I've run out of patience (and frustration) with the Windows world and the debacle that is Windows 8, so I am moving on to OS X. I have been following the hand-wringing that is the wait for a Haswell MacBook Pro, and I'm not sure I haven't landed in the same predicament here in Apple land.
After reading this lengthy and information packed forum, I have to wonder what will Haswell really bring to the table, for a Retina MacBook Pro 15, other than longer battery life? The 2012 rMBP, with its dedicated GPU, seems like a formidable laptop, and I just don't see why wait (other than the usual advantage of longer resale life as the "newest" release).
Any sage advice from all you old hands?
I have some opinions from a multi-platform user, if that's helpful. I run Windows desktops and Mac laptops and see no chances of that changing anytime soon.
So as far as Haswell, it's entirely about battery. And iGPU, but on the 15" this may actually be a negative (general opinion is that dGPU is out this year in exchange for an HD 5200 iGPU, which is basically equivalent to the 650m in the current rMBP).
If you're looking at the 13" then this might be a big deal. The 13" rMBP only ran iGPU last year, but the HD 4000 is massively underpowered for that resolution. The HD 5100 should be about twice as fast, making it more than sufficient for non-gamers (and at half resolution it might actually do alright in some games). It also is going to get a big battery boost, likely even for the top spec model.
If your target is the 15" rMBP I'm going to say that this might not be the year if the iGPU-only rumors are true. The HD 5200 is a decent chip (as I said it's the equivalent of the dGPU from last year's model) and it's going to make the normal day to day use of the machine much smoother compared to the HD 4000.
If you were expecting a 700-series dGPU this year and it doesn't happen the machine is going to feel underpowered in 3D rendering or other serious graphics applications. If that's your usage case I'd say you might need to wait for Broadwell, when the iGPU might actually be powerful enough for serious 3D applications. Of course it's also entirely possible that the info out there is wrong, and that there will be a dGPU, but I personally doubt it. Apple's focus right now seems to be on improving battery life instead of performance.
Basically, to me it seems like this year it's going to be about the 13" laptop. It's the size people want for portability, and Haswell means Apple can deliver on battery and GPU performance that was simply impossible at that size last year. For my usage case this is exactly what I've been waiting for, but it sounds like it's not what you need.
Thanks for the recommendation - are there problems with the 2012 models - they are significantly discounted from the Feb 2013 models?
Nothing specifically wrong with them, no. They have slightly -- and I mean about 0.1ghz -- slower CPUs. In fact they're probably a great deal if you understand that most of the time the system will be running on that slow HD 4000 iGPU (the 650m is there on the 15" but that's going to eat your battery very quickly).
