Waiting for Broadwell MBP Thread

[Atomic Walrus]

Oh, really?

Those benchmarks are impressive (a little surprising too), but they're also failing to tell the whole story. Seeing the Surface Pro 3 up above the SP2 already demonstrates the problem: Those short benchmarks do not take thermal throttling into account. In prolonged (more than ~5 minutes) tests the SP3 becomes significantly slower than an SP2.

This 4.5W (6W as tested) TDP chip is going to have to throttle even more quickly and aggressively because of its cooling situation. In the real world it is going to be a worse sustained performer.

Of course now that we've seen what the CPU is capable of in burst performance (>4300u), maybe if you're Apple that would be an acceptable trade considering the average usage of the MBA line? I guess the normal MBA user isn't doing anything that involves sustained heavy CPU use so maybe I'll need to rethink my opinion.

 

[Vanilla35]

Well, that Apple did not Update the GPU to 850m with the Haswell Refresh is really interesting:

As soon as Broadwell ships they can just say: "The new integrated GPU (Iris Pro 6200) is even faster than the previous dedicated one". They could not say that if the 850M was inside the current MBP.
I think, but certainly do not hope, that they abandon the dedicated GPU with the next Update. First don't update it, then kill it.
A lot of people currently think of the Iris Pro as being on par with the 750m which is not true at those high resolutions, it just shows the marketing by Intel works and this will ultimately kill the dedicated GPU in the rMBP in the future.

I agree with this as a premise, however I think that there is a little weight to be found in the fact that the 850M is much more efficient than the 750M while also delivering more power.

But to tack on to your claim, it would make even more sense for them to drop it anticipating the next redesign; so that they'll have even more room space to use for other components, and the ability to save those precious mm off the chassis.

 

[iKrivetko]

Those benchmarks are impressive (a little surprising too), but they're also failing to tell the whole story. Seeing the Surface Pro 3 up above the SP2 already demonstrates the problem: Those short benchmarks do not take thermal throttling into account. In prolonged (more than ~5 minutes) tests the SP3 becomes significantly slower than an SP2.

This 4.5W (6W as tested) TDP chip is going to have to throttle even more quickly and aggressively because of its cooling situation. In the real world it is going to be a worse sustained performer.

Of course now that we've seen what the CPU is capable of in burst performance (>4300u), maybe if you're Apple that would be an acceptable trade considering the average usage of the MBA line? I guess the normal MBA user isn't doing anything that involves sustained heavy CPU use so maybe I'll need to rethink my opinion.

That is true, we will indeed only know the whole story when the devices start appearing. Still, I am quite excited about the MBA as I've been waiting for a fanless laptop for quite a long time, and if it does appear I hope it will be a sign of things to come, just like the original 2008 Air was with its unibody and the 2010 with its flash-only storage.

 

[ABC5S]

Work, mainly Internet surfing, word documents, excel spreadsheets.

For your needs, the current Pro retina will be more than enough with 8gb of memory for years to come. The next version will be a small improvement that you or I will never need. Good luck

 

[The Leafs Fan]

Current mid 2014 system is just fine. Newer version later will have a speed bump until SkyLake arrives also next year, and that one will have more power.

I really doubt Skylake is coming next year. Intel will want to milk Broadwell as long as possible to recoup the costs of the delays. Intel will probably release Skylake around a year after the launch of Broadwell. Ex. Broadwell Mid-2015, Skylake Mid-2016.

 

[ABC5S]

I really doubt Skylake is coming next year. Intel will want to milk Broadwell as long as possible to recoup the costs of the delays. Intel will probably release Skylake around a year after the launch of Broadwell. Ex. Broadwell Mid-2015, Skylake Mid-2016.

I've heard both yes and no to skylake being offered very near Broadwell, but really who really knows. For me, Boadwell is just a small improvement and not worth it, at least for me.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2454...-pc-processors-on-schedule-for-next-year.html

 

[GoldfishRT]

I haven't kept up to date with the rumors so I apologize if this has been answered already. What's the word on GPU options. Is Apple really going to switch to only offering an iGPU solution?

 

[The Leafs Fan]

I haven't kept up to date with the rumors so I apologize if this has been answered already. What's the word on GPU options. Is Apple really going to switch to only offering an iGPU solution?

Apple may switch to an all Integrated lineup for the MacBook Pro when the Broadwell update comes sometime in 2015

 

[Vanilla Face]

I haven't kept up to date with the rumors so I apologize if this has been answered already. What's the word on GPU options. Is Apple really going to switch to only offering an iGPU solution?

No word on it, but I wouldn't expect them to start offering discrete GPU options on the 13".

 

[nike23]

I'm surprised to say my 2007 macbook is still going strong, well sort of lol (the black one)

Haven't had any real bad issues with it, just the charging port and the screen going dim..all fixed now though

i was really hoping they would release the new macbooks this year as it was expected...Im new in this thread, is there ANY word on when the next line of pro's will be available? Hoping my macbook stays alive for the next few months...using it for school/internet surfing mostly, but Im one of those that want the newest thing lol

 

[mafaky]

I'm surprised to say my 2007 macbook is still going strong, well sort of lol (the black one)

Haven't had any real bad issues with it, just the charging port and the screen going dim..all fixed now though

i was really hoping they would release the new macbooks this year as it was expected...Im new in this thread, is there ANY word on when the next line of pro's will be available? Hoping my macbook stays alive for the next few months...using it for school/internet surfing mostly, but Im one of those that want the newest thing lol

There has been a recent launch (or rather revision) of rMBP's known as mid-2104 series: Haswell processors, 8/16 GB (13"/15") RAM as standard, Iris 5000 graphics, increased clock speeds and the like plus increased battery usage. The very next revision (most possibly using the same aluminum case as todays' models) will be the one using the even more energy efficient (battery friendly) processors known as Broadwell. But there has been some long delays on Intel's side to supply the mobile versions of this family (not only for Apple but for all other Windows based notebooks/ultrabooks) and they are expected to enter the market by the (end of) first quarter of 2015, if not around mid 2015. So the expectation is to see a mid-2015 revision of rMBP laptops with these Broadwells, in which we may hopefully enjoy at least one more hour of battery usage compared to the mid-2014s.

 

[thebrobrah]

looks like broadwell will be on borrowed time

likely going to skip and wait a little more for skylake

 

[mafaky]

looks like broadwell will be on borrowed time

likely going to skip and wait a little more for skylake

ı can't remember in which thread in this Forum I read it and when, but I seem to remember something likhe: "the Skylake family will not include any mobile processors.." (To arm LAPTOPS LİKE rMBP OR MBA. But there will be Skylake processors say for the iMac...)

----------

looks like broadwell will be on borrowed time

likely going to skip and wait a little more for skylake

ı can't remember in which thread in this Forum I read it and when, but I seem to remember something like: "the Skylake family will not include any mobile processors.." (To arm LAPTOPS LİKE rMBP OR MBA. But there will be Skylake processors say for the iMac...)

 

[Vanilla Face]

looks like broadwell will be on borrowed time

likely going to skip and wait a little more for skylake

Lol, you think skylake won't be pushed back too?

 

[thebrobrah]

while i would agree it would make sense financially to delay delay delay as there is no competition, i also think its possible intel wants to go forward towards 10nm in an effort to gain a foothold in mobile

all in all, i'd lean towards a delay but hopeful there isnt one

 

[Vanilla Face]

i also think its possible intel wants to go forward towards 10nm in an effort to gain a foothold in mobile

Even if that is the case, they would likely only release mobile processors, similar to what they are doing now.

 

[The Mercurian]

Sigh....

Skylake builds on the tech of Broadwell - delays of Broadwell mean obligatory delays of Skylake for tech reasons, nevermind commercial.

Could they have brought out Pentium before 486 ?

 

[geox]

any word on 32gb ram support for mbp 15

 

[Vanilla Face]

anyword on 32gb ram support for mbp 15

It will be possible with the hardware, it's up to Apple if they include it or not.

 

[thebrobrah]

Sigh....

Skylake builds on the tech of Broadwell - delays of Broadwell mean obligatory delays of Skylake for tech reasons, nevermind commercial.

Could they have brought out Pentium before 486 ?

not really

skylake design is ready

manufacturing process (good yields) were not

need both

 

[The Mercurian]

not really

skylake design is ready

manufacturing process (good yields) were not

need both

That's kind of what I said with different words. Only its not quite that simple. Introducing a new product always throws up new problems even if the process changes little (from experience ).

 

[827538]

I really doubt Skylake is coming next year. Intel will want to milk Broadwell as long as possible to recoup the costs of the delays. Intel will probably release Skylake around a year after the launch of Broadwell. Ex. Broadwell Mid-2015, Skylake Mid-2016.

Agreed, Intel would only be canabalising their own profits and sales. AMD offers no competition so don't expect them to be eager to rush out their hottest chips straight from R&D.

 

[Senf]

I'm going to upgrade my aging MBA since I need more cores for the work I do these days and I've been looking at the rMBP for quite some time now.

I kept my fingers crossed last year when the Haswell TDP improvements could have made a quad core 13" rMBP happen. That would be the perfect portable computer for me. Instead, the 13" got a 28W class CPU and one of the fans was scrapped. Needless to say, a quad core 13" is probably not around the corner... Still, the need for quad core is beginning to push the limits for my MBA more often now. I won't settle for a pre-Maxwell GPU though.

Here is some guesswork.
Apple nailed down October 21 for an event when the updated Broadwell rMBPs would be announced - along with Yosemite. This was of course while Broadwell still was "on schedule again".
The new (Broadwell) logic board carries a Maxwell based GPU - perhaps a GeForce GTX 860M (considering the thermal envelope).
Broadwell has become infamous for the delays and the Haswell refresh in July probably pushes new products to Q1 (February?). I won't rule out that Apple has gotten their mittens on suitable (not yet announced) processors though, so I'll keep my fingers crossed and probably wait some more since I won't pay full price for a GPU that's a generation old.

 

[jrpoll]

I'm going to upgrade my aging MBA since I need more cores for the work I do these days and I've been looking at the rMBP for quite some time now.

I kept my fingers crossed last year when the Haswell TDP improvements could have made a quad core 13" rMBP happen. That would be the perfect portable computer for me. Instead, the 13" got a 28W class CPU and one of the fans was scrapped. Needless to say, a quad core 13" is probably not around the corner... Still, the need for quad core is beginning to push the limits for my MBA more often now. I won't settle for a pre-Maxwell GPU though.

Here is some guesswork.
Apple nailed down October 21 for an event when the updated Broadwell rMBPs would be announced - along with Yosemite. This was of course while Broadwell still was "on schedule again".
The new (Broadwell) logic board carries a Maxwell based GPU - perhaps a GeForce GTX 860M (considering the thermal envelope).
Broadwell has become infamous for the delays and the Haswell refresh in July probably pushes new products to Q1 (February?). I won't rule out that Apple has gotten their mittens on suitable (not yet announced) processors though, so I'll keep my fingers crossed and probably wait some more since I won't pay full price for a GPU that's a generation old.

So I was planning on buying the $1800 13 inch mbp in October for school and casual. Do you think I should wait till October 21st before I buy?

 

[Vanilla35]

So I was planning on buying the $1800 13 inch mbp in October for school and casual. Do you think I should wait till October 21st before I buy?

I would, just in case they somehow update the MBP's. But it's very doubtful since the processors won't even be here. If you're going to be extremely hassled trying to go through classes and such without a computer then get one now. The chances of them refreshing are very slim.