Thanks for the clarification! 
So, I guess it's more about space-saving, more than anything else.
So, I guess it's more about space-saving, more than anything else.
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Waiting for Haswell MBP Mega Thread
- Thread starter thadoggfather
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Well I give up on this waiting game. Heading to the store in about an hour to pick up a 13" rMBP under education pricing. October, even September, is too long of a wait since I go off to college during the last week of August. If you can convince me otherwise...
Tomorrow is a Tuesday and it's still July, so... No, it's going to be September or October so go out and get your rMBP today
Not going to try
The current machine is an excellent platform -- at best, waiting for Haswell will get you only incremental performance and feature upgrades.I am fortunate to be in the "I can wait" camp. Last week I purchased a current 15" rMBP; today I am returning it.
Why? Not because I'm in any way dissatisfied with its performance (again, the current rMBP is sufficient for 99.9% of college students).
The reason I'm taking it back is that my late '08 MBP continues to perform well enough that I'm willing to put up with the occassional spinning beachball while I wait a couple more months to see what Apple actually puts into the Haswell machines. At that point I'll either get one of the last of the current (Ivy Bridge) MBP's, or go Haswell.
In the meantime, I'm planning on picking up a $180 Samsung 240GB SSD for the late '08 to see how much "life" it breathes back into the machine.
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Not going to try
I am fortunate to be in the "I can wait" camp. Last week I purchased a current 15" rMBP; today I am returning it.
Why? Not because I'm in any way dissatisfied with its performance (again, the current rMBP is sufficient for 99.9% of college students).
The reason I'm taking it back is that my late '08 MBP continues to perform well enough that I'm willing to put up with the occassional spinning beachball while I wait a couple more months to see what Apple actually puts into the Haswell machines. At that point I'll either get one of the last of the current (Ivy Bridge) MBP's, or go Haswell.
In the meantime, I'm planning on picking up a $180 Samsung 240GB SSD for the late '08 to see how much "life" it breathes back into the machine.
We're both in the same camp. I can wait, so I'll try to be as patient as I can even though this is getting really annoying. While my current Dell studio 1640 works, there's an aesthetic damage so the metal trim is being held down by 2 butterfly clips. LOL
The replacement part will cost $40-50, but why spend more money on a machine that will be retired in few months. Might as well put that money towards beefing up the new device.
Besides aesthetics, this machine has a way of freezing when I watch streaming media and have my 30+ tabs open.
It's hard being patient especially since I'm not a naturally patient person.
I think my biggest mistake was coming to this site back in February and believed that @!%$* analyst Kuo.
Now that iPhone 5s fingerprint reader is outed, I wonder if one of the reasons apple is delaying refresh of mbp is because mbp will have a fingerprint reader too and apple wants iphone reader to be a surprise.
First thing I would disable -- I don't want/need any more security than is already there, and thus don't want/need the additional cost and real estate required for it.
It is more about convince for me not to mention with Apple now allowing the OS to autofill our CC info, it is even more vital for a fingerprint sensor as compared to a regular password.
I will always disable storage of CC and password info. If your laptop gets stolen, someone can always pull the data off of the hard drive by disassembling it. Well, unless you encrypt the entire hard drive, of course.
2 cents from a French fellow
Hi all !
Is it me or are people forgetting about the 13' ? I'm thinking of those who talk about the minimal performance upgrade (having the no dGPU factor as reference for example.). I may be wrong, but the 13 inch (r)MBP is a popular machine (portability, pricing, etc.) and I strongly believe that the Iris/Iris Pro/Custom Iris is going to be great for a laptop who is powering a 2560*1600 display with an Intel 4000.
Also, I am wondering where are the Iris benchmarks coming as almost no laptops where released yet (I'm thing of before that weird one was released, people were already talking of Iris Pro vs nVidia "6-7"50M benchmarks.)
To some of the "should I buy" questions, my answer would be "If you want 13', wait, It'll be worth it IMHO" and "If you want 15', buy only if you absolutely need it. Otherwise, wait"
To the student caving in here, I too am a student waiting for a (r)MBP to show. But I don't understand you : why would you buy NOW ? At least wait until the semester starts. Plus, a week or few without a "top notch" (or expensive \o/ ) laptop isn't going to ruin your year. If I have to wait until October, I'll do it. There is absolutely no way I'm spending that much money on a laptop unless I'm sure about it (e.g. New release, or price)
Finally, I am thinking of a Mac event near start-mid september with a Mavericks release date announced ("Download it in 10 days ! Free for newly released Macs !) and an iThings event for october. Last year was weird, the macs were late (iMacs especially), so the event was late too. So they put iStuff in september.
For specs, I would like an Custom Iris Pro in the 13', it sourly needs graphics, otherwise it's a no-Pro no-Go. 15' Do as they like. Both have their advantages (most of them we don't get right : dGPU is energy efficient because it's often off ; Custom Iris will have Custom optimised drivers so they'll be powerful). And a price drop is likely, as they will slowly lower (step-by-step likely) the price of the rMBP to delete the cMBP in a few refreshes (maybe not this time, but a price drop is a clue to an upcoming drop of the cMBP from their line).
Anyways, my educated (or not ?) guesses are as good as any others. It's just 2 cents coming from a French fellow !
Cheers from France,
Clovel
Hi all !
Is it me or are people forgetting about the 13' ? I'm thinking of those who talk about the minimal performance upgrade (having the no dGPU factor as reference for example.). I may be wrong, but the 13 inch (r)MBP is a popular machine (portability, pricing, etc.) and I strongly believe that the Iris/Iris Pro/Custom Iris is going to be great for a laptop who is powering a 2560*1600 display with an Intel 4000.
Also, I am wondering where are the Iris benchmarks coming as almost no laptops where released yet (I'm thing of before that weird one was released, people were already talking of Iris Pro vs nVidia "6-7"50M benchmarks.)
To some of the "should I buy" questions, my answer would be "If you want 13', wait, It'll be worth it IMHO" and "If you want 15', buy only if you absolutely need it. Otherwise, wait"
To the student caving in here, I too am a student waiting for a (r)MBP to show. But I don't understand you : why would you buy NOW ? At least wait until the semester starts. Plus, a week or few without a "top notch" (or expensive \o/ ) laptop isn't going to ruin your year. If I have to wait until October, I'll do it. There is absolutely no way I'm spending that much money on a laptop unless I'm sure about it (e.g. New release, or price)
Finally, I am thinking of a Mac event near start-mid september with a Mavericks release date announced ("Download it in 10 days ! Free for newly released Macs !) and an iThings event for october. Last year was weird, the macs were late (iMacs especially), so the event was late too. So they put iStuff in september.
For specs, I would like an Custom Iris Pro in the 13', it sourly needs graphics, otherwise it's a no-Pro no-Go. 15' Do as they like. Both have their advantages (most of them we don't get right : dGPU is energy efficient because it's often off ; Custom Iris will have Custom optimised drivers so they'll be powerful). And a price drop is likely, as they will slowly lower (step-by-step likely) the price of the rMBP to delete the cMBP in a few refreshes (maybe not this time, but a price drop is a clue to an upcoming drop of the cMBP from their line).
Anyways, my educated (or not ?) guesses are as good as any others. It's just 2 cents coming from a French fellow !
Cheers from France,
Clovel
I enjoy making life easier, so encrypt + fingerprint sensor and we are good. Unless someone gets to Apple's iCLoud servers?
What do you mean security lock?
Hi all !
Is it me or are people forgetting about the 13' ? I'm thinking of those who talk about the minimal performance upgrade (having the no dGPU factor as reference for example.). I may be wrong, but the 13 inch (r)MBP is a popular machine (portability, pricing, etc.) and I strongly believe that the Iris/Iris Pro/Custom Iris is going to be great for a laptop who is powering a 2560*1600 display with an Intel 4000.
Also, I am wondering where are the Iris benchmarks coming as almost no laptops where released yet (I'm thing of before that weird one was released, people were already talking of Iris Pro vs nVidia "6-7"50M benchmarks.)
To some of the "should I buy" questions, my answer would be "If you want 13', wait, It'll be worth it IMHO" and "If you want 15', buy only if you absolutely need it. Otherwise, wait"
To the student caving in here, I too am a student waiting for a (r)MBP to show. But I don't understand you : why would you buy NOW ? At least wait until the semester starts. Plus, a week or few without a "top notch" (or expensive \o/ ) laptop isn't going to ruin your year. If I have to wait until October, I'll do it. There is absolutely no way I'm spending that much money on a laptop unless I'm sure about it (e.g. New release, or price)
Finally, I am thinking of a Mac event near start-mid september with a Mavericks release date announced ("Download it in 10 days ! Free for newly released Macs !) and an iThings event for october. Last year was weird, the macs were late (iMacs especially), so the event was late too. So they put iStuff in september.
For specs, I would like an Custom Iris Pro in the 13', it sourly needs graphics, otherwise it's a no-Pro no-Go. 15' Do as they like. Both have their advantages (most of them we don't get right : dGPU is energy efficient because it's often off ; Custom Iris will have Custom optimised drivers so they'll be powerful). And a price drop is likely, as they will slowly lower (step-by-step likely) the price of the rMBP to delete the cMBP in a few refreshes (maybe not this time, but a price drop is a clue to an upcoming drop of the cMBP from their line).
Anyways, my educated (or not ?) guesses are as good as any others. It's just 2 cents coming from a French fellow !
Cheers from France,
Clovel
Everyone forgets the 13"
I definitely think Haswell should be an increase in performance on the 13", however the Geekbench scores that were leaked only showed a marginal increase over the Ivy Bridge processors. I think that on paper the HD 5000+ graphics look way better, but in real-world use it remains to be seen.
As for why people are buying now, you have to remember that when the Haswell rMBPs are released, they will be sold at full retail price, which is damn expensive for most people (especially students). With all the deals going on recently, many people are getting the 15" rMBP on deep discount and saving a ton of money. They may get last year's tech, but they're saving a good $500-$600 that they could put toward something else. And honestly, for what the general population uses their laptops for, last year's technology is plenty powerful. I have no complaints about my 13" rMBP and I'm glad I didn't wait, however I won't deny that the Haswell 13" has the possibility of being a considerable upgrade in performance if you need it (I just don't need it for what I do with mine).
Also keep in mind that their benchmark chart is very very questionable... like the last "benchmark" from the other German website. I'm not sure if it's a pattern...
But this worries me:
Bioshock Infinite can't get more than 8fps at High settings at 1920 x 1080 on the ASUS UX51VZ!?
Damn...
Because my Retina MacBook Pro gets 30fps at High settings at 1920 x 1080.
Is my 650M so supercharged that it's nearly 3 times faster than what the benchmark is showing?
Or did someone forget to force dedicated graphics and instead ran on HD 4000 instead? Hm...
Happened last time to the WebGL benchmark as well.
Seriously, I'm starting to think Intel may be paying people to make Iris Pro look better than it actually is.
Yeah, the performance drop of the Asus looks very strange in some cases, e.g. in the Grid numbers. Either the laptop has terrible thermals and goes into throttling, or they are not doing a very good job there.
Or someone purposefully forced the HD 4000 during those tests.
It makes sense, though, since the HD 4000 does get around 8-10fps at high settings in Bioshock.
If the 650M was really in the benchmark, then it would have decimated Iris Pro at higher resolutions (1920 x 1080) because Iris Pro simply doesn't have enough high-bandwidth memory (only 128MB of L4 cache) to handle higher resolutions.
Based on the rumor that Apple is requesting custom Iris Pro from Intel, my guess is that Apple is asking Intel for a version of Iris Pro with even more L4 cache... to combat that limitation.
You can also bet that apple will be using some custom drivers that are far beyond the regular intel ones for normal iris pro.
I see it now, next MBPr commercial, a bunch of college students crowding around the lounge at the student union (or whatever they call it now days). They are all running around fighting for wall outlets.
A lone guy sitting against the wall very intently working on his MBPr. A guy walks up, says "do you mind?", pointing at the wall behind the MBPr guy. He looks around behind him seeing the wall outlet. Looks at the poor chump who's laptop is about to die, "oh, sure"' with a big smile, as he scoots over exposing the wall outlet...
A lone guy sitting against the wall very intently working on his MBPr. A guy walks up, says "do you mind?", pointing at the wall behind the MBPr guy. He looks around behind him seeing the wall outlet. Looks at the poor chump who's laptop is about to die, "oh, sure"' with a big smile, as he scoots over exposing the wall outlet...
I am not surprised
they did that on AMD in the past.God knows why wouldn't they do the same again vs NVIDIA this time.
According to Apple:
Compressed Memory keeps your Mac fast and responsive by freeing up memory when you need it most. When your system’s memory begins to fill up, Compressed Memory automatically compresses the least recently used items in memory, compacting them to about half their original size. When these items are needed again, they can be instantly uncompressed.
Compressed Memory improves total system bandwidth and responsiveness, allowing your Mac to handle large amounts of data more efficiently. Through use of the dictionary-based WKdm algorithm, compression and decompression are faster than reading and writing to disk. If your Mac needs to swap files on disk, compressed objects are stored in full-size segments, which improves read/write efficiency and reduces wear and tear on SSD and flash drives. The advantages of Compressed Memory include the following:
• Shrinks memory usage. Compressed Memory reduces the size of items in memory that haven’t been used recently by more than 50 percent, freeing memory for the applications you are currently using.
• Improves power efficiency. Compressed Memory reduces the need to read and write virtual memory swap files on disk, improving the power efficiency of your Mac.
• Minimizes CPU usage. Compressed Memory is incredibly fast, compressing or decompressing a page of memory in just a few millionths of a second.
• Is multicore aware. Unlike traditional virtual memory, Compressed Memory can run in parallel on multiple CPU cores, achieving lightning-fast
performance for both reclaiming unused memory and accessing seldom-used objects in memory.
Too good to be true. I did some tests with Mavericks and the compressed RAM barely reached 200MB on MBP with 4GB RAM.
Source?
Hardware assisted compression is not cheap... It would speed up the compression process, but the compression ratio depends on the type of data. Binary data is generally less compressible then text data.
Server systems are almost not limited by RAM size. They can support 100+ GB and much more of physical RAM... I've seen servers with 512GB of RAM... insane
Depends. None of us really know what the yields are on the Iris Pro chips but based on them being reserved for the most expensive processor it would appear that they are hard to produce at volume already and adding more cache would add more stuff to go wrong.
2880x1800 is 5 Million pixeles = 5MBytes * 3 (RGB) = 15MBytes.
So with 30MB, you could alternate between 2x15MB framebuffers to display the content on the screen. The remaining 128MB - 30 = 98MB could be used as temporary buffers for graphic calculations...
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