Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

questionwonder

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 6, 2013
152
23
I'd like to purchase two nice 27 inch 4K Dell IPS monitors (or something equivalent in the near future) for development work (Visual Studio Code) on my MBP 16 in.

Can anyone tell me if upgrading to the better GPU with more RAM will make any difference with these two screens for this type of work?

FYI - Besides dev work, I don't play any games, but I do watch Youtube videos, I play some movies and browse the internet
 

kikeman07

macrumors member
Jul 31, 2009
31
18
My 2018-560X struggled a bit with two 4k monitors at once. I can notice a big difference in fps and overall 'fluidity' with this new 16in model connected to one 4k monitor and the built in screen. I'll check if I can finally run 2x4k monitors and the built in screen tomorrow at work. I would say go for the upgrade since that isn't that expensive anyway. Here are my geekbench GPU scores FYI.
 

iemcj

macrumors 6502
Oct 31, 2015
483
168
For the specific task of displaying on those 2 monitors, it won't make any difference 4 vs 8 gigs with the gpu. You can play a unique 4k video on both screens using a 2016 machine without hickups (I literally have done it!).

None of the gpu options are remotely good enough for actual serious video editing or semi serious gaming as they lag way behind even a 5 year old imac (which isn't even THAT good of a video editing machine). We are thrilled that the new gpus are better than the previous years but you're still looking at gpu that's about on par with a ps4, a game system that came out 6 years ago. :p

If you want to have a little faster experience when doing more gpu intensive tasks going forward then it's a fairly cheap upgrade. But honeslty the base model now is much better than the top model of the 15" from this summer and that one is perfectly able to do the tasks you're desribing without even trying hard. You're good man!
 
  • Like
Reactions: turbineseaplane

questionwonder

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 6, 2013
152
23
Just FYI - I don't do any graphic intensive work (video editing, image editing, games, etc). All my work is programming and I'd say the most gpu intensive stuff is Youtube vids.
I just want a machine that runs cool when I'm working (programming) with 2x4K monitors + laptop screen.
 

danwells

macrumors 6502a
Apr 4, 2015
593
445
I'd be surprised if it made any difference at all when coding... The one exception might be some sort of graphical debugger or the like - I don't think they're GPU intensive, but I don't know. Pushing text onto the screen simply isn't GPU intensive - if you're essentially working in a text editor, I wouldn't be surprised if the discrete GPU never even comes into play, even with multiple monitors.

The other question is whether anything you do makes use of the compute functionality of the GPU? I don't know if compilation ever does?
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.