect the 5k support. In numbers TB3 has higher bandwidth, but I´ve read it in several posts.
There's nothing I'd ask a Macbook Air to do that the new Macbook can't handle just fine.
RubberShoes
macrumors regular
The MacBook's entire conceptual purpose was to fit the productivity of the 13" MBA into the 11" MBA footprint. With a retina screen OS X can scale multiple resolutions to accommodate screen real estate. My point is, if the 12" can scale to the real estate of 1440x900, even though it's just a 12" screen, why both with a larger laptop? The rMB replaces both the 11" and 13" MBA for portability and when you need more, you can step up to the 13" and 15" Pros.
If you think I'm insane remember this already happened. Remember the 17" MBP? So many people flocked to the forums kicking and screaming that Apple killed their big baby when they failed to realize the 15" retina screen can scale to the same 1920x1200 resolution people bought the 17" for.
14" will never happen. Please stop asking for it.
RubberShoes
macrumors regular
TB3 supports the DisplayPort 1.2 standard, rather than 1.3. That means only 21.6 Gbps is supported and that isnt enough bandwidth for a single-tile 5K display. If you want 5K out of TB3 you have to split the image into a multi-tile display by using 2xDisplayPort 1.2 channels.
toddzrx
macrumors 6502a
"The MacBook's entire conceptual purpose was to fit the productivity of the 13" MBA into the 11" MBA footprint." Um, no. Customers buying this computer are not concerned with the actual resolution as long as as it's "retina", hence the term. And there's no way the current rMB can keep pace with the Air in terms of processing power or ports, which of course is only important if you need them.
Apple killed the 17" because it wasn't selling well, plain and simple. You think they'd have stopped making it if were selling more than the 15"?
You are right, and not only for basic tasks... except long-time renderings you can do almost everything with any laptop on the market. The curve of performance improvement is exponential year by year and at this point a core m is more than capable of cover a lot of needs. The problem is as I've said before, that with passive cooling after 5 minutes of intese CPU this -more than capable core M- turns into something similar a 2004 pentium 4 which at least for me is a turn down. I'm sorry for not being more technical but the only test where I can check this "benchmarks" is geekbench
That would never happend in a MBA or a future MB with efficient versions of core m, or MB 14 with a fan 😛 In order to not made this thread a Groundhog Day I won't answer more about this little offtopic, it was just a tought - idea.
That has logic. Then all the 40 Gbps in the TB3 advertisment is fake-outdated?
I only use Macs for intensive graphics and GPGPU computing. If I get an integrated GPU, I'd prefer a 3x slower rMB which at least is really thin, really light, and nicer. Of course, if you give me a discrete GPU, we can talk. But nowadays, the only discrete GPUs that are worth of mention are in the Mac Pro. The rest of the Mac line exemplifies the worst GPU support ever in OS X History (Oh, yeah, Intel integrated graphics rulezzz and let you play AAA games with 4K resolution at 100fps, but, even if it would be cool that Intel achieved that, I don't play games).
M395x is fine as well as a GPU..yes is not GPU like in Mac pro but dGPU...but still is an very ok card..and if next year Apple will go with the next coming 990M with nice cooling system, well i think in OpenGL will surprass the dual GPU from Mac pro?
whodatrr
macrumors 6502a
I think I'm a freak, because I want a huge MacBook.
I buy desktops with lots of power and that can drive major pixels, both for fun and work. admittedly, my work requirements are modest, mostly Office with a bit of the Creative Suite. But Office along with lots of Web stuffs pays my bills. In my free time, I do video editing and things that require a bit more juice. Still, I like a desktop, because I drive lots of displays.
For a laptop, pixels are more important than horsepower. Frankly, for the way most of us work, I'd argue that screen real estate makes us more productive than CPU oomph. So, for my work laptop I need real estate. I want to have a PPT next to a web page, or outlook next to a word doc. But still, I want some mobility.
So, I'm probably about the only person in the world who would like to see a 15" MacBook. Yeah, 15" McBook. In my dream, it only needs a bit more horsepower than my current 12" has, and mainly in the GPU department. With a 15" size, having roughly the same sized circuit board, I bet we could get 15 hours of battery life? We could also push a 4k or similar display. Anyhow, I'd like to see that. Stretch it two inches to get 50% more battery life and pixels. Then, for 95% of what I do that's work-related, I'd be more productive than with a 15" MacBook Pro.
But again, I'm a freak.
I buy desktops with lots of power and that can drive major pixels, both for fun and work. admittedly, my work requirements are modest, mostly Office with a bit of the Creative Suite. But Office along with lots of Web stuffs pays my bills. In my free time, I do video editing and things that require a bit more juice. Still, I like a desktop, because I drive lots of displays.
For a laptop, pixels are more important than horsepower. Frankly, for the way most of us work, I'd argue that screen real estate makes us more productive than CPU oomph. So, for my work laptop I need real estate. I want to have a PPT next to a web page, or outlook next to a word doc. But still, I want some mobility.
So, I'm probably about the only person in the world who would like to see a 15" MacBook. Yeah, 15" McBook. In my dream, it only needs a bit more horsepower than my current 12" has, and mainly in the GPU department. With a 15" size, having roughly the same sized circuit board, I bet we could get 15 hours of battery life? We could also push a 4k or similar display. Anyhow, I'd like to see that. Stretch it two inches to get 50% more battery life and pixels. Then, for 95% of what I do that's work-related, I'd be more productive than with a 15" MacBook Pro.
But again, I'm a freak.
More evidence of Apple not updating the rMB in 2015:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151027006826/en/Apple-Reports-Record-Fourth-Quarter-Results
Tim Cook: "We are heading into the holidays with our strongest product lineup yet, including iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, Apple Watch with an expanded lineup of cases and bands, the new iPad Pro and the all-new Apple TV which begins shipping this week."
AKA - no more product updates this year.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151027006826/en/Apple-Reports-Record-Fourth-Quarter-Results
Tim Cook: "We are heading into the holidays with our strongest product lineup yet, including iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, Apple Watch with an expanded lineup of cases and bands, the new iPad Pro and the all-new Apple TV which begins shipping this week."
AKA - no more product updates this year.
Not surprised. Now, if they updated the MBP with Skylake U when they refreshed the iMacs, I'd say they might do the same for the MB.
I'm sure both the MBP and MB will be refreshed in the Spring.
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