15" late 2013 RMBP intel iris pro graphics vs nvidia geforce?

[Chris Tharp]

how much benefit is having the higher end 15" RMBP with the nvidia graphics card than the lower end 15" RMBP with Iris pro? I'm upgrading my late 2011 soon and im trying to figure basically is it really worth the extra money.

 

[Jake Wilganowski]

Would love to know also!

 

[Mike P.]

Iris has OpenCL support, but it also has shared memory (only 128 dedicated eDRAM and then the rest shared with the system).

The GTX 750m has 2GB of dedicated vRAM, probably better OpenCL support than Iris, AND has nVidia CUDA support (something RED is working towards implementing in RCXp, presumably for even more performance above OpenCL.)

When I asked RED in the RCXp-Beta thread (in Recon) if Iris would offer any kind of performance increase in the GPU-assissted RCXp, I was met with a 'probably not' response, simply because the vRAM wasn't there.

But, yes, I too would like confirmation.

If you're scrounging to get a MBPr, maybe look at the early 2013 models; the base model is now $1999 (to match the late 2013 entry level), but it comes with a 2.4GHz Quadcore i7 instead of the 2.0GHz Haswell, and an nVidia GTX 650m with 1GB dedicated vRAM. The other differences wouldn't affect RCXp/r3d performance directly -- Thunderbolt 1 instead of 2, 802.11n instead of 802.11ac (I think), 7 hours battery life instead of 8… Not what I'd consider a massive upgrade… Also, a 2.4GHz i7 will perform better than a 2.0GHz (Haswell is more an improvement in battery consumption than performance.)

EDIT: Also Iris apparently can NOT run Resolve… not saying it'd be fun to do on a MBPr, but it *could* be done if you have an nVidia GPU.

 

[Matt Ryan]

I just got the new Macbook Pro with 2.6ghz 16GB ram, and 750m. I haven't found many benchmarks yet but this graphic swayed me to go for it. It's compared to the older 650m but having those two together made sense for what I do. The 750m is more powerful but also has CUDA which allows me to run Resolve and CC better. In the end I feel it's better to have 2 GPU's vs. 1, but that's a decision you have to make. The Iris seems pretty powerful for what it is, but it's lacking what the 750m offers.

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GT-750M-vs-GeForce-GT-650M

 

[Chris Tharp]

Bumping this thread to see if there are any new bench marks or news on iris being secretly awesome.

 

[Nick Pasquariello]

It's not secretly awesome for our line of work. It's not bad for light gaming. Thing is, the stuff we use needs more dedicated vRAM. Period. There's no secret sauce that will make the Iris work better. In fact, on my Early-2013 rMPB, when RCX version 22 came out, it wouldn't work properly (errors on transcoding) until I realized that, for some reason, it defaulted to using the Intel GPU and not the NVidia GPU. When I swapped the checkboxes, not only did Transcodes work properly, but moreso, everything played back better and faster.

 

[Brian Merlen]

so the consensus is i need to spring for the high end? oh how apple of them lol

 

[Justin Quinn]

how much benefit is having the higher end 15" RMBP with the nvidia graphics card than the lower end 15" RMBP with Iris pro? I'm upgrading my late 2011 soon and im trying to figure basically is it really worth the extra money.

Yes, go for the high end config!

I just did a side by side comparison and the difference is pretty dramatic. A 30 minute render in Resolve takes 2-3 hours in the Iris only version.. not to mention tracking gridns to a halt in the lesser version. I was really shocked when I saw what was happening.

I literally returned the second computer after two days because it was completely useless to me. I do mostly color work, FYI.

However, I will say that the new Retina is a workhorse and definitely worth the purchase of the fully spec'd iteration.

 

[Brian Merlen]

I've been meaning to spring for a new machine forever, but with the mac pro unavailable i might grab a new macbook cuz my home machine has been acting up lately and rebuilding it twice hasn't fixed the issue. i suspect i should go to the genius bar, but the reality is i need to upgrade anyway. I was hoping to make it another cycle for new tech, but I been saying that for a few cycles already and think it may be time, especially if my mac acting up is from imminent hardware failure and not software issues

 

[Jason Mavrokefalos]

I've been using the top of the line macbook pro for the past month -2.6, 16GB, 1TB SSD-, and I have to say, the Iris Pro isn't a bad card at all, and most importantly very-very energy efficient, but like others said, the gt750 is significantly better for what we do - but still just a compromised portable solution -.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

IMO, the GT750m is enough better to justify including it, but only just. The Iris Pro graphics integrated GPU is actually quite good, Intel is starting to get this whole GPU thing figured out. Many people are starting to build or buy extremely compact PC systems with only Iris Pro graphics as their GPUs for use as portable gaming rigs, compact Steam Boxes, etc..

The biggest advantage to the GT750m is having CUDA support. OpenCL performance is about on par with the Iris Graphics, maybe just a wee bit better, as nVidia doesn't focus on or push OpenCL the way they push for CUDA. Having CUDA opens up GPU acceleration options for more software. OTOH, FCPX, REDCINE-X, Adobe, all support OpenCL, in particular the Macbook Pro's combination of CPU + Iris Graphics, so you're going to get some GPU acceleration whether you have the 750m or not. I'm still using a 2012 MBPr with Intel HD 4000 GPU (worthless) and the nVidia 650m (acceptable) and it handles rather well for many things. Even lets me work in RC-X with Dragon clips at 1/8th and they're silky smooth. Can push to 1/4 at times. The 2013 MBPr is better, not hugely better, but enough that I can tell the difference when I use one vs. mine.

Next MBP update, at least one with new CPUs, won't come until later this year or early next year. All depends on Intel's Broadwell CPU line. Was supposed to launch in June/ July of this year, but Intel said that they have been delayed by at least one quarter. That will bring us a faster and more power efficient CPU as well as yet another improved GPU design from Intel. Will be interesting to see what we're offered in terms of discreet graphics at that time, if any. nVidia is bringing some new stuff to the table around the same time frame. So who knows...

 

[paul schefz]

I'm still using a 2012 MBPr with Intel HD 4000 GPU (worthless) and the nVidia 650m (acceptable) and it handles rather well for many things. Even lets me work in RC-X with Dragon clips at 1/8th and they're silky smooth. Can push to 1/4 at times. The 2013 MBPr is better, not hugely better, but enough that I can tell the difference when I use one vs. mine.

Next MBP update, at least one with new CPUs, won't come until later this year or early next year. All depends on Intel's Broadwell CPU line. Was supposed to launch in June/ July of this year, but Intel said that they have been delayed by at least one quarter. That will bring us a faster and more power efficient CPU as well as yet another improved GPU design from Intel. Will be interesting to see what we're offered in terms of discreet graphics at that time, if any. nVidia is bringing some new stuff to the table around the same time frame. So who knows...

i just replaced that same "old" retina mbp with the latest one and the difference is noticeable...not great/amazing but with external rocket working with resolve is now actually doable.....
was actually planning to wait for the next gen and am happy to hear that it is as far off as i thought...
the extra storage speed is nice (but barely noticeable in reality) the extra (haswell) battery power is ok but once the gpu kicks in, it seems to be almost the same...haven't used the extra TB2 speed yet, but judging from the way the rocket works over TB1, the mbp/external rocket combo will be it for me, no Mac Pro necessary (and cheaper)...