The AnandTech MBP with Retina display review is UP!

[Tibits]

what model had you pick? is it comfortable carrying ext HDD everywhere??

2.6 512 16 is my setup.

This machine has plenty of storage for me at 512G (and I have a 6TB thunderbolt RAID back at my home office). Only recent images and projects under editing are on my local hard drive, everything else is referenced on the RAID. The only time I carry an internal HD is if I am on a long trip and want to free up CF cards and back up data in the field, but I would carry this regardless of the machine and HDD.

 

[stevelam]

That's bad news - so there is a definite drop in performance compared to a comparatively specced classic MBP?

At least it has the bigger GPU package even in the base model - compared to the matte MBP.

Do you have a link to the Photoshop benchmarks?

benchmarks right here: http://barefeats.com/mbp12cp.html

some things are minutely faster on the RMBP, but some are WAY slower for some reason.

not to mention the fact that the colour accuracy is worse on the RMBP.

 

[d00d]

some things are minutely faster on the RMBP,

Slightly faster CPU.

but some are WAY slower for some reason.

It helps to read the bottom of the article:

The one puzzling behavior was the Retina MacBook Pro. Unlike the other MacBook Pros, "Use OpenCL" is grayed out in Performance preferences. Adobe and NVIDIA are looking into the issue.

 

[Nostromo]

benchmarks right here: http://barefeats.com/mbp12cp.html

some things are minutely faster on the RMBP, but some are WAY slower for some reason.

not to mention the fact that the colour accuracy is worse on the RMBP.

As d00d below noted, there seems to be a problem with openCL. Every new product, no matter how well prepared, has some kinks when it comes out.

 

[stevelam]

As d00d below noted, there seems to be a problem with openCL. Every new product, no matter how well prepared, has some kinks when it comes out.

yes i read that. but until it actually gets fixed, its going to be slower for all early adopters. who knows when that will be?

 

[jcpb]

And that is used as THE reason to stay away from the MBPR?

You're kidding, right?

 

[Nostromo]

yes i read that. but until it actually gets fixed, its going to be slower for all early adopters. who knows when that will be?

Well, it sounds more a software than a hardware problem. So there could be a software update anytime, or a firmware update.

 

[calderone]

Then why are you so bent out of shape of what other people do with their money?

Bent out of shape? Exaggerate much?

 

[stevelam]

Well, it sounds more a software than a hardware problem. So there could be a software update anytime, or a firmware update.

According to what? Anandtech says its definitely hardware reached to the max and despite improvements in ML its still not going to be as smooth as older macs. Where are you getting that it's a software problem?

 

[Office Hours]

According to what? Anandtech says its definitely hardware reached to the max and despite improvements in ML its still not going to be as smooth as older macs. Where are you getting that it's a software problem?

I received my MPR today. Everything but the browser is smooth under the intel GPU. I have no doubt that the intel GPU is faster than my iPad 3's... so why is Safari under OSX so slow? I don't know. I think it's more software than hardware, how else can you explain the iPad 3's buttery smoothness on complicated websites with an inferior GPU and much inferior CPU? It just doesn't make any sense.

That said, does anyone have a high res iMac? If you do, stretch the window to fill the entire monitor. Isn't it slow too? I think it's the rendering engine inside of OSX and/or Safari. These high res screens are good enough where you can zoom out x3, lower the window size and have a smooth scrolling experience. I'm not sure if this will be fixed but I'm unconvinced that this is 100% a hardware issue.

 

[Hellhammer]

It's not 100% hardware or software - it's a combination of both. It's definitely true that the hardware is being pushed to the limits at such high resolution but there are always improvements that can be done in terms of drivers and software optimization.

 

[lockdown571]

Honestly I find the suggestion that the hardware can't keep up with the display a bit surprising. Anand claims that it's a CPU power limitation. However, people have been running 2560x1600 displays for over a decade now, even before the Core 2 Duo years, without major lagginess. I just find it it hard to believe that a modern quad core Ivy Bridge processor can't handle a 1.27x increase in resolution over 2560x1600.

 

[Andrmgic]

Honestly I find the suggestion that the hardware can't keep up with the display a bit surprising. Anand claims that it's a CPU power limitation. However, people have been running 2560x1600 displays for over a decade now, even before the Core 2 Duo years, without major lagginess. I just find it it hard to believe that a modern quad core Ivy Bridge processor can't handle a 1.27x increase in resolution over 2560x1600.

It's not the increase in resolution by itself.. it's all of the scaling that apple has to do (particularly at the scaled 1680x1050 and 1920x1200-like resolutions) that creates the additional overhead.

Apple also wrote their own image filtering algorithms because they weren't happy with there being a difference between the Intel gpu and the nvidia gpu in terms of filtering of the images on the display.

Apple is demanding more of the gpu and cpu than anyone else in the laptop space right now and Anand is of the opinion that the hardware wasn't designed for this kind of workload.

 

[Office Hours]

It's not the increase in resolution by itself.. it's all of the scaling that apple has to do (particularly at the scaled 1680x1050 and 1920x1200-like resolutions) that creates the additional overhead.

Apple also wrote their own image filtering algorithms because they weren't happy with there being a difference between the Intel gpu and the nvidia gpu in terms of filtering of the images on the display.

Apple is demanding more of the gpu and cpu than anyone else in the laptop space right now and Anand is of the opinion that the hardware wasn't designed for this kind of workload.

I don't thinks it this either.

The system runs great for me. It's only the browser where I experience lag. I mentioned it earlier but if you have a iMac or high res display, maximize the window to fill the monitor. Go to a complicated website and scroll. Yup, lag. Why doesn't the immensely inferior iPad lag under the similar resolution and full screen browser?

 

[biscuitsxluv]

I'm no techy person. However, when reading these articles and comments it's almost like another language.
I'll just pretend I never read any of this.

 

[calderone]

I don't thinks it this either.

The system runs great for me. It's only the browser where I experience lag. I mentioned it earlier but if you have a iMac or high res display, maximize the window to fill the monitor. Go to a complicated website and scroll. Yup, lag. Why doesn't the immensely inferior iPad lag under the similar resolution and full screen browser?

What else are you doing with the machine?

 

[lockdown571]

It's not the increase in resolution by itself.. it's all of the scaling that apple has to do (particularly at the scaled 1680x1050 and 1920x1200-like resolutions) that creates the additional overhead.

Apple also wrote their own image filtering algorithms because they weren't happy with there being a difference between the Intel gpu and the nvidia gpu in terms of filtering of the images on the display.

Apple is demanding more of the gpu and cpu than anyone else in the laptop space right now and Anand is of the opinion that the hardware wasn't designed for this kind of workload.

I can understand the 1680x1050 and 1920x1200 modes because they require an even more insane resolution and an additional scaling step, but I'd be surprised if the hardware couldn't actually handle the "best for retina" mode. Only time will tell us whether the performance improves with software updates.

 

[Fortimir]

Sure, if you can, wait a year or two till the tech is more common place and therefore cheaper, but if you are in the market for a new machine there is no reason not to get this.

You nailed it with the second half of that sentence. If you are *in the market* for a machine, this is the upgrade to get.

The first half of your sentence applies always. Every single day of your life, you can say "wait a year or two till the tech is more common place and cheaper." You've got to pick a time to buy sometime... or settle for old tech.

 

[freudling]

I received my MPR today. Everything but the browser is smooth under the intel GPU. I have no doubt that the intel GPU is faster than my iPad 3's... so why is Safari under OSX so slow? I don't know. I think it's more software than hardware, how else can you explain the iPad 3's buttery smoothness on complicated websites with an inferior GPU and much inferior CPU? It just doesn't make any sense.

That said, does anyone have a high res iMac? If you do, stretch the window to fill the entire monitor. Isn't it slow too? I think it's the rendering engine inside of OSX and/or Safari. These high res screens are good enough where you can zoom out x3, lower the window size and have a smooth scrolling experience. I'm not sure if this will be fixed but I'm unconvinced that this is 100% a hardware issue.

Your realize that the number of pixels on the rMBP screen is substantially more than the iPad3? Therefore, there's going to be more load on the system. Second, the iPad 3 has been shown to be a bit choppy itself at times, although it's does a pretty good job managing all of those pixels.