New MacBook Pro - 4K HDMI

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Limiting factor? Uh, the design guys at Apple felt 16GB was plenty.. There's your limiting factor. I don't think it's an internal space limitation as when we pop the hood, there's still some void area and I think they could have juggled things to make room. Especially since it's all soldered in. I think the most likely reason here is because SDRAM chips have not evolved since the logic board was originally commissioned by Apple and they did not alter it for this release. So it continues to be made with 16GB.

The CPU/chipset supports up to 96GB RAM. OTOH, the best you're going to find from a different vendor is 4 DIMM sockets in a laptop form factor that's 4X as thick and weighs in at 6X as much with a huge compromise in build quality. 8GB DIMMs are still the biggest out there, meaning 32GB is the max from other vendors.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Hey guys is a SUPPED-UP Mac Mini as good as a Mac Book Pro? I already have a cinema display, so I just need a "brain". Is the Mac Mini good enough? (for simple 1080 one lights with a REDROCKET in a Sonnet). I'd rather wait till second generation Mac Pro towers (ie next summer). I'm sure they'll have some kinks to iron out first...

 

[Alex Kiritz]

Hey guys is a SUPPED-UP Mac Mini as good as a Mac Book Pro?

The Mac Minis haven't been updated yet, so no. The new MacBook Pros have PCIe-based flash storage, two Thunderbolt 2 ports vs one Thunderbolt 1 port, 802.11ac wifi, a discrete GPU and more powerful integrated graphics, and a slightly faster CPU.

I already have a cinema display, so I just need a "brain". Is the Mac Mini good enough? (for simple 1080 one lights with a REDROCKET in a Sonnet).

Yes. The biggest thing you'd miss is the faster storage.

I'd rather wait till second generation Mac Pro towers (ie next summer). I'm sure they'll have some kinks to iron out first...

Based on past history and Intel's dominant position in the server market, it's unlikely that the new Mac Pro will be updated as frequently as Apple's other product lines. If you have the money, I would buy it now.

 

[Mike P.]

I would also mention that the last revision MBPr (early 2013) are now $2k while they sell off stock, and they come with a 1GB nVidia 650m and 2.4GHz quad-core (non-Haswell) base model. Personally, I find that to be a much better option than the Intel-integrated Iris 2.0GHz Haswell combo of the latest entry level 15"... But something tells me everyone here would be maxing out whatever Retinas they get.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Advantage to buying the new MBPr is the 750m GPU along with Thunderbolt 2. Power consumption is more efficient with Haswell. For serious work, it means little as we'll have to be plugged in, but it is a consideration for those times when you're not hammering the system hard.

Don't buy a Mac mini unless you absolutely have to! There is an imminent update coming that will add Haswell CPUs and Thunderbolt 2. The unfortunate down-side of the mini is that they don't include the secondary GPU as the Macbook Pro does. If you're looking for that, it may be better to just hold on a bit and get an entry-level Mac Pro instead of a mini. Yes, more expensive, but a lot more powerful.

Apple stores and retailers are selling the previous MBPr at a discount. It's a great option and I would go with a maxed-out model from last year before ordering a new one with the second-best CPU choice or something like that.

 

[Mike P.]

Also, as you mentioned, the computer will be out of date before we actually get (affordable) Thunderbolt 2 devices... So I wouldn't consider that to be that much of a real-world advantage. Offloading REDmags currently maxes out at 250mb/s right? So even USB3 would be enough for that type of stuff on set... When you bring it back to basecamp and you're rocking out on a MacPro I'm sure the extra throughput would be an advantage... In the field you'll likely be limited but more pressing matters.

 

[William Albertini]

http://www.macrumors.com/2013/10/24/promise-announces-first-20gbps-thunderbolt-2-raid-arrays/

 

[Justin Quinn]

I bought the 2.6GHZ, 1TB version a couple days ago... the most powerful configuration available. I need two laptops for on set work, but my primary motivation was for the 1TB of storage, so I was planning on upgrading regardless.

It runs great, but nothing noticeably faster than the previous Retina.

There is a definite improvement in battery life though... I mean, I haven't benchmarked it or anything yet, but I'm definitely getting more battery life... maybe 25% longer. I've been using the previous Retina for over a year now, and like most of you who've worked on a particular system for a long time, I've developed a sixth sense as to where my battery life is without even looking at the indicator.

I had to download the latest CUDA driver from the Nvidia website because for some reason it wouldn't recognize it through the normal route of system preferences.

RCPX 21beta isn't working well with Mavericks yet, transcodes all failed... and Resolve has issues too, but I think that is more of a Mavericks issue. I'm liking Mavericks though...

 

[Wolf]

Huh?

Huh?

The new retina MBP is the exact same system, same logic board, same PCIe attached flash storage. …...
Last year's retina MBP's PCIe storage clocks in at over 725MB/s read, 380MB/s write. Updated model should be about the same as it's using the same Samsung flash controller, as far as I'm aware. They have upgraded the top capacity from 768GB to 1TB.

Where did you buy your rMBP last year? Both 15" rMBPs I have here do have a SATA SSD (512 & 768) based on Samsung 830. No PCI-E listed in System Information. Performance is well within SATA 6Gbit/s spec, a tad more conservative than vanilla Samsung 830s, but seems to be more consistent. I have been getting a tad better write performance than you, though…

Intel 7 Series Chipset:

Vendor: Intel
Product: 7 Series Chipset
Link Speed: 6 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 6 Gigabit
Physical Interconnect: SATA
Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

APPLE SSD SM768E:

Capacity: 751.28 GB (751,277,983,744 bytes)
Model: APPLE SSD SM768E

 

[Justin Quinn]

Last year's retina MBP's PCIe storage clocks in at over 725MB/s read, 380MB/s write. Updated model should be about the same as it's using the same Samsung flash controller, as far as I'm aware. They have upgraded the top capacity from 768GB to 1TB.

So I did a few tests and here is what I found comparing last year's RMBP with the new one, of very similar specs...

2012 RMBP 2.6GHz / 16GB RAM / 512 GB SSD

versus

2013 RMBP 2.6 GHz / 16GB RAM/ 1TB SSD


There is a major improvement in internal write speeds... I copied an 11GB file from one folder to another and the 2013 RMBP transferred it in 17 seconds, whereas the 2012 RMBP took 50 seconds. The new RMBP was 3x faster!

When writing from an SxS card from a Sonnet Thunderbolt card reader the 2012 and 2013 RMBP write the exact same speed. However, I think this is due to a bottleneck wight the SxS cards or card reader.

I did the same test with a G-Drive and the 2012 and 2013 moved the data at the exact same speed. Bummer.

Then I did a BMD Disk Speed test and here is what I got:

RMBP 2012: Write 396MBs / Read 441MBs

RMBP 2013: Write 942MBs / 859MBs

So it looks like there are some major speed bumps internally. I imagine these results mean that we'll get smoother, faster playback, renders and graphics in applications like Resolve which I will be testing tomorrow.

I'll be testing Resolve out with a bunch of R3D files later.

 

[L. Langer]

Hey guys is a SUPPED-UP Mac Mini as good as a Mac Book Pro? I already have a cinema display, so I just need a "brain". Is the Mac Mini good enough? (for simple 1080 one lights with a REDROCKET in a Sonnet). I'd rather wait till second generation Mac Pro towers (ie next summer). I'm sure they'll have some kinks to iron out first...

Next-Gen MacPro is at least 3-4 years away. There will be revisions between now and then but they won't be anything special unless Apple has really gone running down the upgradeable path.

 

[Jason Osterday]

Really looking forward to your guy's input on the 2012 vs 2013 retina's. Curious to see what happens with the new TB2 enclosures. I feel there's little to gain with Pegasus R4 or even R6 and TB2. Likely need the 8 drives of the R8 to really push past 650MB/s Raid5 or 750MB/s Raid0. As for Sonnet and Magma boxes....may not see TB2 boards in them for a year. By then, we may have a 32GB RAM Option and proc bumps. Maybe even a GPU nudge.

I'd love to see current TB accessories go head to head on a new Retina and see if there's speed or reliability improvements. I still get oddball issues when I have a Rocket, Ultrastudio and Pegasus connected from time to time. Could the newer TB bus solve this even though the accessories are still TB1?

 

[Louis Kreusel]

So I did a few tests and here is what I found comparing last year's RMBP with the new one, of very similar specs...

2012 RMBP 2.6GHz / 16GB RAM / 512 GB SSD

versus

2013 RMBP 2.6 GHz / 16GB RAM/ 1TB SSD


There is a major improvement in internal write speeds... I copied an 11GB file from one folder to another and the 2013 RMBP transferred it in 17 seconds, whereas the 2012 RMBP took 50 seconds. The new RMBP was 3x faster!

When writing from an SxS card from a Sonnet Thunderbolt card reader the 2012 and 2013 RMBP write the exact same speed. However, I think this is due to a bottleneck wight the SxS cards or card reader.

I did the same test with a G-Drive and the 2012 and 2013 moved the data at the exact same speed. Bummer.

Then I did a BMD Disk Speed test and here is what I got:

RMBP 2012: Write 396MBs / Read 441MBs

RMBP 2013: Write 942MBs / 859MBs

So it looks like there are some major speed bumps internally. I imagine these results mean that we'll get smoother, faster playback, renders and graphics in applications like Resolve which I will be testing tomorrow.

I'll be testing Resolve out with a bunch of R3D files later.

Thanks for sharing those results! Can you let us know how your Resolve testing went? 4K HDMI out is very cool btw!

 

[AnthonyFlores]

Just got the new fully loaded MBPr (2.6ghz, 1TB, etc), only because I was long overdue and still using a 17" from 2009. I will keep this in good condition though and perhaps sell before next year's update IF Apple produces a full 4k MBP using Sharp's IGZO panels, as some sites have rumored. Maybe 32gb ram will make it to that version?

Quick question for Jeff or anyone: I cannot find whether the discrete 750 gpu in this model supports 4k @ 60hz? I believe Thunderbolt 2 does, but I've looked and looked on Nvidia's site and various other sites, including Apple's and can't find if it's supported. I would consider the recently released Sharp 32" 4k monitor if this MBPr displayed 4k @ 60hz while waiting/saving for Mac Pro.

Let me know if anyone has the answer, thanks.

 

[Jimmy Grewal]

I cannot find whether the discrete 750 gpu in this model supports 4k @ 60hz?

No one has the answer to that question yet, and in fact with the current version of Mavericks its not possible on any Mac even if the hardware supports it. Not sure if anyone has tried using Windows with Bootcamp. That's one way to test without being affected by the OS limitation. Most of us believe the OS limitation will be addressed for the new Mac Pro and will also be applied to existing hardware that is capable of DP1.2 signal out of their Thunderbolt 2 port.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

The HDMI ports on the MacBook Pro are v1.4 and don't have the bandwidth to handle 4K @ 60Hz.

To do 4K @ 60Hz via DisplayPort, we need a Thunderbolt 2 to DisplayPort v1.2 adapter with dual-stream support. That adapter does not exist yet… Not that I'm aware of.

EDIT> Or a Thunderbolt 2 to HDMI 2.0 active adapter should do the trick, also not available yet.

 

[Caleb Heymann]

Preparing to take delivery of a Dragon (hopefully early December) and I'd like to be able to offer solutions for transcoding. At the moment I've got a 2012 rMBP with 2.6GHz and 16GB RAM. One of the TB ports is typically used for my 8TB G-RAID, Lacie eSATA adapter and Redmag reader. The other was used for a Rocket in a Sonnet enclosure until the Rocket stopped working and was too expensive to repair. Since then I've been awaiting the Rocket X / Dragon combo, and now surprised to read that the original Rocket may not work at all with Dragon footage. My question is, can we expect to see improvements in the Rocket X with TB1 or does the original Rocket already use all the available bandwidth? If I had to upgrade my Macbook just for TB2 and buy the Rocket X, I'd be tempted to see if I could get by with a new Mac Pro and no rocket instead.