Waiting for Haswell MBP Mega Thread

[bill-p]

The Air has a very small heatsink/fan setup as well. The 15" rMBP currently has the cooling capacity for a 45W CPU and a 45W GPU running at the same time. Dropping that down to 47W total thermal load will be a big reduction in maximum heat output. Unless they completely gimp the cooling system at the same time it should run much cooler.

47W is not the worst case yet. TurboBoost may still increase that by a lot. And I'm not sure if Iris Pro depends on TurboBoost to get its higher performance, but I know the HD 4000 does.

And the 15" rMBP definitely doesn't have to deal with max CPU and max GPU load at the same time. If both are putting out too much heat, then the CPU actually throttles down to lower performance. That means no TurboBoost, and possibly even lower performance than nominal (so say, if the CPU is 2.3GHz, then it runs at 1.6GHz).

You also have to take ambient temperature into account.

 

[Stetrain]

And the 15" rMBP definitely doesn't have to deal with max CPU and max GPU load at the same time. If both are putting out too much heat, then the CPU actually throttles down to lower performance. That means no TurboBoost, and possibly even lower performance than nominal (so say, if the CPU is 2.3GHz, then it runs at 1.6GHz).

The same thing would be true of Iris Pro. As far as I know CPU and GPU turbo clocks are separate on Intel's chips.

 

[thundersteele]

[/COLOR]From the front page article:



https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1607952/

Uh oh... That will make some people here unhappy. Thanks for spotting this!

Honestly, apart from my gaming needs, the dGPU on my 2011 MBP is mostly annoying. It is being activated for a lot of tasks where it is not actually needed (i.e. some video conferencing tools), creating unnecessary heat on the keyboard, fan noise and lowered battery life, or the need to control it by hand using gfxcardstatus.

 

[bill-p]

The same thing would be true of Iris Pro. As far as I know CPU and GPU turbo clocks are separate on Intel's chips.

Yeah, but it's not just the GPU that's stressed in StarCraft 2, though.

The CPU is also equally stressed, so you'll still reach that higher Turbo heat threshold.

I guess that with Haswell, the CPU is allowed to run at higher performance mode more often than with with the current generation rMBP, since there is more thermal headroom. Technically, this may mean better StarCraft 2 frame rates (especially when there is a lot going on at once) assuming graphics settings are kept at moderate settings. But don't expect lower heat or noise, unless you're playing something that stresses only the GPU (that technically means... no game that's made after 2010).

But then you're trading some significant GPU performance for it, and even at maximum CPU performance, Haswell is not that much faster than Ivy Bridge, so the question is... is it all worth it?

I have to work with 3D graphics in AutoCAD and Maya occasionally, so I know which machine I'd shove into my bag.

Uh oh... That will make some people here unhappy. Thanks for spotting this!

Honestly, apart from my gaming needs, the dGPU on my 2011 MBP is mostly annoying. It is being activated for a lot of tasks where it is not actually needed (i.e. some video conferencing tools), creating unnecessary heat on the keyboard, fan noise and lowered battery life, or the need to control it by hand using gfxcardstatus.

On the rMBP, activating the dGPU is actually a pretty minimal hit to battery life and heat, surprisingly.

But having it in there is pretty useful for when I wanna fire up Maya or AutoCAD. It does make a difference in those applications.

 

[Engineeringcat]

I just went on the Apple Refurbished store and noticed there are no MacBook Pro Retinas for sale anymore, just cMBP. Is this a sign the new rMBP are coming, or am I just too hopeful/reaching for anything?

Edit: there is 1 13" rMBP on it that I didn't notice before.

 

[bill-p]

I just went on the Apple Refurbished store and noticed there are no MacBook Pro Retinas for sale anymore, just cMBP. Is this a sign the new rMBP are coming, or am I just too hopeful/reaching for anything?

That just means people are buying the older rMBPs more... as they are now learning that the new one may come with a worse GPU.

 

[Engineeringcat]

That just means people are buying the older rMBPs more... as they are now learning that the new one may come with a worse GPU.

Okay, that's what I felt like was happening.

 

[Stetrain]

I just went on the Apple Refurbished store and noticed there are no MacBook Pro Retinas for sale anymore, just cMBP. Is this a sign the new rMBP are coming, or am I just too hopeful/reaching for anything?

Edit: there is 1 13" rMBP on it that I didn't notice before.

The refurbished stock comes and goes a lot. Lately it seems like every time the 15" rMBP for $1599 gets back in stock it's sold out again in a few hours.

 

[Apple Mac Daz]

Soon as they announce that the Haswell rMBP are gonna be available. How big of a window will you have to order a new Ivy Bridge one if there is no dGPU.

 

[bill-p]

Soon as they announce that the Haswell rMBP are gonna be available. How big of a window will you have to order a new Ivy Bridge one if there is no dGPU.

Pretty huge, I'd think.

All remaining rMBP stock would hit refurb sooner or later, and you'll see them pop up from time to time on Craigslist, too.

 

[B...]

Pretty huge, I'd think.

All remaining rMBP stock would hit refurb sooner or later, and you'll see them pop up from time to time on Craigslist, too.

Also Amazon for months.

 

[jxie0755]

That just means people are buying the older rMBPs more... as they are now learning that the new one may come with a worse GPU.

Okay, that's what I felt like was happening.

lol.
I think most of the customers aren't like us who goes to macrumor this much. They couldn't care less on integrated or discrete graphic card. Most people would buy whatever is sold in the store. They go to the store, try it out, feel good and then take it home.

While some of them, go home and try to find a better price online, then read about this, then do some more work on the forum. There you go that's us.

 

[bill-p]

lol.
I think most of the customers aren't like us who goes to macrumor this much. They couldn't care less on integrated or discrete graphic card. Most people would buy whatever is sold in the store. They go to the store, try it out, feel good and then take it home.

While some of them, go home and try to find a better price online, then read about this, then do some more work on the forum. There you go that's us.

Yeah, but most people wouldn't even bother to check the Refurbished section.

And it's quite hard to find now, because it's at the bottom of the Apple Store website... with tiny texts...

 

[Watabou]

I'm thinking that this is what Apple is going to put in the standard macbook pro and not the retina one.

I can see Apple putting the HD4600 in the rMBP with a 750/760 dGPU.

That would make much more sense. The 15" cMBP is expensive enough as it is. Getting rid of the dGPU in the cMBP will likely reduce the price even further, while the retina stays at the same base price of $2199.

 

[brandonx76]

Are we really thinking non retina MBPs are going to be sold new after the next refresh? I just don't see it . . .

 

[B...]

I'm thinking that this is what Apple is going to put in the standard macbook pro and not the retina one.

I can see Apple putting the HD4600 in the rMBP with a 750/760 dGPU.

That would make much more sense. The 15" cMBP is expensive enough as it is. Getting rid of the dGPU in the cMBP will likely reduce the price even further, while the retina stays at the same base price of $2199.

But a quad with Iris Pro costs about as much as one with 4600 and the 750M.

 

[Flomer]

Maybe we will see a release in the last week of July. I'm not counting on it, but that would be awesome.

That would be awesome... but I'm preparing for September/October, so anything before that would be great

 

[jafingi]

IF they release a 15" rMBP only with Iris Pro, I would still buy it. UI responsiveness would be great, while having good battery life. Don't Care about gaming. WHEN I play om rare occasions, it is Counter Strike 1.6. And any computer from 2000 to present can run that

 

[Engineeringcat]

Do you guys think that Apple will make the base 15" model have 16 GB of ram as opposed to the 8 that it comes with now?

 

[tivoboy]

not standard

Do you guys think that Apple will make the base 15" model have 16 GB of ram as opposed to the 8 that it comes with now?

I really don't think they will make any model 16GB standard. That said, moving from 8GB to 16GB MIGHT cost a little bit less than last year, or might include some other bump in spec (either GPU ram, or maybe a combo of SSD upgrade AND RAM upgrade, that is overall cheaper than last year.

 

[Freyqq]

I really don't think they will make any model 16GB standard. That said, moving from 8GB to 16GB MIGHT cost a little bit less than last year, or might include some other bump in spec (either GPU ram, or maybe a combo of SSD upgrade AND RAM upgrade, that is overall cheaper than last year.

however, I hope they do for the 15." The current rev has 1 gb of vram + 8 gb of ddr3. This next rev has no dedicated vram, so the Iris Pro takes 1 gb of vram from the 8-16 gb of DDR3.

So, not only are we not getting as fast of a GPU as last gen, but we also have 1gb less of usable ram.

 

[InfinitiG]

Based on todays leaked benchmarks, I now believe only the high end rMBP will have dedicated nvidia chips. The low end rMBP with only have the HD5200 and great battery life.

We will see soon.

 

[PDFierro]

Based on todays leaked benchmarks, I now believe only the high end rMBP will have dedicated nvidia chips. The low end rMBP with only have the HD5200 and great battery life.

We will see soon.

What do you think about that? I know some of us don't need the dGPU and would rather have the extra battery life, but then you will also have people complaining that they have to pay more to get the Nvidia chip.

 

[ValSalva]

Are we really thinking non retina MBPs are going to be sold new after the next refresh? I just don't see it . . .

They may still be sold but with the same Ivy Bridge processors they have now - maybe for another year. The longer it takes to update the rMBP's the more likely the cMBP will be dropped completely though.

 

[devilcm3]

Where do you think that graph came from?

yes its from anand, but then ... to make the review seems credible they have to make the HD5200 looks bad in some departments.

so its like, hey! HD5200 is better than GT650M in 7 out of 9 benchmarks.
conclusion? HD5200 IS better than GT650M.