M380 M390 M395 M395X Thread

[ChinkyBob]

No one has thunderbolt 3/USB-C yet so I have to assume it's not available yet, the USB C in the macbook is only 5Gb/sec transfer speeds not the 40Gb/sec you are talking about.
Wrong, Dell XPS 15 and 13 and Precision Workstations shipping now with USB-C / 3.1 with Thunderbolt 3.

As for the graphics cards, they are what they are, mid to high range AMD mobile graphics cards, they won't be brilliant for gaming (although certainly very capable) but should be fantastic in FXCP and similar so no different from any other iMac ever made. Personal preference, but most peoples preference and mine would be for the familiar Nvidia 960m, as per almost every other comparable laptop. AMD barely used anywhere, and info on specs equally scarce, from even Apple or AMD to make an informed choice.

As for your wants you are clearly in a niche market and they have stopped making niche products.
Although the mini was down to intel not having the same socket on the quadcores as the dual cores that is the only reason the quads went in the 2011/2012 machines because they could do it without retooling and developing a separate motherboard. If they can make Quad core laptops they can make a Quad core Mac Mini - a look on these forums alone shows just how much in demand a quad mac mini would be, and in fact just how much 3 year old used models can go for...more than new.

The macbook is your retina macbook air and is a better product on release than the air was on it's release by an order of magnitude, it is also the most powerful core M fanless laptop you can buy so it seems they are getting the most out of this new technology, certainly not losing that race. This probably true, but slightly too weak currently for my needs. Architecture design software Autodesk and Refit and MS office.

The 15 inch rMBP is not a gaming laptop it's not marketed as one and it is specced out perfectly for long battery life for using professional video editing apps etc in the field which is what it's designed for. Maybe not what you want but again, so what, they don't make products for you they make them for who they think will buy them most (a good business strategy that). Well I didn't say I wanted a gaming laptop, in fact I specifically mentioned video editing, but I also use professional design software applications in the field on various client sites internationally. I am exactly the target market for fast hard drive, long battery life, well built, enjoyable to use, professional system. Money no object as I earn my living from it.
I don't game.
I know its not a gaming system, but it does come with a low/mid gaming card, as opposed to a professional graphics Quadro or Firepro version, assuming it even comes with a graphics card at all.

By all means if apple don't make what you want buy something else I can't see any need to whinge about it, oh yes it's because you know that whatever else you buy will be rubbish and you'll wish you hadn't touched it with a barge pole, specs never make a product you should know that by now....

Everything else is rubbish? Sorry thats ********. While I conceded Dell make some cheap crap, they also make quality professional Laptops. You get what you pay for.
Dell Precision Workstation laptops are expensive professional machines, in a way that Apple can only dream, i.e. they use professional graphics cards, can last all day when running Cad or demanding software at full pelt without overheating - MacBook Pros despite their name do not.
The same Dell Precision Workstn range have a 3yr same-day repair/swap policy (better than Apple care at similar extra cost option), and with a far superior build quality in terms of surviving a fall or impact.
I want to buy Apple for the same reason as everyone else, i.e. I am conceited, I like the looks, it has cachet, etc. I am just disappointed that Apple is not leading by the margin it used to in some ways.
And this is the perfect website to whinge about it.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

can't be bothered with it anymore.

 

[Tanax]

No one has thunderbolt 3/USB-C yet so I have to assume it's not available yet, the USB C in the macbook is only 5Gb/sec transfer speeds not the 40Gb/sec you are talking about.

USB-C is the connector type (port) and Thunderbolt 3 uses USB-C ports. USB 3.1 however, has the transfer speeds you're speaking of.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

USB-C is the connector type (port) and Thunderbolt 3 uses USB-C ports. USB 3.1 however, has the transfer speeds you're speaking of.

And can be currently found in just one line of laptops, what exactly is it that you want to do that requires this bandwidth on a 5K imac?? Run a 5K screen that will cost as much as the computer?? or run an eGPU that would suggest a PC or a mac pro is far more what you need.

Lets be honest about it if they had changed then everyone would just be complaing that none of their old peripheries could connect anymore without dongles everywhere. They can't win either way and this way annoys far less people.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

As for your wants you are clearly in a niche market and they have stopped making niche products.
Although the mini was down to intel not having the same socket on the quadcores as the dual cores that is the only reason the quads went in the 2011/2012 machines because they could do it without retooling and developing a separate motherboard.

I (for one) am so tired of people on these forums thinking they are experts in what people want, and that somehow, a decently performing PC/Mac is only wanted/needed by a niche market. Do you really give Apple consumers so little credit and assume they don't know a SSD from a HDD or integrated graphics vs. discrete? From college kids to older folks...we read, we ask questions, we have knowledgeable friends...we make educated choices. The problem is, Apple spoon-feeds it's customers poorly configured models as the "affordable" options. Want a decent SSD and a decent graphics card? +$1000. People WANT better configs, but most people are unwilling to spend the money. Apple hopes everyone that walks in the door is a blind lemming with images of their dog-and-pony show burned in their brains, and will buy the latest (but far from the greatest) scaled back configurations being touted as new and better.

To assume that the masses should just be happy with a 5400RPM drive in a 4K display model iMac and that anyone else wanting more are "niche users" is ridiculous.

Apple hasn't stopped making "niche products". It just takes starting with the lame base configurations and adding a thousand dollars (or more) of add-ons to make it decent (and out of the budget of the average person).

 

[ChinkyBob]

And can be currently found in just one line of laptops, what exactly is it that you want to do that requires this bandwidth on a 5K imac?? Run a 5K screen that will cost as much as the computer?? or run an eGPU that would suggest a PC or a mac pro is far more what you need.

Lets be honest about it if they had changed then everyone would just be complaing that none of their old peripheries could connect anymore without dongles everywhere. They can't win either way and this way annoys far less people.

Seeing as Apple pioneered the Thunderbolt port in the first place and were the first to debut USB-C on their 12" macbook a few months back, it seems weird that they are excluding it from the rest of their line up.
This port is currently on all new laptops being launched by major manufacturers like HP, Dell, MSI, Asus, etc.
All Apple had to do was add the USB-C port in addition to the current ports, that would be a win win.
Nobody mentioned removing the current sockets at all, they are not mutually exclusive.

 

[adgoodma]

How do the m300 series chips compare to say the integrated chips in the 4k iMac?
It seems from reading this thread, that each of the 300 series chips are slightly faster than each other... but how much of a jump is it from the iris chip in the 4k to the 300 series?

thanks!

 

[jerwin]

Judging by cinebanch and unigene heaven, my m290x is about twice as fast. Trouble is, unigene heaven can be run in various tesselation modes, and macworld is silent on that point.

 

[adgoodma]

Judging by cinebanch and unigene heaven, my m290x is about twice as fast. Trouble is, unigene heaven can be run in various tesselation modes, and macworld is silent on that point.

Thanks for the response... I am no 'power-user'. I use my 2009 macbook pro to power multiple monitors in a classroom setting. I would like to upgrade to an retina iMac mostly because of the screen size and quality. The additional monitors make my macbook hot, and sluggish. Is there any indication that the '4k iMac' can run additional screens 'well'. I have seen an article where running an additional 4k screen was a problem, however, that's not my intent.

thanks!

 

[jerwin]

Graphics cards have improved a great deal since the 9400m...

 

[fob]

Heres some clarity. It hasn't got the USB C / 3.1 which includes multiple video outs incl Thunderbolt 3 and a data transfer speed of up to 8x's that of USB 3.0. I need fast speeds for video editing. Has Apple abandoned USB C/3.1 already after introducing it on their Macbook?? Wait another year for them to introduce it on their iMacs? What a joke.
On top of that the whole graphics card upgrade thing does look like a proper scam to me. If that was any other manufacturer serious questions would be asked. the reason AMD can Apple hide the specs of their upgrades must be because there is no upgrade.
Seriously what are the specs of these things - does Apple even know?????

Anyway;
I look forward to replacing my 17" Macbook Pro with another similar 17"....oh wait,
maybe I will replace my Mac Mini with another Quad Core i7 ..... oh wait,
maybe I will get a MacAir with Retina, the latest skylake processors and usb C / 3.1....oh wait.

I look forward to buying a 15.4" Macbook Pro with the latest technology, but Im guessing thats over.
The Dell "Macbook Pro" knock-off the XPS 15 has Nvidia Graphics 960m, USB C / 3.1, 4k borderless screen, footprint of 14" laptop. The clones are now better than the original now.
Im ordering one of these at the office for work.
I love Apple but seriously they are looking lost and confused in the PC hardware.

Apple's computer lineup is a mess right now due to the whole waiting for Skylake Iris Pro thing, when other manufactures are going with Nvidia dGPU and implementing Usbc and tb3. All Apple could muster was a placeholder Broadwell and half arsed Skylake updates. They must have given up 2015 and saving for next year.

 

[Tanax]

And can be currently found in just one line of laptops, what exactly is it that you want to do that requires this bandwidth on a 5K imac?? Run a 5K screen that will cost as much as the computer?? or run an eGPU that would suggest a PC or a mac pro is far more what you need.

Lets be honest about it if they had changed then everyone would just be complaing that none of their old peripheries could connect anymore without dongles everywhere. They can't win either way and this way annoys far less people.

My point was that "USB-C" doesn't have 5 Gbps, USB 3.1 does. USB-C is just the connector port type.
In fact, USB-C can actually be USB 2.0 which has a mere 480 Mbps transfer speed..

 

[fob]

If Apple put a 5400rpm drive in base 4k imac, one has to wonder if the base m380 in 5k imac is capable of handling the most basics of tasks.

 

[antman2x2]

If Apple put a 5400rpm drive in base 4k imac, one has to wonder if the base m380 in 5k imac is capable of handling the most basics of tasks.

That's why I went with the 395

 

[AlifTheUnseen]

Apple's computer lineup is a mess right now due to the whole waiting for Skylake Iris Pro thing, when other manufactures are going with Nvidia dGPU and implementing Usbc and tb3. All Apple could muster was a placeholder Broadwell and half arsed Skylake updates. They must have given up 2015 and saving for next year.

That's the one side to look at the current mess. The other would be to be happy to still have a dedicated GPU in the 27". The current heat issues could be quite easily remedied by removing the dGPU across the whole iMac line in the next edition. Maybe Cannonlake will be 'very capable' to handle the 5K needs Apple thinks its customers need in 2016.

Sorry, but the times I have been thrilled to just gaze at Apple's hardware websites have long gone. Apple hardware is not something to be universally happy with anymore. There is just not enough focus on computer hardware at Apple nowadays. While the potential to brilliant hardware is clearly there to tap (see the 'new' Mac Pro), it's just not relevant anymore - I guess that's what one gets if designers and managers are in charge and not anymore technologists and engineers.

 

[Tanax]

Are there any GPU tests (except benchmarks) out there of these GPUs?
Very curious how they perform compared to one another. I've already decided on which other upgrades I'm getting but the GPU is the one I'm having a hard time deciding on..

 

[G.C. Jones]

I (for one) am so tired of people on these forums thinking they are experts in what people want, and that somehow, a decently performing PC/Mac is only wanted/needed by a niche market. Do you really give Apple consumers so little credit and assume they don't know a SSD from a HDD or integrated graphics vs. discrete? From college kids to older folks...we read, we ask questions, we have knowledgeable friends...we make educated choices. The problem is, Apple spoon-feeds it's customers poorly configured models as the "affordable" options. Want a decent SSD and a decent graphics card? +$1000. People WANT better configs, but most people are unwilling to spend the money. Apple hopes everyone that walks in the door is a blind lemming with images of their dog-and-pony show burned in their brains, and will buy the latest (but far from the greatest) scaled back configurations being touted as new and better.

To assume that the masses should just be happy with a 5400RPM drive in a 4K display model iMac and that anyone else wanting more are "niche users" is ridiculous.

Apple hasn't stopped making "niche products". It just takes starting with the lame base configurations and adding a thousand dollars (or more) of add-ons to make it decent (and out of the budget of the average person).

(......as one of the "older folks" referred to above, I say, "ay yeah".)

 

[AsprineTm]

First bench halfway

 

[techedude]

First bench halfway

That's the early 2015 model. Not the ones that were just released yesterday

 

[magbarn]

Good point. But also, the Skylake CPU chips should run cooler, so that should mean cooler internals in general. We'll see with real world tests.

I wish it were so, but the Skylake i7 upgrade variant has an even higher TDP than Haswell i7 so we'll see if 105C temps are a thing of the past

 

[ivoruest]

Is the 395 worth the extra cash? Or just stick with the 390. Im so confused this time around by these GPU options.

I don't game at all on my mac, I have a gaming PC for that. Im a web designer/music producer.

Any insight?

Get the 390 and save some cash. I guess you won't be needing the extra horsepower...

 

[zerocustom1989]

Having trouble deciding between the 390 model with the 1TB drive, or the 380 model with the 2TB drive...

The extra SDD space would be nice, but I worry about how the 380 will feel in a few years in terms of everyday OS responsiveness.

 

[eajimoba]

Newbie here, heres some context that may matter in my question.

Using computer for some minor photoshop/indesign for my restaurant menu design and photo editing work along with some gaming on bootcamp (WoW, Heroes of Newerth, Starcraft II) and planning on moving onto less weighted mobile computing (12" rMBP) with having a desktop with more power and screen space for home use.

Planning on upgrading from:
rMBP late 2013, 2.3ghz i7, 16gb ram, 256gb flash, GT 750m 2gb

Here is question..
Is there a significant difference between the 390/395/395x when it comes to light graphics/design work and gaming between the mid end and high end RiMac varieties to justify spending the extra money for?

Basically is there a noticeable difference between the 390 and 395 2gb versions and how big of a noticeable difference is there between the 395 2gb and 395x 4gb?

Planning on getting the either the mid or high end entry cpu, 8gb ram (upgrade later to 16gb), 512gb ssd and getting confused on the graphics options available atm.

Any insight would be much appreciated!

 

[jordanz]

Basically is there a noticeable difference between the 390 and 395 2gb versions and how big of a noticeable difference is there between the 395 2gb and 395x 4gb?

Seems to be the million dollar question at the moment! Would love some insight also - only thing I haven't decided on yet. Similar use to you - graphic & web design work.

 

[Cape Dave]

Hang on, I'll ask my magic eight ball. Whoops, it started smoking. Even that does not know the answer to what should be at least a somewhat simple question. "Which graphics card is best and why?" should really not be an unanswerable question. And yet it seems that way Come on Apple and AMD, give us a clue why dont'cha!