Using next MBP primarily as a Windows machine?

As the next MBP will likely have USB c + tb3 and a quad core CPU, I'm thinking it would be great hardware to use with my razer core- if it could ever run Windows with proper device support.

I haven't used a Mac since OSX came out, and I am not informed on the situation with running Windows on them currently, but I do know that macbooks have a long history of being compatible with eGPUs.

Welcome any informed conjecture regarding this.

 

Macs don't have proper cooling or driver support to make sense as Windows only and/or gaming machines.


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If you want to primarily run Windows get a Windows system. If you want to primarily run OS X get a Mac.

Running OS X in conjunction with Windows virtualized works very well, bootcamp on the other hand lacks on the drivers side which impacts overall performance.

 

Agreed with the above. You buy a Mac because of OSX. Replacing that with another OS is a bit silly.

 

I'm not sure if this guy is serious or not.

 

He is smiling, so I'd say he's not that serious.

 

The meme flew over your head .

 

What is a "meme"?

 

I have never heard of Macbooks being compatible with external GPUs.

 

https://www.google.co.th/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=macbook+egpu&tbm=vid

Been done loads of times- they used to be one of the few computers you could do it reliably on.

 

I learn something new every day.

 

that's very cool!

 

Alright, looks like I may be on my own about this. If I decide to give the next MacBook a try after 15 years away from apple, I'll let you know

 

It's your money. Throw it away as you see fit.


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What else is it for?

 

^ Absolutely, it's called research!

 

I don't know anything about eGPUs but running Windows natively via Bootcamp on a Macbook is fine. I used to have an iMac (late 2009) and I installed Windows 7 on it side by side with MacOS. The reason being that I used only Windows PCs up to that point and wanted to gradually migrate to MacOS after trying it out. It worked perfectly with the provided drivers, don't remember ever getting any crashes or BSODs, so I stuck with using Windows.

Quite embarassing for other manaufacturers actually as Apple can make better Windows machines than them!

MacOS is one of the main reasons to buy Apple H/W but not necessarily the only reason. Fact is their H/W is much better quality than most of the other stuff out there even if it is more expensive. If you care about build quality and are happy to pay more for that extra bit of polish and style then why not use it with another OS.

I'm seriously considering buying a Macbook 2016 and installing Windows 10 on it. It's expensive but has the specs I want. 12" high-quality display, very light and compact, 8GB RAM, and brilliant battery life even with Windows (from what I have read). I can't find a similar Windows laptop. Samsung TabPro S comes close but Samung decided nobody needs more than 4GB RAM.

 

I never noticed any crashes - it seemed solid when I ran native windows on Apple hardware. What I did loath were the stupid touchpad drivers that made it painful to use and thermal drivers that were simply rubbish. I'm not a fanboy for Apple but OS X just works better on their hardware than Windows. The ability to make bootable backups while doing other work and restoring from them (CCC and SuperDuper) makes me pick OS X over Windows on Apple hardware. I run Windows through virtual machines on my Macs and apart from gaming there's nothing to complain about - in fact, I usually have one VM open, doing various Windows things. It has issues but I'd consider the XPS if I wanted a similar system with Windows - or possibly a Razer...

 

Well, compared to other consumer class laptops the MBP is pretty decent in build quality. Though have you ever used and compared against a business class laptop? I think you'd be pleasantly surprised by those things.

 

I don't have much say in H/W purchases in my company. They usually stick to Dell and Lenovo. I personally have used a Dell Latitude E-something (2015 13" model) and build quality was good but battery life was pretty awful for a 13" 1080p laptop, would only get about 3-4 hours web browsing, using MS Office, and occasional remote desktop. Although that was Core i5 and 16GB RAM, and who knows how much crap was installed by my corporate IT dep.

For personal use, that includes some work when required, I just find a Macbook better balanced in all areas (except connectivity) compared to consumer laptops by other brands. Granted, I haven't tried every other laptop though. I was interested in the Samsung Notebook 9 for a while but the reviews I have read say average to poor battery life.

Looking into the Dell XPS 13...

 

I have only ever used Windows on iMac previously so these didn't apply. But this concerns me now as I am considering the Macbook 2016 with W10. I have heard the trackpad s/w is pretty basic but what are these thermal issues you speak of?

From what I have read, running Windows 10 will get around 0.5-1.5 hours less than OS X which is acceptable considering the already great battery life and still compares favourably with other Windows laptops in the same class.

 

Eh, it's possible you guys were given laptops with 3- or 4-cell batteries. My personal experiences have been pretty good battery-wise, with my current laptop (Elite book 820 G2) getting around 6-9 hours depending on activities and brightness.

 

Tbh, try the touchpad gestures in OS X and then with Windows - basic just doesn't cover it. I tried Windows on a few Apple Macbooks and they were all ran noticeably hotter when running Windows. In general useage I found this just mildly annoying but doing heavy CPU and GPU tasks was, frankly, unpleasant. Repasted a couple of them with CLU (Properly done) and they were still averaging hotter than I was happy with. There are third-party fan control apps that can help with this, if you're dead set on running Windows natively. It definitely works through Bootcamp but I found that running OS X as the host and Windows in a VM worked much better for me.

 

I have a question, which may have something to do with the fact I'm using Windows on my MBP. (It may not have to do with that, in which case I'm in the wrong thread, but let me ask it and see what replies I get.)

The 2015 MBP has a screen resolution of 2880 by something or other, while my home 24" monitor, which I want to use when I'm at home, is 1920x1200. These numbers are the same aspect ratio (if I computed it right), but as they are different numbers, it is not easy to switch between doing work on the MBP's own screen (say, while traveling) and the home monitor (which I connect via HDMI). Windows that look fine in one context will be too big or small in the other. Font sizes need to be changed.

So, I tried to address this by changing the MBP's screen to 1920x1200. This is, of course, not the optimal resolution for it, but it looks okay. Again, this is in Windows. (I do not know if the OS X drivers handle this differently.)

Now, switching between the two screens works pretty well, not requiring many adjustments... but, they still look quite different! For example, the emacs editor, using the same font settings, displays fewer lines on the MBP screen. That is actually good, because it means the font is a little larger as measured in proportion to the screen resolution, which is exactly what you want. (The appropriate size for legibility on both screens.) But I wish I understand why they are different.

emacs is not necessarily a very native or idiomatic Windows program. It originated in the Unix world. Perhaps it is doing something funny.

But I also get some weird behavior with Chrome. If I work with my home monitor via HDMI, then shut down the laptop, then start it up later on its own screen, then launch Chrome again, then I expect Chrome's window to have the same dimensions (as measured in pixels). But instead it is larger relative to the screen.

Mike

 

It has to do with windows. OS X is far better at scaling resolutions than Windows is

 

Another question about MacBooks and windows. I own a Windows-style mechanical keyboard which I am using with the MBP when at home. Eventually I want to switch completely to OS X. Can I remap my Windows keyboard so it has a similar layout to a Mac keyboard, in the operating system?

I actually don't know what a Mac full-sized keyboard looks like, but I assume that the modifiers on the left go Control, Option, Command from left to right. A windows keyboard is Control, Command, Option. So I guess the left Command/Option have to be switched.

I don't know about the right side, but I suspect it's something similar.

EDIT: I googled this and found many similar requests so I will study those. I did notice that a lot of people want to remap keyboards not to make them a native layout on each OS, but to put Ctrl and Command on the same key so that shortcuts don't have to be relearned when switching OS's. That won't be a good idea for me... number one, I have programs with many complicated keyboard shortcuts and there's no simple equivalency "Ctrl = Command," number two I plan to switch to OS X permanently once I can get all my software running.

 

Never mind, I just Googled this and found numerous links. Looks like it's a common need.

 

As an Microsoft .NET programmer for the last 10 years I've really tried to find better "real PC alternatives" than MBPs. I've probably tried out at least 20 different laptops...and have always gone with the MBP.


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