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The Macbook was a big update, but the Macbook Pro's a huge disapointment...

W

Wolfpup

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Sep 7, 2006
2,948
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The Macbook got something almost resembling a real GPU-massively more powerful. On top of that it got LED backlighting.

No question it's a lot better...but the Macbook Pro? Basically just a minor bump. Sure the new case is an infrequent thing, but, minor bump for the CPU, and basically nothing at all for the GPU. The best new feature is the user replaceable hard drive-a big deal, but...

EDIT: Forgot to mention, the other big thing that's missing is Blu Ray. I was somewhat optimistic, particularly because of the rumors last week.

What's weird is Apple was an early member of the Blu Ray group thingee.
 
at first I was thinking of selling my 2 year old macbook pro and getting a new macbook. But then I realized no firewire, come on apple you could have put a 4 pin port on.
Now all the people who want to use any of apple's 3 video editing software packages with their dv or hdv camera are left out in the dark.

The gpu was a good bump though, from what I read 9600gt's are 90-100% faster than 8600gt's, and being able to use the 9400 gpu when not doing anything graphically intense is a nice bonus.
 
they are trying to get away from miniDV and more twords HardDisk and flash mem cams which use USB

plus you gotta have something to make the MBP worth the extra 700
 
I like the new SSD and removable HD. But Apple seems to be pushing their iTunes movies too much with the exclusion of BluRay support.
 
squeeks said:
they are trying to get away from miniDV and more twords HardDisk and flash mem cams which use USB

plus you gotta have something to make the MBP worth the extra 700
Click to expand...

Yeah, but just because Apple is doing it doesnt mean all of us video pros will. Mini-DV is still the standard...
 
rdowns said:
What did you expect?
Click to expand...

I didn't expect a large spec jump...the gpu is definitely a nice upgrade. The price, however, is still horrible.

You can buy a refurbished 15 inch 2.5ghz 512mb gpu and then add 4 gig of ram and a 320gb 7200 drive all for about $1750...Compare that with the similar $2550 that came out today. Does $800 justify ddr3 ram, an integrated graphics chip, a larger L2 cache? The new design is definitely pretty nice -- but no matte option? I'd say I'm not surprised there wasn't much of a spec jump but it's pretty clear you're not getting your money's worth with this one.
 
Stang68 said:
Yeah, but just because Apple is doing it doesnt mean all of us video pros will. Mini-DV is still the standard...
Click to expand...

thats why the PRO still has firewire:p

home users buy macbooks and flash memory camers

Pro users buy pro machines and miniDV
 
squeeks said:
what else did you want?
Click to expand...

A GPU upgrade (even a 9700GTS), and Blu Ray. If it had those two things, I'd buy it. On top of that I'd love a quad core.

thedarkhorse said:
The gpu was a good bump though, from what I read 9600gt's are 90-100% faster than 8600gt's
Click to expand...

No, it wasn't a bump at all, and you read wrong. I'm guessing you're thinking of the desktop 9600GT-that is easily twice as powerful as an 8600GT. The mobile part is completely different. It's just another 8600 part, which was disappointing when it launched around 16-17 months ago.

mlmorg said:
I didn't expect a large spec jump...the gpu is definitely a nice upgrade.
Click to expand...

No, it isn't. It's the same thing again.
 
squeeks said:
thats why the PRO still has firewire:p

home users buy macbooks and flash memory camers

Pro users buy pro machines and miniDV
Click to expand...

Yes, but they got rid of 400. People I know (including myself) and others on this forum use the 400 for video capture and 800 for capturing it to an external. Now the only way to do that is "daisy chaining". Sweet :rolleyes:.
 
Wolfpup said:
No, it wasn't a bump at all, and you read wrong. I'm guessing you're thinking of the desktop 9600GT-that is easily twice as powerful as an 8600GT. The mobile part is completely different. It's just another 8600 part, which was disappointing when it launched around 16-17 months ago.
Click to expand...

Well under that reasoning then the 8600gt in the old macbook pro was a mobile version too. the mobile version of the 8600gt is less than the desktop version, same as the 9600gt.
So you're comparing a mobile 9600gt vs a desktop 8600gt, where I'm talking about both mobile versions being compared.
 
thedarkhorse said:
Well under that reasoning then the 8600gt in the old macbook pro was a mobile version too. the mobile version of the 8600gt is less than the desktop version, same as the 9600gt.
So you're comparing a mobile 9600gt vs a desktop 8600gt, where I'm talking about both mobile versions being compared.
Click to expand...

No, I'm not. The mobile 8600GT was an 8600GT. The mobile 9600GT...is also an 8600GT.
 
Here's my last hope...no 17" upgrade.

How about this-they're going in a different direction for it. They're making it bigger, and putting high end hardware in it. A quad core CPU and some 9800 GPU.

Or...it'll just be the same as it was, and it's just the same specs as the 15" when it comes out :(
 
Wolfpup said:
The Macbook got something almost resembling a real GPU-massively more powerful. On top of that it got LED backlighting.

No question it's a lot better...but the Macbook Pro? Basically just a minor bump. Sure the new case is an infrequent thing, but, minor bump for the CPU, and basically nothing at all for the GPU. The best new feature is the user replaceable hard drive-a big deal, but...

EDIT: Forgot to mention, the other big thing that's missing is Blu Ray. I was somewhat optimistic, particularly because of the rumors last week.

What's weird is Apple was an early member of the Blu Ray group thingee.
Click to expand...

If by minor bump you mean bump backwards.
 
Yes, but they got rid of 400. People I know (including myself) and others on this forum use the 400 for video capture and 800 for capturing it to an external. Now the only way to do that is "daisy chaining". Sweet .
Click to expand...

Yeah, interesting move with that. But it's not like the FW400 and FW800 ports on the previous generation model ran on separate buses anyway (they shared).

But I'm still shocked they took FW400 off the MacBook. FW has been the staple Apple interface for years. I know plenty of previous-gen MacBook users that have external FW hard drives. I guess they're stuck with using USB now. :rolleyes:
 
Mikebuzzsaw said:
You guys need to realize this is better than no update. It's been a longgg time since a facelift on the mbp.
Click to expand...

Yeah, and I like that it's FINALLY a user replaceable drive (I won't buy a system without that), but otherwise I care much more about what's inside the system than how it looks...
 
No, they weren't. This is the first model that is. Being able to physically do it yourself, at least theoretically does not make it a user-replaceable part.
 
The macbook was an awesome upgrade but the mbp was not even needed really.
All the MBP needed was a new trackpad, the graphics card, keyboard, case and thats it. There was no need for the new display, especially now that there is no matte option.

The mbp was designed as a PRO model, not a pro-sumer model, but a pro model. By cutting out the matte display and making the MBP look IDENTICAL to a regular macbook, Apple effectively cut out a TON of people.
 
Mikebuzzsaw said:
does it void warranty tho? newbie question!
Click to expand...

You're talking about the new systems? No, they're apparently user replaceable. (The Macbook always has been, but the Macbook Pro and Powerbook before it never were-you had to disassemble the thing to get at the drive..)
 
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