mbpr vs mba?

I currently own a late 2013 mbpr(specs in sig) and I plan on upgrading when broadwell comes out later(don't judge please). What I was wondering how much of a performance difference the current mba and the mbpr have and the broadwell models will have. I am a power user, I run photoshop/Lightroom/premiere pro/after effects/blender/ etc. My friend owns a mba 13 inch and I hear a 12 inch model is coming out in wwdc. I like as small as possible, but I do not like sacrificing power. Could I know how much performance is sacrificed? Thank you for your help.

I know the 12 inch will only have haswell, and that is way too soon for me to make another purchase, that is just the optimal size for me if it has over 220 ppi.

Depending on how much of a performance increase it is, I may even wait till late 2015.

 

Well, if you're going to stay in the OSX world and do those sort of things (personally, I'd go for a workstation-class laptop instead), then you really should only be considering the rMBP (quad-core, if possible). The MBA only carries ULV processors, which will be underpowered for any non-trivial work that will be done on those Adobe products. The display on the rMBP would be a huge improvement over the MBA as well.

That said, the performance difference between the newer generations of Intel CPUs are trivial at best (~5% average) thanks to a lack of competiton, so personally I wouldn't even bother upgrading unless you're seriously being held back by your current laptop.

 

well I also game on my desktops and my laptops. Will there be a big improvement between the broadwell mbpr and haswell mbpr in terms of gpu? I play games like battlefield 4, cod ghosts etc and my mbpr is seriously underpowered (although I could use my razer for that) . Also, rendering in after affects takes a LONG time.

thanks for your help.

 

Well, the After Affects rendering being slow is a consequence of running it on a GeForce GPU; for professional-like tasks such as that, you really should be running on a Quadro or FirePro, which doesn't exist on Apple's laptop line. And the rMBP isn't exactly a proper gaming machine (Well, neither is the Razer to be honest; both have inadequate cooling).

As for as the iGPU differences between the two, it likely won't be all that much of a difference. A bit bigger of a percentage than with the CPU performance itself, though then again if you're going to have a dGPU in the laptop, the iGPU performance is mostly a moot point regardless of generation.

 

I probably will switch to a 15" model if it has a 850 or 860m, a igpu is just too slow for rendering. Do you think they will switch to ulv parts for the 15 or 13" mbpr anytime soon?

yeah, I was rendering on a igpu, thats why it was REALLY slow. I think I could deal with it on a geforce gpu.

 

The problem with the GeFirce 6xx and newer us that their CUDA/OpenGL/OpenCL performance have been so horribly handicapped by nVidia that it really isn't much better than an iGPU in the rendering front.

 

oh, that really sucks. thanks for your help.

 

If you want something like a rMBP that has better rendering chops, look at the Dell Precision M3800. It has an ultra high resolution screen and a Quadro GPU.


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thanks. I will look into it.

 

I agree to a degree, however you can get a better deal on the XPS 9530, because it's widely available on the Dell Outlet.... Granted they the product like $hit (saran plastic wrap on a piece of cardboard, in a box ) but I was able to get a top spec'ed one for $1400. I believe if you have a primary computer and just want an extension go with a MBA, while if you want a desktop replacement go with a Macbook Pro Retina. It's really just based on preferences and what you are trying to accomplish.

 

Well, if you are carrying the laptop a lot and not indulged by the retina display, get the MBA, for me, I'll sacrifice the weight for better screen.

 

MBa Pros: Price, portability

MBPr Pros: Power, Expandability

 

Umm, no. Most, if not all, the parts inside the rMBP are soldered in place, like the MBA. And it's not like the rMBP is a heavy tank either; both are pretty damn portable.

 

I meant port expandability...And the SSDs are upgradable, but they aren't cheap...

The rMBP's may be light but the MBA's are lighter...

 

Well, a paper notebook is lighter still. My point is, neither of them are that heavy and the weight difference between the two is very trivial (unless you have a crippling back injury, I suppose).

 

It all comes down to why you need a computer...

Heavy work, rMBP...

Light work, MBA...

 

sorry guys but since the OP mentioned a lot of software I have been running for ever, And the OP has noticed that LR, renders a bit slow I will actually fuel the fire a lot here

HEAVY work - Proper workstations ( Dell M3800, M4800, HP Zbook series, HP Elitebook W series, Lenovo W540 or a few Clevo and MSI units with Quadro k2000m GPU )

Medium/high work - Gaming units with 32GB RAM, big CPU and a GCN based Radeon Card, or 500 series Gforce.

medium - consumer models with 16GB and Nvidia 700/800 series or Intel Iris IGP ( including the rMBP with dGPU )

light - consumer models with no dGPU including the base rMBP

very basic - anything with an ULV / UL CPU and less than 16 GB

Adobe has also implied heavily that the last two applications in their suite will LOSE CUDA support entirely this fall ( Lightroom and Premier Pro ) until then they support both OpenCL and CUDA, therefore ending any and all CUDA acceleration in any Adobe product.

and last thing to annoy everyone especially if you are in a production environment.... bootcamp your rMBP with Windows 7 or 8 and swipe a copy of the windows version of CS6 to work with. CS5 was the end of it working equally on both OS's.

agreed. in adobe CS6 the K1100m is even faster than the 880m 90% of the time

no quadro GPU to party with, where the m3800 manages to kill many of the consumer laptops.

But in a consumer 13" size and maximum power that seems to be the Clevo W230SS. We have an editor over at Discovery Channel who got one to play with and is doing a review over at creativecow.com soon.
http://web.eurocom.com/ec/ec_model_config1(1,249,0)x