Picked up a 17" 2.66GHz i7 mbp!

I was within my 30 day exchange period from my 15" 2.8ghz core 2 duo mbp and got it exchanged at the local galleria with no restocking fee!

All I can say is that WOW auto switch gpu is the best feature ever! The best part of this feature is that I never have to log out and log back in like I used to with the previous gen mbp, where I'd have to relaunch all my apps in the proper space location (total of 6).

Also I dont need to use an ilap anymore as the laptop never gets hot, yesterday all day on campus I got roughly 10 hours of battery life (actually a little more than 10 hours as I had 43 minutes left when I got home at night time).

The best part of the i7 is that finally we get a TRUE desktop replacement. 95% of the time, I forget that its connected to a laptop and the feel and performance feels like a Mac Pro desktop! (I've owned all the generation of mac pros).

These i7s are ROCK SOLID! You can DEFINITELY feel the big difference in overall performance! I get 6300 in geekbench score as to the 4200 on the previous gen 2.8ghz 15" (using 64-bit geekbench on both).

One thing I can say is that on the 2.66ghz 4-core 1st gen Mac Pro desktop, I was getting 5800 points in geekbench! And now these i7 mbps are getting higher scores.

I'm VERY VERY VERY impressed with these new machines.

If anyone is on the fence about upgrading, NOW IS THE TIME!!

I havnt felt this big of a jump in performance since the powerbook g4 was upgraded to the core duo intel mbp. Yes its that great!

 

That's great news! Congrats on getting your new MBP!

 

Another month, or if someone buys my Sager NP5793 (HIINNTTT) so I can pay off the Visa, and I'll be picking up this same model.

Did you opt for any of the additional features like 8GB RAM or the Antiglare screen?

Done any intensive design/GPU (gaming or 3D work) on it? Please do let me know the results when you do as this is what I am most interested in!

 

I got the 17" 2.66GHz i7 with 4GB RAM, hi resolution antiglare model.

 

A man after my own heart.
(And laptop specs apparently too).

Let me know how it responds to some intensive gaming/3D apps if you run em, for curiosities sake.

 

I've played mass effect 2 on my previous generation 15" 2.8GHz mbp with 4gb of RAM + intel SSD + 9600m gt 512mb and it ran it fine with all the 4 graphics options turned off. BUT the frames were pretty bad on most of the game. For example in the beginning of the game where the ship is exploding with fire everywhere, the scene is pretty bad in the fps department.

It stuttered quite alot and when the actual battle scene with 2+ enemies it was just barely playable but not very enjoyable.

Anyway, I tested the same mass effect 2 game on my i7 mbp and now (I still turned off the 4 graphics options) and it runs stutter free.

95% of the game is smooth now without any stuttering but there is the occasional drop of frames (just a little) when there is 4+ enemies on the screen. Its no where near as bad as the 9600m gt and now even with a crazy scene its more than playable!

I'm not a hardcore gamer but I do like to play a couple of games once in a while and in my opinion it handles mass effect 2 just fine.

I'm going to install bioshock 2 later on when I have time to play that game as well. I remember on my previous gen mbp even with all the settings on "low" and "off", it was barely playable. FPS really was bad and I'm guessing that now it'll be good enough to play.

As for gaming, I'm thinking about building or buying an alienware aurora with dual 5870 gpus in crossfire to play bioshock 2 and or mass effect 2. I want that insane performance on games. But I'm still debating as I'm not a hardcore gamer. But I do miss having a hardcore setup.

 

Congrats on your new MBP17! Sounds great

 

Thanks! Its one of the best upgrades I've done since the jump to intel macs from the powerbook g4.

And the SSD drive upgrade coming in as 3rd! Yes the i7s are THAT fast!

I'm SO glad that I waited (well sort of since I was within 30 days exchange period) and didnt get the i7 iMac. The only reason I wanted an i7 iMac is just because it had the i7 (and I needed portability more).

For some reason the iMacs never really grabbed my attention. I just dont like the all in one feature, where if you upgrade to a newer model, you'd have to dump that perfectly good screen. I cant wait for a 27" cinema display though.

 

What exactly does the i7 do faster...? Overall system performance? CPU intensive tasks only?

 

I don't understand why people game on their laptops when you have the Xbox 360 and the PS3 out there. Playing on a 52" LCD with 5.1 surround sound will be beat playing on ANY computer ANY day.

 

the same reason people buy laptops and not desktops.

they have places to go. duh. can you play your 360 on your 52" screen on a plane? in an airport? in the back row of a boring class?

 

Ok. Point taken.

 

Better graphics, better controls, better games, more customization, higher resolution. For example I can play MW2 at 1200p on laptop screen while only 600p on an xbox. Now I do agree with you that its kind of pointless if your computer can't run a game a decent fps, but a lot of computer can play games better than an xbox these days.

 

most computers can play games better than an Xbox.

my old 9600M-based Vaio played the same games I had on my 360 (Mass Effect, Gears, Bioshock, Team Fortress 2) at higher framerates and significantly higher resolution than my 360 could.

TC: please let us know how Bioshock 2 works out for you. this kind of information definitely softens the blow for me as a potential buyer.

 

Mass Effect 2 is a very GPU intensive game. So the poor little 330M isn't quite on par i'm afraid. Funny how the M11x can run that game at max settings with very good frame rate average and it's a sub 1k$ laptop....lol

 

ouch. 10char

 

Because mass effect 2 and bioshock 2 was free.

 

Actually I can get a steady 30 fps in mass effect 2.

Either way I didnt buy a mbp for gaming, its more of a plus side to game once in a while and as long as it plays it decent I'm good.

I just picked up a 32GB iPad at my local bestbuy and this thing is addictive... Screen is so damn gorgeous! Its a totally different experience.

 

guess you were just in a money-spending mood.

 

30 fps isn't what I would call optimal, is that at full res and detail? Of all the things the new Macbooks do well, gaming is not one of them. They went battery life > power.

 

Basically osx + 10+ battery life is why I buy a MacBook pro.

 

I think you might be right. Man I love this iPad!!

 

You've got to have like $5K worth of Apple stuff there in your sig. Imagine what that much money could get you in the PC world...LOL.

My new MBP was paid for by a sweet bonus at my work...otherwise I would not have gotten a newer one.

 

Lol yea half of that amount could get me a crazy alienware. I almost bought an alien ware aurora for gaming but it would be a waste of money for me as I don't game much.

 

That's the thing....I don't understand why people are so upset about the GPU when they could get a much better gaming machine for much less money. If they are so interested in gaming, why in the hell are they looking at a mac???

Gaming is not my priority either and all my other needs are either met or exceeded, so I'm happy with the current specs.

ALso, when I need to game, I have LFD2, COD Modern warfare, Need for speed shift, and bioshock 2. I play all those games on my current MBP with no problems. Albeit the settings must be turned down...I have no problem with that.

 

Lol yea, I have a PS3 that I use to play games hooked up to a big screen hdtv.

 

understand that there are more uses for a GPU than videogames.

 

Sure, there are other uses, but if not for gaming what other use would require something more powerful than a 330m???

 

various design and professional applications that you'd probably never have need of but that those producing epic 3D models, applications, and designing products and buildings need a GPU that does more than play 1080p movies.

the creative community--to whom, Apple used to cater to heavily--has been rather abandoned, to be honest.

 

I guess you're right. I would think that if those peopple truly needed power, that they would get a MacPro for 3D applications of EPIC proportions lol.

 

I'm sure they do

but there was a day when Apple's portable solutions worked well for that segment as well.

When the unibody MBP first came with the 9600M, it was a quality GPU. relative to the competition at the time, there were only a few cards that were it's superior. with the 330M...I believe there are over 50 cards on the market that are more powerful.

it's disappointing to see it come to that, because most of the time people get GPU-constrained and are forced to upgrade, rather than CPU.

still, I'm about |------| this close to getting a 17" MBP. only 1 laptop stands in its way.

 

Congrats to the OP, sounds like a nice machine.

I just sold my MBP (in sig) and I'm looking at picking up another 15 but I'm torn between the i5 model and the i7; don't know if the $200 more for the i7 is worth it for me.

 

would you mind sharing how much you sold it for?

 

I didnt sell anything. I exchanged my previous gen mbp for the new one.

 

$1450 CAD but it included Apple Care, a nice case and a Windows 7 Ultimate licence (I had an extra licence that I didn't need).

I'd love to hear opinions on the two 15" models, i7 2.66GHz (GPU with 512MB) vs i5 2.53GHz (256MB GPU memory); I'm really torn. I don't game on my mac, mainly used for photo/video editing work (Aperture, iMovie, Toast etc...). I'm leaning towards the i5 only because I haven't come across a really valid reason for me to pay extra and get the i7.

 

I think you answered your own question.

Do you think I could fetch $1400 for my 2.53? No applecare or Windoes though...

 

The main performance improvement from Core i7 is the use of an integrated (on-chip) memory controller. Intel previously used an off-chip memory controller which increases memory latency. Most CPUs spend a lot of time waiting for memory reads, they take a huge amount of time compared to register and cache reads. Speeding up the memory subsystem has important performance benefits, especially in memory-intensive applications.

AMD introduced this feature back in 2003 and it contributed to their leap-frogging Intel's Pentium 4 in performance. Well, Intel finally achieved parity on that feature.

I think that i7 also gives you triple memory channel compared to i5 and Core 2 Duo. Nehalem also gives you turbo boost and hyperthreading. Turbo boost allows one processor to increase frequency beyond the rated limit when other cores are idle. Hyperthreading allows you to use multiple threads to share execution resources of a core. This often improves performance. This feature was introduced in one of the Pentium 4 models but didn't work very well. Those models had three execution cores and you could wind up with cache thrashing. Core 2 processors have four execution cores providing more resources for multiple threads within a core.

And there's the benefits of 32 nm over 45 nm.