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Tests Confirm Apple's Throttling Fix Improves Performance for 2018 MacBook Pro Models [Updated]
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I've been using Magsafe for years, and always store the cable wrapped neatly around those ears - also use the little clip to keep it fastened. I've not had a single frayed cable issue across 3 MBPros (currently using both a 2008 and 2011 MBPro with their original chargers). None in my lab have ever reported a failure either (another 3-4 MBPros).
Indeed, I'm going to really miss not just Magsafe, but also those super useful ears (and the extension cord!) when I have to finally upgrade my 2011 model.
Definitely 2 steps backwards in my opinion.
You can use the extension from your 2011 model on the new bricks. Forget the ears, now you don’t have to scrap a $70 brick when the charging cord gets frayed. Just replace it for <$10. Also gives you the flexibility for different lengths. I use a 1m cord at my work desk, and keep a 2m version in my travel bag.
Funny how you conveniently think the first is true and the latter is not, and everybody who claims you're not seing the full picture are whiners - go figure...
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Do the fans fly as well?
Clearly by the state of the pins in image three which are a discoloured brown which would be a cause of poor connection. Furthermore in image one the MagSafe is not sitting correctly no doubt due to the state of the pins. It is unreasonable to draw the conclusion of the quality of MagSafe when it is in such poor condition.
MagSafe was revolutionary where damage was minimal should the cable be tripped over.
That laptop is in rough shape. It looks like it was dragged along a dirt road. Wow.
just to make sure we're all on the same page--
magSafe has tiny spring loaded pins inside.. right?
magSafe is also -- a magnet, right?
a laptop is meant to be (or, at least in certain cases, understood to be) used in the field.. it's going in and out of backpacks etc.. it's used inside and it's used outside.. it sits on a rock or a lap or a desk or a car or whatever flat surface is around.. it's used in many different environments.. some of which aren't exactly dust free or controllable.
is this all agreeable so far?
so, consider all of the various scenarios a laptop may be used in.. try to understand it's not only used in a house or an office.. (though even these environments pose a problem.. just not as readily as in the field)
now-- put a freaking magnet surrounding the power port.
imagine all the magnetic particles out there in the field.. imagine what those particles can (and will) do when they start interacting with the tiny spring loaded pins..
it's basically a recipe for disaster.
whether or not you've experienced problems with your actual magSafe connectors, can you at least understand that others may be using their laptops in different environments than you have? and can you see that there are quite a few scenarios where having a magnetic force surrounding a removable/exposed power connection might not be the best of ideas?
like-- i'm not trying to tell you that your experience with magSafe has been a bad one or one that you should be glad to get rid of.. i'm trying to see if you can realize putting a magnet on a user port which also requires multiple moving parts inside could be a concern in quite a few different scenarios where the laptop would likely be used.. and used in a way/environment that should be considered acceptable as opposed to 'mistreatment'.
whether or not you wish magSafe was still on Macs isn't the question.. it's whether or not you can imagine how they could be damaged even when the user is not mistreating or misusing the plug.
can you?
i'm pretty sure Apple can imagine that and i'm pretty sure they have the data to back up the imagination.. they've tried various iterations of the port.. they've been sued over it..
and they've finally just gotten rid of it in their products.
what? no it doesn't.
come on man...
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Maybe the issue is the "neat" part, if you mean you wrapped it carefully. I was using my MacBook in high school and kept charging it in different rooms because the battery was nearly expired. So I was often wrapping it hastily to get to my next class on time, maybe adding fraying force. This isn't a problem with any other cable, so I wasn't concerned until I had gone through two power bricks.
Thanks for the feedback from an actual user of current MBP model. That’s why I read the forums: facts not opinions.
Fair enough. I suppose it depends on your definition of workstation, which for me means at least a Xeon class CPU (with a lot of cores) and ECC memory. So I never considered the MBP to be “workstation class”. Not sure Apple positions it that way either, but I could be wrong.
"the CPU throttling in the Core i9 MacBook Pro ceased, with the clock frequency of the cPU and internal system temperature remaining stable."
If its stable under "high load" and fans going, its also running hotter as well. That's why a CPU throttles, to cool down and let heat dispatch more most of all. Fans don't run high for no reason... They run to draw heat away... One factor is to lower the CPU speed so it won't run as fast under these conditions *only*
Thus, by Apple "fixing" this they basically are wanting their CPU's to run "hotter", by being stable "at all times" regardless of how much heat there is.
If its stable under "high load" and fans going, its also running hotter as well. That's why a CPU throttles, to cool down and let heat dispatch more most of all. Fans don't run high for no reason... They run to draw heat away... One factor is to lower the CPU speed so it won't run as fast under these conditions *only*
Thus, by Apple "fixing" this they basically are wanting their CPU's to run "hotter", by being stable "at all times" regardless of how much heat there is.
David also mentioned, "I'm OK with that." -- That it doesn't hit the clock speed it potentially could hit. Specifically because of the noise he said, "It's actually one of the reasons why I enjoy using the MacBook Pros. They're quite and just unobtrusive in the office." That is despite David saying what you just quoted. Besides, you should be aware that decibels are logarithmic so, yes, 5-6 dB is a big difference.
If you personally are mostly or entirely function over form then, of course, all of Apple's products are going to drive you nuts. By all means, please choose the PC or laptop with the balance of performance over design of your own choice.
In my case, likely similar to David, I more so choose form over function when making a personal purchase in technology. Like David stated, their 'unobtrusiveness' is just one of those reasons.
There are a pair of videos that could be interesting to you:
The Grand Theory of Amazon
The Grand Theory of Apple
You seem like a tech guy - So what is the actual performance delta between the mobile notebook version of the GTX 1050M Ti of the XPS and Zenbook Pro vs the Radeon Pro 560X that the i9 MacBook Pro ships with? Or do we need to wait for new reviews and tests now that the software / firmware flaw was fixed?
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i think it's clear you have a misunderstanding about rendering and CPU requirements and turbo speeds.
if Apple is touting MBP as a capable rendering machine then it's because of the core count.. not turbo speeds..
these two things fight each other..
the more cores a process is using then the less per core turbo frequency is expected.. the less cores a process is using then the faster per core frequency is to be expected..
rendering is one of the few process that can be divided up effectively to saturate many cores.. it's not about super fast clock rate on a single thread (which is what max turbo speed is about)
also, a lot of rendering software is now utilizing GPGPU.. processing tasks are being offloaded to the GPU since a GPU has thousands of cores albeit much slower per core than a CPU.. the GPU in the MBP with 4GB VRAM is decent to good for rendering on if the software is written that way.. a lot better than many desktops even.. the GPU would be another reason for Apple using 3D rendering in their ad literature with this computer.
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thing is, at least in a 3D rendering workflow, all of the stuff leading up to the rendering.. the CAD/3D Modeling software.. consists of virtually all single threaded linear processes.. these types of software love super fast single core performance.. they will certainly make use of max turbo speeds.. the speeds advertised by Apple with the i9 (4.8GHz) will be achieved and utilized when using CAD software.. and the user will notice and appreciate these speeds during most of the work.
or, most of the actual work that goes into creating a render is under the conditions where rated turbo speeds will be utilized.
and just by the way-- rendering is easy.. or, compared to the entirety of the workflow, rendering is the easiest part of it to learn and do.. it's not the most 'pro' part of it by any means.. the designing and engineering is the most 'pro' and most creative part and that happens mostly in the user's brain.. once you get to computer, the most pro part of it, the part that's most difficult to master and become efficient at, is the modeling/drafting..
the rendering, that's mostly used to show the client a pretty picture and to sell your idea to them prior to fabrication as they're not trained to interpret a CAD model into what it looks like in real life.. so you render the model to make it easier for them to understand.. so is it important? sure, it helps secure the project and to get money from the client.. but it's definitely not the hardest part of a project nor is it the most time consuming.. i'd guess on an average project, i spend about 1% of the whole thing making renders (or, 1 hour setting up renders for a 2-3week project (the finals are processed via cloud based supercomputers))
point being-- there seems to be a common misguided idea around here that 'pro' workloads correlate with these stress test benchmarks... reality is, the benchmark tests have very little to do with the working conditions of a pro.. i mean, you can easily see this for yourself..
take the Cinebench test for instance.. the test includes a scene.. the modeling and texturing and lighting have already been provided.. and the user/tester just pushes a button and waits for a score..
all of the stuff a pro is responsible for has already been provided... all of the work is already done.
the test waits a minute for the score to return but the score says nothing about the hours of work that have gone into creating the scene.
the test gives you an indication of how the computer works when the designer isn't working.. it says nothing about how the computer works when the user is actually interacting with it and doing work. (ok, it says something.. but i think you need experience in the entirety of the process to understand how to extrapolate the results)
or-- do you actually think a 'pro' goes into work then pushes a button then waits a while for the computer to finish? idk, to me, that doesn't sound very hard at all.. everyone can (and around here, does) do that so it's a bit of an insult to someone who has spent years honing their skills only to have it devolve into this type of comparison or test..
i'm sorry but if you focus on these benchmark scores as to what a pro needs.. and you're upset about 'Apple doesn't listen to me'.. well, the reason they don't listen is because it's clear you don't know what you're talking about.
same thing with the video editing tests.. they're timing how long it take to export or recode a project.. but it says nothing about the actual editing.. you know, the majority of the work and/or the work the user is being paid to do..
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idk, when you're reading these forums, try to recognize the red flags being said by certain posters and take the words with a grain of salt.. "these aren't pro machines" -- " Apple doesn't care about pros" etc.. it's bs..
i mean, in this thread, you have people complaining how every last bit of the i9 isn't being utilized by the stress tests.. and how pros need every last drop of performance to be sucked out of these chips.. and their suggested solutions go something like:
make the laptops 50% thicker.. make them 2x heavier.. then a pro will be able to get 15% more performance during 1% of their workload..
hmmm..
I thought I bought Mercedes but got Fiat - well, im okay with that. Yeah, Dave said he is okay with that - but Dave doesnt set standards being "ok" for others.
Firstly, I think he is talking about the overall experience that MacBooks have been quieter than many other laptops. They are very quiet when doing stuff like writing. I can't say I hear much of the noise from my MacBook when writing but I can say, that the laptop is warm all the time. That is the price to get quieter laptop since fans are set to start spinning faster not until exactly temperature is achieved (fanspeed/temperature gradient). Secondly, im sure im aware about dB, or at least I should know because having a master degree in sciences - but do you understand the difference between the physical measurement of dB and actually the real difference heard by human ears? In a real world "things just doesnt double" although the dB says so. The loudness and noise and our ears works abit different way. Some studied shows that human ears can hear a difference when dB change 3 dB, some says you can hear a difference already around 1 dB. And it is not so easy to say "sound (pressure) is doubled" or "increased" because our ears also react on different way with different frequencies, not to mention what is the reference point.
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It is literaly called a "real high-performance workstation" on Apples homepage
For the iMac Pro? I see" workstation class graphics", I see with high speed connections on back you can create a workstation, last "the power a workstation" behind a flat screen. So does that mean with the first 2 points that it is one or is it one by itself. I guess that is semantics since the phrase the iMac pro is a workstation is not directly said...but I don't practice law.
Not entirely true. MBP 2011/2015 as a laptop were great for me even if they sounded like a jet engine when their fans kicked in. Noise is one of the least concerns for me for a laptop. The 2016, despite its touchbar, has been fine as well.
It’s because the Apple laptops are actually decent for doing the type of personal/professional work I do.
David seems more open minded and less shallow than that.
For the iMac Pro? I see" workstation class graphics", I see with high speed connections on back you can create a workstation, last "the power a workstation" behind a flat screen. So does that mean with the first 2 points that it is one or is it one by itself. I guess that is semantics since the phrase the iMac pro is a workstation is not directly said...but I don't practice law.
It is a direct quote from the german version, english phrasing seems to be different
i bet that’s what T.Cook is whispering in this guy’s ear
“don’t mistreat the iMacs”
Those wishing a better understanding about this throttling issue might want to give the latest Accidental Tech Podcast (#284 - Hotel California Keyboard) a listen to. The gang received a number of emails from CPU and transistor engineers that explains how Intel's "14nm stall" (21:14 timestamp) is forcing Intel to run their CPUs at well above their TDP ratings (which is some cases the listed TDP now defines the Base Clock with Turbo Mode TDPs being up to twice as high) and how things like sustained AVC encoding/decoding are so hard on the CPU that it has to throttle itself well below Base Clock to cope. And Intel is now disabling HyperThreading on the octa-core 9th generation i7's because of thermal issues.
Frankly, this makes sense because we have Dell 75xx and Lenovo W-Series portable workstations that are as thick as bricks with i7's that run their fans at full speed when doing work and one would presume their cooling capacities are much higher than their thinner 7400 and X1 Carbon peers (who also run their fans at full speed).
Frankly, this makes sense because we have Dell 75xx and Lenovo W-Series portable workstations that are as thick as bricks with i7's that run their fans at full speed when doing work and one would presume their cooling capacities are much higher than their thinner 7400 and X1 Carbon peers (who also run their fans at full speed).
Tangential, and this thread has run its course, I guess, but - https://www.anandtech.com/show/13126/intel-10nm-production-systems-for-holiday-2019 - which means that chances of a 2019 MacBook Pro update are a lot less likely than they were a couple of days ago.
With the Coffee Lake CPUs delivered in April 2018, I think Intel will have to do some sort of small, incremental rev next year. But I can’t imagine it will be at 10nm.
Given Intel’s track record, I don’t see any reason to expect Ice Lake until well into 2020, and 2021 wouldn’t surprise me in the least.