Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Stop whining about the performance

ByteTheBooty said:
So many are talking bull about the performance when nobody has even tested it yet!

This guy makes a great point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2VmSOROY3A
Click to expand...

Well said. Can't remember where, but I read less than 1% of those people who buy laptops actually need the specs their laptop has. Marketing does a great job making people think they need a big processor and lots of ram for daily tasks. Like he says, it's nonsense.
 
shenan1982 said:
Well said. Can't remember where, but I read less than 1% of those people who buy laptops actually need the specs their laptop has. Marketing does a great job making people think they need a big processor and lots of ram for daily tasks. Like he says, it's nonsense.
Click to expand...

so true.

yes some people need a high powered laptop, but most people don't

i am a software dev and i use a desktop for intensive tasks, so all i need in a laptop is battery life and retina screen as i will be in the terminal the whole time (though personally i'll wait until a 14" version)
 
I always dismiss performance remarks.

Because it's already 'fast'. And yes, so much faster than people really need. It's the comparing that tech people like to do between other machines.

And it's running OS X which is the best operating system in the world. It's very snappy and refined at the moment imo.

I have a 2011 13 inch air and with a good internet connection (which I have) this thing is never slow at anything. It's almost maxed out in space as well, doesn't matter. So I could imagine how good Apple's newest computer will perform in todays world.
 
From the numbers I found, it will be roughly on par with my old sandy bridge mac mini, and I was very happy with that machine. Too bad I actually use the muscle and connections on my macbook pro, else I would love one of these.
 
Meister said:
The performance is already crippled by the lack of thunderbolt ports.
Click to expand...

LOL... seriously? So tired of the people whining about "it doesn't have this, it doesn't have that" blah blah blah. They can't make a tiny computer that's everything to everyone!

----------
SuperNova2150 said:
I beg to differ.
Click to expand...

Did you join just to throw that in there? You're in the wrong forum to beg to differ. Go back to WindowsForums.com haha... I'm sure that's an exciting place.
 
The reason people are already making judgments is because last year Core M laptops underperformed expectations. This uses the same Core M as one of the tested Windows laptops released last year. Unless Apple designed the laptop in such a way where the heat is dissipated rather efficiently, its being assumed that people would experience similar performance to the Windows counterpart.
 
They do not MAKE a machine I cannot get to hourgalss or beachball in an hour of real world use, (no tricks or trying to over load it). They wont be fast enough or powerful enough in my lifetime.
 
shenan1982 said:
LOL... seriously? So tired of the people whining about "it doesn't have this, it doesn't have that" blah blah blah. They can't make a tiny computer that's everything to everyone!
Click to expand...
Yes, seriously. Media creation periphials are usually connected via thunderbolt. Thunderbolt is way more powerfull than usb-c. Why didn't they just drop the keyboard, give it a touch display and call it iPad Pro? Right now it is the bastard child of an iPad and a macbook. It's like they made this for people who don't know about computers, think they need a laptop but should really just get an iPad in the first place.
 
Performance does matter in specific circumstances with the caveat that the performance issues I encounter are application-specific (looking at the Microsoft suite in particular) :-

For example, I would welcome a boost in performance when doing the following tasks (which happens multiple times a day) :-

Opening a mail-merge document in Word 2011 that links to an Excel source file with about 600 rows and 40 columns of mail-merge data - takes on average about 14 seconds to show the document ready for editing.

Scrolling through the same Word document above which has about 30,000 words is initially jumpy and jerky while Word recalculates the word count and does re-pagination. Once done, it is okay, but it could take another 15-20 seconds for it to settle down.

Updating a cell in an Excel file which has multiple (internal) calculation links and lookups (using Index/Match*) has a very noticeable delay in updating calculations and moving around (e.g. takes 1-2 seconds before the cell selection moves to the next cell) so much so that the Auto Calc is turned off and I have to perform a Manual Calc occasionally to update the cells.

The Office:2016 preview seems to be more responsive (apart from the Word mail-merge issue that I posted in the MS apps thread) in Word and Excel so far, but again, more performance (less wait/beachballs) will be welcome.

This is on a late-2013 2.6GHz i7 spec rMBP.

* to those who use Excel 2011 (and soon 2016) and work with data lookups - INDEX/MATCH functions are way superior than the equivalent HLOOKUP/VLOOKUP functions - as in multiple orders of magnitude faster. This is particularly true for the Mac platform as the performance differences are less on the Windows platform for HLOOKUP/VLOOKUP functions.
 
Meister said:
Yes, seriously. Media creation periphials are usually connected via thunderbolt. Thunderbolt is way more powerfull than usb-c. Why didn't they just drop the keyboard, give it a touch display and call it iPad Pro? Right now it is the bastard child of an iPad and a macbook. It's like they made this for people who don't know about computers, think they need a laptop but should really just get an iPad in the first place.
Click to expand...

It's aimed at the same people who buy MacBook Airs. Most of them rarely use their Thunderbolt ports but need/want something more advanced than a tablet to run more advanced software and a full desktop OS. Remember, the rMBP is always there for those who need more.

I will not be recommending the rMB due to where it's currently priced while still being at a disadvantage compared to rMBPs, but I can definitely see who would buy it and be perfect happy with it, and it's not just those who would be happy with an iPad.

Edit: It also has a physical keyboard, something very important to many MBA owners.
 
Last edited:
I'm getting one--assuming I like the feel of the keyboard--and since I really only use my laptop to do Web surfing, email, and writing with Scrivener, it should work very well for me, CoreM or no. A two pound laptop with retina display... just what I wanted.
 
Meister said:
Yes, seriously. Media creation periphials are usually connected via thunderbolt. Thunderbolt is way more powerfull than usb-c. Why didn't they just drop the keyboard, give it a touch display and call it iPad Pro? Right now it is the bastard child of an iPad and a macbook. It's like they made this for people who don't know about computers, think they need a laptop but should really just get an iPad in the first place.
Click to expand...

Or for those like me who want an ultrabook for traveling internationally 30% of the month, which includes a full fledged OS, trackpad, keyboard, hard drive, etc.... just because you use thunderbolt, MOST people don't... in fact, given the availability and the way thunderbolt has caught on, I'd bet hardly anyone uses it. I have a thunderbolt display on my iMac, but aside from that in the 5 years TB has been out, I've never owned any other thunderbolt device... it's just not a mass-market adaptor. At least Firewire had an advantage over USB 2.0 back in the day, so I could justify paying 3x as much for a FW hard drive.

Sorry to burst your bubble, thunderbolt is dead and always has been. But you're going to be the guy with every Apple release now saying "omg no thunderbolt?!?!" like the guys who said "omg no blu ray?!?!" ... get over it man, the thunderbolt ship has sailed.
 
shenan1982 said:
Or for those like me who want an ultrabook for traveling internationally 30% of the month, which includes a full fledged OS, trackpad, keyboard, hard drive, etc.... just because you use thunderbolt, MOST people don't... in fact, given the availability and the way thunderbolt has caught on, I'd bet hardly anyone uses it. I have a thunderbolt display on my iMac, but aside from that in the 5 years TB has been out, I've never owned any other thunderbolt device... it's just not a mass-market adaptor. At least Firewire had an advantage over USB 2.0 back in the day, so I could justify paying 3x as much for a FW hard drive.

Sorry to burst your bubble, thunderbolt is dead and always has been. But you're going to be the guy with every Apple release now saying "omg no thunderbolt?!?!" like the guys who said "omg no blu ray?!?!" ... get over it man, the thunderbolt ship has sailed.
Click to expand...

I don't think its fair to say that thunderbolt is dead. usb-c will definitely replace it for the mainstream market, but it will still be useful for the pro market.
 
PDFierro said:
OK, name a better one.
Click to expand...

Better is subjective. There is no better OS, only ones that you like.

As for performance, I think we're only going to hear more of this as the MB gets into people's hands.

I beleive there were some complaints with the 13" rMBP because the gpu isn't strong enough to drive the retina display. Won't the MB have similar if not worse issues in that department?

Don't get me wrong, I do like the MB, but I'm under no pretense that performance may very well be its achilles heel.
 
I watched the video. So my question is how does the rMB (ultimate version) perform compared to a late 2009 24 inch iMac (C2D, 3.06 GHz, 8MB Ram 1066 MHZ, normale HD) ? Will i abe able to do the same workload on the rMB as on my old imac ?


ByteTheBooty said:
So many are talking bull about the

performance when nobody has even tested it yet!

This guy makes a great point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2VmSOROY3A
Click to expand...
 
Meister said:
It's like they made this for people who don't know about computers, think they need a laptop but should really just get an iPad in the first place.
Click to expand...

Is this a bad thing? This computer is perfect for many, in particular older people that just want a good quality, good looking laptop for day to day tasks, and they've got the cash to buy it. There is also a massively aging population (especially in the uk). Why should everything that apple makes have to be for power users?

For some, an ipad is more than enough computing power, but the form factor is unattractive as a primary machine: holding up an ipad for extended periods can be uncomfortable, screen could be a bit bigger, using touch screen as a keyboard is not ideal.

A keyboard case would correct much of this, but for those that can afford it (a lot of people), this is an excellent product.

For others, well there are other products, and once the rmbp slims down a bit (inevitably), the air will go and the power users will get a powerful, mega-slim laptop with retina screen.
 
A few remarks after reading here:

* It has only one port to prevent more power usage.
* The resolution is lower compared to windows laptops to push less pixels
* It has no 16GB RAM option because RAM draws power

I think it is exactly what Apple wanted: A great concept for future products that need LESS power. All the oversized laptops and phones people carry around are not useable with todays battery technology.

The idea is to get your work done with less options to screw up.
You cannot connect a USB harddrive, you cannot charge your phone without using the adapter and the power supply.

I think it's great. I applaud Apple for having a vision.
You can still buy MacBookPro that fit all of your high workloads.

But I will use that machine to administer servers, program a little and read webpages with documentation.

I think it will be a great laptop considering that you can always have your "real" workload on Amazon AWS or similar.

The only problem is the price for the bigger model. It gets so close to the Retina MacBooks if you consider a second power adapter and an HDMI, USB Adapter.
 
shenan1982 said:
Or for those like me who want an ultrabook for traveling internationally 30% of the month, which includes a full fledged OS, trackpad, keyboard, hard drive, etc.... just because you use thunderbolt, MOST people don't... in fact, given the availability and the way thunderbolt has caught on, I'd bet hardly anyone uses it. I have a thunderbolt display on my iMac, but aside from that in the 5 years TB has been out, I've never owned any other thunderbolt device... it's just not a mass-market adaptor. At least Firewire had an advantage over USB 2.0 back in the day, so I could justify paying 3x as much for a FW hard drive.

Sorry to burst your bubble, thunderbolt is dead and always has been. But you're going to be the guy with every Apple release now saying "omg no thunderbolt?!?!" like the guys who said "omg no blu ray?!?!" ... get over it man, the thunderbolt ship has sailed.
Click to expand...
Your post is from the viewpoint of a mainstream consumer.
The Mac Pro is mainly TB based and my rmbp has two tb docks.
Good luck trying to work with broadcast grade video through one ****ing usb-c port.
 
OldMacUser said:
Performance does matter in specific circumstances with the caveat that the performance issues I encounter are application-specific (looking at the Microsoft suite in particular) :-

For example, I would welcome a boost in performance when doing the following tasks (which happens multiple times a day) :-

Opening a mail-merge document in Word 2011 that links to an Excel source file with about 600 rows and 40 columns of mail-merge data - takes on average about 14 seconds to show the document ready for editing.

Scrolling through the same Word document above which has about 30,000 words is initially jumpy and jerky while Word recalculates the word count and does re-pagination. Once done, it is okay, but it could take another 15-20 seconds for it to settle down.

Updating a cell in an Excel file which has multiple (internal) calculation links and lookups (using Index/Match*) has a very noticeable delay in updating calculations and moving around (e.g. takes 1-2 seconds before the cell selection moves to the next cell) so much so that the Auto Calc is turned off and I have to perform a Manual Calc occasionally to update the cells.

The Office:2016 preview seems to be more responsive (apart from the Word mail-merge issue that I posted in the MS apps thread) in Word and Excel so far, but again, more performance (less wait/beachballs) will be welcome.

This is on a late-2013 2.6GHz i7 spec rMBP.

* to those who use Excel 2011 (and soon 2016) and work with data lookups - INDEX/MATCH functions are way superior than the equivalent HLOOKUP/VLOOKUP functions - as in multiple orders of magnitude faster. This is particularly true for the Mac platform as the performance differences are less on the Windows platform for HLOOKUP/VLOOKUP functions.
Click to expand...

Have you tried the new Office 2015 ? The preview is available for free, and I find it much much better. Excel is much faster, less buggy, and looks better. Not saying it will run as well as the Windows version for what you're doing with it, because that will never happen, but you should give it a try. I haven't tried Word with big documents yet.

It installs alongside Office 2011, so you can have both.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back