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[Fuchsdh]

Is the new baseline model less powerful than the 2015 model?

2.0GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor
256GB PCIe-based SSD1
Intel Iris Graphics 540

vs

2.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor
128GB PCIe-based SSD1
Intel Iris Graphics 6100


Is the processor and graphics significant? I mean, 540 is much lower than 6100 and how big is 0.7 GHz?

Ignore the numbers, because they don't mean anything. Really.

In practical terms, the Iris 540 is better than the Iris 6100 (which it replaces, although confusingly it has a lower numbering scheme), though not by much in terms of performance in something like games—its main benefit is supporting higher-resolution external displays.

The base clock speeds are the low point, they turbo-boost under normal circumstances to much higher. With that said, the new i5 in the entry MacBook Pro is a MacBook Air-like 15W part, not a 28W part, so it'll probably perform longer without throttling.

If your key performance need is CPU-bound, then the older model will probably be faster. For every other use case, it'll depend (because you're getting the slightly faster graphics, you have faster memory in the new models, faster flash storage, et al.)

 

[TimeEffect]

Ignore the numbers, because they don't mean anything. Really.

In practical terms, the Iris 540 is better than the Iris 6100 (which it replaces, although confusingly it has a lower numbering scheme), though not by much in terms of performance in something like games—its main benefit is supporting higher-resolution external displays.

The base clock speeds are the low point, they turbo-boost under normal circumstances to much higher. With that said, the new i5 in the entry MacBook Pro is a MacBook Air-like 15W part, not a 28W part, so it'll probably perform longer without throttling.

If your key performance need is CPU-bound, then the older model will probably be faster. For every other use case, it'll depend (because you're getting the slightly faster graphics, you have faster memory in the new models, faster flash storage, et al.)

I think Im happy with the 2015 model and dont intend to upgrade the RAM or the HDD. I suspect 8 GB RAM will work just fine 5 years from now. My main concern will always be the OS which may eat more RAM or space.

For example, I can download Sierra for my 2010 model but Im reading thats a bad idea since it is much weaker spec wise (4 GB RAM).




-----


One thing annoying me--- how do I speed up the right clicking? When I right click, it takes a good second for the menu bar to pop up. It was never that way on my old model but I can't find the setting to fix it

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

I'm really surprised we haven't seen more gaming gameplay on Youtube, yet.

I saw on Reddit and MR that people were surprisingly getting MORE performance out of the 460 than expected - but I'm struggling to find real, honest benchmarks or gameplay.

If I can maintain 60+ fps - no drops below that - in Overwatch in EPIC settings at 1080p, that would be more than good enough for me; and would make me reconsider buying the new MBP.

I was going to get a Razer Blade with a 1060, which handles the game at 100+ fps. Which is great - and yeah, it also plays games like BF1 and whatnot - but if 99% of my gaming on the thing is gonna be Overwatch and Dark Souls, I think I could be content with the MBP.

 

[The Real Abed]

I'm really surprised we haven't seen more gaming gameplay on Youtube, yet.

I saw on Reddit and MR that people were surprisingly getting MORE performance out of the 460 than expected - but I'm struggling to find real, honest benchmarks or gameplay.

If I can maintain 60+ fps - no drops below that - in Overwatch in EPIC settings at 1080p, that would be more than good enough for me; and would make me reconsider buying the new MBP.

I was going to get a Razer Blade with a 1060, which handles the game at 100+ fps. Which is great - and yeah, it also plays games like BF1 and whatnot - but if 99% of my gaming on the thing is gonna be Overwatch and Dark Souls, I think I could be content with the MBP.

EverythingApplePro did two whole videos on gaming on the new MBP. I haven't watched them yet so I don't know the outcome.

 

[BondFancy]

How's battery life for late 2016 15" users? Been reading some people get the advertised 9-10 hours and some get 2-4 hours for light workloads.

 

[Returners]

Question, why are there only HDMI 1.4b spec-ed HDMI to USB-C cables?

I'm looking at a lot of adapters that do the 2.0 but don't really want to deal with dongles.

 

[The Real Abed]

I have a question about SSD performance.

My dad still has my 2010 MacBook Pro which I installed a SSD in that year. It's a Kensington SSD from 2010. 120GB. At the time it made a huge difference in speed from the HDD and has served him well. But lately the machine feels slow again. I tested the disk speed with BlackMagic Disk Speed Test and it is giving me really low HDD-like numbers.

Now, the disk is pretty full, but we're working on cleaning it off. My question is, if I were to reformat it completely and reinstall and restore everything to it after freeing up space, would that fix the drive? I have a feeling the speed it's giving now is not what it was when it was new. I thought I'd heard you could fix SSD with a reformat but wanted confirmation before I attempt it.

I mean it is a 6 year old SSD on a 6 year old computer. Other than the speed he has no other problems. (I even removed MacKeeper without issue. He'll never do that again! Fortunately he only installed it and never set it up so it didn't have its claws dug in far enough yet.) I just want to get it to last as long as it can since he won't be able to replace it with another Mac for a while at least. (Especially not at the current new machine prices, dammit Apple.)

 

[Fuchsdh]

I have a question about SSD performance.

My dad still has my 2010 MacBook Pro which I installed a SSD in that year. It's a Kensington SSD from 2010. 120GB. At the time it made a huge difference in speed from the HDD and has served him well. But lately the machine feels slow again. I tested the disk speed with BlackMagic Disk Speed Test and it is giving me really low HDD-like numbers.

Now, the disk is pretty full, but we're working on cleaning it off. My question is, if I were to reformat it completely and reinstall and restore everything to it after freeing up space, would that fix the drive? I have a feeling the speed it's giving now is not what it was when it was new. I thought I'd heard you could fix SSD with a reformat but wanted confirmation before I attempt it.

I mean it is a 6 year old SSD on a 6 year old computer. Other than the speed he has no other problems. (I even removed MacKeeper without issue. He'll never do that again! Fortunately he only installed it and never set it up so it didn't have its claws dug in far enough yet.) I just want to get it to last as long as it can since he won't be able to replace it with another Mac for a while at least. (Especially not at the current new machine prices, dammit Apple.)

It depends on the health of the drive. SSDs can only write information to the same cells so many times before that memory block is worthless. With an older SSD, it's possible both that the SSD itself is not up to the task, or that it's taken so many writes that performance has dropped as it struggles to write data across different sectors because of those bad cells.

Like reformatting a platter drive, reformatting could temporarily fix the problem (because you'd essentially be rewriting data and missing the bad sectors/dead cells) but it's not necessarily going to be a long-term fix if the drive is indeed the issue. On the other hand, you lose nothing trying it, cleaning up space on a drive can usually only help, and worst case scenario a 120GB drive with new firmware and SSD controllers will only cost you $40-60 these days.

 

[The Real Abed]

It depends on the health of the drive. SSDs can only write information to the same cells so many times before that memory block is worthless. With an older SSD, it's possible both that the SSD itself is not up to the task, or that it's taken so many writes that performance has dropped as it struggles to write data across different sectors because of those bad cells.

Like reformatting a platter drive, reformatting could temporarily fix the problem (because you'd essentially be rewriting data and missing the bad sectors/dead cells) but it's not necessarily going to be a long-term fix if the drive is indeed the issue. On the other hand, you lose nothing trying it, cleaning up space on a drive can usually only help, and worst case scenario a 120GB drive with new firmware and SSD controllers will only cost you $40-60 these days.

Yeah. I'll have to try it out. No harm really. And if we need to, he can invest in a new drive. Seeing as it's like one of the last MacBooks where you can actually REPLACE STUFF INSIDE.

If we're lucky, the computer itself will last forever even if the drive dies.

How can I check the health of the drive? He doesn't use it so much but who knows how much has been written and read over the past 6 years.

 

[Deku Tree]

I thought that even a 2010 Mac SSD's were supposed to have like a finite number of writes but the number is so massive that the number of writes on the drive should last for 20 years or longer under normal or semi-heavy use?

On the other hand if you used Spotify a lot on your computer then I think I remember seeing an article a little while back about how Spotify would pulverize your drive with massive numbers of reads and writes even when you may not have been using it which could potentially drastically reduce the life of an SSD. I think Spotify was fixing this... not 100% sure didn't read about it carefully.

Also I vaguely remember reading somewhere that if an SSD is really super full like say 90-95% full or more or something like that then it's performance will be terrible. Never been in that boat yet.

 

[Fuchsdh]

I thought that even a 2010 Mac SSD's were supposed to have like a finite number of writes but the number is so massive that the number of writes on the drive should last for 20 years or longer under normal or semi-heavy use?

On the other hand if you used Spotify a lot on your computer then I think I remember seeing an article a little while back about how Spotify would pulverize your drive with massive numbers of reads and writes even when you may not have been using it which could potentially drastically reduce the life of an SSD. I think Spotify was fixing this... not 100% sure didn't read about it carefully.

Also I vaguely remember reading somewhere that if an SSD is really super full like say 90-95% full or more or something like that then it's performance will be terrible. Never been in that boat yet.

That's boot volumes in general. If you fill up the hard drive the computer runs out of room to copy files when moving stuff around on the drive, along with room to write stuff like your swap file or anything to disk from memory. So performance gets killed.

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

How can I check the health of the drive? He doesn't use it so much but who knows how much has been written and read over the past 6 years

Is SSD health in SMART data?

 

[The Real Abed]

Is SSD health in SMART data?

I don't know, where can I check it?

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

I don't know, where can I check it?

I use SMARTReporter.

 

[Memento_Mori15]

How's battery life for late 2016 15" users? Been reading some people get the advertised 9-10 hours and some get 2-4 hours for light workloads.

If I plug it to a monitor, 4-5 hours.
If I do some light development(Xcode), web browsing(safari), and the line app, I get 8-9.

 

[Strampas]

Hi, I've been a Mac user for some years, but I still am clueless about some stuff. I bought the new MacBook Pro, and wanted to have a clean install. So I have manually backed up some of my stuff from my old macbook to an external hard drive. So now when I was making one final version of my backup, I thought that if I just copy/pasted all the folders and files that I wanted to backup, that it would merge them with the folders already existing on my external drive, and just add all the new files. But it started to replace all the files already existing. I only got to choose the option to merge the files once, and that was when copy/pasting just one of the folders. So maybe my folder structure was different when it didn't give me that option?


Also, a few questions:
1. I didn't use the migration assistent, because I wanted a clean install on my new MacBook. But I saw that you could export your old user account. But what does my user account contain? Is it the home folder? Some system settings?

2. I read somewhere that you should export your old mail folder, otherwise all your mails would be gone. I have not exported my mail folder to my new macbook, and all my emails were re-downloaded instad. I'm only using several gmail accounts. But would it be necessary to export your old mail folder if your just using gmail? Does the mail folder contain some settings? Maybe how you organized your mail?

3. On your iCloud settings, you can check and uncheck the mail icon. What does it mean having it checked? That your iCloud mail synchronized to all your devices? That your mails are backed up?

4. When I try to edit my contact card, I'm unable to edit some of the info provided from Facebook, why is that? And in my contact list, I've multiple copies of my own contact card, but with different email adress. Why is that?

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

[merging folders]

The Finder's behaviour in this regard is useless and shitty and much worse than Windows. It isn't hard to learn to do what you want in the Terminal, otherwise you have to do it by hand.

I didn't use the migration assistent, because I wanted a clean install on my new MacBook. But I saw that you could export your old user account. But what does my user account contain? Is it the home folder? Some system settings?

D'you mean just migrating your user account in Migration Assistant? I think that will move the /Users/yourname folder to the new Mac and add you as a user.

I read somewhere that you should export your old mail folder, otherwise all your mails would be gone.

This is only for POP. For server-based email hosting (various IMAP including Gmail, and Exchange), all that is server side and will come down again when you re-add the account. If you have any client-side sorting rules than those will be lost if you don't migrate your data.

On your iCloud settings, you can check and uncheck the mail icon. What does it mean having it checked?

That you want to get that email on that Mac— the whole list is iCloud services you want to use on that Mac.

 

[Strampas]

Thank you very much!

Yes, I meant just migrating my user account. I haven't done it yet, and don't know if I will. Was just wondering what I would miss out on.

About merging folder: I guess that because I must have changed the folder structure, or something like that, so that when I did a copy/paste on the folders I wanted to backup, it started replacing all the files I've already backed up, instad of just adding the new files.

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

Why wouldn't you migrate your account? If you use your computer to do things it seems to me you might want to keep those things.

I guess that because I must have changed the folder structure, or something like that, so that when I did a copy/paste on the folders I wanted to backup, it started replacing all the files I've already backed up, instad of just adding the new files.

No, stop making excuses for it, it is a piece of shit. If you copy a folder named "foo" into a folder already containing a folder named "foo" then you are going to get a copy of the one you are copying and not a merged set (unless you hold option and click the right thing and are lucky).

 

[The Real Abed]

Just migrate your account.

 

[Particle Physicist]

Why wouldn't you migrate your account? If you use your computer to do things it seems to me you might want to keep those things.



No, stop making excuses for it, it is a piece of shit. If you copy a folder named "foo" into a folder already containing a folder named "foo" then you are going to get a copy of the one you are copying and not a merged set (unless you hold option and click the right thing and are lucky).

Maybe they changes stuff in Sierra, but I just tested it out and it gives you three options:

Is there something else I am missing?

 

[Auctopus]

Quick question that I should've known already...

When you do a Time Machine backup, does it format the External Harddrive in that way or does it use a folder that has a name (for example) like "Time Machine Backup".

What I'm saying is, if I use this External HDD as a time machine back up, can i save additional things on the drive besides the back up?

 

[jts]

Quick question that I should've known already...

When you do a Time Machine backup, does it format the External Harddrive in that way or does it use a folder that has a name (for example) like "Time Machine Backup".

What I'm saying is, if I use this External HDD as a time machine back up, can i save additional things on the drive besides the back up?

It formats it for Time Machine, and that volume can only be used for Time Machine.

The good news is that you can still achieve what you want to, you can just set a part of the HDD to be set as a Time Machine volume (partition) and you can do whatever with the remaining space.

If you’re not familiar with this lingo, basically with the Disk Utility tool you can create "virtual drives" within your external hard drive, and only one of them will be used for Time Machine.

 

[Auctopus]

It formats it for Time Machine, and that volume can only be used for Time Machine.

The good news is that you can still achieve what you want to, you can just set a part of the HDD to be set as a Time Machine volume (partition) and you can do whatever with the remaining space.

If you’re not familiar with this lingo, basically with the Disk Utility tool you can create "virtual drives" within your external hard drive, and only one of them will be used for Time Machine.

Yeah, I understand the latter. Just wanted to know if it takes up the drive, thanks!

 

[NOLA_Gaffer]

Can Boot Camp be set up with an external drive or does it have to be installed on the internal storage? I was thinking of nabbing a 128GB or so flash drive and installing Windows on it for whenever I feel like playing a game or two.

On that note, is there a specific version of Windows (10/8/7/etc) that works better with Boot Camp than others? I'll probably start shopping around once my MBP arrives.

 

[trebbble]

Has anyone tried the LG Ultrasharp 4k 21" monitor with the new Macbook Pro? I was interested in two things.

First, does it provide enough power to keep the machine charged? Does it provide enough power to ensure the CPU remains un-throttled?

Second, since you can get two of these monitors for about the same price as one of the 27" versions, are there any issues running multiple screens at the same time with regards to charging?

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

Is there something else I am missing?

I had to hold option to get the option on mine. Will let others guinea pig it for a while before I stop using ditto to do this task.

 

[Guess Who]

Has anyone tried the LG Ultrasharp 4k 21" monitor with the new Macbook Pro? I was interested in two things.

First, does it provide enough power to keep the machine charged? Does it provide enough power to ensure the CPU remains un-throttled?

Second, since you can get two of these monitors for about the same price as one of the 27" versions, are there any issues running multiple screens at the same time with regards to charging?

The 4K monitor provides 60W of power, which is enough to keep the 13" model charging under full load, but not the 15". If you hook up more than one, it only charges from one.

 

[StopMakingSense]

Can Boot Camp be set up with an external drive or does it have to be installed on the internal storage?

Yes, BUT it is pretty complicated so google for a guide.

Brand new MBP? I would install Windows 10.

 

[Strampas]

Why wouldn't you migrate your account? If you use your computer to do things it seems to me you might want to keep those things.

Yeah, maybe I should migrate my user settings at least.

 

[trebbble]

The 4K monitor provides 60W of power, which is enough to keep the 13" model charging under full load, but not the 15". If you hook up more than one, it only charges from one.

Thanks... that's what I figured, but I was hoping it wouldn't be a problem under load. I'll have to give a bit more thought as to what the right solution is for my needs.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

So as an owner of a late 2016 MBP, I'm pretty disappointed we didn't get 10.12.2 this week. I'm sure it'll be next week, though.

 

[BondFancy]

So as an owner of a late 2016 MBP, I'm pretty disappointed we didn't get 10.12.2 this week. I'm sure it'll be next week, though.

How's the performance been? Any issues?

 

[Popstar]

.

 

[RDreamer]

Any word yet on when Adobe is going to update their stuff for the touchbar? Not getting much use out of the thing, but I feel like Adobe's apps will make or break it.

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

I just picked up a used Mac Mini off Craigslist. Is there any good system test software to verify everything is in working order?

EDIT: Apple Hardware Test should do what I need?

Yeah, use the AHT or the Diagnostics test (invoked the same way, with 'D' key on boot).

If you have suspicions about memory, I'd use memtest+ overnight.

Apple's tests are likely to check this, but not a bad idea to install something like SMARTReporter to keep an eye on the SMART status of the internal disk(s). You can get the same info on the command line from smartmontools if you build it from source or use Homebrew (etc). $6 was worth it since I have 6-7 disks in this Mac.

Any word yet on when Adobe is going to update their stuff for the touchbar? Not getting much use out of the thing, but I feel like Adobe's apps will make or break it.

It's funny how often Adobe is used to demo new shit for Apple on-stage but then takes forever to actually ship anything supporting it.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

How's the performance been? Any issues?

No performance issues whatsoever.

 

[Popstar]

.

 

[Particle Physicist]

I keep getting this error and it's annoying. I don't know if it is an issue with my mac or Sierra, but my wife doesnt seem to get it.

Very often, but not always, whenever I close the lid on the mac with apps open and come back to it a while later I get an error that says something like:

Your mac was not able to log out because "application" could not shut down.

Cancel or Try again buttons are there.

If I hit either button the result is the same. The application has a dot under it but it won't open or close and I have to force close it.

This usually happens with Chrome, but it has happened with Excel before as well. Both are the latests versions.

 

[The Real Abed]

I keep getting this error and it's annoying. I don't know if it is an issue with my mac or Sierra, but my wife doesnt seem to get it.

Very often, but not always, whenever I close the lid on the mac with apps open and come back to it a while later I get an error that says something like:

Your mac was not able to log out because "application" could not shut down.

Cancel or Try again buttons are there.

If I hit either button the result is the same. The application has a dot under it but it won't open or close and I have to force close it.

This usually happens with Chrome, but it has happened with Excel before as well. Both are the latests versions.

What Mac is it? Like how old? And are you trying to log out or is the OS assuming you are for some reason?

 

[Particle Physicist]

What Mac is it? Like how old? And are you trying to log out or is the OS assuming you are for some reason?

Brand new Macbook pro 13" touch strip. My wife has the same one. It's weird.

I tried uninstalling Chrome and reinstalling it but it just happened again now.

 

[The Real Abed]

Brand new Macbook pro 13" touch strip. My wife has the same one. It's weird.

I tried uninstalling Chrome and reinstalling it but it just happened again now.

Take it to a store if you can and see if you can replicate it. Does hers not do it? Might be a software thing.

 

[Stinkles]

Hey!

Mrs. Stinkles needs a new Mac Book "Air" - but we both realized the Air makes less sense now that regular Mac Books are light and slim.

She doesn't need a Pro - so is a Mac Book the way to go?


She's basically going to be word processing on it and nothing else. And don't talk to me about other computers apparently it's not up for discussion. mac Book or Mac Book Air is all she'll accept.

 

[The Real Abed]

Hey!

Mrs. Stinkles needs a new Mac Book "Air" - but we both realized the Air makes less sense now that regular Mac Books are light and slim.

She doesn't need a Pro - so is a Mac Book the way to go?


She's basically going to be word processing on it and nothing else. And don't talk to me about other computers apparently it's not up for discussion. mac Book or Mac Book Air is all she'll accept.

If you don't mind the extra price and the lack of ports it should be fine.

 

[giga]

Yeah otherwise I'd go for a refurb pro.

 

[Stinkles]

Just got back. Apple laptop specs prices and form factors make no sense at all. Got the book because it is thinner than the pro, yet more expensive and vastly less powerful


They need to figure out their range. They're all good except the Air at this point but wonky spec tables imo

 

[The Real Abed]

Just got back. Apple laptop specs prices and form factors make no sense at all. Got the book because it is thinner than the pro, yet more expensive and vastly less powerful


They need to figure out their range. They're all good except the Air at this point but wonky spec tables imo

Their laptops are in a strange place right now. The Airs are still around because the MacBook can't replace it completely until it both gets cheaper and more powerful so they'll stick around. They can't be updated much and can't go retina because they'd need more power and more battery which is what the MacBook is now. But then again it's super underpowered because of the space all being taken up by the battery it needs to drive the display.

Then you have the baseline Pro being much less powerful than its brothers. You can tell they only made it to hold people over until the touchbar becomes more commonplace and people get used to it and stop caring about physical F keys all that much. Also the technology needs to drop in price too.

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

They need to figure out their range. They're all good except the Air at this point but wonky spec tables imo

The MacBook is in the same place as the Air was originally- the one with the 1.8" iPod HDD and a single USB inside a door. You pay a lot for the smallness.

I have the top of the line 11" Air from 5 years ago and would probably replace it with the 12" MacBook if I had to.

you have the baseline Pro being much less powerful than its brothers.

Baseline 13" Pro is the MacBook Air replacement people wanted, just without the name and in the same form factor as the more expensive TouchBar 13" Pro.


Still concerned Apple isn't ever going to make another desktop computer I'm interested in buying.

 

[Particle Physicist]

Take it to a store if you can and see if you can replicate it. Does hers not do it? Might be a software thing.

Yeah, I don't have time right now. I was hoping someone else dealt with this. Thanks though

 

[Solideliquid]

Just got back. Apple laptop specs prices and form factors make no sense at all. Got the book because it is thinner than the pro, yet more expensive and vastly less powerful


They need to figure out their range. They're all good except the Air at this point but wonky spec tables imo

Yeah I tried the MacBook, and I like that you can get it in Gold, but I think the new 13" MacBook Pro (w/o TB) for $1499, $200 more is a better buy. For me, it came down to screen size. I couldn't handle the 12" display. It seems like most of their products are small increments away from each other.

Spoiler

Ended up getting the 15" base MBP for the display, but now want to go to the 13" bc I don't need a dedicated graphics card, and TB seems to be more gimmick than anything else.