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So what's the consensus on 2018?
- Thread starter Ploki
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Mine is good so far, no coil whine, I did repast the CPU and GPU and my temps are much lower. I was idling at 65C now I idle at 47C with eGPU plugged in which elevates the air intake from 36C to 49C, so I think my idle temps will be lower without my eGPU plugged in. My virtual machines are smoother to operate, but overall I don't see a big improvement on speed for normal boring stuff, like web browsing, emails, word, and small excel files, which is to be expected. I upgraded from a 2017 2.9/16GB/1TB to 2.9/32GB/2TB. Would I do it again? I think so.
Some of the i9 people are not happy with the throttling, over heating and short battery life. If you really need that go for it but stay closet to an ac outlet!
Same as when the 2016 came out. Needs a couple of software updates to iron out drivers. Otherwise performance is excellent right now.
It depends what you're doing to justify the upgrade to an i9 + 32 GB 2018 MacBook Pro, but if you're still happy with your 2012, then you probably don't need one.
The main justification I have for waiting is a bump in screen resolution, which on the 2018 models is exactly the same as the 2012 Retina models. Apple needs to offer a 3360x2100 panel for the price instead of running at a scaled resolution by default.
My battery life has been normal, where are these reports of shorter battery life?
made the same jump... except my 2018 died out of the box... i have a 13 now and i really like it sooooooo JUMP!
Ah yes, the 'I'm using Chrome, why does my battery life suck' post.
What eGPU do you use?
Also, I am a video editor/photographer and currently have a 2014 iMac, which the new Macbook Pro beats in almost all rendering tests. If I don't use an eGPU, will I see a performance drop using an external monitor with MBP?
It seems for all my rendering in Premiere (I know not optimized for Mac, but it is what my work uses) the GPU takes a lot of load, so I am wondering if using an external monitor will reduce my MPB's performance compared to my older iMac.
My 13" has been everything I have wanted in a MacBook Pro for years. LOVE the quad core.
Using a Mantiz Venus with a AMD Vega Frontier Edition. I do engineering stuff so I'm not doing too much video editing but I did run an Adobe After Effects rendering benchmark, it took about 4 minutes on my machine without the eGPU and about 20 seconds with the eGPU, big difference.
Was the rendering test available online?
Also, do you have any idea how much running a single 4K display off the internal 560X would affect performance? I would look to get an eGPU in the future, but just curious how much an external display affects performance since some of my rendering tests seem to suggest the thermals can't keep up with heavy loads to both the CPU and GPU.
no clue about the 4k display, I run 2 1440p displays off my egpu, never plugged em into my laptop directly. Here's the rendering file:
Launch After Effects
Open TESTCOMP.aep and then save and click “OK” when it asks you to convert from Windows
Save and rename TESTCOMP_MAC.aep
Preferences > Media & Disk Cache > Empty Disk Cache
Above Thumbnail in upper left click bars to the right of the word Project.
In Project Settings select Mercury GPU Acceleration (OpenCL)
At the top of the screen click Composition menu and select Pre-Render
At the bottom center of the screen click “Output To:” to select a place for it to save the result.
At the bottom right of the screen, click Render button.
It will begin to render the TESTCOMP project. (Should take 6 minutes more or less.)
When the render is complete, it will display the time in minutes and seconds at the bottom center of the screen.
When you quit (or close project), if it asks you if you want to SAVE, say no.
I kinda of agree. When they were released I was excited. On paper, this was what I was looking for. It seemed like the first proper pro update in years. But since, obviously, it's been disappointing. I'll wait a month and see how things shake out, but I'm probably going to wait 'til the next one as it stands. Normally I'm a pretty early adopter too, not a person who stays away from first gen apple anything. Though I'm starting to become that way. Standards have fallen. Prices have risen. This is just sloppy.
My maxed out 13in is the best laptop I have ever used. The first one powerful enough (with the addition of a eGPU and Caldigit docking station) to replace my desktops. My 2014 got stolen last month so I was using a 2017 for a while, and the 2018 is significantly, significantly faster and smoother in everything from web browsing to premiere pro. And with the eGPU it's plug and play gaming in bootcamp on max settings in any game.
I wouldn't say theres a consensus yet. They seem awesome (Wife has the i9) and have a few now minor issues to smooth out still but great machines. I have a lot of faith.
Consensus, I don't think there is one 
My opinion is that its a fine machine, with 2 additional cores, and more memory for the 15", its a solid update. The 3rd gen keyboard should provide some peace of mind as well. My battery life is great, performance is off the charts, I'm happy that I took the plunge.
My opinion is that its a fine machine, with 2 additional cores, and more memory for the 15", its a solid update. The 3rd gen keyboard should provide some peace of mind as well. My battery life is great, performance is off the charts, I'm happy that I took the plunge.
@maflynn which one do you have again?Consensus, I don't think there is one
My opinion is that its a fine machine, with 2 additional cores, and more memory for the 15", its a solid update. The 3rd gen keyboard should provide some peace of mind as well. My battery life is great, performance is off the charts, I'm happy that I took the plunge.
There is never a consensus Its a great laptop though (state of technology notwithstanding) and it offers a view into things to come, a.k.a Apple's strategy for staying different from the rest. Custom WiFi chips and T2 are first steps.
Why? Do you think you'd be able to see a difference?
Its a great laptop though (state of technology notwithstanding) and it offers a view into things to come, a.k.a Apple's strategy for staying different from the rest. Custom WiFi chips and T2 are first steps. Why? Do you think you'd be able to see a difference?