What MacBooks boot Windows EFI natively?

[monkeybagel]

The most recent MacBook I have is an early 2013 15" with Retina Display, and when installing Windows, if of course uses CSM/BIOS rather than EFI, and has the poor battery life and heat that comes along with it. I owned a MacBook Air for a while that I believe was the first model that installed Windows 8.1 in BootCamp and used EFI automatically. I was amazed at the difference in battery life this made as it was very similar to OS X.

From what I understand, the current MacBook Pros with Retina Display boot Windows using EFI now. Do these machines benefit like the MacBook Air in getting the exceptional battery life, fast boot times, etc.? Is Windows aware of the dual GPU configuration instead of only using discreet graphics on the newer models? My early 2013 just recently has the backlight go out in the display, and I have not decided what to do with it yet - spend the money to repair it, or replace it. It is an i7/512GB/16GB model so it may be worth repairing, but it if the new ones has the option to boot Windows that I need on occasion to run natively and not get the horrible battery life, it may be worth considering replacing.

Does anyone know what models started using EFI to boot Windows? I know the original 13" with a SuperDrive is a 2012 and does not, but I am assuming the 13" and 15" Retina models all do now?

Thanks.

 

[blindpcguy]

iv done efi installs of w10 and win8 on a 4,1 MacBook from 08 so its possible on em all. the trick is not to use bootcamp for creating the partition use did utility. then hold option at boot there should be two options one saying windows the other saying efi.

 

[Tarek]

I just purchased the latest 13" rMBP and I am interested in knowing that information. I'll be following this thread.

I was wondering, how is installing Windows natively different than using Boot Camp? I am not very savvy when it comes to these areas.

 

[blindpcguy]

create the usb and downloaad the drivers through bootcamp then partition through disk utility then hold option at boot and choose the image of a dvd that says refi that simple

 

[monkeybagel]

I have installed (or rather attempted) to install Windows 10 on the MacBook Pro with Retina Display, early 2013, and it would not install using EFI. Instead, as it was "Detecting Devices" it would crash and force a reboot. After restarting, Setup would not continue and say that starting the process over was required. Also, the MacBook Pro 15" Mid 2012 will not install Windows 8 or 8.1 in EFI mode.

The 2012 Mac Pro that I have will install anything Windows 8 or newer using EFI and it works fine. In every instance other than the MacBook Air, it has not worked properly on any MacBooks I have tested. Either setup fails, or the audio device is not recognized correctly and a driver cannot be installed for it. I know Boot Camp will always force a CSM install on these older machines, but the newer machines as well as (I believe) the 2013 Mac Pro will do a native EFI install.
[doublepost=1474706153][/doublepost]

I just purchased the latest 13" rMBP and I am interested in knowing that information. I'll be following this thread.

I was wondering, how is installing Windows natively different than using Boot Camp? I am not very savvy when it comes to these areas.

Installing natively means not using virtualization, but I was more curious what machines will install using the EFI boot method. Earlier machines user what is called CSM, which you can compare to a hack workaround to fool Windows about the hardware and partitioning system the Macintosh and OS X uses.

CSM creates a Hybrid MBR/GPT partition table, and exposes an MBR partition table to Windows, as well as exposes other hardware (audio card, video card, etc.) differently. It is rather inefficient, as on a MacBook with discrete graphics will always use the more powerful GPU and not the integrated Intel GPU, which uses less battery power. This in turn causes the notebook to run much warmer and consume battery power faster than it otherwise would if it were using integrated graphics.

Windows has been capable of using EFI to boot since Windows Vista, however the EFI implementation that Apple uses does not generally work with any Windows version before Windows 8.

 

[Sincci]

According to this reddit-thread, pretty much every Mac from 2013 or later should support native UEFI-booting with Windows 8 and Windows 10. It does however require a lot of extra work to get it working.

With 2015 models you don't need to do any of that; you don't even need a USB-stick for the installation, just select the Windows installation .ISO in the Bootcamp Assistant and it will install everything pretty much automatically in a native UEFI/GPT-mode.