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I can live without Retina. I can live within 512GB SSD. But I really need 16GB RAM... fingers crossed. Haswell demos at IDF last year were pretty awesome, so I

by cpswan 13y ago

I can live without Retina. I can live within 512GB SSD. But I really need 16GB RAM... fingers crossed. Haswell demos at IDF last year were pretty awesome, so I think longer battery life at the same travel weight (and better overall performance) is pretty much a given.

mtgx 13y ago
We'll see about idle time, but active time won't be much better. The 17W IVB chips will be replaced with 15W Haswell chips. Performance will only feel better for "retina" laptops, because of a stronger GPU. The Haswell GPU will barely be "adequate" for retina displays though. So don't expect to be "wowed" or anything. IVB GPU wasn't adequate at all for retina displays. Haswell is really the first generation that can begin to handle retina displays with a "PC OS". If you don't use retina, you won't feel much of a difference, except in games (if you were playing games on an Intel integrated GPU before). Haswell has been generally overhyped. The improvements are relatively minor compared to IVB. CPU wise I think it's only 5-10% faster.
- cstross 13y ago
  IVB is adequate for retina display ... if paired with a sidecar like the GeForce GT650M. Or used solely for typing and similar non-graphically-intensive activities. (As on this rMBP 15"). Haswell promises cheaper adequate performance, on less power. And speaking as someone with retinal (eyeball, not electronic) trouble, I'm really looking forward to a portable (i.e. 13") laptop with adequate performance that I can work on. (My 15" rMBP is great for work in the home office, but a bit heavy/bulky/expensive for carting around airports and foreign parts.) (Don't expect to see a retina display on Macbook Air this year, though -- too power hungry. It'll probably just be a better 13" retina Probook for now.)
  - Osmium 13y ago
    > IVB is adequate for retina display ... if paired with a sidecar like the GeForce GT650M. Or used solely for typing and similar non-graphically-intensive activities. (As on this rMBP 15"). Completely agree -- I think there were early performance issues which were due to unoptimised drivers causing e.g. laggy Safari scrolling and that's caused a lot of misinformation to be out there. The truth is that, in practice, the IVB GPU has been more than fine for me unless I'm doing something that would require a dedicated GPU anyway.

by cpswan 13y ago

mtgx 13y ago

We'll see about idle time, but active time won't be much better. The 17W IVB chips will be replaced with 15W Haswell chips. Performance will only feel better for "retina" laptops, because of a stronger GPU. The Haswell GPU will barely be "adequate" for retina displays though. So don't expect to be "wowed" or anything. IVB GPU wasn't adequate at all for retina displays. Haswell is really the first generation that can begin to handle retina displays with a "PC OS". If you don't use retina, you won't feel much of a difference, except in games (if you were playing games on an Intel integrated GPU before). Haswell has been generally overhyped. The improvements are relatively minor compared to IVB. CPU wise I think it's only 5-10% faster.

cstross 13y ago
IVB is adequate for retina display ... if paired with a sidecar like the GeForce GT650M. Or used solely for typing and similar non-graphically-intensive activities. (As on this rMBP 15"). Haswell promises cheaper adequate performance, on less power. And speaking as someone with retinal (eyeball, not electronic) trouble, I'm really looking forward to a portable (i.e. 13") laptop with adequate performance that I can work on. (My 15" rMBP is great for work in the home office, but a bit heavy/bulky/expensive for carting around airports and foreign parts.) (Don't expect to see a retina display on Macbook Air this year, though -- too power hungry. It'll probably just be a better 13" retina Probook for now.)
- Osmium 13y ago
  > IVB is adequate for retina display ... if paired with a sidecar like the GeForce GT650M. Or used solely for typing and similar non-graphically-intensive activities. (As on this rMBP 15"). Completely agree -- I think there were early performance issues which were due to unoptimised drivers causing e.g. laggy Safari scrolling and that's caused a lot of misinformation to be out there. The truth is that, in practice, the IVB GPU has been more than fine for me unless I'm doing something that would require a dedicated GPU anyway.