Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Anyone considering the new Retina Display MBP as a MP replacement?

VirtualRain

VirtualRain

macrumors 603
Original poster
Aug 1, 2008
6,304
118
Vancouver, BC
I feel for everyone wishing for a better MP, but frankly I'm still pretty happy with the performance of my 2009 Quad.

Now, I'm starting to think a new retina display MBP with 2.6GHz->3.6GHz Ivy Bridge, Nvidia 650M, and 512GB SSD with dual TB and USB3 ports, would be a nice upgrade... I could replace my Mac Pro and my Mac Air and have it all in one very portable but capable laptop. I could add a TB RAID array for my photo storage and be very well equipped!

Hmm.

Anyone else considering this?
 
yeah, I have enough fast networked storage on my home LAN that it's a possibility.

I'd miss being able to upgrade the GPU, though.
 
VirtualRain said:
I feel for everyone wishing for a better MP, but frankly I'm still pretty happy with the performance of my 2009 Quad.

Now, I'm starting to think a new retina display MBP with 2.6GHz->3.6GHz Ivy Bridge, Nvidia 650M, and 512GB SSD with dual TB and USB3 ports, would be a nice upgrade... I could replace my Mac Pro and my Mac Air and have it all in one very portable but capable laptop. I could add a TB RAID array for my photo storage and be very well equipped!

Hmm.

Anyone else considering this?
Click to expand...

Same boat here.. Want to go 2009 quad + 2010 2.66 i7 MBP to a retina MBP + thunderbolt display
I wonder how much the 2009 quad and 2010 mbp will fetch now...
 
No. A laptop is not a desktop replacement for several reasons, the most important of these being costumizability and heat. It's not as though Apple is known in the first place for making cool laptop computers. Add the kind of strain/workload i'd put the machine under, and it's not a pretty equation.

Besides, mobile components will not (yet) perform with the same scores as regular ones.
 
Sebastian85 said:
No. A laptop is not a desktop replacement for several reasons, the most important of these being costumizability and heat. It's not as though Apple is known in the first place for making cool laptop computers. Add the kind of strain/workload i'd put the machine under, and it's not a pretty equation.

Besides, mobile components will not (yet) perform with the same scores as regular ones.
Click to expand...

I agree, and at the very least a user may want to consider an iMac as a Mac Pro replacement or a Mac Mini as a headless Mac replacement (if they have displays already).

Now, all that I just said is relevant if a users is looking to replace their powerhouse tower with another power house. It's moot if you just want to get a laptop and go completely mobile.
 
No way. I was working with the first MacBook Pro and Cinema HD Display 23" and it was a nightmare. Running proffesional apps caused to notebook to spin fans very quickly and noisy.
 
I really want to go to an apple store and see how it runs a large session in logic pro (no pro tools at the store) with a lot of plugins on each track and see how it processes it. Put this ivy bridge to work
 
Before you switch here's a neato picture of my Macbook's CPU maxed. Yes the new MBP has supposedly better fans and stuff, but I still wouldn't want to do anything remotely heavy on a laptop.
 

Attachments

  • Picture 2.png
    Picture 2.png
    52 KB · Views: 2,046
I don't see it as an MP replacement, but I am considering it as a subsitute for my 2011 13" MBA.
 
I'm sure it depends on what kind of work you do, whether you could comfortably use this new MBP... but for my needs such as photo editing this laptop looks like an awesome upgrade.
 
Seems to me that Apple are slowly getting into the kitchen utility market.

The MacBooks are the hobs, iMac is the toaster (but the toast always end up yellow) and I suspect the Mac Pro will end up as an oven or grill.
 
The new MacBook Pro can't possibly replace a Mac Pro for real video editors... I can't really work with less than 6TB storage (I use 11, and have 4 more external and that's not even that much) and the single laptop CPU can't compete with dual xeons, even if they are Westmere and not SB-E. That said, im not bashing real editors for using laptops, but one must acknowledge the need for external storage if that's the case which i perfer to avoid, internal is much nicer to manage. Not to mention potential RAID setups and real graphics cards (I've been doing okay with the 5870 although it's not the fastest). The biggest reason why I moved editing to a MP from my MBP was storage. Screen size helps too, I wish they made a 17" version of the new one.
 
Actually, the Mac Minis would be more suitable as hobs so given the high temperature reported above I would say the MacBooks are hotplates.
 
Why would I EVER consider a machine which is crippled and limited to 16GB of RAM?
 
VirtualRain said:
I'm sure it depends on what kind of work you do, whether you could comfortably use this new MBP... but for my needs such as photo editing this laptop looks like an awesome upgrade.
Click to expand...

Given your intended use (photo editing), do you plan to connect an external display? Just curious.
 
I'm getting one, but it won't be a replacement.

Makes things a bit easier to not have to buy both at the same time actually. When the next Mac Pro/whatever it is update comes, I'll be on board with that.

2008 is out of warranty, but still going strong. If it dies I can fall back to my Macbook Pro.
 
kurtster said:
Given your intended use (photo editing), do you plan to connect an external display? Just curious.
Click to expand...

Yes, I will definitely get a Thunderbolt Display as a second monitor. However I may wait and see if an update for that is made available in the next week or two as USB3 on the monitor would be nice.

I will also get a TB storage enclosure to house a pair of large HD's for photo archiving.
 
I have been checking the new laptops out this evening. I'm going away for 3 months to Europe and a 15" model would help.

Obviously it won't replace my Mac Pro but it would be easier to take this than haul the big tower and monitor with me. Plus I'd only be working with 720p video in ProRes so nothing heavy.

I had been thinking of a Mac Mini but maybe the new MBP would be more suitable.

The decision is would I opt for the Retina display because I don't think I would gain any advantage of having it.

BTW guys is there any Thunderbolt hardware which would allow me to join 3 HDD's to the MBP? Sorry if I'm going a little OT.
 
Ve3tro said:
The decision is would I opt for the Retina display because I don't think I would gain any advantage of having it.
Click to expand...

From what I saw in the keynote, if you're using FCP X you would be able to see your video at full res while having plenty of screen real-estate for UI components so the retina display seems like a no brainer for video (or photo) editing.
 
DeeEss said:
Why would I EVER consider a machine which is crippled and limited to 16GB of RAM?
Click to expand...

That fact right there alone just kills it for me. I'd actually spend my own money to get one, but there'd always be that iPod-esque lack of upgradeability looming over my head.

After $2200+ I really shouldn't be limited to 16GB of RAM on a machine that can handle 32GB.
 
VirtualRain said:
From what I saw in the keynote, if you're using FCP X you would be able to see your video at full res while having plenty of screen real-estate for UI components so the retina display seems like a no brainer for video (or photo) editing.
Click to expand...

I'd end up using CS6 mostly. Couldn't get to grips with FCP X sadly.
 
I was anxiously waiting for new Mac pros because all I currently have is my iPad. I'm seriously considering just picking up a Mbp since I dont think it's worth picking up a Mac pro even with the price drops
 
jetjaguar said:
I was anxiously waiting for new Mac pros because all I currently have is my iPad. I'm seriously considering just picking up a Mbp since I dont think it's worth picking up a Mac pro even with the price drops
Click to expand...

If you don't need more than 16GB of RAM, dual CPU's, or some specialized PCIe card for your particular work, then I don't see much value in the Mac Pro... in fact it's not a good buy at all if all you need is a quad core CPU. On the other hand, if you need 12 CPU cores, you really can't complain about the reduced price of the new DP MP.
 
Last edited:
VirtualRain said:
If you don't need more than 16GB of RAM, dual CPU's, or some specialized PCIe card for your particular work, then I don't see much value in the Mac Pro... in fact it's not a good buy at all if all you need is a quad core CPU. On the other hand, if you need 12 CPU cores, you really can't complain about the reduced price of the new DP MP.
Click to expand...

Well I definitely would get a 6 core minimum. Mainly I am just editing with fcpx and editing photos
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back