Thoughts on AMD Radeon R9 M370X over the Nvidia 750m?

[samdale67]

I fear it's not a GPU problem and a faster GPU will not solve anything.

I tend to agree with this statement, though I have no technical information to back it up. Could the poster provide more details? I'm very interested to know where the graphics bottlenecks are if they do not relate to the GPU systems.

 

[827538]

ahhh i am truly jealous. Still no confirmation on mine and I ordered on the Tuesday. did you go for the dGPU? also did you upgrade anything else?

Yeh, went for the 2.5GHz/512GB/16GB/M370X option, will have it sitting next to my current rMBP for comparison.

 

[HarryT]

I ordered the maxed out version so between us all we should have every confit covered.

I'm still stuck in bloody preparing to dispatch though so might take a while to get delivered.

 

[SamuelShand]

Yeh, went for the 2.5GHz/512GB/16GB/M370X option, will have it sitting next to my current rMBP for comparison.

Ah that makes sense then, I left the ssd and only upgraded the processer. Would explain why myself and Harry still haven't had dispatch confirmation.

Seems Mike In the other thread RE GPU has just picked one up so we should all have a definitive answer in a few hours on what this GPU is all about.

 

[Zakzilla]

Ah that makes sense then, I left the ssd and only upgraded the processer. Would explain why myself and Harry still haven't had dispatch confirmation.

Seems Mike In the other thread RE GPU has just picked one up so we should all have a definitive answer in a few hours on what this GPU is all about.

Which thread? I want to check this out

 

[HarryT]

Which thread? I want to check this out

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1884846/

 

[muffinman3679]

.

 

[Stacc]

Someone pointed out in the mac pro forum that the specs page of the new macbook pro with M370X has been updated to support the full 5k display with 5120x2880 resolution. That means it supports displayport 1.3 and potentially an upcoming 5k display from Apple.

 

[Kal-037]

Someone pointed out in the mac pro forum that the specs page of the new macbook pro with M370X has been updated to support the full 5k display with 5120x2880 resolution. That means it supports displayport 1.3 and potentially an upcoming 5k display from Apple.

https://support.apple.com/kb/SP719?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Thunderbolt digital video output
-Native Mini DisplayPort output
-DVI, VGA, dual-link DVI and HDMI output supported using Mini DisplayPort adapters (sold separately)
-Support for up to 5120-by-2160 resolution at 60Hz on a single external display (model with AMD Radeon R9 M370X only)

I never saw where it said it has support for the 5120x2880, but it says it supports 5120x2160. Still super boss, now I say this new dGPU is a success.
Then again, I guess we need to wait and see if it can really push a 5k display when it actually gets into the hands of more people. lol



Kal.

 

[swifty168]

Someone pointed out in the mac pro forum that the specs page of the new macbook pro with M370X has been updated to support the full 5k display with 5120x2880 resolution. That means it supports displayport 1.3 and potentially an upcoming 5k display from Apple.

Or perhaps target display mode will be enabled on the retina iMacs to act as an external monitor.

 

[iAustralian]

The specs webpage for the Pro has indeed been updated to 5120x2880 http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-retina/

This is exciting. Although I don't know how it is possible given Haswell doesn't support DP1.3? Maybe via a dual link thunderbolt 2 connection to a 5k display and super dock. We will find out at WWDC...

I'm not an expert on this but what if Apple has figured out a way of untying the need for Displayport 1.3 + Thunderbolt 3 with the Broadwell processors, such that this new AMD card is able to output DP1.3 without Intel support?

I have just bought the 2.5GHz model myself from a Retail Store, about to set it up.

 

[rev.b]

M370X is a Cape Verde GPU... 2012 tech.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9276/2015-15inch-retina-macbook-pros-dgpu-r9-m370x-is-cape-verde

 

[Kobayagi]

M370X is a Cape Verde GPU... 2012 tech.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9276/2015-15inch-retina-macbook-pros-dgpu-r9-m370x-is-cape-verde

Hmm very interesting. Just reading the comments there, people don't seem too have much faith Apple's choice.

 

[leman]

My summary: its a solid upgrade. The new GPU is essentially the desktop AMD HD7770 and while its not the latest or fastest card, it is a still a decent performer. For professional OpenCL assisted tasks, you will get speedups of up to 2.5x over the 750M. As far as gaming is concerned, it will run all contemporary games at 1680x1050 on medium/high settings and good performance. All in all, a much better GPU for all purposes than the 750M.

That said, it is not the best possible option. An Nvidia Maxwell GPU would provide significantly better performance at the same TDP. We can only speculate about what reasons led Apple to choose the inferior AMD solution.

Anyway, I bought the new model and I am not cancelling my order. It will be a great machine for the next 2-3 years. By that time, I hope that new generation of CPUs and GPUs, hopefully with stacked memory and other goodies will arrive.

 

[Freyqq]

My summary: its a solid upgrade. The new GPU is essentially the desktop AMD HD7770 and while its not the latest or fastest card, it is a still a decent performer. For professional OpenCL assisted tasks, you will get speedups of up to 2.5x over the 750M. As far as gaming is concerned, it will run all contemporary games at 1680x1050 on medium/high settings and good performance. All in all, a much better GPU for all purposes than the 750M.

That said, it is not the best possible option. An Nvidia Maxwell GPU would provide significantly better performance at the same TDP. We can only speculate about what reasons led Apple to choose the inferior AMD solution.

Anyway, I bought the new model and I am not cancelling my order. It will be a great machine for the next 2-3 years. By that time, I hope that new generation of CPUs and GPUs, hopefully with stacked memory and other goodies will arrive.

Amazing the new gpu gets that kind of performance increase with the same manufacturing process as the 750M.

 

[iAustralian]

hmm, so how will a GPU with tech from 2012 manage to drive an (unannounced) 5k external display at 5120-by-2880 resolution at 60Hz?

 

[827538]

I ordered the maxed out version so between us all we should have every confit covered.

I'm still stuck in bloody preparing to dispatch though so might take a while to get delivered.

Mine is at Shanghai export, been like that for ages, didn't take this long for me last time.
Think it went China>Kazakhstan>Germany>UK

----------

Amazing the new gpu gets that kind of performance increase with the same manufacturing process as the 750M.

It's built on Global Foundries 28nm which I believe is superior to TSMC's 28nm which is what Nvidia chips are built on.

 

[HarryT]

Mine is at Shanghai export, been like that for ages, didn't take this long for me last time.
Think it went China>Kazakhstan>Germany>UK

----------



It's built on Global Foundries 28nm which I believe is superior to TSMC's 28nm which is what Nvidia chips are built on.

How do you know where it is? The tracking just says 1st June for me...

 

[JaZzMaN251]

Still "Processing articles" - Delivery date May 26-27th

I don't know how that will happen, because of the extra holiday on monday here (Belgium).
I don't see it getting shipped over the weekend + one holiday.

Anyway, it will come

 

[magbarn]

Amazing the new gpu gets that kind of performance increase with the same manufacturing process as the 750M.

If the DP 1.3 turns out to be true than that's pretty much the main difference between this re-badged M370x chip and a 7870M chip circa April 2012. Still don't understand Apple's choice on their flagship laptop as I said in another thread, they could've put this chip in the 1st gen rMBP.

 

[Freyqq]

If the DP 1.3 turns out to be true than that's pretty much the main difference between this re-badged M370x chip and a 7870M chip circa April 2012. Still don't understand Apple's choice on their flagship laptop as I said in another thread, they could've put this chip in the 1st gen rMBP.

Has tdp gone down over that time?

 

[magbarn]

Has tdp gone down over that time?

AFAIK it hasn't. It's built on the same 28nm process and unlike Maxwell, there have been no architectural changes...

 

[Stacc]

If the DP 1.3 turns out to be true than that's pretty much the main difference between this re-badged M370x chip and a 7870M chip circa April 2012. Still don't understand Apple's choice on their flagship laptop as I said in another thread, they could've put this chip in the 1st gen rMBP.

My guess is Apple wants the new Fiji chips that are coming out soon, but AMD didn't have anything to offer them until later this year. The compromise was their standard rebadged chips but updated with a new displayport controller. Apple gets a GPU that is a little faster in games than the 750m, better in compute, works with a 5k display and then can do a big update in the fall with Skylake/mobile Fiji part.

 

[cirus]

My summary: its a solid upgrade. The new GPU is essentially the desktop AMD HD7770 and while its not the latest or fastest card, it is a still a decent performer. For professional OpenCL assisted tasks, you will get speedups of up to 2.5x over the 750M. As far as gaming is concerned, it will run all contemporary games at 1680x1050 on medium/high settings and good performance. All in all, a much better GPU for all purposes than the 750M.

That said, it is not the best possible option. An Nvidia Maxwell GPU would provide significantly better performance at the same TDP. We can only speculate about what reasons led Apple to choose the inferior AMD solution.

Anyway, I bought the new model and I am not cancelling my order. It will be a great machine for the next 2-3 years. By that time, I hope that new generation of CPUs and GPUs, hopefully with stacked memory and other goodies will arrive.

Its something that could have been in the MBP in 2012. It also runs at 800 mhz vs. 1000 mhz for the 7770. Open CL is a major upgrade but gaming its a minor bump.

Maxwell 850m with GDDR5 would have been miles better.

 

[MBHockey]

hmm, so how will a GPU with tech from 2012 manage to drive an (unannounced) 5k external display at 5120-by-2880 resolution at 60Hz?

I'm also wondering this.