Should I bootcamp or buy a separate Windows Laptop? (MacBook Pro 16”)

[Bearygoodfries1]

Hey everyone!

Because of the current WFH situation, using a Mac isn‘t ideal since we work with Windows in the office.

I was thinking of buying a separate Windows computer (dedicated for my WFH situation and some financial courses I’m going to take).

But, considering the current pandemic and economic situation the world is in, I’m wondering if I should save my money and just bootcamp my MacBook Pro.

I was hoping we’d be supplied with Windows laptops from work, but it doesn’t look like that’ll be the case.

I‘d be using my MacBook Pro in Bootcamp for 8 hours for my day job, and then I’d be using my MacBook Pro in MacOS for a few hours or more for my design and coding projects.

My concern is if maybe I’d be overworking my MacBook Pro? I got the base 16” to future proof things for at least 4 years, but I’m wondering if using it for these many hours might cause issues and wear out my Mac.

If this is a legit problem, I wouldn’t mind trying to save up for a basic Windows laptop it means less strain on my MacBook Pro (Though it would take a few months to save up).

Or if there are other concerns for my set-up, what would they be?

Or maybe I’m overthinking things?

Let me know.

Thanks!

 

[dotdotdot]

You have nothing to worry about. Save your money and boot camp your MacBook Pro - it will run better than most Windows laptops anyway.

The only real downside is that it might run a bit hotter / fans will be on louder. But this should have minimal, if any, impact on the longevity of your computer. It's the same impact as running a MacBook with an external display full time which tons of people do daily.

I've personally been using my 2016 MacBook Pro in Boot Camp for gaming for hours each day during this WFH situation and its been great.

 

[Alex W.]

Im debating the same thing, I'm very disappoint with apple for not giving the MacBook the care it needs with software, the drivers, the neglect of Igpu and forcing dGPU is just silly, when they can value add their product for all of us.

Why has the trackpad have crap drivers? Keyboard? Touch Bar? and the biggest, TouchID not being made to work with windows along with the IGPU/DGPU boggles my mind. Its gotten to the point where I should just send letters weekly to Tim Cook till he deals with this for us, waste of great hardware.

However, OSX does everything when it comes to real work -- Windows for gaming.
Using an external TB3 M.2 for my windows install and loaded it full with games, internal is Mac only.

I was only debating tossing the Mac for the G14 with the 4800u, but again ive heard its very loud as the fans always run in windows -- but it gets 10+ hours, games better and saves me 1200, as the 16" screen is a massive ghost city of burr.

 

[Altemose]

Why has the trackpad have crap drivers? Keyboard? Touch Bar? and the biggest, TouchID not being made to work with windows along with the IGPU/DGPU boggles my mind. Its gotten to the point where I should just send letters weekly to Tim Cook till he deals with this for us, waste of great hardware.

In Windows, the experience on a MacBook Pro or any MacBook for that matter is extremely comparable to other systems in its class. I have yet to see any issues stemming from the keyboard on them while within Windows, and though there is a differentiation in the trackpad functionality and fluidity between macOS and Windows - it is hard to ignore the fact that even with the drivers presented by Apple that the trackpad is still leaps and bounds better than most Windows machines. Even on laptops that the tech reviewers rave about for their trackpads (e.g. Surface Laptop 3), the experience is comparable to a newer MacBook (Air or Pro) under Windows at best. I definitely need to agree with you on Touch ID and the iGPU/dGPU switch however, as those have long been options on PCs.

 

[Alex W.]

In Windows, the experience on a MacBook Pro or any MacBook for that matter is extremely comparable to other systems in its class. I have yet to see any issues stemming from the keyboard on them while within Windows, and though there is a differentiation in the trackpad functionality and fluidity between macOS and Windows - it is hard to ignore the fact that even with the drivers presented by Apple that the trackpad is still leaps and bounds better than most Windows machines. Even on laptops that the tech reviewers rave about for their trackpads (e.g. Surface Laptop 3), the experience is comparable to a newer MacBook (Air or Pro) under Windows at best. I definitely need to agree with you on Touch ID and the iGPU/dGPU switch however, as those have long been options on PCs.

The trackpad is kinda crappy, it functions worse in terms of gestures vs most decent windows pcs. It doesn't have acceleration and care in the drivers like in osx.

Its just a shame that pple could make these amazing windows pcs If they put a bit of investment into a platform that isn't osx. There are times when we all need to jump over.

 

[throAU]

Unless you do things that need 3d acceleration, I'd try Windows in a virtual machine first.

It's more convenient if it will handle the things you need to do because

• you don't need to reboot
• you won't be dealing with crap drivers for windows under bootcamp for the trackpad
• you can can work with applications in both operating systems (including copy/paste between them) at the same time.
• you can set up scheduled VM snapshots so that if something in windows goes pear-shaped you can roll-back to a previous time.

 

[D.T.]

Unless you do things that need 3d acceleration, I'd try Windows in a virtual machine first.

It's more convenient if it will handle the things you need to do because

• you don't need to reboot
• you won't be dealing with crap drivers for windows under bootcamp for the trackpad
• you can can work with applications in both operating systems (including copy/paste between them) at the same time.
• you can set up scheduled VM snapshots so that if something in windows goes pear-shaped you can roll-back to a previous time.

Great post, yeah, and a VM will allow you concurrent access to both your Windows and MacOS machines, so sharing resources, services, debugging tools (for dev work), etc., will be so much easier (and that includes hardware like displays, KB).

Umm, I think I have some spew about this in another thread, I'll find and post it here

If you don't need both _at_the_same_time, a whole dedicated machine seems like an unnecessary thing to deal with ...
[automerge]1589759046[/automerge]
Oh yeah, here's the thread, which is very similar to yours:

Owning both MBP and a Windows laptop?

I was using a MBP (i7/16/370X), with Windows work in a VM, then during a pivot that had me out on the west coast in the AR/VR space, I wound up wanting a dedicated windows machine so switched over to Bootcamp (lightweight viz, mostly SDK coding, some API/service work, no GPU heavy lifting, but...

forums.macrumors.com

My post is #10, it covers using BC vs. a dedicated Windows machine vs. a VM, hopefully it's helpful

 

[throAU]

Yeah, almost all my work is done in VMs being a system/network administrator.

Even my work desktop - it's a linux box with a heap of Ram and SSD running many copies of Windows in virtual machines including my Windows 10 desktop.

I have a sys prepped template for Windows 10. If I need to test something out that I don't trust to not screw my regular desktop, I can spin up a new instance of Windows 10 inside of about 2 minutes for testing purposes first (right click, clone template, run through initial Windows out of box experience). Or, I just snapshot my regular Windows 10 desktop, run whatever, and roll back if required.

I also run multiple copies of Server, etc. for test lab purposes on that box, but point being if you have enough RAM/CPU resources and don't work with 3d, then a Windows VM can be good enough to be your daily-driver desktop, and there are benefits to that as far as roll-back and testing goes.

The other VM benefit is that boot-camp requires you to basically carve a chunk of storage off for the VM that is basically immediately lost to macOS and likely unused in Windows. VMs can be "thin" provisioned and only consume the space required for what is installed (e.g., I can allocate 200 GB to a VM, install windows in it and the initial windows install will only consume say 20 GB on disk from macOS until I put apps/data in it that require the space).

 

[Altemose]

The trackpad is kinda crappy, it functions worse in terms of gestures vs most decent windows pcs. It doesn't have acceleration and care in the drivers like in osx.

Its just a shame that pple could make these amazing windows pcs If they put a bit of investment into a platform that isn't osx. There are times when we all need to jump over.

This is likely a "your mileage may vary" type of situation, as the majority of Macs under Boot Camp have been fine for me and the users at my work. We just purchased a classroom of iMacs to solely run Windows (and we image them just as we do a PC) and we have several MacBooks that are Windows only with no complaints. The only thing that I have noticed with running Windows on a MacBook is that in previous versions of Boot Camp, the backlight settings for the keyboard would not properly apply. Thankfully, Apple delivered a fix shortly thereafter.

 

[Bearygoodfries1]

Thanks everyone!

I'll definitely stick with my Mac for Windows use then.

I'll need to read up more on VM since I'm a newbie in that department.

I might go with Bootcamp so I can play some Steam games, too.

Not sure if anyone here knows this, but is the base 16" MacBook Pro good enough to play games like Resident Evil 3 Remake in 4K?

Also, I should be able to play games from an external drive, right?

 

[maflynn]

- it will run better than most Windows laptops anyway.

I have to disagree, Apple is slow with drivers, they offer almost zero support, there is little power saving tech being used in windows, I.e., horrible battery life and the touch bar is nearly useless in windows

 

[throAU]

Not sure if anyone here knows this, but is the base 16" MacBook Pro good enough to play games like Resident Evil 3 Remake in 4K?

Not really. 4k at a decent frame rate pushes high end desktop PCs. A MacBook Pro GPU is nowhere near close to good enough.

Even a desktop 2080 TI struggles to do 4k with full details on some modern games and a MacBook Pro GPU is just nowhere even close to half that ability (probably nearer 1/4).

 

[Bearygoodfries1]

Not really. 4k at a decent frame rate pushes high end desktop PCs. A MacBook Pro GPU is nowhere near close to good enough.

Even a desktop 2080 TI struggles to do 4k with full details on some modern games and a MacBook Pro GPU is just nowhere even close to half that ability (probably nearer 1/4).

That’s a total bummer!

Might as well just wait for the PS5 for games then.

 

[throAU]

That’s a total bummer!

Might as well just wait for the PS5 for games then.

Yeah, laptops for games in general is just not great. Try 1080p.

Even on a pretty competent desktop these days, max details in 1080p at over 60-90 fps > reduced detail and trash frame rate (i.e., sub 60 or even sub 40) in 4k, even if you've got a pretty strong rig (but sub 2080 ti on some modern titles).