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Considering this is on OS X then how often do you get driver updates full stop.

Under Windows AMD release updates fairly frequently,

Not even close on the Windows side. Right now you can enjoy the latest Nvidia driver that has the optimizations for Witcher 3. The last official update from AMD is 12-2014, and the most recent Beta still doesn't have Witcher 3 optimizations.
 
:confused: Is this actually new? No processor upgrade. No Ram upgrade.No Design Update. Most probably the most insignificant update ever in MacBooks line. Are you guys pulling the trigger on this one or actually waiting for another one year?:mad:

I agree you are confused. Because it is far from insignificant.
SSD is twice as fast.
Graphics are much faster on high end model.
Force Touch
An hour more battery life.

All pretty significant things. I skipped the last upgrade but will be grabbing this one.

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Rather underwhelming.

While improving the PCI-e speed is nice, I've never seen it to be a limiting factor.

They more than doubled the speed through a combination of the PCI-e interface and the custom ssd itself and firmware. Pretty big deal and blows everything else out of the water.
Faster ssd is always better for everything. Obviously.

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If you buy now, you're buying a CPU from 2013.
Think about that for a second.
In a few months, you'll already be 2 generations behind.

Image

No. Haswell then and now are different in many ways. If you went to the trouble to find your graphic you should have found that too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haswell_(microarchitecture)

There was a refresh in mid-2014 for one thing but also more than that.
 



They more than doubled the speed through a combination of the PCI-e interface and the custom ssd itself and firmware. Pretty big deal and blows everything else out of the water.
Faster ssd is always better for everything. Obviously.

No, not "obviously." Most people will never notice the difference in day to day use, rendering your "obviously" statement false.

The faster PCI-e will not allow someone to write a paper faster, to browse the web faster, etc.
 
We shouldn't be surprised that the 2015 15" MBPs are only marginally better than last year's models. Apple's pattern is to pour tons of money and research into a new model, then keep that model around with only minor annual updates for many years. The 2015 Macbook Airs are very similar to the ones introduced in October 2010. The 2015 13" retina macbook pro is extremely similar to the 2013 one, which was only mildly changed from the 2012 one. I predict the new "Macbook" will get a faster processor and an extra port next year, and then will be essentially unchanged for 4-5 years.

This is bad news for people who buy new laptops every 1 1/2 to 2 years and want each one to be light-years better than their previous one. It's good news for people who want their investment in a premium Macbook to last a long time, or people who would be perfectly happy with last year's model which is now $200-300 cheaper but nearly as good as the newest one.

Macbooks have excellent build quality and longevity, there are millions of 3-year-old Macbook Airs and Pros out there still meeting the needs of their satisfied owners. I doubt too many people with 3-year-old plasticky Windows laptops are happy with their machines. (On the other hand, 3-year-old ones have Windows 7, arguably superior to Windows 8, so maybe they are happier than the owners of 2-year-old plasticky Windows laptops running Windows 8.)
 
I agree with above poster. If a Mac's usable life is ~4 years (on the low end for most people admittedly) then you will be getting a generational upgrade everytime you need to get a new one. No need to rush things for incremental upgrades. Think 2008 for unibody, 2012 for Retina; for ultraportable, 2010 for Air and 2015 for new Macbook. I would expect a new form factor to the Pro line with some definitive stance/resolution to Thunderbolt at end of next year.

Even though I have the late '13 rMBP with 750m, the most exciting thing today wasn't even the new GPU, it was the SSD. Was really hoping for a 950m like most of you guys. I don't think anyone that has Haswell 15"s should consider this, given that this is also a Haswell with fairly minor updates.
 
Thoughts on the new MBP

Tim Cook is the new Bill Gates:)

16 gigs of ram is all you will ever need.

disappointed they locked it down at 16
 
Thoughts on the new MBP

Tim Cook is the new Bill Gates:)

16 gigs of ram is all you will ever need.

disappointed they locked it down at 16

Agreed. SSDs evolved way faster than RAM modules in the Apple ecosystem. They should have ordered some custom modules from suppliers with a bigger density. We are stuck in 2009.
 
I am very amused by people treating this CPU as some kind of inferior peasant processor. Clueless.

Agreed, the CPU parts used in the 15" Macbook Pros are already beasts(4770HQ, 4870HQ, 4980HQ for those that don't already know the CPU SKUs), anything that replaces them will probably only be about 5% faster anyway at best.

It is awesome that they upgraded the dGPU, as that is the main limiting factor in rMBP performance("limiting factor" is relative)
 
Thoughts on the new MBP

Tim Cook is the new Bill Gates:)

16 gigs of ram is all you will ever need.

disappointed they locked it down at 16

....why?

It's not a work station, and for most people - 16 gigs is completely useless.

I've heard people say you *need it* if you're using lots of tabs to browse the web.

Stuff like that is way overkill..

I use mine for music production, and even then don't need 16GB..
 
They should have ordered some custom modules from suppliers with a bigger density. We are stuck in 2009.

The rMBP doesn't have RAM modules. The RAM chips are simply soldered directly onto the logic board. If they used higher density chips, it'd raise the cost. If they used more chips, it'd use more space.

Why do you need more than 16GB of RAM anyway?
 
No, not "obviously." Most people will never notice the difference in day to day use, rendering your "obviously" statement false.

The faster PCI-e will not allow someone to write a paper faster, to browse the web faster, etc.

I copy big files back and forth all of the time, and I also photo edit a lot, which apparently lots of Macbook Pro users do, along with video and music editing.

I'd say this PCI-E update is very compelling to any typical user of a Macbook Pro (not Air. Pro.). It's going to be much more noticeable to daily use than a 10% bump in CPU power gained from Skylake. And that GPU is probably going to be much more powerful than the 750M, although I'd prefer Nvidia because of general application support being better for those chips.
 
I suspect the problem is the supplies of the older nvidia GPU were drying up due to it being a 3 year old part. The fact that engineering samples of the Broadwell GPU were not available at the time Apple were redesigning the logic board (or Intel had told Apple when shipping quantities of production quad core Broadwells were going to be available) meant Apple couldn't wait any longer to do a refresh without dropping the dGPU model.
 
16 gigs of ram is all you will ever need.

disappointed they locked it down at 16

Complain to chip manufacturers, not Apple. Its the limitation of DDR3. Nobody is able to make chips with density high enough to have more then 16GB in this form factor. But sure, blaming it on Apple is the easiest thing. Maybe also blame them for not including Cannonlake CPUs or Volta GPUs in this update :rolleyes:

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I suspect the problem is the supplies of the older nvidia GPU were drying up due to it being a 3 year old part. The fact that engineering samples of the Broadwell GPU were not available at the time Apple were redesigning the logic board (or Intel had told Apple when shipping quantities of production quad core Broadwells were going to be available) meant Apple couldn't wait any longer to do a refresh without dropping the dGPU model.

Yep, I think this is the most reasonable explanation. Which would also show that Apple is dedicated to keeping a dGPU option, contrary to the common view on the forums.
 
Yep, and let's also complain that the PC manufacturers are still stuck with 4th-gen i7s on new models, too. Everyone's pretty much in the same boat here...

I also seem to recall that the ONLY PC laptop that comes close to the 15" rMBP's power/portability ratio is the Razer Blade - the Blade gets a better dGPU, but that's about it. :p
 
The rMBP doesn't have RAM modules.

Literal interpretation. I could say RAM encapsulations or RAM chips and so on...

I don't need 32GB for everyday usage. I also don't need 1GB/s SSDs. I'll tell a case which happened when I was processing a 600KB txt file on SublimeText. I was just searching/replacing some patterns and I got constant beach balls when I checked the preview option. Looking at system monitor, memory became orange. I have 8GBs of RAM. Now I can expect the following replies to my tale:

1- Why don't you use vim or emacs?
2- SublimeText is buggy!
3- 32GB perhaps wouldn't make things better.

Why are they lazy, near-stupid replies? Can you formulate an argument?

I also work with large text files in an algorithmic approach. If I have more RAM, the faster my prototypes will run. This is the 1% of my usage which is valuable. In short, having more than 8GB of RAM has nothing to do with everyday usage. But the few times I need maximum performance, more RAM is always welcome.
 
Its just sad bro. Everyone had high hopes.

Actually, most people realized that any updates this year would be nothing more than a spec bump, given the Broadwell delays and Skylake's impending release. The dGPU bump and the new SSD are actually quite notable changes to the rMBP, and with the updated battery providing longer life, it's not a bad update at all.
 
So what!!!!

But Intel will release the 5750c Broadwell Iris Pro desktop chips. So Intel got them. If Apple does not take those why did they wait so long to update the 15". They could have done that at the same time as the 13" updates.

Desktop processors are no use in a laptop.

I am assuming, and this may be wrong, that they were waiting for Intel to let them know what was happening with broadwell H before they were forced into an update that would disappoint people.
 
Refurbished and save money or buy new ?

AMD dedicated GPU = :( mite be a deal breaker for some

So you have a new trackpad, and they through in a new battery pack, the SSD is faster ? Not according to online sales.

Could be using up all the processors and memory so that a new release could come out later in the year.

Same old style which is heavy and bulky to some. Imagine being a sales person for apple and seeing the SOS with cheesy updates and saying it's great :eek: you should buy one :cool:

Is it time to go back to the dark side? With Steve gone is the innovation ?
 
I copy big files back and forth all of the time, and I also photo edit a lot, which apparently lots of Macbook Pro users do, along with video and music editing.

I'd say this PCI-E update is very compelling to any typical user of a Macbook Pro (not Air. Pro.). It's going to be much more noticeable to daily use than a 10% bump in CPU power gained from Skylake. And that GPU is probably going to be much more powerful than the 750M, although I'd prefer Nvidia because of general application support being better for those chips.

You are not part of "most people."

Most people buying a 15" rMBP will never notice the difference in PCI-e speed. Ditto for the GPU, because 3 out of 4 15" models don't have the discrete GPU.

As I said, the improvement in storage speed won't help most tasks, because most tasks don't involve copying large files.
 
If you buy now, you're buying a CPU from 2013.
Think about that for a second.
In a few months, you'll already be 2 generations behind.

Image

This is why I'll not be spending 2,000 dollars on a premium computer. Seems ludicrous to me, but I guess I'll vote with my wallet. I may be in the minority and that's ok. I'll live with what I have until I feel that I'll get value for my money.
 
You are not part of "most people."

Most people buying a 15" rMBP will never notice the difference in PCI-e speed. Ditto for the GPU, because 3 out of 4 15" models don't have the discrete GPU.

As I said, the improvement in storage speed won't help most tasks, because most tasks don't involve copying large files.

I can make the exact same argument for Skylake. Most people aren't going to notice any of the benefits the new architecture brings, especially not for a few years until external hardware catches up. Better GPU support in Yosemite would have a more noticeable effect than an upgrade of the iGPU.

I just think it's silly that posters are denying that the GPU and SSD bumps are somehow unworthy of an upgrade for people who want to buy a dGPU model. That's been my argument all along.
 
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