Understanding MBP Graphics - Iris Pro vs NVIDIA GT 750M

[Vexeh]

Hi all, i was reading all the posts. I saw that people are interested in photoediting softwares.
I want to ask if is it a good system for a 3D grapichs, VFX and Video Editing. I'm actually studing and i want a good system to improve myself with that! I'm asking to you so if it worth and which model should i buy? With or without the nVidia card?
Or if you have any other suggestion
Thanks

 

[Comed1an]

I have 15" late 2013 model with 16GB, 512GB and 750M.

Being my very first Mac I have been reading a lot of articles, but it seems that none have really compared the Iris Pro and 750M performance.

So I thought I'd share my early findings from running Unigine Valley http://unigine.com/products/valley/ and using gfxCardStatus http://gfx.io to switch between Iris Pro and 750M

Just looking at the fps on Iris Pro and 750M it is pretty clear that 750M is much faster.

On scenes where Iris Pro is running at 20 fps the 750M is doing 40 fps.

And I'm sure if I had some modern 3D games to test the results would be similar.

Maybe at some point I take some time to do some more serious testing.

 

[UBS28]

I have 15" late 2013 model with 16GB, 512GB and 750M.

Being my very first Mac I have been reading a lot of articles, but it seems that none have really compared the Iris Pro and 750M performance.

So I thought I'd share my early findings from running Unigine Valley http://unigine.com/products/valley/ and using gfxCardStatus http://gfx.io to switch between Iris Pro and 750M

Just looking at the fps on Iris Pro and 750M it is pretty clear that 750M is much faster.

On scenes where Iris Pro is running at 20 fps the 750M is doing 40 fps.

And I'm sure if I had some modern 3D games to test the results would be similar.

Maybe at some point I take some time to do some more serious testing.

The games I tried when switching between the Iris Pro and the 750m, the 750m beat the Iris Pro comfortably. The only game where they were tied was Counterstrike Source.

 

[Crzyrio]

If you're planning on using Solidworks, Maya, Lightwave, or any 3d creation or CAD application get the Iris pro one. It is significantly faster for those tasks and not that far behind the GT650M-750M for gaming...

Here are some benchmarks of the Iris Pro 5200: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-I...0.90965.0.html

Nvidia gt650m(the 750m which is fairly similar to the 650M does not include the specviewperf 11 scores for comparison):
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-...M.71887.0.html

If you are remotely interested in 3d creation apps check the specviewperf 11 scores. Even in the cinebench scores the iris pro minimum framerates exceed the 650 by 10 fps.

Just a quick question though, when in Windows via bootcamp there is no graphic switching if I am correct? Windows just uses the 750m.

Is it possible to force windows to use Iris Pro?

 

[iPaintCode]

I just did a BTO for a 15" rMBP 2.3HGz/16GB/256SSD starting from the base model, with my EPP discount I was able to get it for 2115.00 pre tax. I run a tight ship and most of my dev projects are in version control, cloud or on external, so I can purge my local but never really need to as I never exceeded 100GB. I don't really game, maybe WoW a few hours a month but most of my work and side work doesn't require a dGPU. Most of the apps or processes I run take advantage of OpenCL so again waste of money for my needs. I road tested a few machines was almost convinced it'd go BTO 13" rMBP but have been a 15" user since PowerBooks.

 

[dusk007]

Just a quick question though, when in Windows via bootcamp there is no graphic switching if I am correct? Windows just uses the 750m.

Is it possible to force windows to use Iris Pro?

I looked around and there really doesn't seem to be any way. Would be nice because I would like to get access to Intel Media SDK for QuickSync encodes.
The muxer is locked down to the 750M on boot and unless you could somehow find a driver for the muxer or manage to switch that muxer and activate the appropriate gpu before windows starts booting, it won't happen. It isn't impossible but I don't know how and my google search yielded nobody who knew.

 

[archagon]

Hey folks! I recently did some gaming-centric benchmarks of the Iris Pro 5200 vs. the 750m in OSX and Parallels, as well as a few other things like VM vs. Bootcamp performance. Maybe you'll find them handy.

My conclusion is that if you're spending $2600 on a machine, it's worth it to get the one with the 750m, so long as gfxCardStatus keeps working and you're OK with poor battery life in Bootcamp.

Very curious about whether something like Final Cut Pro can use both cards at once, like on the Mac Pro. Here's a thread to watch.

 

[luffytubby]

Hey folks! I recently did some gaming-centric benchmarks of the Iris Pro 5200 vs. the 750m in OSX and Parallels, as well as a few other things like VM vs. Bootcamp performance. Maybe you'll find them handy.

My conclusion is that if you're spending $2600 on a machine, it's worth it to get the one with the 750m, so long as gfxCardStatus keeps working and you're OK with poor battery life in Bootcamp.

Hey mate,

That was one hell of an article! Absolutely stellar job! You might not be Anand but you dwarfed every other MBP bench article I have seen.

Additionally the layout was nice and simple (reading it on an iPhone 4S) and you articulate yourself we'll, to the point in a non-pretentious way. Good job!!

 

[archagon]

Thanks! To be fair, most of the credit for the layout goes to Squarespace, though I seriously mucked with the CSS, especially for the tables.

 

[luffytubby]

Thanks! To be fair, most of the credit for the layout goes to Squarespace, though I seriously mucked with the CSS, especially for the tables.

So that is made in squarespace? very cool. They sponsor the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast and Duncan Trussel Family Hour Podcast. Great guys!

 

[richard371]

How do you switch GPUs

 

[commac]

Hey folks! I recently did some gaming-centric benchmarks of the Iris Pro 5200 vs. the 750m in OSX and Parallels, as well as a few other things like VM vs. Bootcamp performance. Maybe you'll find them handy.

My conclusion is that if you're spending $2600 on a machine, it's worth it to get the one with the 750m, so long as gfxCardStatus keeps working and you're OK with poor battery life in Bootcamp.

Very curious about whether something like Final Cut Pro can use both cards at once, like on the Mac Pro. Here's a thread to watch.

I agree with luffytubby, nice review and i have come to the same conclusion as you. Brilliant machine but a tough pill to swallow pricewise.

Im still trying to decide if i need the dgpu model as I dont game often and have a desktop with more power. I could be happier just adding ram to the basemodel and saving 400$.

 

[archagon]

So that is made in squarespace? very cool. They sponsor the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast and Duncan Trussel Family Hour Podcast. Great guys!

Yeah, they sponsor, like, every podcast I listen to. And it seems their advertising is working!

 

[richard371]

Now what would be sweet is if they could combine the power of both GPUs when needed

 

[commac]

In a way, I see no reason to get the base model macbook if the top end uses the same iGPU as the base model, but includes a free dGPU that you can keep off at will (would increase the resale value, obviously). The only problem would be the dGPU running constantly in windows, but I believe it is better to run windows as a VM in parallels - you get better battery life than running windows natively anyway.

Also, external monitors force the 750M so you can't take advantage of Iris Pro performance advantages in pro apps when connected to an external.

Unless of course the Iris Pro can still be utilized when the 750M is enabled... but I haven't heard of any real world examples. Edit: Looks like Premiere CC is claiming some dual gpu action for rendering.

 

[richard371]

there is a way around that i saw on the forms slipped my mind.

Also, external monitors force the 750M so you can't take advantage of Iris Pro performance advantages in pro apps when connected to an external.

Unless of course the Iris Pro can still be utilized when the 750M is enabled... but I haven't heard of any real world examples.

 

[commac]

there is a way around that i saw on the forms slipped my mind.

Would be great but my understanding is the ports are wired in such a way that work arounds are impossible but if you find something please share.

 

[commac]

Seems Anandtechs review of the new Mac Pro shows an example where the dgpu rMBP shows significant gains over the igpu model in something other than gaming.

Final Cut Pro 10.1 appears to be incredibly dependent on GPU performance, especially when there's any sort of effects rendering going on. Note that simply moving to a lower clocked Haswell and ditching the discrete GPU causes the 15-inch rMBP to take more than 70% longer to complete this benchmark. I'm not sure how much of this has to do with Intel's graphics drivers just not being optimized for FCP's OpenCL workload, but if you're planning on doing any real work in the latest Final Cut Pro you're going to want a discrete GPU.

The difference in performance between Intel's Iris Pro graphics and NVIDIA's GeForce GT 750M is staggering. The Iris Pro rMBP15 configuration takes nearly an hour to complete my test, while the dGPU configuration does it in a little over 21 minutes.

Can read it in context here http://www.anandtech.com/show/7603/mac-pro-review-late-2013/6

His rmbp review (if it ever happens) should be very interesting.

 

[rev.b]

Unless of course the Iris Pro can still be utilized when the 750M is enabled... but I haven't heard of any real world examples. Edit: Looks like Premiere CC is claiming some dual gpu action for rendering.

Luxmark benchmarks OpenCL simultaneously on Iris pro and 750M. So it is possible to use both CPU's in OS X, at least with OpenCL.

 

[Serban]

in games is very simple under OSX or bootcamp: Gt 650M (iMac late 2012)<Iris Pro<9%Gt 650M<12%750M

 

[CitizenMac]

nm

 

[joejoejoe]

Hi all, i was reading all the posts. I saw that people are interested in photoediting softwares.
I want to ask if is it a good system for a 3D grapichs, VFX and Video Editing. I'm actually studing and i want a good system to improve myself with that! I'm asking to you so if it worth and which model should i buy? With or without the nVidia card?
Or if you have any other suggestion
Thanks

Hey folks! I recently did some gaming-centric benchmarks of the Iris Pro 5200 vs. the 750m in OSX and Parallels, as well as a few other things like VM vs. Bootcamp performance. Maybe you'll find them handy.

My conclusion is that if you're spending $2600 on a machine, it's worth it to get the one with the 750m, so long as gfxCardStatus keeps working and you're OK with poor battery life in Bootcamp.

Very curious about whether something like Final Cut Pro can use both cards at once, like on the Mac Pro. Here's a thread to watch.

Now what would be sweet is if they could combine the power of both GPUs when needed

Also, external monitors force the 750M so you can't take advantage of Iris Pro performance advantages in pro apps when connected to an external.

Unless of course the Iris Pro can still be utilized when the 750M is enabled... but I haven't heard of any real world examples. Edit: Looks like Premiere CC is claiming some dual gpu action for rendering.

Any one know the real world advantage to the dgpu for video?

This thread is vert detailed re photo but we haven't heard much on video.

Safe to assume that there will be more benefit in the future when apps are updated to take advantage of multiple CPUs? If the answer is yes I see its a no brainer to go nvidia and manually keep dgpu off unless you need it. Yes?

 

[Hieveryone]

If you have 2500 to spend, why bother yourself? Just get a 2.6GHz i7 with 16GB RAM, NVIDIA graphics card, and a 512 SSD and call it a day!

 

[joejoejoe]

it has also come to my attention that only the rMBP with nVidia can properly support 4k 60hz output to a 4k monitor and use both the laptop and external displays simultaneously.

I think for anyone that wants to have the option of using a 4K monitor in conduction with their mbp in the future, nVidia is a no brainer...

 

[l.a.rossmann]

Ok, I can make this a super simple decision.

If you want to figure out if Apple finally got cooling systems for dedicated graphics chips in laptops right after eight years of failure, and wish to be SOL when your warranty is up - GET THE NVIDIA MODEL.

If you want it to just work and aren't going to run 3DMark competitively - GET THE IRIS MODEL!

The retina cooling system seems far better than what they've had in the past.. it actually has small side vents to take in air now, which is a step forward. My Thinkpad had that in the 90s, but better late than never I guess.

I'd get Iris. I have learned time and time again, that I do not use the dedicated video as often as I thought I would. Further, Intel has bridged the gap between integrated & discrete so well over the past three years that unless you are playing the newest games you'll never notice the difference, besides how much cooler your lap is.

Forget the future. Buy for now. If you require a future proof laptop, don't buy something with soldered in RAM & a proprietary storage solution, you will be SOL anyway.