When is the rMBP 13" likely to see better graphics?

[Yixian]

I'm looking to switch from my 13" Air 2013 to a rMBP but researching the 13" rMBPs I've found that I probably won't see any improvement in graphic performance, maybe even a decrease when playing at native res. I'm not looking to play anything insane, just Blizzard games really but I'd like to play them on high/ultra considering something like WoW is 10 years old.

The jump between HD5000 and Iris seems to be negligible, do we have an ETA on when there will be a rMBP 13" bump with improved graphics?

 

[0940732]

Broadwell

 

[Yixian]

Are we really talking Mid 2015 for that?

And do we have any idea of how big of a boost in graphics that will be?

 

[iKrivetko]

Iris is considerably faster than the 5000, actually.

Broadwell doesn't seem to be anywhere near being close to being ready, so you'll likely have to wait for about half a year or so.

 

[FrozenDarkness]

i think to answer your first question, you should be able to play WoW fine. I don't expect braodwell to bring significant improvements to graphics especially at native resolution as it'll still be integrated and won't have a lot of dedicated vram to push those pixels

 

[Yixian]

So no WoW/Diablo 3 at high settings for about 18 months minimum?

 

[iKrivetko]

Well, even high-end chips can have difficulties running games at a resolution of 2560x1600. However, Iris is quite capable of running D3 at 1080p with high settings, having 30-35 fps.

Broadwell is expected to boost the graphics performance by 20-40 percent, so unless the cpus for the 13" receive the Iris Pro (doesn't seem likely), the difference will be considerable, but not really drastic.

 

[Yixian]

Well I was hoping for ~60fps tbh, oh well.