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Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

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Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#681
post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The performance will only be better for the first 30 or so seconds anyway before the cpu has to start thermal throttling.

Do you have benchmarks that show anything like this? Or are you referring to the firmware bug that was fixed shortly after release, last year?

Everything thermal throttles, that's what turbo is.

The issue last year was because Apple was applying the thermal throttling in such a way as to make the average performance of the CPU significantly lower than it needed to be by throttling too much, too quickly then recovering to too high of a clock speed too quickly thus ping-ponging between a very fast/high/hot state and a very low/cool state. In many cases the CPU would drop down below 600mhz for me for periods of time.

A proper setup will have a graph with a brief (~30s) burst to turbo max followed by a thermal throttle slightly below what the system can sustain followed by a recovery to the max sustained clock speed at just below the thermal limit.

e.g. 4.2ghz for 30s to 2.2ghz recovering to 2.6ghz sustained.

The exact profile is highly workload dependent but a properly designed system invariably follows that general profile.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#682
post #14

These used to excite me because I've desperately needed 32gb and faster procs and used to upgrade every 2-3 years but now I just yawn at MBP releases. I'm so unexcited by everything about this form factor other than the fact that it has OSX. I'm guessing I'll be on my 2016 until I finally bite the bullet and quit using OSX if they don't make a more compelling package to spend my $3k on in the next few years. I don't…

Have you considered just getting a workstation and doing everything on it via ssh?

Guess it depends on what kind of stuff you do. I adopted that workflow years ago out of necessity (need to routinely do some heavy lifting) and will never go back.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#683
After the keyboard on my 2017 MBP started to fail, I “upgraded” to a 2018 model because I couldn’t afford to be without a machine for a week or longer. Now the keyboard on this supposedly improved model is also starting to go.

For many years I was a very happy Apple customer and even converted several family members to MacBooks. But now that Apple has shown just how little regard they have for their pro customers by trying to sell us this broken keyboard for the fourth time I’m getting off the bus for good. My next laptop will not be a Mac. Thank god I stopped doing iOS development.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#684
post #522
post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replace the battery. I did it last year on my 2012 rMBpro after it have been complaining about servicing the battery for about a year, and while it wasn't a walk in the park, it all worked out great. Tip: there are 2 ways to replace the battery. One is by following the official iFixit etc instructions where you remove absolutely everything before you peel off the battery with acetone. The other is by immediately peel…

Or just take it to the Apple Store and pay them $199 to repair the battery which also gets you an entirely new top case and keyboard (old, original stock)

Yeah in my experience that 199$ price doesn’t happen in real life, as they tell you they need to replace the whole top case. Never understood why they publicly list the 199$ battery change price. Am I missing something?

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#685
post #125

What a clusterF is modern Mac hardware: - Keyboards with much worse action that are more prone to failure (from dust no less) and require replacing the motherboard to fix... all for a Touchbar no one wants and 0.5mm cut in thickness. - Loss (over the years) of the ability to upgrade the CPU, SSD or memory; - Display failures due to broken ribbon cables; - The USB-C clusterF; and - Loss of MagSafe (this one still hurt…

> Loss of MagSafe (this one still hurts). I will NEVER forgive them for this. Jobs was RIGHT when he said this was a major innovation over everyone else. Now Apple is either saying he was wrong or THEY are wrong. They're not BOTH right. My 2015 is the last MBP I will ever buy and it's aging fast... I think it's hackingtosh from here on out. I primarily use Ubuntu but I have to have a Mac as our app runs cross platfor…

Have you tried one of the numerous solutions out there?

Unlike MagSafe, the higher-end ones aren't limited to just power.

https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/11/thundermag-magsafe-thund...

There are a lot of things to complain about with the newer MacBook Pros (like not offering a hardware function row without hobbling the machine). I think the MagSafe removal is one of the least strong of them.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#686
post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% agree. I'm typing this on a 2015 Macbook Pro, and holding on for dear life, even as it has started alerting me about servicing the battery. It's a great machine. I tried using the touchbar on my son's newer MBP. It's awful, and not meant for serious use. His laptop has been replaced once already due to keyboard issue, and starting to show defects again.

weird I'm on an early 2013 MBP (original battery) at 81% health (226 cycles)

You keep it plugged in all the time? Do you feel a noticeable drop in battery life? When mine reached those 80% health I felt like it had lost half its battery life or more...

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#687
My MacBook Air keyboard is a PITA with repeating and spurious keys. The software is buggier ever week. Apps crash, OS X freezes. And I have similar problems with my other Apple devices.

Problem is, it’s still far superior for anyone who needs to do technical and general office work. Tried Linux, doesn’t cut it for the latter. And the industrial design etc is still much better.

So Apple is on this downward trend in quality, and it worries me because there’s no alternative. Are we just going to see productivity drop across the board as Apple gradually regresses back to the mean?

We need more Apple-like companies designing great products.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#688

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't that kind of the point of the "Pro" line? I mean, if you just wanted a kinda cool laptop, you'd buy a MacBook or MacBook Air. It's now the MacBook Prosumer, and there is no pro option. Hacker News has been whinging about this Apple dilemma for years. I'm sorry to say that I just don't think there will ever be the golden age of MacBooks again. The "Pro" ideas coming from Cupertino are gimmicky at best for devel…

That's exactly it. That on top of the bling factor. Nobody buys MacBooks, all I see are MacBook Pros. Because of this Apple had to start catering the to consumers who care more about thinness and bling rather than utility. The pro device became a device for everyone.

I get why they'd like like to sell a pro device to more people. That's fine. It marketing world pro/professional seems to often equate to "better". If someone wants to spend an extra thousand to load the news a bit faster, sure. Apple will and should happily take their money, and they can repurpose product names in service of this all day.

I would like to imagine there's space in the market for a "pro" model that would feel markedly worse for the average consumer, and shouldn't be mistakable in its name for something that would serve them better.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#689
post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently was forced to upgrade by 2015 laptop at work because the battery life was finally short enough that I couldn't stand it. I hate dongles. The 2015 Macbook will stand as their last best laptop. Nothing about the 2018 laptop is better, it's only worse. I don't understand why they don't see this. There should really be a huge multi-billion dollar class action lawsuit for their keyboards and fixability to wake…

100% agree. I'm typing this on a 2015 Macbook Pro, and holding on for dear life, even as it has started alerting me about servicing the battery. It's a great machine. I tried using the touchbar on my son's newer MBP. It's awful, and not meant for serious use. His laptop has been replaced once already due to keyboard issue, and starting to show defects again.

Holding on to my 2015 MBPro for dear life as well.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#690
post #5

https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/21/apple-announces-new-macboo... "Today, however, [Apple] told me that they’re taking three explicit steps to help with the keyboard situation. 1. The MacBook Pro keyboard mechanism has had a materials change in the mechanism. [...]"

This is the real announcement, to be honest. 8 cores is a convenient smokescreen, and they clearly don't want to talk about how borked their product is at WWDC so they are dropping the keyboard update with this news like it's a detail when it's actually the real story. These shitty keyboards cast a shadow over the whole product line. If they didn't fix it the third time around, it's time to abandon the damn mechanism…

Ehh, fixing the keyboards (assuming its fixed--they've said the same thing 2 or 3 times now) and hopefully the monitor cable only addresses the literally broken things about the new laptops and ignores the other things people prefer the 2015 for. Although multi-core is nice to see, it still maxes out at 32G--without an option to upgrade later, either.

It still looks to have the same camera I had in my 2009 MBP...this can't be a cost/space/engineering thing since iPhones exist. I don't care if it's higher res. Make it higher quality and less noisy. I genuinely miss charging and battery LEDs they removed from the case (and magsafe). I've plugged in my laptop overnight only to find it never charged once or twice. I see the touchbar causing more problems than it solves.

I'm actually disappointed. I was hoping whatever next Macbook Pro they released would be a significant update or offer more compelling things.

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