Apple Updates MacBook Pro With Faster Performance and New Features for Pros

DooKey

DooKey

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If you're an Apple fan/user and you use your notebook for productivity then you are going to like the new MacBook Pros. The 15-inch model is coming with a 6-core processor they claim will increase performance up to 70 percent and the 13-inch model will come with a quad-core for up to two times faster performance. They are also offering support for up to 32GB of memory, improved keyboard and other nice upgrades. Also of note is the Apple T2 chip that will deliver enhanced security and "Hey Siri" to the Pros. All in all this seems like a set of nice upgrades. You can get these nice upgrades in the top of the line model for only $6,700 and $3,000 of that is for 4TB of SSD storage space. Thanks cageymaru.


“The latest generation MacBook Pro is the fastest and most powerful notebook we’ve ever made,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Now with 8th-generation 6-core processors, up to 32GB of system memory, up to 4TB of super fast SSD storage, new True Tone technology in its Retina display and Touch Bar, the Apple T2 chip for enhanced security and a third-generation quieter keyboard packed into its thin and light aluminum design with all-day battery life, it’s the best notebook for pro users.”
 
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Montu said:
If you're an Apple fan/user and you use your notebook for productivity then you are going to like the new MacBook Pros. The 15-inch model is coming with a 6-core processor they claim will increase performance up to 70 percent and the 13-inch model will come with a quad-core for up to two times faster performance. They are also offering support for up to 32GB of memory, improved keyboard and other nice upgrades. Also of note is the Apple T2 chip that will deliver enhanced security and "Hey Siri" to the Pros. All in all this seems like a set of nice upgrades. Thanks cageymaru.


“The latest generation MacBook Pro is the fastest and most powerful notebook we’ve ever made,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Now with 8th-generation 6-core processors, up to 32GB of system memory, up to 4TB of super fast SSD storage, new True Tone technology in its Retina display and Touch Bar, the Apple T2 chip for enhanced security and a third-generation quieter keyboard packed into its thin and light aluminum design with all-day battery life, it’s the best notebook for pro users.”
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For the low low price of $3999. The improved keyboard is also a bonus. Now guarantee to last until your warranty runs out and costs $499 to replace.
 
Took 'em fucking long enough, but the wait just inflamed the Cult of Mac members that much more so now they absolutely will be handing their money over to Apple with that blissful ignorant smile not realizing they're getting screwed over once more. Case in point and the guy makes some excellent points, by the way:



$550 for a repair to fix the shattered back glass on that iPhone X and the iPhone X itself is made from like $380 worth of components. Apple Tax much?!/!?! :D
 
Now if only I could get a free one like I did with my 2012 MBP. :D My 2012 is an i7 / 16GB / 1TB SSD and still going strong. No real reason to upgrade, but the extra cores would be nice. I run a few Windows 10 VMs on it for some of my design software that's Windows only. I really don't use it as a Mac, but it's light, rock-solid, nearly no moving parts. (well, actually I use it as a Mac when I record audio and compose music, but only once in a while) I'd totally run this new one, I'm just not going to go out and buy it though. The last one I got because a company I worked for went out of business, and my boss told me I could keep it, as long as I Fed Exed the other one we had to him. :D (he was basically COO, so...)
 
Much of the criticism is accurate. Their hardware is always behind the times! I am seeing a huge benefit from that though: I still get regular updates for my 2009 MBP. I pretty much only do software development work on it these days, but I still sometimes need to do audio/video work. It isn't as speedy as it once was, but for the $900 I spent on it in 2012, it's been worth the investment. I mean, how many working (and game playing) Windows laptops do you know that are 9 years old?
 
lol at that price w/ no dedicated GPU, same broken ass keyboard, no touchscreen or high refresh rate screen and lack of connections for a "pro". and yet, apple fanboys will eat it up. :/
 
Biggest disappointment for me is
  • Radeon Pro 560X with 4GB of GDDR5 memory and automatic graphics switching
That puts it in the range of a GTX 950 right?

If you want decent graphics performance they recommend the black magic eGPU.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicegpu/

Razer all but copied their physical layout and has much better graphics.
 
zerogg said:
well, they didn't add anymore ports to it, so its a 'pro' notebook that requires dongles to do anything worthwhile. It's almost as if they actively try to push away business/pro users
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They are, the "minority" money is far superior. They know IT dweebs use PC/Linux mainly. All the hacks use macs. inb4 NASA using macs.
 
davethehedgehog said:
No touch screen? No thanks. I hate to say it as I despise Microsoft as a company as much as anyone, but my surface book 2 just blows my mac pro out of the water when it comes to actual livability.
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I know there's a lot of debate over touch in a desktop OS and Apple eschewing the idea, at least for now. But I think it adds a dimension of flexibility especially when coupled with a pen. I think it's only a matter of time before there is some type of macOS/iOS convergence hardware, especially if Apple dumps Intel on the Mac.
 
dj_spanmaster said:
Much of the criticism is accurate. Their hardware is always behind the times! I am seeing a huge benefit from that though: I still get regular updates for my 2009 MBP. I pretty much only do software development work on it these days, but I still sometimes need to do audio/video work. It isn't as speedy as it once was, but for the $900 I spent on it in 2012, it's been worth the investment. I mean, how many working (and game playing) Windows laptops do you know that are 9 years old?
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I had a Vostro 1500 from 2007 that had a 8400m GS, C2D, SSD (Later on), that I volt modded to get a higher overclock (from 400Mhz to 650Mhz hard coded in the VBIOS... over 60% overclock!!) and it ran like that until last year when it died in the hands of a friend that I gave it to a couple years ago. (BSOD loop)
It would probably still work if I flashed the VBIOS back to defaults, but it was time to retire the thing. That thing was 10 years old when it died and it started on XP, then 7, then 10.

Also, have a XPS m1730 8800m GTX SLI still working fine (also bought in 2007).

Current laptop is a MSI GE60. Haswell i7, 850m ddr5, Bought in 2014, and still running strong.



You get what you pay for most of the time. Simple. You buy cheap crap, don't expect it to last.


Have they fixed the cooling system on the macbook pros? I remember a while back that they would hit 95C when you did anything CPU/GPU intensive on it (Like gaming)
 
OpenSource said:
Now with 6-core throttling!
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3h5p.gif


Thanks for that laugh, now i need to find something to clean up my coffee. :ROFLMAO:
 
The throttling thing is no joke. I had to reapply thermal paste on my Macbook because Apple really sucks at it.

I usually end up disabling Turboboost in MacOS to keep fans idle.

in Windows, Throttlestop is your friend when using that dGPU.

But the high temps are fixable. I can maintain max turbo 24/7 below 80c when not using the dGPU. if I do play games, I usually only allow 300mhz on top of base clock. MacsFanControl is absolutely necessary as well.

Apple has the worst default fan curve. 100c is deemed acceptable out of the box.

I do love my Mac, but I will never recommend one to someone who just wants a laptop that works without fiddling with it.
 
davethehedgehog said:
No touch screen? No thanks. I hate to say it as I despise Microsoft as a company as much as anyone, but my surface book 2 just blows my mac pro out of the water when it comes to actual livability.
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I am not a fan of apple but feel they make a good, but very overpriced product. I am also not in love with MS at any level, but I am not sure how the Surface does not get more recognition than it does. We have several at work and it just seems like the perfect combination of what everyone wanted in that type of computing device.
 
pgdeaner said:
Biggest disappointment for me is
  • Radeon Pro 560X with 4GB of GDDR5 memory and automatic graphics switching
That puts it in the range of a GTX 950 right?

If you want decent graphics performance they recommend the black magic eGPU.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicegpu/

Razer all but copied their physical layout and has much better graphics.
Click to expand...

That and supposed price tag of $6700 for a top specs is a total joke. Looks like Apple decided to regain their lost professional market but it's probably too late. Seriously what real professional even gets a Mac anyway unless they are software locked.
 
meltdowner said:
They are, the "minority" money is far superior. They know IT dweebs use PC/Linux mainly. All the hacks use macs. inb4 NASA using macs.
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You'd be surprised. There are a TON of IT dweebs that run Macs. I'm not just talking about on the fringes, but REAL IT people. Cisco engineers, Systems Engineers, etc. Granted, a lot of them run a lot of VMs on them, and use them beyond Mac use, but MBPs are in heavy rotation among IT dweebs. Recent keyboard issues notwithstanding, they're light, pretty indestructible, run a 'nix OS (underneath) and do quite well for systems type work. There are definitely MUCH more powerful PC-based laptops of course, but many of them are either a reliability joke, or are quite bulky, or are (yes I'm serious) aesthetically bankrupt. :D

All that said, I have similar criticisms of Apple as most people here, but some of their products do have their uses, and hold up pretty well. The newer models have more downsides than the older ones though. I will say that. I wouldn't go out and buy one for myself, but if a company I work for will, or something like that, I'll happily use one. They are definitely overpriced, and I'm not a fan of the recent trend toward dongles. Otherwise, they're pretty decent. Any of the other criticism could be just as easily applied to any other laptop on the market at one point or another.

I do like MSes recent hardware offerings though. Razer is pretty cool too, especially if you want to lean toward gaming, but don't want some gigantic gaming laptop that looks like a 9 year old designed it to look like his favorite transformer. :D

Also, for any real engineering work, I question anyone who'd primarily use a laptop anyway. A workstation is where serious engineering work gets done.
 
If you've ever been to a LISA conference (which historically had a lot of *ix (not Linux)), you will find a ton of Mac users.

With that said, it's easier to be satisfied with security when you have absolutely no idea what is happening on the platform.
 
Elf_Boy said:
Mommy the price is scary. Save me!
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It is indeed. Here's the thing. They've actually had some decent-ish prices on MBPs in the past. Never what I'd call great prices, but at least some decent hardware in a decent package for a high, but still in the ball park price. Now though? They're kind of off the deep end.
 
katanaD said:
really?? can get 4TB of M.2 storage for $2k and thats RETAIL price.


LOL
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If you really want to see scary, look at the prices for Dell server SSD's.

1.92TB Dell SSD, List price $2,359, with my supper discount pricing, $1,887 :eek:
Drive is an Intel S4500 (Dell even puts the S4500 in their description)

Intel S4500 1.92TB from Amazon, $701
 
J3RK said:
You'd be surprised. There are a TON of IT dweebs that run Macs. I'm not just talking about on the fringes, but REAL IT people. Cisco engineers, Systems Engineers, etc. Granted, a lot of them run a lot of VMs on them, and use them beyond Mac use, but MBPs are in heavy rotation among IT dweebs. Recent keyboard issues notwithstanding, they're light, pretty indestructible, run a 'nix OS (underneath) and do quite well for systems type work.
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And this is the problem they've had with the MacBook Pro lineup for the past few years. We've been stuck with 16GB of ram on the 13" since the Late 2013 model (you could actually upgrade the even older non-Retina 13" models to 16GB as well). Now they're finally giving us 32GB of ram but I have lug a 15" MacBook Pro around to do it.
 
ND40oz said:
And this is the problem they've had with the MacBook Pro lineup for the past few years. We've been stuck with 16GB of ram on the 13" since the Late 2013 model (you could actually upgrade the even older non-Retina 13" models to 16GB as well). Now they're finally giving us 32GB of ram but I have lug a 15" MacBook Pro around to do it.
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I agree completely on that. I prefer the 13" for portability reasons. Otherwise, I'd sit at a desktop, or use one of my larger laptops. I don't need 32GB in a laptop (so far,) but I agree. It's absolutely stupid the way they arbitrarily limit certain things like that on MBPs. There's no reason that a 13" laptop shouldn't be able to have 32GB. Totally with you on that.
 
Krenum said:
Overpriced & antiquated. Typical Apple.
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Overpriced, definitely. Antiquated has a sliding scale. Sure, if you go Apple, you're not going to get the absolute latest CPU spec, etc. I think they're more interested in building around how their enclosures work. I think they try to cram what they can within that cooling / power envelope.

I think that sometimes works in their favor, but it also doesn't sometimes, when maybe the newer chip they didn't use actually runs cooler than the older one that they did. Maybe that's due to their design cycle length or something, I don't know.

The prices they charge for memory and storage though are asinine.

I don't think they intentionally hold back the latest revisions of processor though. A lot of times current gen ICs are cheaper than previous (at least with a lot of Intel chips) so that wouldn't make much sense. They probably just pick a certain one at the time of design, and stick with it instead of last minute changes. Whether or not that's the best practice, I don't know.

I'd definitely take a svelte 13" MBP over most other laptops though, and take a small performance hit. I've got a Dell that's probably around 3-5 times more powerful than my MBP. It's also 3 times thicker, 2 times louder, and maybe 2-3 times less solidly built with a hell of a lot more plastic. I like the Dell, but I only use it at home when I'm not at my desktop. I'll haul the MBP all over the place though because its light and solid.

Like I said, I wouldn't just go an buy a brand new one outright with my own money :D But they aren't all that bad. I don't agree with some of their recent design decisions though.
 
Montu said:
You can get these nice upgrades in the top of the line model for only $6,700 and $3,000 of that is for 4TB of SSD storage space.
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I was kind of happy for Apple fans until the price point at then end. I try not to do the whole 'you could build' rap many do about laptops but honestly at that price point there are some truly impressive 1440p/144hz 1080/vega 64 g-sync/free-sync 6 core alternative laptops. Anyone have spare $7k send to me and I'll buy one and tell you how much fun they are.
 
I think the Radeon Pro 560X/555X gets too much hate here. They are great GPU's for the workloads, thermal constraints, and Apple's apps polished to silicon. My complaint is they're still under utilized. It's criminal that Apple has not done anything with VRR/FreeSync.

Where I believe the hate is not enough, is the MacBook Pro 13/15 models with anything less than 512GB storage. I wish everyone came together and complained/boycotted/kicked Apple store racks, flooded twitter with #AppleRapedMeWith256Storage, iToo_GropedBySmallStorage... over those base SSD sizes and prices.
 
If they released a 2012-2013 style 13” MBP with the new processor, higher RAM capacity, and didn’t gouge for the SSD, and priced it at least somewhat attractively, and just called it the “Classic” edition or something, I think quite a few people might like that. Myself included.

I think they are way to “courageous” for something like that though. ;)
 
J3RK said:
If they released a ... ;)
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and if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle

12.1% of macs are bought by people that need a mac and use them for real work
21.2% are institutional purchases
28.9% are repeat purchases, mainly due to eco-system lock-in (ie. owned a mac previously and also own an ipad, iphone, idildo etc.)
37.8% are bought because they are pretty and everyone at starbucks has one, plus they are 100% virus free, and they are expensive and everyone know expensive is better

bonus points if you can detect the sarcastic parts
 
pgdeaner said:
Biggest disappointment for me is
  • Radeon Pro 560X with 4GB of GDDR5 memory and automatic graphics switching
That puts it in the range of a GTX 950 right?

If you want decent graphics performance they recommend the black magic eGPU.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicegpu/

Razer all but copied their physical layout and has much better graphics.
Click to expand...


This is so sad to see. Its like rackmount cases for the Pro Trashcans. Once upon a time Apple had a beautiful dual socket tower. They had rackmount servers. That had the best in class rackmount fibre SAN. They had competitive editing, colour grading, and effects software. They would even let you spread one app across montiors. They had a beaut 17" notebook.

Then all at once they killed everything and made the OS unusable for Pro users. They did everything they could to make pro users leave, but so many just ignore the giant "FUCK OFF" neon sign at Apple HQ.
 
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