Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

New Macbook Pro Retina, 2.7Ghz, 16gb ram impressions

I had to return my new MBPr because of a blemish on the screen. I noticed it when I changed my desktop to a solid 10% grey background (this is a good way to make sure your screen has no issues.) According to the Apple Genius, this is an area of concern for the MBPr. Something about the screen having no glass cover.
 
Mike Halper said:
Yes, it was my post earlier in this thread. There seems to be a high percentage of defective rMBP from what I've been reading in various forums on the net.
Click to expand...


Any common cause? ... or consensus on what the problem is?

Neil
 
Neil W. Smith said:
Any common cause? ... or consensus on what the problem is?

Neil
Click to expand...

Between the apparent software problems with the high-res display, there's also a litany of hardware problems ranging from over-heating GPUs to funky temperature monitoring and seemingly random lock-ups. Apple unfortunately wanted to be the first to the party with high-res display tech and it doesn't seem to have been a good choice as the hardware and software just isn't ready for it. Two years from now, sure. But not today.
 
on the dangers of jumping to the wrong conclusions too quickly ....

on the dangers of jumping to the wrong conclusions too quickly ....

L. Langer said:
Between the apparent software problems with the high-res display, there's also a litany of hardware problems ranging from over-heating GPUs to funky temperature monitoring and seemingly random lock-ups. Apple unfortunately wanted to be the first to the party with high-res display tech and it doesn't seem to have been a good choice as the hardware and software just isn't ready for it. Two years from now, sure. But not today.
Click to expand...


I think you're being a little harsh, L. Langer .... Apple put a lot of thought and engineering savvy into the design and manufacture of the Retina Display MBP ... I've been running mine constantly over the last two weeks ... pushing it to the limit with Blackmagic's Resolve 9 and Colorfront's Express Dailies and Adobe's CS6 (all very CPU and GPU intensive apps) ... I've tested the RD MBP with a 27 inch Tbolt monitor plus Tbolt Promise RAID plus Tbolt SANdisk Fiber Channel adaptor attached to a 32TB FC SAN plus Tbolt to ESATA adaptor plus Tbolt Sonnet expansion box with RedRocket and BMD DeckLink card plus Tbolt BMD Intensity box as well as USB3 RAID as well as Tbolt and USB3 attached SSDs cards ... in all my testing, the RD MBP has performed flawlessly and delivered high I/O throughput and great performance.

I've processed and graded EPIC, F65 and Alexa ProRes and RAW footage on my RD MBP and have demoed the system working to several well known primetime TV shows and ASC DPs .. we'll be demoing it in front of 400 editors on Wednesday night at the LAFCPUG meet and to a couple of thousand Directors at next Saturday's DGA Digital Day.

Before you come to the extrapolated conclusion you're making it would be prudent to know exactly how many RD MBP units Apple have shipped and exactly what percentage have actually exhibited technical issues ... as we all know, there are lies, damn lies and statistics ... let's make sure you are not jumping to the wrong conclusion from a very small sample size ... bad news tends to travel faster and wider than good news (ask JJ about that one).

I have a call into my Apple business rep ... will get the low-down on the situation from her tomorrow and report back ... in the meantime, let's not be too hasty and too harsh in our judgement on something that truly is a marvel of modern electronic engineering.

As someone who was heavily involved in the computer industry for over 25 years and personally witnessed many amazing examples of technological innovation during the 70's, 80's and 90's, I can honestly tell you that I have never seen such a stunning example of the benefits of Moore's Law as the Retina Display MBP ... please make sure you have your facts correct before you diss a great engineering company like Apple in a public forum ... and by the way, I used to work for Microsoft and not Apple and hadn't touched a Mac until seven years ago, so i am not some cool young dude that just drunk the Apple Kool-Aid freshly poured from an iPhone.

Neil
 
I did a lot of searching about when I first encountered my power-off issue. Couldn't find anything more on the net than one person that might have had a similar issue. Overall there are some reports of problematic systems, but nothing that stands out. Fewer overall complaints compared to what we see with new phone models. QC of new products seems to slip a bit after the initial shipment when demand spikes and lead times increase. Happens with all products and manufacturers to some degree.

My retina MBP was flawless until just the other day. All I can say is, "shit happens".

Speaking from my own experience with tradeshow demos, just make sure you have a backup plan for if your MBP chokes and dies. Or any other important piece in the presentation. It always amazes me when I attend presentations where something goes wrong and the audience is treated to several minutes of downtime or even a premature termination of whatever they're watching due to some failure and no backup plan in place.

Have to agree with your assessment with the retina system. It's been great. Sure, it will be even more great once more software makes use of the higher resolution screen. And yes, there is the occasional app that doesn't play nice. All things considered, I think Apple did an amazing job with this initial release. They're in a catch-22 situation where nothing to take advantage of a retina display on a notebook really existed. Sure, several PC vendors have been showing off prototypes with these high resolution displays at CES and other shows, but no one knew for sure when they would actually come to market. With no real software support, manufacturers aren't going to produce them. With no hardware being produced for sale, software developers aren't making the effort. It takes a major player like Apple to jump in feet first and then everyone else will follow.

I appreciate the new thinner design, but I wouldn't mind taking back some of the bulk of the previous style if it meant a little larger battery or possibly a GTX M680 GPU in there. However, the top of the line configuration is great. If I could change it in any way, I would first add the ability to have 32GB of RAM. If I could order a 17" model with 32GB RAM and a 3840x2160 screen, I wouldn't hesitate. ...OK, in reality I would pause until I saw some reviews about performance. It would definitely need a more powerful GPU to drive that display for starters. ;)
 
My first problem with the Retina Macbook Pro... Sort of. The magsafe 2 power adapter just went kaput- first time this has happened to me on a Mac computer. Hope this is not a preview of things to come... On the computing side of things, everything seems ok. Some additional info on some plugins: Magic Bullet Looks doesn't work well with the Retina, with the Plugin Screen just stretching and unable to display all control parameters. Hopefully this will be addressed soon!
 
Wait time isn't too bad now or so it seems... Apple's store changed to 1-2 weeks the same day my replacement was ordered via the Apple Store and it looks like it's a bit better than that. My replacement has been shipped, should be here early next week. :)
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
Wait time isn't too bad now or so it seems... Apple's store changed to 1-2 weeks the same day my replacement was ordered via the Apple Store and it looks like it's a bit better than that. My replacement has been shipped, should be here early next week. :)
Click to expand...
Good to know your world is almost in order again.
We need that so get back to your cage and test em hard :)
LOL!
 
Carey Lee Coffey said:
I had to return my new MBPr because of a blemish on the screen. I noticed it when I changed my desktop to a solid 10% grey background (this is a good way to make sure your screen has no issues.) According to the Apple Genius, this is an area of concern for the MBPr. Something about the screen having no glass cover.
Click to expand...

I think I've had this happened to almost every MBAir screen I've had/used. The ridge surrounding the keyboard recess - particularly just below the spacebar - actually hits the screen when the lid was closed, causing a brightening/blemish (about a 1cm wide stripe) that goes almost across the entire centre of the display. I got the screen swapped under apple care, didn't have a problem for a few weeks, but slowly/surely it came back in the exact same spot. I thought it was a standalone issue -- that my "unibody" was slightly off, causing the ridge to hit the screen, but 3 out of the 4 MBAs I have access to have "the stripe"... It's worse than a dead pixel.

Hopefully this isn't the same, but because you mention the screen NOT having a glass cover (I thought it did), it could very well be the same issue.
 
Er.. the MBPr does have a glass cover on the screen. The way the layers are assembled much tighter together should minimize the chances of such splotches and other common LCD anomalies such as light leaks. On the other hand, it's a newer design and there could be other flaws... I've never been a huge fan of the screens in the Macbook Pro systems myself. However, the new retina screen is one of the nicest screens I've ever seen in a notebook though. It and the current revision of DreamColor on the HP Elitebooks, wow. I'd be first in line to buy a 17" notebook with a "retina" 3840x2160 DreamColor display. Too bad it doesn't exist... yet...
 
My MB Air neither has a glass cover. But I got used to keep a thin, soft cloth over my keyboard on any MB from years ago and never got any blemishes again. It's just some grease from your skin on the keys plus dust fro the environment. If the environment contains some sandy dust, it can easily scratch the screen.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
Er.. the MBPr does have a glass cover on the screen. The way the layers are assembled much tighter together should minimize the chances of such splotches and other common LCD anomalies such as light leaks. On the other hand, it's a newer design and there could be other flaws... I've never been a huge fan of the screens in the Macbook Pro systems myself. However, the new retina screen is one of the nicest screens I've ever seen in a notebook though. It and the current revision of DreamColor on the HP Elitebooks, wow. I'd be first in line to buy a 17" notebook with a "retina" 3840x2160 DreamColor display. Too bad it doesn't exist... yet...
Click to expand...

You mean edge-to-edge glass like on the regular MBPs? Yeah, I thought it did... Carey, can you elaborate on the blemish you had? The display is arguably the best part of the MBPr, so I'd hate for it to be susceptible to an issue like the one I mentioned.

I'm starting to think that maybe more people are just being vocal about the issues. For example, the software support for Retina will come (likely in 6months... no later than a year I'd imagine once the rest of the MBP line switches over.)

My hesitation is with the hardware needed to do that kind of pixel fillrate. I'm fairly sure current GPUs can handle 2880x1800 no problems (it's not that much more than 2560), but because of the oversampling/supersampling (by 1.5x or 2x) to maintain retina pixel density, I can see that being a limitation... It's like RED footage -- 5k is almost double the pixels of 4k (and the max framerate goes from 96 up to 150). In the case of MBPr, 2.8k would be fine, but 3.8k (or whatever the oversample resolution is) could understandably exceed the performance threshold of the GPU (as Anandtech mentions). I'm not sure this can be remedied with software unless they allow a 1:1 pixel mode, and offer a "super size" text/font/border so that you can actually read what's being displayed. In windows I've heard you can go 1:1 at 2880x1800, but then the text teeters on unreadable... It's a tough call, especially for $2200-3000...

Even with all my concerns, I still *want* one... but "want" and "need" are two very different things.
 
Mike P. said:
My hesitation is with the hardware needed to do that kind of pixel fillrate. I'm fairly sure current GPUs can handle 2880x1800 no problems (it's not that much more than 2560), but because of the oversampling/supersampling (by 1.5x or 2x) to maintain retina pixel density, I can see that being a limitation... It's like RED footage -- 5k is almost double the pixels of 4k (and the max framerate goes from 96 up to 150). In the case of MBPr, 2.8k would be fine, but 3.8k (or whatever the oversample resolution is) could understandably exceed the performance threshold of the GPU (as Anandtech mentions). I'm not sure this can be remedied with software unless they allow a 1:1 pixel mode, and offer a "super size" text/font/border so that you can actually read what's being displayed. In windows I've heard you can go 1:1 at 2880x1800, but then the text teeters on unreadable... It's a tough call, especially for $2200-3000...
Click to expand...

After further investigation, Anand concluded (on Twitter) that much of the performance issues are due to the CPU being burdened, while the GPU being not utilized at all (Lion) or sparsely (Mountain Lion). He was also confident that these are mostly software / driver issues as things like browser scrolling were perfectly smooth in Windows (slowing down to 20-30 fps in OS X - usable, but not as fluid as in Windows). Yes, Windows can do 2880x1800 natively and you can select integer scaling values as well - you can go from 100% to 500% in steps of 1%. Unfortunately, if the software does not support scaling, some items / text remain at 1:1. In OS X, the items will blurred but enlarged. On Windows, one can simply drop down to a lower resolution when using unoptimized software for the same effect. Windows 8 fixes all of this with native scaling (all assets are scalable, images are scalable vectors, text is DirectWrite, etc.) built into the entire WinRT environment and thus every WinRT app, but we won't see the likes of Premiere Pro ported to WinRT from Win32 for at least a couple of years. I would expect them to adhere to Win32 and OS X's scaling well before then though.

Anyway, I would expect OS X 10.9 to fix these performance niggles. That said, a mid-range GPU like GT 650M with only 1 GB doesn't sound very future-proof.

By 2013, Intel predicts every premium 15+ inch laptop will feature 3840x2160 IPS displays. Optimizing for high pixel densities must be a priority for software developers and products like the new Macbook Pro and Asus Zenbook Prime are certainly the much needed wake up call.
 
After installing Mountain Lion yesterday my Retina 2.7 is now scrolling perfectly.. I don't use Windows so i'm all good here.
 
The blemish was some defect in the LCD screen. It was subtle and could only be seen when changing the desktop to a solid grey color. No known cause was explained. They just accepted the return and mentioned that mine was the third one in a week with the same issue. Otherwise, the screen looked amazing, but if I'm paying 3k for a retina display, it must be blemish free.
 
I got my 3rd rMBP yesterday. First thing I did was run the Hardware Test. It started without needing to download and passed. Then I reinstalled OS X because I don't want to have iMovie on it and some other software taking up space since I won't use them. Then I ran the Hardware Test again and it fails with the same error code as the other 2 rMBP's I had. The error code is 4HDD/11/40000000:SATA(0,0). Is anyone else getting this with their rMBP?
 
Everyone, just got the Sonnet. Am getting realtime half debayer playback on Redcine X with the Redrocket in it. However, smoething else not so good happened to my Retina.

It should be something completely unrelated, but, yesterday, i was still getting realtime 4K Prores playback on quicktime. Now the computer is struggling. I tried going to disk utility and when verifying permissions I got "Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreS... as been modified and cannot be repaired." Everything else says its ok, so I guess there is some sort of confilct going on in the system. I don't want to reinstall everything, but if it has to be, so be it. Any similar experiences? The funny thing is I'm getting the same realtime playback performance inside Final Cut ProX, for example. Almost looks like I'm running on the Intel Discrete graphics on desktop and on the Nvidia card on FCPX...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top