Retina Pro E-GPU

[joshhedge]

Hey all,

My Retina Pro, 2.6GHz with 16GB RAM, arrived yesterday. So far the experience has been amazing, par the occasional hick-up within Mountain Lion. I can see the CPU and RAM being top-notch for the next 3-5 years ( My upgrade timescale ) but sadly not the GPU, as I do like to game.

Hence I was looking into the thunderbolt external GPU case that MSI offer, the GUS II, unfortunately there is no time scale for the release. I was wondering if anyone else on the forums has heard anything about the GUS II and if any Retina Pro owners, such as myself, are looking into doing the same?

Regards,
Josh.

 

[ViRGE]

For the time being you're out of luck. The GUS II is still a prototype, and even if it was a retail product it is highly unlikely it would work with Mac OS X.

What you have is what you get.🙁

 

[joshhedge]

Well that sucks, thanks for the update ViRGE. Fingers crossed either way.

 

[runawayprisoner]

If you do Bootcamp, you'll get much better performance (as in up to 25% better), plus you can overclock the 650M in the Retina MBP for an extra 30% performance improvement.

Unless you absolutely must be able to run every game at the highest resolution possible plus AA, that is...

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

If you do Bootcamp, you'll get much better performance (as in up to 25% better), plus you can overclock the 650M in the Retina MBP for an extra 30% performance improvement.

Unless you absolutely must be able to run every game at the highest resolution possible plus AA, that is...

How do you overclock in Bootcamp?

 

[saratoga172]

With the bootcamp add-ins installed you are able to install Windows. Once on Windows 7 you can use any of the many tools to overclock the GPU. I assume MSI Afterburner, EVGA Precision, and the lot would work but as I don't have first hand experience with this setup someone more knowledgeable can chime in on the overclocking portion.

But you will notice a performance increase in games booting into Windows. And the config for the bootcamp support software is super easy.

My boss put a Mac on my desk in the morning and told me it needed to be deployed with Windows that afternoon. Took me about 2 hours between reading and setup. (It ended up being deployed with OS X and the requisite support software but he was making a point to the department that ordered it. Was quite funny when they got it with Windows after spending $8k after software, hardware and the laptop.)

 

[joshhedge]

If you do Bootcamp, you'll get much better performance (as in up to 25% better), plus you can overclock the 650M in the Retina MBP for an extra 30% performance improvement.

Unless you absolutely must be able to run every game at the highest resolution possible plus AA, that is...

Let's be honest, the 650M should be called a GTX660M + because it is higher clocked 😉.

I haven't boot camped yet. I am still undecided between VM or Bootcamp. I haven't seen any performance comparisons for Skyrim Bootcamp vs Vm yet. Hopefully the latest version of Parallels will make some nice improvements in FPS.

I wouldn't like to OC this. I personally think Apple have pushed the GPU as far as it can go for optimal life span, I've spent too much on this for it to die on me - I do have three year Apple care though.

 

[AkumaX]

bootcamp on rMBP = :awe:

I did it with Win8 Release Preview, currently back on 7 until I can get my hands on a legit Win8 RTM 😛

Anyone figure out how to turn off discrete graphics (i think the GF 650M is on all the time) -- on the road I'd like to just use Intel's integrated HD 4000 for maximum battery

 

[runawayprisoner]

Let's be honest, the 650M should be called a GTX660M + because it is higher clocked 😉.

I haven't boot camped yet. I am still undecided between VM or Bootcamp. I haven't seen any performance comparisons for Skyrim Bootcamp vs Vm yet. Hopefully the latest version of Parallels will make some nice improvements in FPS.

I wouldn't like to OC this. I personally think Apple have pushed the GPU as far as it can go for optimal life span, I've spent too much on this for it to die on me - I do have three year Apple care though.

VM performance is decidedly horrible. And no DX11 support, either. Until VM makers (VMWare, Parallel) decide to implement VT-d support, you likely won't be able to do any worthwhile gaming in VMs.

You are much, much, much better off using Bootcamp.

 

[cheez]

^ Yeah since the OP is a performance junkie (look at his sig lol) VM would be a huge no-no. Heck, I'm a performance junkie too. 😀 Bootcamp it is. Jury has decided for you.

 

[ViRGE]

VM performance is decidedly horrible. And no DX11 support, either. Until VM makers (VMWare, Parallel) decide to implement VT-d support, you likely won't be able to do any worthwhile gaming in VMs.

VT-d is meant for bare metal hypervisors (e.g. ESXi), not OS-hosted hypervisors like Workstation/Fusion.

 

[runawayprisoner]

VT-d is meant for bare metal hypervisors (e.g. ESXi), not OS-hosted hypervisors like Workstation/Fusion.

Well, Virtualbox did say they'll add support for it eventually, so it'll be interesting to see.

I know it's a Type 1 Hypervisor feature only for now, but Virtualbox is Type 2, and for some reason, they still claim that they'll support it. Maybe not for VGA/GPU passthrough...

 

[joshhedge]

^ Yeah since the OP is a performance junkie (look at his sig lol) VM would be a huge no-no. Heck, I'm a performance junkie too. 😀 Bootcamp it is. Jury has decided for you.

You're totally right about being a performance junkie! I am doing Chemical Engineering at uni so I do need some decent horsepower to run the various CAD softwares we use.

Thanks all for the update about VMs, I guess boot camping is still the only truly viable option.

 

[TheStu]

You're totally right about being a performance junkie! I am doing Chemical Engineering at uni so I do need some decent horsepower to run the various CAD softwares we use.

Thanks all for the update about VMs, I guess boot camping is still the only truly viable option.

VMWare is still an option if you just need to fire up Windows Office from time to time, or things of that nature. But for games, you need Bootcamp. Thankfully, with VMWare and Parallels, you can turn your bootcamp partition into a VM, so all the same files will still be there. IF you need to noodle around with a file in Windows for 5 minutes, even with an SSD, it is more convenient to fire up the VM (or heck with the horsepower on modern system, just let it run all the time) and do that, instead of booting into Windows directly. I would do that when I was in college.

 

[joshhedge]

VMWare is still an option if you just need to fire up Windows Office from time to time, or things of that nature. But for games, you need Bootcamp. Thankfully, with VMWare and Parallels, you can turn your bootcamp partition into a VM, so all the same files will still be there. IF you need to noodle around with a file in Windows for 5 minutes, even with an SSD, it is more convenient to fire up the VM (or heck with the horsepower on modern system, just let it run all the time) and do that, instead of booting into Windows directly. I would do that when I was in college.

I never knew you could VM with your bootcamp partition. Thanks for that!

Out of interest does anyone have any particular preference between Parallels and VMWare? I think I'd probably go for Parallels but if anyone can prove to me otherwise, I'm open to either side 🙂.

 

[joshhedge]

Found this; http://www.magma.com/thunderbolt. Very expensive but with the ( Future ) ability to utilise a GPU. The future is bright!

 

[runawayprisoner]

I never knew you could VM with your bootcamp partition. Thanks for that!

Out of interest does anyone have any particular preference between Parallels and VMWare? I think I'd probably go for Parallels but if anyone can prove to me otherwise, I'm open to either side 🙂.

In my opinions:

Parallels generally has better GPU performance than VMWare.

VMWare generally is less buggy. I prefer VMWare because it's more stable.

Both are up to 200% slower than Bootcamp on my rMBP be it games or AutoCAD/Maya either way.

I actually don't do VMWare or Parallels to Bootcamp. It's never good to mix up work and play. In general, I create a separate Windows XP VMWare under OS X to use the miscellaneous Windows apps that I need to. Plus I can isolate and restore it faster than if it was on a Bootcamp partition when something bad happens.

 

[joshhedge]

In my opinions:

Parallels generally has better GPU performance than VMWare.

VMWare generally is less buggy. I prefer VMWare because it's more stable.

Both are up to 200% slower than Bootcamp on my rMBP be it games or AutoCAD/Maya either way.

I actually don't do VMWare or Parallels to Bootcamp. It's never good to mix up work and play. In general, I create a separate Windows XP VMWare under OS X to use the miscellaneous Windows apps that I need to. Plus I can isolate and restore it faster than if it was on a Bootcamp partition when something bad happens.

Thanks for the input!

If I was going to game in a VM it would most likely be Homeworld and other classics. I would much prefer stability at the expense of GPU performance... VMWare it is!

 

[runawayprisoner]

By the way, when I say "stability", I mean UI stability. Parallels has a higher tendency to go "weird" on me than VMWare.

But the actual OS that's being virtualized underneath is equally stable on both. Parallels has higher GPU performance, and is generally less of a resource hog.

Sorry, should have made that clear.

 

[joshhedge]

Ahh I see. Thanks for the clarification on that. I've used Parallels in the past on my old Macbook Pro and had no "weird" moments. I don't think I need to worry about either being a resource hog, so long as it doesn't affect the windows application performance. Not a problem 🙂.

On another note, Haswell looks awesome. That should potentially 'free-up' some more TDP for use with the discrete GPU in future rPros. Damn the progression of technology.