First Mac

lawz

lawz

lawz

Associate
Joined
3 Dec 2005
Posts
458
Hey guys

It was my 21st on Thursday and I've got some money to spend, and ive had my eye on the 15" MBP refresh

Im currently at uni doing computer games design, using primarily 3DS Max, Z brush etc, which I believe are only available on Windows (for the moment anywho) so would be running it on bootcamp when I had some work to do.

I was hoping someone could give some advice on which MBP (if any) I should go for and what options? I was having a look in the apple store the other day, and was asking about upgrading the ram/harddrive (to an SSD) myself. Apparantly it won't affect the warranty, but obviously Apple won't cover the new harddrive that I install.

Not had a Mac before, although a lot of my friends do (Film and music students :P ) and they do just work nicely.

My main computer is a custom desktop, but I love 200 miles away from home, so a laptop would be incredibly useful for when I go home/go into uni/go round friends etc.

What is the performance of the graphics in games btw on the 15" MBP?

Sorry for all the questions! Hoping someone can help :)

Lawz
 
I only saw one question in there lol. So commenting on something else: don't upgrade through the apple store, I'm amazed they can charge that much for upgrades.
 
Which MPB are you looking at the high - end one or the low-end, the difference in graphics cards I've heard is pretty substantial...
 
Just out of curiosity, I've got a macbook and a windows desktop, I was looking at replacing both with a new 15" macbook pro. How would the high end macbook pro perform graphically compared to a ATI 4890?
 
Disco Boy said:
He said 15 inch, it's the 13 inch which has the lower powered graphics.
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*edit* Its between the 6490M for the lower spec 15" and the 6750M for the higher spec 15". Both have their good and bad points, but im wondering if anyone has anymore info on them as they both seem pretty new and can't find any benchmarks for them, only spec info.

I do realise they feature the new sandybridge i7s, but the price is still eye watering for the 15" model, but id be wanting the graphics of the 15" so im forced out there :P

Theres three options for the screens as well. Standard, Hi-Res Glossy Widescreen Display or Hi-Res Antiglare Widescreen Display. Which one is generally considered better or would it be an idea to look instore and see which I prefer myself?

Theres also an option for 128gb SSD for an extra £80. This would be cheaper than buying one myself and installing it, but does anyone know how the specs of it stand up? Harddrive space wouldnt be an issue, Ive got 2.5tb of storage on my desktop and can transfer films/tv shows over as and when I need them for going away.

For the ram, I have a feeling 4gb would be plenty. Would the price for me buying the ram at a later date and installing it myself be less than the cost of having it installed from the start? (£160)

Final Q on Applecare, is it worth it? Does it cover accidental damage or would I be better off buying regular insurance which covers accidental damage?

Cheers, Lawz
 
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The SSD from Apple won't be anything special, but it will be an SSD at the end of the day. For £80 I might be tempted to go for it and then just wait for the 3rd party SSDs to drop in price. In 18 months time you'll get a lot more for your money.

RAM, on the other hand, I wouldn't get from Apple. It's just too expensive.
 
I don't think a 128GB ssd of storage is enough, I need at least 500gb of space but thats just me, I need it for recording and editing which is quite storage intensive...

I did mean the difference between the two specs of 15" MBPs, I think there is quite a large difference between the graphics capabilities.
 
I took the plunge! :D

Ordered the high end 15" with 500 gb 7200rpm HDD and the Hi-res glossy screen. £1700 all in with the apple care as well.

Also ordered this case after someone posted in the mac hardware pics thread.

Should be here in a weeks time :)
 
lawz said:
I took the plunge! :D

Ordered the high end 15" with 500 gb 7200rpm HDD and the Hi-res glossy screen. £1700 all in with the apple care as well.

Also ordered this case after someone posted in the mac hardware pics thread.

Should be here in a weeks time :)
Click to expand...

Thats pretty much the spec I have but I have 8GB RAM also, will also be getting a Vertex 3 in the future.

I installed UDK yesterday and did a few tests and it works really well, so you should be good for 3ds Max and zBrush.

In games this thing flies, I'm really quite amazed how how powerful it is, and it's even more amazing when you realize the main actual computer bit is only a small corner of the overall machine.
 
Tilluss said:
Thats pretty much the spec I have but I have 8GB RAM also, will also be getting a Vertex 3 in the future.

I installed UDK yesterday and did a few tests and it works really well, so you should be good for 3ds Max and zBrush.

In games this thing flies, I'm really quite amazed how how powerful it is, and it's even more amazing when you realize the main actual computer bit is only a small corner of the overall machine.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input, is that on mac or Windows bootcamp? I reckon it'll be good for the next 3 years at least for my uni work and beyond :)
 
lawz said:
Thanks for the input, is that on mac or Windows bootcamp? I reckon it'll be good for the next 3 years at least for my uni work and beyond :)
Click to expand...

It was in bootcamp but im planning on testing some VMs to see how it runs in there also. I'll post back once i know the results :)
 
lawz said:
Hey guys

It was my 21st on Thursday and I've got some money to spend, and ive had my eye on the 15" MBP refresh

Im currently at uni doing computer games design, using primarily 3DS Max, Z brush etc, which I believe are only available on Windows (for the moment anywho) so would be running it on bootcamp when I had some work to do.

I was hoping someone could give some advice on which MBP (if any) I should go for and what options? I was having a look in the apple store the other day, and was asking about upgrading the ram/harddrive (to an SSD) myself. Apparantly it won't affect the warranty, but obviously Apple won't cover the new harddrive that I install.

Not had a Mac before, although a lot of my friends do (Film and music students :P ) and they do just work nicely.

My main computer is a custom desktop, but I love 200 miles away from home, so a laptop would be incredibly useful for when I go home/go into uni/go round friends etc.

What is the performance of the graphics in games btw on the 15" MBP?

Sorry for all the questions! Hoping someone can help :)

Lawz
Click to expand...


Performance of games is terrible on OS X compared to Windows, pretty much everything runs considerably worse.

Is the hardware good enough though? Certainly, just be prepared to use boot camp for more demanding titles where you need the extra FPS. Civ V and StarCraft II are both utterly awful on OS X compared to Windows for example.

Sad thing is it's not game specific, it's because of *****y OpenGL or whatever Apple use, so basically if you're getting some slowdown on OS X just switch to Windows and you'll probably get almost double the framerate, this happens in StarCraft II for me. T________T
 
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