New MacBook Pro's - Including Thunderbolt and Quad core cpu

My co-worker just ordered the 15" with a 128GB SSD. He ordered some third party RAM from Crucial for 8GB total, also ordered the Optibay with a 750GB 7200rpm drive. That thing is going to be on fire! I gotta see if I can convince him to test out some 720p .mkv transcodes in Handbreak.
 
AMD graphics = win
Thunderbolt = win

This round definitely goes to apple!
 
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what a crappy IGP they used, like they couldnt of at least used a 4 series from intel?
 
MrGuvernment said:
what a crappy IGP they used, like they couldnt of at least used a 4 series from intel?
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imo, AMD > NVIDIA > Intel in terms of IGPs.

Intel is and always has been the bottom of the barrel cheap/low-quality when it came to graphics.

Not to say AMD is amazing, but their IGPs are second to none in terms of power management, performance, and quality.

NVIDIA used to be on top, but lately their IGPs are lacking in the quality department (I'm using them now, so I know).
 
I ordered the 15.4" Macbook Pro with the 2.2GHz processor and high resolution anti-glare screen. (high end with the 6750M and 1GB GDDR5) I opted to get the 7200rpm 500GB drive. I was disappointed that they did not go SSD only but I can always put my own in later. I am now disappointed that it hasn't shipped yet. Hopefully tomorrow since I ordered on Sunday.
 
molson3530 said:
I am curious where you got this info. I would love to get an adapter so that I could retire my Athlon64 desktop and use my dual monitors from my laptop.
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http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html

Thunderbolt digital video output

* Native Mini DisplayPort output
* DVI output using Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter (optional)
* VGA output using Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter (optional)
* Dual-link DVI output using Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter supports 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display (optional)
* HDMI audio and video output using a third-party Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter
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I guess I may have been wrong as the output is from the Thunderbolt port, but it still supports a large array of adapters which is impressive. I could have sworn people earlier in this thread were talking about triple monitor support though. Hmm, I'll look again. :(
 
I read that as it can support all of those outputs; but only one at a time. Maybe the aftermarket will come up with a solution besides the USB graphics adapters which are expensive and do not preform well. The port definitely has the bandwidth to support multiple external displays IMO.
 
I certainly hope so, the AMD IGP can easily handle 3 monitors with the current generation of graphics GPUs, and the MBP is more than powerful enough to handle so much. It would really be handy for doing portable video editing and production.
 
omfg just got one. kidding about this being a boring update :rolleyes:
 
Yay, prepared for shipment. Hopefully it will get to me before Friday since I paid for the faster shipping. I need something to do this weekend.
 
I'm lucky to live right next to Cupertino. There are Apple stores all over the place.

After swapping out the hard drive for an X25-M, this thing is ridiculously fast and responsive. The 6750 seems like junk tho--the integrated graphics in my Macbook Air are faster at native res in Source Engine games. Not sure what's up with that?
 
now what i was expecting honestly i was going to buy the macbook pro 13 if the resolution was at least 1440 x 900
 
I really want to know here; the 6750m seems to be benching way better than the 330m but does it actually game all that much better? I've got a i5 330m 17" right now, would be nice to know if an upgrade is worth considering.
 
Holding out to see if there's an air refresh... really like the higher res screens, hopefully we can get something like that in a sandy bridge flavor this summer.
 
My shiny new 15" 2.2 is wicked fast. Great upgrade from my '08 MBP.

I got a Cinema Display too.
 
Zinn said:
I'm lucky to live right next to Cupertino. There are Apple stores all over the place.

After swapping out the hard drive for an X25-M, this thing is ridiculously fast and responsive. The 6750 seems like junk tho--the integrated graphics in my Macbook Air are faster at native res in Source Engine games. Not sure what's up with that?
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Did you get the version with the HD6490m or the version with the HD6750m? The HD6750m should be a lither faster than the desktop 9800gt, if the HD5770 mobility performance is considered...
 
Lord_of_Doors said:
Holding out to see if there's an air refresh... really like the higher res screens, hopefully we can get something like that in a sandy bridge flavor this summer.
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maybe one with the BAMF screen Sony is using for their Z series? :p
 
jeremyshaw said:
Did you get the version with the HD6490m or the version with the HD6750m? The HD6750m should be a lither faster than the desktop 9800gt, if the HD5770 mobility performance is considered...
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Got the one with the 1gb HD 6750M. It seems to be slower than the integrated graphics in my 11" Macbook Air in Source engine games. Definitely a disappointment on that front. General OS graphical flair is smooth and responsive tho.

I haven't tried it in Windows yet. I'm expecting the Windows driver to be much faster.
 
Zinn said:
Got the one with the 1gb HD 6750M. It seems to be slower than the integrated graphics in my 11" Macbook Air in Source engine games. Definitely a disappointment on that front. General OS graphical flair is smooth and responsive tho.

I haven't tried it in Windows yet. I'm expecting the Windows driver to be much faster.
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ah, I see :) The HD6750m did just launch rather recently. It's a new GPU alltogether, that has strangely launched mobile-first, as it hasn't even reached the desktop market yet!
 
Red Falcon said:
imo, AMD > NVIDIA > Intel in terms of IGPs.

Intel is and always has been the bottom of the barrel cheap/low-quality when it came to graphics.

Not to say AMD is amazing, but their IGPs are second to none in terms of power management, performance, and quality.

NVIDIA used to be on top, but lately their IGPs are lacking in the quality department (I'm using them now, so I know).
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arent the basic macbook using the intel 3 series IGP though?

- okay, didnt see the ATI in it as well, i guess to save power when not needing 3D related power.


15-inch: 2.0 GHz
2.0GHz quad-core
Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz
500GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
AMD Radeon HD 6490M with 256MB GDDR5
Built-in battery (7 hours)2
Ships: Within 24hrs
Free Shipping
$1,799.00
financing available
Click to expand...
 
MrGuvernment said:
arent the basic macbook using the intel 3 series IGP though?

- okay, didnt see the ATI in it as well, i guess to save power when not needing 3D related power.
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They do use them, but for regular 2D usage. The AMD GPU is used for any heavy 3D usage. It's mainly for power saving.

btw, I don't mean Intel IGPs are bad or anything (much better than SiS), but they just do not have the performance of AMD or NVIDIA IGP/GPUs whether it is video decoding or 3D graphics. Where they win is power-saving abilities and features, and honestly they have picked up their game in recent years with drivers and options in the driver suite.
 
Picked up the base model new 13" pro last night

My first mac and I gotta say I'm very pleased with it. I even want to skip a concert I'm going to tonight just to mess around more :)
 
Red Falcon said:
They do use them, but for regular 2D usage. The AMD GPU is used for any heavy 3D usage. It's mainly for power saving.

btw, I don't mean Intel IGPs are bad or anything (much better than SiS), but they just do not have the performance of AMD or NVIDIA IGP/GPUs whether it is video decoding or 3D graphics. Where they win is power-saving abilities and features, and honestly they have picked up their game in recent years with drivers and options in the driver suite.
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No i agree, intel IGP is basically crap compared top AMD / NVIDIA, why i was wondering why Apple was using them, but since it is for 2D, doesnt matter really.
 
MrGuvernment said:
No i agree, intel IGP is basically crap compared top AMD / NVIDIA, why i was wondering why Apple was using them, but since it is for 2D, doesnt matter really.
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I thought it was dependent on how well the drivers supported a specific game. Anandtech did a preliminary bench on the Sandy Bridge IGP a little while back and it was neck-in-neck with the NVIDIA 320M. Not a huge improvement over the NVIDIA integrated graphics, but given that it was roughly the same performance and way faster than the old Intel IGP, I guess that would be a success for Intel. :p

It's a good thing since there are a ridiculous number of notebooks out there that use Intel graphics. Once Sandy Bridge notebooks really filter into the low end, you'll see many more machines out there that are really capable of gaming.
 
Zinn said:
Got the one with the 1gb HD 6750M. It seems to be slower than the integrated graphics in my 11" Macbook Air in Source engine games. Definitely a disappointment on that front. General OS graphical flair is smooth and responsive tho.

I haven't tried it in Windows yet. I'm expecting the Windows driver to be much faster.
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Bizarre. Barefeats and PCMag both have benchmarks that shown it to be more than twice the speed of the older notebooks. Barefeats has OS X benchmarks running at a common resolution with the 13".

http://www.barefeats.com/mbps01.html - 1920x1200 benchmarks are supposed to be coming, but Source performance looks like it has improved a great deal
http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/25/0,1425,sz=1&i=250147,00.jpg - Boot Camp only

There are also many videos on Youtube of people playing Crysis 2, CODBLOPS, Portal, Left 4 Dead 2, Starcraft 2, etc, on your machine in both operating systems and it looks really smooth. I wonder what's up.

Either way, Anandtech has a review coming soon. I'm not thrilled with the testing methods I've seen in other reviews so far, and I expect Anand's to be the most comprehensive.
 
I'm going to do a clean install of OS X tomorrow and see if that fixes the slow gfx. I did something that may have fucked up the OS when I swapped my SSD in (basically swapped from a 2.0ghz 2011 MBP to a 2.2ghz 2011 MBP without reinstalling) and I don't want to go blaming the graphics chip just yet. Even though I already did.
 
Zinn said:
Got the one with the 1gb HD 6750M. It seems to be slower than the integrated graphics in my 11" Macbook Air in Source engine games. Definitely a disappointment on that front. General OS graphical flair is smooth and responsive tho.

I haven't tried it in Windows yet. I'm expecting the Windows driver to be much faster.
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Something has to be wrong there. There's no possible way it could be worse. It's better in every way to the crappy 11" MBA's integrated GPU. Either a hardware issue or something (driver? I have my doubts), but there's no way that it could be slower.

EDIT: Oh, well no wonder. After reading this:

Zinn said:
I'm going to do a clean install of OS X tomorrow and see if that fixes the slow gfx. I did something that may have fucked up the OS when I swapped my SSD in (basically swapped from a 2.0ghz 2011 MBP to a 2.2ghz 2011 MBP without reinstalling) and I don't want to go blaming the graphics chip just yet. Even though I already did.
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You swap a drive from one machine to a different machine without touching anything software related, and then complain that it doesn't work properly? Come on dude, use some common sense.
 
Zinn said:
I'm going to do a clean install of OS X tomorrow and see if that fixes the slow gfx. I did something that may have fucked up the OS when I swapped my SSD in (basically swapped from a 2.0ghz 2011 MBP to a 2.2ghz 2011 MBP without reinstalling) and I don't want to go blaming the graphics chip just yet. Even though I already did.
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Yeah, OS X is linked to the mobo by drivers and Windows is also linked to the mobo by drivers and serial.

The only OS I have successfully moved from one system to another without any hiccups is Linux as it does not link itself to the motherboard.

You can't blame OS X or the hardware when you move your OS install from one system directly to another. ;)
 
lol i know, i was being stupid. don't judge me!!! arg. i'll let you know how it goes after i get everything re-installed.
 
Serpico said:
I thought it was dependent on how well the drivers supported a specific game. Anandtech did a preliminary bench on the Sandy Bridge IGP a little while back and it was neck-in-neck with the NVIDIA 320M. Not a huge improvement over the NVIDIA integrated graphics, but given that it was roughly the same performance and way faster than the old Intel IGP, I guess that would be a success for Intel. :p

It's a good thing since there are a ridiculous number of notebooks out there that use Intel graphics. Once Sandy Bridge notebooks really filter into the low end, you'll see many more machines out there that are really capable of gaming.
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Well, in unrelated note, the HD6490 is a 160SP card! :D Double the previous AMD "lowend dedicated card" :p
 
Got my higher end MBP15 with matte screen option... Installed a 120GB intel SSD, and put the original 750GB drive in an Optibay for the extra storage space for music & crap. Installed 8GB 1333 RAM. Getting around 5hrs battery life with standard web browsing & terminal stuff, pretty good considering the additions & power of the machine, I think. Very much enjoying OS X.. feels weel polished, and is easy to use & learn. I'm happy. :)
 
From what I understand the Optical bay is using a Sata 2 port. Is there anyway you can check to see if the Macbook Pro's use the new B3 revision and not the older flawed chip?
 
ah great spec on 15" and 17" and introducing the quad core on them. the AMD 6750 is also great.

very disappointed on 4GB ram and more disappointment on 5400 RPM HD. the 4GB ram is understandable as most of the program are good to run it on but the HD they should have put the 7200 RPM. the heat from HD i guess they couldn't control.

i just picked up last year's 2.4GHz i5 and it's working out great for me. will upgrade to SSD tomorrow and 8GB ram probably soon.

all on and all off, atm, i'm wondering how is the battery life.
 
Ram and Harddrives configurations are both options. You can configure it with 8GB of ram, 7200rpm harddrive or SSD if you want to pay the manufacture premium.
 
Serpico said:
I thought it was dependent on how well the drivers supported a specific game. Anandtech did a preliminary bench on the Sandy Bridge IGP a little while back and it was neck-in-neck with the NVIDIA 320M. Not a huge improvement over the NVIDIA integrated graphics, but given that it was roughly the same performance and way faster than the old Intel IGP, I guess that would be a success for Intel. :p

It's a good thing since there are a ridiculous number of notebooks out there that use Intel graphics. Once Sandy Bridge notebooks really filter into the low end, you'll see many more machines out there that are really capable of gaming.
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Anand was using the desktop version though, I think, not the mobile version, which may or may not be slower.
 
Update: after reinstalling OS X, my graphics performance is much better. Only issue now is HL2 engine games hard-lock the computer. Blah.
 
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