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Upgrade from 15" MBP 2016 to 2018 i9 with Vega 20 - First Impressions with LG Ultrafine 5K

F

fpenta

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 30, 2016
231
126
Hi guys,

So, yesterday I upgraded my 15" MacBook Pro 2016 maxed out (i7 2.9 ghz quad-core, RAM 16GB, AMD 460, 1TB SSD) to the six core i9, 32GB RAM, 1TB, Vega 20.

This thing is a real beast and absolutely love it.

I mainly do intensive photography work with Lightroom and Photoshop (panoramas, stacking, big .psb files) with D850 and D810 cameras and when at home I use the LG Ultrafine 5k display.

Here are some first impressions:

- I haven't noticed any throttling issues and haven't experienced any crazy temperatures at all.
- The fans are louder than the 2016 at max speed.
- With the LG Ultrafine 5k display attached and in clamshell mode it's much more silent than the 2016 model. For example surfing the web or working with Office and doing basic stuff the fans remain stable at 2100 rpm while I was always getting 3500- 4000 rpm with the 2016.
- Performance with the LG Ultrafine 5k display attached is a totally different story.
- I did a test opening a PSB file of 4GB and it took 10 sec less than the 2016 (30 sec vs 40 sec.)
- The keyboard is improved a lot. I liked the old one and this is even better!
- It seems the integrated speakers are improved a little bit too (I'm not sure about this)

With a score of 25000 in Geekbench I think this is the perfect balance between power, portability and sexiness :)

If you can afford it, I highly recommend to sell your 2016 model (can't talk about the 2017) and upgrade.

Let me know what you think!




Schermata 2018-12-04 alle 20.24.05.png
 
Last edited:
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fpenta said:
Hi guys,

So, yesterday I upgraded my 15" MacBook Pro 2016 maxed out (i7 2.9 ghz quad-core, RAM 16GB, AMD 460, 1TB SSD) to the six core i9, 32GB RAM, 1TB, Vega 20.

This thing is a real beast and absolutely love it.

I mainly do intensive photography work with Lightroom and Photoshop (panoramas, stacking, big .psb files) with D850 and D810 cameras and when at home I use the LG Ultrafine 5k display.

Here are some first impressions:

- I haven't noticed any throttling issues and haven't experienced any crazy temperatures at all.
- The fans are louder than the 2016 at max speed.
- With the LG Ultrafine 5k display attached and in clamshell mode it's much more silent than the 2016 model. For example surfing the web or working with Office and doing basic stuff the fans remain stable at 2100 rpm while I was always getting 3500- 4000 rpm with the 2016.
- Performance with the LG Ultrafine 5k display attached is a totally different story.
- I did a test opening a PSB file of 4GB and it took 10 sec less than the 2016 (30 sec vs 40 sec.)
- The keyboard is improved a lot. I liked the old one and this is even better!
- It seems the integrated speakers are improved a little bit too (I'm not sure about this)

With a score of 25000 in Geekbench I think this is the perfect balance between power, portability and sexiness :)

If you can afford it, I highly recommend to sell your 2016 model (can't talk about the 2017) and upgrade.

Let me know what you think!




View attachment 808625
Click to expand...

Man, glad I bought the same one with the 2TB drive. It'll be here tomorrow so reading your post made me really happy! :p
 
Thanks for the post. I also got a Vega 20 machine recently, currently plugged into a 27" 2560x1440 monitor (which is ridiculously smooth) and was wondering how the machine will fare when using a 5120x2880 monitor.
 
skirmisser said:
Thanks for the post. I also got a Vega 20 machine recently, currently plugged into a 27" 2560x1440 monitor (which is ridiculously smooth) and was wondering how the machine will fare when using a 5120x2880 monitor.
Click to expand...
I am easily getting this resolution on my 24" Dell 2415Q and 2017" MBP :)
 
Good for you. Sorry for being cynical, but apparently apple finally got it right after 100 pages of KP disgruntled customers, 100 pages of blown speakers and 50 threads of i9s running hot.

Because experience with mine was idles 15 degrees higher than the 2012, fans blasting all the time.

Also, I dont get it how the i9s now score 3k more than the average GB is.
https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/431
that means they were faulty up until now
 
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Appledoesnotlisten said:
Thanks. How loud do you think it will with 2 Ultrafine 5K and not heavy load, with a closed lid?
Click to expand...

hmm I have no idea about this sorry:(

Ploki said:
Good for you. Sorry for being cynical, but apparently apple finally got it right after 100 pages of KP disgruntled customers, 100 pages of blown speakers and 50 threads of i9s running hot.

Because experience with mine was idles 15 degrees higher than the 2012, fans blasting all the time.

Also, I dont get it how the i9s now score 3k more than the average GB is.
https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/431
that means they were faulty up until now
Click to expand...

I'm sorry about your experience. Did you manage to return yours?

I wondered the same about the higher score too. I didn't expect a 25k score at all (iMac Pro with 8 cores is only 5k more). Maybe this middle cycle update has a dual purpose?
 
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This is great news I hope they turn around in 2019 and offer Vega as base dgpu instead of the 555x.
 
fpenta said:
hmm I have no idea about this sorry:(



I'm sorry about your experience. Did you manage to return yours?

I wondered the same about the higher score too. I didn't expect a 25k score at all (iMac Pro with 8 cores is only 5k more). Maybe this middle cycle update has a dual purpose?
Click to expand...
I did! After 40 agonizing days of apple support and 14 days without computer that was at service, i got a refund.

But I was too afraid to buy another one, so i bought a Mac Mini and a 13" with it instead.

If i recall correctly mine scored in the 24k vicinity, so better than average but still not as high as yours. Maybe the average is flooded with the early throttling issue results.

Heard from couple of places that Vega20 models are running cooler on average.

Seems unfair for early adopters that they apparently bought a rushed under-done machine and literally beta-tested it.

Anyway, glad it's working out for you!
 
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fpenta said:
I ran Cinebench for three times. Here the results.
Click to expand...
Could you run the dev > null thingie for a couple of minutes to see where clock ends up?
Try to do it while forcing Vega to run. (not to run, just so its enabled)
 
fpenta said:
Apparently yes.

Click to expand...
dang. Vega20 is all that i hoped 2018 i9 would have been.
It also seems its all that should've been to begin with..

oh well... already ordered a mini, wasn't gonna order another 15" after that 560X lemon i had.
 
Just picked mine up and did the Geekbench thing, my knowledge on all these tests is not great. Not even sure what they mean really.
 

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@Ploki how did you get the refund? Mine has been sent in twice for service due to heat issues, and the mobo has been replaced twice. Apple is giving me no other options at this point. I primarily use my i9 pro as a desktop with a closed lid, and the "level 3" told me that the heat issue is due to using the laptop with a closed lid. Obviously that's completely unacceptable. I really dont know what else to do.
 
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