New MBP 13"

silvagti · 13 May 2020 at 14:05

MacRS4 said:
Sometimes people are just comparing i5 vs i5 without considering WHICH i5 they're comparing.

Yeah, until I started looking into buying a laptop I never realised the sheer number of various wattage CPU's Intel has on the market. The fact that they stick with the i-series nomenclature across the range is clearly very confusing. They should put some indication/benchmark representing the performance on these devices. Like how car manufacturers do for engines (bhp/torque) as simply stating the engine capacity is largely meaningless given the small turbocharged engines on the market today.

One question I wanted to ask is did you try connecting the Macbook Pro 13" to an external display and, if so, did it work without issue as I use my laptop connected to an external monitor about 2/3rds of the time.

MacRS4 · 13 May 2020 at 14:10

It's connected to my 5K LG at the minute. Makes the fans work at about 1200-ish even doing nothing. Without the screen plugged in they're on 0.

silvagti · 13 May 2020 at 14:22

MacRS4 said:
It's connected to my 5K LG at the minute. Makes the fans work at about 1200-ish even doing nothing. Without the screen plugged in they're on 0.

This may seem a daft question but is 1200-ish loud (what's max speed?) as I have a 12" Macbook which doesn't have a fan at all so it's difficult for me to judge relative fan speeds on a laptop!

How does the 13" MBP compare to a 16" MBP or a 13" Air in terms of system load & fan noise when connected to an external display? On my 12" Macbook it exhibits a minor though noticeable drop in performance when connected to my display using the Apple HDMI/USB adapter. In particular when running more intensive apps so I wondered if this happened with the newer laptops?

MacRS4 · 13 May 2020 at 15:22

No, it's not loud at all - at that level I can't hear it unless I get properly close to it. The fan noise on the 16 when connected to the LG is interesting - it's high. It averages around 4k RPM doing nothing, so it's very audible although it doesn't bother me that much tbh.

Can't say I've noticed a performance drop when plugged into the screen either? To be fair I don't normally use it on the screen - I normally have it screen shared to my iMP.

EDIT sorry missed part of your question - max speed is over 6kRPM.

silvagti · 13 May 2020 at 16:39

Cool, thanks for the info. Good to hear it's not noticeably loud when connected to an external display as that's the way I tend to use the device whilst working.

I'd read that about the 16" as there's quite a few folk complaining about the noise whilst connected to a display so I'd wondered about the other models and whether it was a common laptop issue? Most people seemed to reckon that it's because the 16" device has a discrete GPU and it automatically switches to that when running an external monitor. Hence the jump in power/heat and fan noise. Doesn't seem to be a way to disable that behaviour though unfortunately.

manic111 · 13 May 2020 at 17:42

Think I've made the decision to get the base model for now. I don't need the extra performance of the 10th Gen, much as it would be nice to have. The most taxing thing I generally do is some editing of holiday pictures and a bit of Civ 6, and that doesn't require an £1800 laptop. I also won't begrudge having to sell it on and take a bit of a loss if Apple release a 14 inch model in a year or two.

Debating whether to upgrade the RAM for £100, but I think even that's unnecessary, particularly as I'd then have to buy direct from Apple, whereas if I buy the £1299 model from John Lewis I get a 2 year warranty. I've managed for this long on a 2011 machine with 4gb RAM so it'll still be a huge upgrade!

Boring option, but hey, it saves me £500!

mjt · 13 May 2020 at 17:54

manic111 said:
Think I've made the decision to get the base model for now. I don't need the extra performance of the 10th Gen, much as it would be nice to have. The most taxing thing I generally do is some editing of holiday pictures and a bit of Civ 6, and that doesn't require an £1800 laptop. I also won't begrudge having to sell it on and take a bit of a loss if Apple release a 14 inch model in a year or two.

Debating whether to upgrade the RAM for £100, but I think even that's unnecessary, particularly as I'd then have to buy direct from Apple, whereas if I buy the £1299 model from John Lewis I get a 2 year warranty. I've managed for this long on a 2011 machine with 4gb RAM so it'll still be a huge upgrade!

Boring option, but hey, it saves me £500!

For £100 upgrade the RAM. Seriously.

manic111 · 13 May 2020 at 18:03

mjt said:
For £100 upgrade the RAM. Seriously.

I'm considering it, but I'd argue it's not £100, it's £100 plus the loss of an extra year's warranty (or £100 plus the cost of Applecare). At that point I'm better off getting the £1800 machine from John Lewis with a 2 year warranty

Edit: And the £1800 one is still so tempting!

MacRS4 · 13 May 2020 at 18:31

silvagti said:
Cool, thanks for the info. Good to hear it's not noticeably loud when connected to an external display as that's the way I tend to use the device whilst working.

I'd read that about the 16" as there's quite a few folk complaining about the noise whilst connected to a display so I'd wondered about the other models and whether it was a common laptop issue? Most people seemed to reckon that it's because the 16" device has a discrete GPU and it automatically switches to that when running an external monitor. Hence the jump in power/heat and fan noise. Doesn't seem to be a way to disable that behaviour though unfortunately.

I've justed tested this more when there's no noise about - and the fans are on constantly when plugged in. Left to idle they're about 1250/1350, and when doing stuff they're 4k+. Certainly audible anyway.

Would it be annoying....? Depends really. I wouldn't find it annoying tbh - I didn't earlier - but then my office has a fair amount of machine noise in it anyway.

Video will be up in an hour os so about this.

mjt · 13 May 2020 at 19:19

manic111 said:
I'm considering it, but I'd argue it's not £100, it's £100 plus the loss of an extra year's warranty (or £100 plus the cost of Applecare). At that point I'm better off getting the £1800 machine from John Lewis with a 2 year warranty

Edit: And the £1800 one is still so tempting!

Unless you get both the RAM upgrade & the warranty. The extended Apple Care is hideously expensive though

silvagti · 13 May 2020 at 19:20

MacRS4 said:
I've justed tested this more when there's no noise about - and the fans are on constantly when plugged in. Left to idle they're about 1250/1350, and when doing stuff they're 4k+. Certainly audible anyway.

I wonder if this is a MacOS thing or if it happens on every Windows laptop? I'm assuming it probably will as I guess it has to push more power through the CPU to drive the display even if it's an integrated GPU?

If you start Windows in bootcamp in the Mac does it do the same thing? Maybe this is an indication that I shouldn't be frequently using a laptop connected to an external monitor!

MacRS4 · 13 May 2020 at 19:59

Certainly does on the 16 - but then it goes a bit nuts anyway under BootCamp on the 16. Only uses the better GPU so it gets hot, and battery life is ruined.

manic111 · 13 May 2020 at 20:00

mjt said:
Unless you get both the RAM upgrade & the warranty. The extended Apple Care is hideously expensive though

It's only John Lewis that does the free 2 year warranty, and sadly I can't upgrade the RAM with them.

b0rn2sk8 · 13 May 2020 at 20:11

Consumer rights > ‘free’ warranty which is worse than your consumer rights.

silvagti · 13 May 2020 at 20:38

If you want to save some money try and find a student or someone you know who works in education and can claim the educational discount (~10%) on your behalf!

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/campaigns/education-pricing

silvagti · 13 May 2020 at 20:55

MacRS4 said:
Certainly does on the 16 - but then it goes a bit nuts anyway under BootCamp on the 16. Only uses the better GPU so it gets hot, and battery life is ruined.

Actually, sorry I seem to be full of questions!, have you tried running boot camp on the 13" Pro sine you've had it?

I've heard boot camp can bit a bit weird especially on new Mac's where Apple/MS haven't had a chance to tweak the drivers!

GMac11 · 13 May 2020 at 20:55

I had my brother lined up for his discount (it may still be required) however I just went ahead and ordered a 16 from the refurb store. It was available for next day delivery so I'll have it tomorrow. I am currently on 2017 13" base model so I know it'll be a step up. I honestly don't think I need that much horsepower and it may be a little too large for my liking but since the both the base (+8gb RAM) and the higher tier 10th gen 2020 13" models seem to be 1-2 weeks for delivery I figured I may as well try a 16 over the weekend and if it's not for me then I'll return it.

mjt · 13 May 2020 at 21:01

EU law is 2 years anyway, so what does buying from John Lewis that buying from Apple doesn't? AppleCare extends to 3 years.
Unless I'm missing something. Yes, the UK has left the EU (GL with that btw!), but laws still apply until next year?

MacRS4 · 13 May 2020 at 21:10

silvagti said:
Actually, sorry I seem to be full of questions!, have you tried running boot camp on the 13" Pro sine you've had it?

I've heard boot camp can bit a bit weird especially on new Mac's where Apple/MS haven't had a chance to tweak the drivers!

Ask me again tomorrow

MacRS4 · 13 May 2020 at 21:11

silvagti said:
If you want to save some money try and find a student or someone you know who works in education and can claim the educational discount (~10%) on your behalf!

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/campaigns/education-pricing

Now, I am an actual student. Genuinely. Probably should say this quietly....if I buy stuff from the education store using my work account I get both discounts.