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Would you buy a rMBP without a dedicated GPU?

Yes, if there were other tradeoffs that made it worthwhile:

  • Price
  • Battery Life
  • Weight
  • Heat
I would actually be interested in a cheaper 15" rMBP with a dual core ULV CPU, like the 28W models that are likely for the 13" rMBP. I don't need quad core or a dGPU but would love the larger screen size.
 
Stetrain said:
Yes, if there were other tradeoffs that made it worthwhile:

  • Price
  • Battery Life
  • Weight
  • Heat
I would actually be interested in a cheaper 15" rMBP with a dual core ULV CPU, like the 28W models that are likely for the 13" rMBP. I don't need quad core or a dGPU but would love the larger screen size.
Click to expand...

I'm with you. While I think I still prefer the 13-inch form factor, a less expensive 15-inch model would be nice.
 
Stetrain said:
  • Price
  • Battery Life
  • Weight
  • Heat
Click to expand...

Ooh, good thinking with “heat”. That is important. I would not count on “weight” though, because the space currently taken up by the dGPU will most likely be filled with extra battery, which is probably even heavier.
 
Absolutely not. While that would work for my wife, when I upgrade to the rMBP-15, I'll need it to be able to drive 2 ATDs and play the occasional game or two at good frame rates. I will welcome a move to iGPUs only when they are truly on par with good dGPUs, until then the MBPs need a dGPU.


___
 
I would absolutely consider it for the 15" if the Iris Pro is up to snuff, and the lack of a dGPU leads to marked increases in power savings and increased battery life via Haswell. If the price point is ~$200 less than the base dGPU model, it would be highly enticing.
 
quick question, how does not having a dedicated gpu affect multi-monitor displays if i get the new haswell 15 inch.
 
Macforcollege said:
quick question, how does not having a dedicated gpu affect multi-monitor displays if i get the new haswell 15 inch.
Click to expand...

It should still do just fine. The Iris Pro GPU in the new Haswell chips is very powerful for an integrated GPU. In most games it performs slightly worse but for general usage and multiple monitors it should be fine.
 
Macforcollege said:
quick question, how does not having a dedicated gpu affect multi-monitor displays if i get the new haswell 15 inch.
Click to expand...

You lose more system RAM than the old rMBP 15" with dedicated GPU, because the new Haswell 15-inch needs to share memory with the internal GPU.

The old rMBP 15" forces the dedicated GPU to be on whenever an external display is connected, so system RAM is free for other things.
 
They stick not one but two dedicated graphics cards in the Mac Pro and people are worried the MacBook Pro won't get a Dedicated GPU at all? Come on guys, this Iris Pro thing is either the Non-Retina MacBook Pro or the lower end Retina.
 
Quu said:
They stick not one but two dedicated graphics cards in the Mac Pro and people are worried the MacBook Pro won't get a Dedicated GPU at all? Come on guys, this Iris Pro thing is either the Non-Retina MacBook Pro or the lower end Retina.
Click to expand...

Nope.

The benchmarked machine was running the top-end CPU with Iris Pro. It's not for a lower-end Retina.

And non-Retina MacBook Pro are on their way out. It makes no sense for Apple to keep them around considering their sales would be cannibalized by the Retina line.
 
bill-p said:
Nope.

The benchmarked machine was running the top-end CPU with Iris Pro. It's not for a lower-end Retina.

And non-Retina MacBook Pro are on their way out. It makes no sense for Apple to keep them around considering their sales would be cannibalized by the Retina line.
Click to expand...

Sorry but you can't just say "Nope" like it is a fact. That is just your opinion which I disagree with.

As you just said this is the top-end CPU with Iris Pro There are plenty of higher clocked Haswell CPU's for Mobile which do not include Iris Pro and Apple are much more likely to use one of those (which cost less than the 2.4GHz Haswell w/ Iris Pro I might add) and then include a dedicated card.

What we are looking at is the low end machine and there is no doubt in my mind on that. This integrated graphics cannot compete with a dedicated card in any universe and Apple cannot charge the premiums they do without a dedi, simple as that.

Everyone is working on assumptions here, assuming on the prices of chips, we don't know what deal Apple has with NVIDIA we don't know how much they bought 650m's for we don't know how much of a volume discount they get from Intel. Everyone is saying the 2.4GHz Iris Pro costs the same as a conventional i7 + 650m and they base that information on nothing but conjecture by websites who don't actually know how much Apple pays for them.
 
Quu said:
Sorry but you can't just say "Nope" like it is a fact. That is just your opinion which I disagree with.

As you just said this is the top-end CPU with Iris Pro There are plenty of higher clocked Haswell CPU's for Mobile which do not include Iris Pro and Apple are much more likely to use one of those (which cost less than the 2.4GHz Haswell w/ Iris Pro I might add) and then include a dedicated card.

What we are looking at is the low end machine and there is no doubt in my mind on that. This integrated graphics cannot compete with a dedicated card in any universe and Apple cannot charge the premiums they do without a dedi, simple as that.
Click to expand...

The 4950HQ is a high end CPU. A low end model would come with 4750HQ.

We will find out eventually, until then everything is speculation. But I wouldn't be completely surprised if there is no dGPU in any of the 15'' machines.
 
Quu said:
Sorry but you can't just say "Nope" like it is a fact. That is just your opinion which I disagree with.

As you just said this is the top-end CPU with Iris Pro There are plenty of higher clocked Haswell CPU's for Mobile which do not include Iris Pro and Apple are much more likely to use one of those (which cost less than the 2.4GHz Haswell w/ Iris Pro I might add) and then include a dedicated card.

What we are looking at is the low end machine and there is no doubt in my mind on that. This integrated graphics cannot compete with a dedicated card in any universe and Apple cannot charge the premiums they do without a dedi, simple as that.

Everyone is working on assumptions here, assuming on the prices of chips, we don't know what deal Apple has with NVIDIA we don't know how much they bought 650m's for we don't know how much of a volume discount they get from Intel. Everyone is saying the 2.4GHz Iris Pro costs the same as a conventional i7 + 650m and they base that information on nothing but conjecture by websites who don't actually know how much Apple pays for them.
Click to expand...

I don't know of any ultra books with a dedicated gpu under $2000. Asus has one with a low powered gpu but has a terrible screen and abysmal battery life.
 
thundersteele said:
The 4950HQ is a high end CPU. A low end model would come with 4750HQ.

We will find out eventually, until then everything is speculation. But I wouldn't be completely surprised if there is no dGPU in any of the 15'' machines.
Click to expand...

What makes the 4950HQ high-end? Because they charge $600+ for it or because it has a high model number? It is a 2.4GHz CPU - Intel sell 2.8GHz ones that are faster than this. The only reason Intel is charging so much and given it a high number is because the yield on those Iris Pro graphic parts are obviously too low to make it the mainstream part it should be.

Technically every Core i7 Haswell CPU should have the Iris Pro graphics enabled. These processors the 2.4GHz ones aren't high end CPU's where it matters, CPU performance.

falconeight said:
I don't know of any ultra books with a dedicated gpu under $2000. Asus has one with a low powered gpu but has a terrible screen and abysmal battery life.
Click to expand...

Indeed. And for us in the UK a maxed out MacBook Pro is over $4,000 - For that kind of money I will want a dedicated GPU in the new Haswell Retina MacBook Pro like we currently have in the current Ivy Bridge model.

There is more than enough money in these machines to include a dedicated card.
 
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Quu said:
What makes it high-end? Because they charge $600+ for it or because it has a high number? It is a 2.4GHz CPU - Intel sell 2.8GHz ones that are faster than this. The only reason Intel is charging so much and given it a high number is because the yield on those Iris Pro graphic parts are obviously too low to make it the mainstream part it should be.

Technically every Core i7 Haswell CPU should have the Iris Pro graphics enabled. These processors the 2.4GHz ones aren't high end CPU's where it matters, CPU performance.



Indeed. And for us in the UK a maxed out MacBook Pro is over $4,000 - For that kind of money I want a dedicated GPU. I don't see a $4000 mac without dedicated graphics. The most powerful maxed out 13 inch is 3100 but you would expect that for the size of the ssd.

There is more than enough money in these machines to include a dedicated card.
Click to expand...

The macbook pro retina 15 does have a dedicated gpu.
 
Last edited:
falconeight said:
The macbook pro retina 15 does have a dedicated gpu.
Click to expand...

We are talking about the new Haswell Retina MacBook Pro, not the current one. I am fully aware the current model comes with a 650m as its dedicated graphics chip alongside the Intel integrated..
 
Quu said:
What makes it high-end? Because they charge $600+ for it or because it has a high number? It is a 2.4GHz CPU - Intel sell 2.8GHz ones that are faster than this. The only reason Intel is charging so much and given it a high number is because the yield on those Iris Pro graphic parts are obviously too low to make it the mainstream part it should be.

Technically every Core i7 Haswell CPU should have the Iris Pro graphics enabled. These processors the 2.4GHz ones aren't high end CPU's where it matters, CPU performance.



Indeed. And for us in the UK a maxed out MacBook Pro is over $4,000 - For that kind of money I want a dedicated GPU.

There is more than enough money in these machines to include a dedicated card.
Click to expand...

The macbook pro retina 15 does have a dedicated gpu. I see a 13 maxed out at $3100 but thats expected with a giant ssd like that.

----------
Quu said:
We are talking about the new Haswell Retina MacBook Pro, not the current one. I am fully aware the current model comes with a 650m as its dedicated graphics chip alongside the Intel integrated..
Click to expand...

Oh so this is a what if? sorry
 
I've edited my post to make it more clear I was talking about the next model.
 
Yep. Then again, I don't game. Well, maybe Quake Live once in a while, but that's based on a 10+ year old game. I can see why a dGPU would be useful for the people who need it though.
 
Any dGPU fans want the NVIDIA card from my 2009? Doubt I ever use that thing to its full potential. Not a gamer and I don't edit videos outside tinkering with iMovie once in a blue moon. So I suppose iGPU would be enough for my current uses.
 
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