New MacBook Pros Released Today

[sweenish]

https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/

No sans-TouchBar 15" Pro yet. 3rd gen keyboard switches. True Tone display. 8th gen intel core processors. DDR4 up to 32 GB. Up to 4 TB storage. AMD Radeon 555X or 560X GPU. Official eGPU enclosure. T2 chip integrated for better security, handling of basic tasks, and activate Siri with voice now. Ships with High Sierra, obviously will receive Mojave later in the fall.

All very odd, honestly. I think they buckled a bit under the pressure of taking so long after Intel released their latest 8th gen revision. They just had to launch as soon as they could, and forego the presser.

Summary on ars: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/201...-available-and-the-top-specs-are-much-faster/
Anandtech's take: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13073/apple-updates-macbook-pro-family-for-2018

 

[TheStu]

Glad to see the 13" FINALLY got quad core, other laptops in the same class have had quad core for a while.

 

[sweenish]

I've had my eye on a new 15" MBP, so the refresh is welcome. I know the keyboard will take some adjusting to, but I think I'll manage. I'm assuming that they've improved more than just the noise level of typing when it comes to the switches.

 

[Commodus]

I've had my eye on a new 15" MBP, so the refresh is welcome. I know the keyboard will take some adjusting to, but I think I'll manage. I'm assuming that they've improved more than just the noise level of typing when it comes to the switches.

Wouldn't be surprised if there were tweaks to reliability, but "should break less" doesn't make for a great marketing campaign.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

Man, as much as I am loathe to spend upwards of 3k on a laptop, the 15" actually ticks nearly every box I have... if they'd offer the 4-port version without the touch bar then I'd be in.

I use a 2017 15" and a mid-2014 15" nearly every day of the week for work, and I prefer everything about the 2017 except the stupid touch bar. I can live with the 2017's keyboard - even though I can't sustain 140-150wpm for as long as I can on the 2014 due to not being used to the 2017's shallow pitch, I do like the 2017's tactile feel - but not having physical keys that I can feel my way around and not having tactile confirmation that I pressed a key bothers me. I've taken to aligning the few F-keys that I do use to the number keys, which seems to have helped a bit.

God forbid they eventually turn the entire keyboard into a touch "bar"/surface.

 

[secretanchitman]

Not bad spec bumps, but they really need to improve the GPU on the 15" (555X and 560X are just marginally better than the 555/560, which itself is a rebadged Polaris based 460), update the front facing camera and without a doubt redesign the keyboard and give us an option to remove the touchbar.

The day Apple goes back to Nvidia graphics for the 15" MBP is when I'll truly consider it.

 

[Fir]

Wonder what SSD they are using to reach 4TB. It's a VERY expensive option.

 

[sweenish]

Not gonna lie, I don't expect my next laptop to be an Apple, but at this point in time, it's what will best suit my needs.

That might change, who knows. This will be my laptop for a good while.

 

[Eug]

I was disappointed to see that the non-TB 13" MacBook Pro did not get quad-core, but that wasn't unexpected. What was somewhat unexpected for me though was Apple's choice to go with DDR4. I wonder how they manage to increase the battery capacity without increasing weight. Oh and it's nice to see that Bluetooth 5.0 made it into these Macs.

Still no update in the iMac and MacBook though, and actually not even the 13" non-TB MacBook Pro either. (It's not just that the non-TB MBP didn't get quad-core. It got no update at all.)

It looks like I chose well for my iMac and MacBook purchases (which were in June 2017). I expect a new hex-core iMac release by October though, and maybe a new MacBook will come around then too, using Amber Lake.

Will the new iMac use Polaris 500X series, or Vega though?

 

[Commodus]

Wonder what SSD they are using to reach 4TB. It's a VERY expensive option.

Wouldn't be surprised if it's the same drive as you'd find in the iMac Pro. Ridiculous speed plus 4TB makes it the perfect drive, but that also means it costs a ridiculous amount of money.

 

[TheStu]

Wouldn't be surprised if it's the same drive as you'd find in the iMac Pro. Ridiculous speed plus 4TB makes it the perfect drive, but that also means it costs a ridiculous amount of money.

iMac Pro is running dual drives, and the T2 chip handles striping the data across the two. Not sure if the new MBP is also running dual drives.

 

[nerp]

Wonder what SSD they are using to reach 4TB. It's a VERY expensive option.

My guess is its a Samsung part with the custom Apple controller.

 

[Fir]

A pair of 970 EVO parts 2TB striped would have good transfers. 4TB of TLC nvme storage is quite cheap (less than half the price charged) in comparison. Apple Tax™ is alive and well.

 

[sweenish]

I'm waiting for further verification, but a YouTuber has claimed that their i9 MBP cannot maintain its base clock speed while under heavy load, and actually performs worse than last year's i7 MBP. Makes me glad I've been forced to wait a bit before pulling the trigger, and having already decided on the i7 model.

https://youtu.be/Dx8J125s4cg

 

[Commodus]

I'm waiting for further verification, but a YouTuber has claimed that their i9 MBP cannot maintain its base clock speed while under heavy load, and actually performs worse than last year's i7 MBP. Makes me glad I've been forced to wait a bit before pulling the trigger, and having already decided on the i7 model.

https://youtu.be/Dx8J125s4cg

I would like to see corroborating tests -- not doubting that Lee got the results he did, but there's a long history of YouTube videos blasting Apple without a fuller context (see: the "we broke our iMac voiding its warranty and for some reason Apple won't fix it" video).

 

[sweenish]

In one of the r/apple threads about this, some other user posted their benchmarks to Imgur, and I think they also show some severe throttling. Still, without a controlled test environment from a site I trust, I'm remaining skeptical.

But it's not looking good for the MBP i9. I'm also curious to see how well the i7 holds up in comparison.

 

[Eug]

I'm disappointed in that i9 MacBook Pro, but not completely surprised it is throttling hard. Apple has a habit of under spec-ing the cooling systems for the top end chips in their laptops and all-in-ones. But what I was actually expecting was that the i9 would ramp up the fan immediately and then run at maximum and only have a little throttling.

That's kind of what the iMac i7-7700K does. Any kind of heavy load and the fan ramps up within 30 seconds. That's why I returned mine and got an iMac i5-7600. Much quieter.

I think if I were looking to get an MacBook Pro 15" now, I'd just get the i7-8750H. It's already damn fast, and in fact it's faster than the 2017 top-of-the-line MacBook Pro.

BTW, what the iMac needs is the iMac Pro cooling system. Apparently that cooling system is actually quite decent, even for those 140 W chips.

 

[Batboy88]

I'm disappointed in that i9 MacBook Pro, but not completely surprised it is throttling hard. Apple has a habit of under spec-ing the cooling systems for the top end chips in their laptops and all-in-ones. But what I was actually expecting was that the i9 would ramp up the fan immediately and then run at maximum and only have a little throttling.

That's kind of what the iMac i7-7700K does. Any kind of heavy load and the fan ramps up within 30 seconds. That's why I returned mine and got an iMac i5-7600. Much quieter.

I think if I were looking to get an MacBook Pro 15" now, I'd just get the i7-8750H. It's already damn fast, and in fact it's faster than the 2017 top-of-the-line MacBook Pro.

BTW, what the iMac needs is the iMac Pro cooling system. Apparently that cooling system is actually quite decent, even for those 140 W chips.

It's not much better desktop 7700k either...that tim isn't that great whatever dow corning/ tub grease stuff...mx4 performed better than that chip died..it was the better chip too...This one is pretty mediocre...

 

[sweenish]

I'm disappointed in that i9 MacBook Pro, but not completely surprised it is throttling hard. Apple has a habit of under spec-ing the cooling systems for the top end chips in their laptops and all-in-ones. But what I was actually expecting was that the i9 would ramp up the fan immediately and then run at maximum and only have a little throttling.

That's kind of what the iMac i7-7700K does. Any kind of heavy load and the fan ramps up within 30 seconds. That's why I returned mine and got an iMac i5-7600. Much quieter.

I think if I were looking to get an MacBook Pro 15" now, I'd just get the i7-8750H. It's already damn fast, and in fact it's faster than the 2017 top-of-the-line MacBook Pro.

BTW, what the iMac needs is the iMac Pro cooling system. Apparently that cooling system is actually quite decent, even for those 140 W chips.

Yeah, I saw another site (the link eludes me at the moment, it was in my Google Feed but not anymore) that verified the i9's throttling. It's another data point at least. And it got some extra information from someone at Geekbench, so while I don't frequent the site myself, that kind of collaboration speaks to some level of quality. Apparently when the i9 goes to sub-base clocks, it's idling. However, thermal throttling is still very much present.

They contrasted with an iMac Pro, but I want a contrast against the 2018 i7 MBP. Like you said, it should be better, and that's my expectation. I'm just curious to what degree throttling occurs. I don't do a lot of CPU-intensive stuff, but I do it often enough that I am a bit concerned.

EDIT: found links at r/apple
The one I mentioned:
https://9to5mac.com/2018/07/18/how-macbook-pro-throttles-with-final-cut-pro-x/

appleinsider (apologizing like nobody's business, but at least confirming):
https://appleinsider.com/articles/1...acbook-pro-dramatically-hampering-performance

 

[sweenish]

More recent articles and videos are, as expected, tempering the hysteria a bit. Yes, the chip throttles, and yes probably more than it really should. But it is still the fastest MBP out there bar a couple specific tasks.

Not a lot of gaming talk, but people don't really buy Macs to game. Except I would like to do some light gaming every now and then. I think the age of the games I'd be attempting should be fine. (Witcher 1 + 2, Syberia, maybe Diablo 3, etc.)

EDIT: Apple released a firmware fix yesterday that seems to get 2018 MBP's to behave the way they should. The Ars review did some light gaming tests and it appears that for my gaming hopes, I'll be satisfied. I wasn't planning on GTAV (will still try it), but other games like Witcher 1 + 2, Pyre, and older adventure games should do just fine.

 

[Eug]

Yes, according to reviews, after the firmware fix, the machine doesn't throttle hard anymore. It behaves similarly to Windows thin and light laptops, which is to say the performance is decent, but not quite as good as the big burly Windows laptops with superior cooling systems.

One thing that was noted though was that out of the thin and light i9 laptops, even though they roughly all performed similarly, the MacBook Pro was the quietest in terms of fan noise.

 

[Fir]

Got the i9 beast w/ 32GB and 1TB SSD.
First thing that I can say is the speakers sound better than anything I've heard come out of a portable computer!
True tone is nice and out of the box calibration is near perfect.
I wouldn't say you should run out and get this if you're on a 2016 or 2017 model.
2015 model maybe especially if you need the extra ram, etc.
The keyboard is definitely smoother, ie not nearly as mechanical sounding as my 2016.

One thing I find strange is 8K video stream via youtube.com that plays perfectly on my SurfaceBook 2 with 1060/6GB base pauses frequently on the i9 macbook pro. Strange. It's not a bandwidth issue either, as the macbook's wifi is quite fast, hitting 900Mbps on the speedtest app vs. the SB2's 500Mbps.

 

[TheStu]

Got the i9 beast w/ 32GB and 1TB SSD.
First thing that I can say is the speakers sound better than anything I've heard come out of a portable computer!
True tone is nice and out of the box calibration is near perfect.
I wouldn't say you should run out and get this if you're on a 2016 or 2017 model.
2015 model maybe especially if you need the extra ram, etc.
The keyboard is definitely smoother, ie not nearly as mechanical sounding as my 2016.

One thing I find strange is 8K video stream via youtube.com that plays perfectly on my SurfaceBook 2 with 1060/6GB base pauses frequently on the i9 macbook pro. Strange. It's not a bandwidth issue either, as the macbook's wifi is quite fast, hitting 900Mbps on the speedtest app vs. the SB2's 500Mbps.

Have you tested different browsers?

 

[Fir]

Just Chrome but I will try Safari as its blazing fast on High Sierra.

Apparently there's an issue with some users having speaker "noises".
They call it crackling but I think it's more like farting! LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54D5jclYPkk

#speakergate
#ifart

 

[Fir]

OK both Firefox AND Safari are pissing me off. They will ONLY allow me to choose 1080/60 as options. Chrome lets me go all the way up to 8K!