• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

WWDC12 Thread of iOS 6, Mac OS X Mountain Lion and iCloud

Y

YoYo Switch

Banned
Man, I really want that retina screen but, looking at the price, I've decided I can do without it.

I've been without a computer for 2 or so year now (relying on a combination of iPhone and iPad to do any work)

I've been waiting on these new models as I decided to get a MacBook as I'm already heavily invested into the apple ecosystem.

Do you guys think the higher end MacBook Airs are good for gaming? I'm Moreso interested in Valve's catalog as well as indie platformers and point and click stuff (double fine and team meat type stuff) Will a higher end MacBook Air get the job done? Could I run Half Life 2 and Portal 2 and TF2 on this?
 
A

ascii42

Member
YoYo Switch said:
Man, I really want that retina screen but, looking at the price, I've decided I can do without it.

I've been without a computer for 2 or so year now (relying on a combination of iPhone and iPad to do any work)

I've been waiting on these new models as I decided to get a MacBook as I'm already heavily invested into the apple ecosystem.

Do you guys think the higher end MacBook Airs are good for gaming? I'm Moreso interested in Valve's catalog as well as indie platformers and point and click stuff (double fine and team meat type stuff) Will a higher end MacBook Air get the job done? Could I run Half Life 2 and Portal 2 and TF2 on this?
Click to expand...
Yeah, Source Engine games should run well on the Air.
 
C

CrunchinJelly

formerly cjelly
lunarworks said:
Well then, they may as well take the "Pro" out of the name if you can't upgrade the RAM.

Storage and battery... any insufficiencies in those can be handled externally, but there is no such thing as "external RAM." This isn't iOS, with its pseudo-multitasking. This is a system where your needs grow, and expanding your RAM helps in the greatest way possible.
Click to expand...

Use a bit of foresight and get 16GB RAM. Not difficult.
 
B

bionic77

Member
eznark said:
I know this isn't really the place for it but it's a quickie and this is where the Mac mind is at right now:

Is the thunderbolt to HDMI adapter good? Do they work well?

(Also, now you guys can laugh at me for questioning Airplay on the Mac since my wife just asked me last night if I could get the show she was watching on her Air onto the TV).
Click to expand...
For Airplay don't you need an Apple TV?

To answer your question my little sister has done that on her old ass Samsung LCD and it worked perfectly.

RBH said:
geekbench_mid_2012_macbook_pro.jpg



geekbench_mid_2012_macbook_air.jpg




http://www.macrumors.com/2012/06/12/benchmarks-for-mid-2012-macbook-pro-and-macbook-air/
Click to expand...
FUUUU @ those MBA scores. I am buying my new MBA this weekend @ my nearest Apple store. They usually fail me and I have to order online but I am going to check it out anyways. The only thing I want changed from the base 13" model is I want 8 gigs of ram.
 
L

lunarworks

Member
cjelly said:
Use a bit of foresight and get 16GB RAM. Not difficult.
Click to expand...

RAM goes down in price. Rather quickly. A year ago 16GB was around $400. Today I can get 16GB for $75.

Buying a computer with the maximum amount of RAM from the get go is a good way to waste money.
 
B

Benjamin1981

Member
lunarworks said:
RAM goes down in price. Rather quickly. A year ago 16GB was around $400. Today I can get 16GB for $75.

Buying a computer with the maximum amount of RAM from the get go is a good way to waste money.
Click to expand...

yeah losing 125 dollars on a 3000+ dollar machine because you can't upgrade the ram yourself...total dealbreaker;)
 
C

Crazymoogle

Member
lunarworks said:
Well then, they may as well take the "Pro" out of the name if you can't upgrade the RAM.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure that has never been on their requirement list. When you go to a a sub 1" thickness like that (and looking at the motherboard pics), upgradeable RAM was completely out of the question. I guess they could have done it if they tanked the battery life though. 8GB is fine for most professional uses and hey, it's standard. If you need 16GB it's hard to imagine you wouldn't need it today but would need it next year. But 8 or 16, it's already overkill for most students, gamers, writers, etc.

eznark said:
Is the thunderbolt to HDMI adapter good? Do they work well?
Click to expand...

It's not actually thunderbolt; it's just displayPort (the TB connector doubles as a displayPort connector). And yeah, it works fine. Been using one for my MBA over the last year with no problems passing video and audio. Strangely enough the Apple Store sells a small variety of different models though; I'm using the moshi one but it does seem that Belkin sells one that is more compact.

aeroslash said:
Guys, just a question. Isn't the 650M a little bit on the low side for gaming at such high resolutions?
Click to expand...

I think people are really overreacting to this. The 650M is a really good mobile solution; basically Kepler with a reasonable heat and power footprint. Probably performs just fine for most games. I'm sure with Witcher 2 or something you might want to turn down/off AA to save some fill rate but that hardly detracts from the game.

Faster solutions are probably on an Asus laptop near you, but I don't think you'd like the tradeoff in heat output and battery life.
 
C

CrunchinJelly

formerly cjelly
lunarworks said:
RAM goes down in price. Rather quickly. A year ago 16GB was around $400. Today I can get 16GB for $75.

Buying a computer with the maximum amount of RAM from the get go is a good way to waste money.
Click to expand...

Technology is a good way to waste money.

Stuff is always getting better and cheaper. Using this logic nobody would buy a computer ever.
 
E

eznark

Banned
Crazymoogle said:
It's not actually thunderbolt; it's just displayPort (the TB connector doubles as a displayPort connector). And yeah, it works fine. Been using one for my MBA over the last year with no problems passing video and audio. Strangely enough the Apple Store sells a small variety of different models though; I'm using the moshi one but it does seem that Belkin sells one that is more compact.
Click to expand...

Sanjuro told me it doesn't do audio?
 
S

Sanjuro

Member
eznark said:
Sanjuro told me it doesn't do audio?
Click to expand...

It does audio, but it's dependent on the hardware, not the port. You need to have a Mid-2010 MacBook or newer.

I've been transitioning to twitter more. You were actually my first challenge working around the character count. Sorry for a possibly loss in translation.
 
E

eznark

Banned
Holy shit, iphone 4 getting left behind already??

Sanjuro Tsubaki said:
It does audio, but it's dependent on the hardware, not the port. You need to have a Mid-2010 MacBook or newer.

I've been transitioning to twitter more. You were actually my first challenge working around the character count. Sorry for a possibly loss in translation.
Click to expand...

So my wife's is fine then. Thanks for the clarification!

Bionic, I'm going to get a Apple TV probably. I have a Roku already but we need something for the bedroom, I'll probably go with the Apple thing because my wife has the Air and she generally watches TV in there.
 
J

Jimrpg

Member
Crazymoogle said:
Pretty sure that has never been on their requirement list. When you go to a a sub 1" thickness like that (and looking at the motherboard pics), upgradeable RAM was completely out of the question. I guess they could have done it if they tanked the battery life though. 8GB is fine for most professional uses and hey, it's standard. If you need 16GB it's hard to imagine you wouldn't need it today but would need it next year. But 8 or 16, it's already overkill for most students, gamers, writers, etc.
Click to expand...

i want to get 16gb just to future proof my macbook retina... but to do that I would have to order it online and I need to get it before july 1st (travelling overseas)

so what do people think? in what cases would 8gb not be enough?? I like to play games, do photoshop, video editing in iMovie (1080p if possible)... I'm using a macbook pro early 2009, I'm pretty sure it came with 1gb of ram to start... and I've had to put in the maximum 4gb... so surely in a couple of years time ill need 16gb... but seems like I need to get it now if i want it.
 
L

lunarworks

Member
Crazymoogle said:
Pretty sure that has never been on their requirement list. When you go to a a sub 1" thickness like that (and looking at the motherboard pics), upgradeable RAM was completely out of the question. I guess they could have done it if they tanked the battery life though. 8GB is fine for most professional uses and hey, it's standard. If you need 16GB it's hard to imagine you wouldn't need it today but would need it next year. But 8 or 16, it's already overkill for most students, gamers, writers, etc.
Click to expand...

Because 640k is enough for anyone, amirite?
 
C

Crazymoogle

Member
eznark said:
Sanjuro told me it doesn't do audio?
Click to expand...

Nope, does audio. We've watched plenty of youtube shows that way, with the audio and video both piped through the TV. I think the first time we used it I had to make a settings change in Settings -> Audio to default to HDMI audio when available, but that's it. The settings change takes like 2 seconds and no reboots or reloads or whatever. It just works.

lunarworks said:
Because 640k is enough for anyone, amirite?
Click to expand...

I guess I shouldn't have expected a reasonable answer from you, but there is something called "diminishing returns". Sure, you are going to need 16GB one day for satisfactory performance. But I'm pretty confident you are going to need to replace the display and the processor long before that happens. Hell, you'll probably kill the battery before then too.

Quite frankly unless I'm doing the kind of heavy image/3D work that already could use 8+GB I'd even rather have an octocore chip. Or just a ridiculously fast quad core. Or a bigger SSD.

arbok26 said:
i want to get 16gb just to future proof my macbook retina... but to do that I would have to order it online and I need to get it before july 1st (travelling overseas)

so what do people think? in what cases would 8gb not be enough?? I like to play games, do photoshop, video editing in iMovie (1080p if possible)... I'm using a macbook pro early 2009, I'm pretty sure it came with 1gb of ram to start... and I've had to put in the maximum 4gb... so surely in a couple of years time ill need 16gb... but seems like I need to get it now if i want it.
Click to expand...

I think it's fair to want to "future-proof" your MBR, especially if you plan on owning it for 4 years or something. But I think it's equally worth considering that if you don't kit it out so much, you can afford a new laptop with all of the new technology thats coming down the pipe that much sooner. (ie: Spend $4k now? or $2k now and $2k in 2 years time?) And depending on the kind of work you do, having a faster CPU over more memory may make more sense anyways.
 
S

scorcho

testicles on a cold fall morning
Who knew that offline reading lists would be so resource intensive? Poor 3GS.

I use Monoprice's cheap display port to hdmi converter on my 2011 MBP just fine. Far cheaper than Apples solution so long as you're not one of the 10 people in the world with a Tunderbolt RAID box.
 
B

bionic77

Member
eznark said:
Holy shit, iphone 4 getting left behind already??



So my wife's is fine then. Thanks for the clarification!

Bionic, I'm going to get a Apple TV probably. I have a Roku already but we need something for the bedroom, I'll probably go with the Apple thing because my wife has the Air and she generally watches TV in there.
Click to expand...
Which Air did you get?
 
E

eznark

Banned
Uh, the souped up 11" last year.

Crazymoogle said:
Nope, does audio. We've watched plenty of youtube shows that way, with the audio and video both piped through the TV. I think the first time we used it I had to make a settings change in Settings -> Audio to default to HDMI audio when available, but that's it. The settings change takes like 2 seconds and no reboots or reloads or whatever. It just works.
Click to expand...

God damn that Moshi thing is like $35, is it any better than just using a cable for $5?

edit: thanks Scorcho!
 
S

Sanjuro

Member
GitarooMan said:
Any thoughts on whether the upgrade from the i5 to the i7 is worth it in the $1499 13-inch MBA?
Click to expand...

Unless you adore the 13-inch size, just get the new Retina model for a slim computer. Let's say you do the RAM and the processor upgrade, you're already at $1700.

The upgrade my be worth it. Just in my mind when you get to that price point with the MacBook Air, most people have different intentions for the machine.


eznark said:
God damn that Moshi thing is like $35, is it any better than just using a cable for $5?

edit: thanks Scorcho!
Click to expand...

Yeah, what Scorcho said. I wouldn't pay more than $10 for an adapter. B&M you aren't paying less than $30.
 
C

Crazymoogle

Member
GitarooMan said:
Any thoughts on whether the upgrade from the i5 to the i7 is worth it in the $1499 13-inch MBA?
Click to expand...

I don't think so, really. But it depends if you plan on keeping it plugged-in a lot. Maybe the 400MHz difference there is more noticeable.

Here's a comparison of i5/i7 on last year's models. Won't be exactly the same but I bet the minor feature differences are similar.

Sanjuro Tsubaki said:
Yeah, what Scorcho said. I wouldn't pay more than $10 for an adapter. B&M you aren't paying less than $30.
Click to expand...

Pretty much. I needed one for a presentation the next day so I had to go with the retail option. But Monoprice should otherwise be your cable source for most things.
 
G

GitarooMan

Member
Sanjuro Tsubaki said:
Unless you adore the 13-inch size, just get the new Retina model for a slim computer. Let's say you do the RAM and the processor upgrade, you're already at $1700.

The upgrade my be worth it. Just in my mind when you get to that price point with the MacBook Air, most people have different intentions for the machine.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the Retina is definitely something I'm considering. The base Retina model seems to have everything I would want, the extra 500 or so dollars though is a bit of a stretch for me, but ultimately I think it may be worth it.

I don't think so, really. But it depends if you plan on keeping it plugged-in a lot. Maybe the 400MHz difference there is more noticeable.

Here's a comparison of i5/i7 on last year's models. Won't be exactly the same but I bet the minor feature differences are similar.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this info, it's what I suspected is likely the case.
 
S

Sanjuro

Member
GitarooMan said:
Yeah, the Retina is definitely something I'm considering. The base Retina model seems to have everything I would want, the extra 500 or so dollars though is a bit of a stretch for me, but ultimately I think it may be worth it.
Click to expand...

I would say so. I mean, I've sold people $2000+ MacBook Airs, which is absurd, but some people just want them and who am I to argue. Some people just go for it. That $500 is going to pay itself easily for how you use the machine. Even the SSD performance alone is going to be much greater in the MBP w/Retina. Not to mention the graphics card and processor.
 
L

lunarworks

Member
Crazymoogle said:
I guess I shouldn't have expected a reasonable answer from you, but there is something called "diminishing returns". Sure, you are going to need 16GB one day for satisfactory performance. But I'm pretty confident you are going to need to replace the display and the processor long before that happens. Hell, you'll probably kill the battery before then too.

Quite frankly unless I'm doing the kind of heavy image/3D work that already could use 8+GB I'd even rather have an octocore chip. Or just a ridiculously fast quad core. Or a bigger SSD.
Click to expand...

Here's the thing. I like doing a stupid amount of multitasking. For me it's far more convenient to leave my apps, with their large files or libraries, open, rather than launch them anew each time I need them. This said, software resource needs go up over time, and files get bigger too.

Oh ya, and OS X's memory management leaves much to be desired. It'll start caching to disk long before it releases memory it isn't using anymore.

Spending $75 for a RAM upgrade when it comes to the time that I need it is something that I value greatly. Not being able to, especially if the architecture supports more, is a terrible restriction.
 
T

tigerin

Member
BruceLeeRoy said:
Yeah I highly recommend it. I always take excellent care of my apple stuff(covers, cleaning) because you can always get a great price for them. I bought that comp for $1700 3 years ago. $600 for 3 years for a top of the line apple isn't bad. Plus it made the price of the new Macbook a lot easier to swallow.
Click to expand...
Yea, that's true. Due to your experience, is it better to sell it before the apple conference? and I noticed your MacBook had no AppleCare, is it harder to get a buyer compared to having one?
 
aeroslash

aeroslash

Member
Crazymoogle said:
I think people are really overreacting to this. The 650M is a really good mobile solution; basically Kepler with a reasonable heat and power footprint. Probably performs just fine for most games. I'm sure with Witcher 2 or something you might want to turn down/off AA to save some fill rate but that hardly detracts from the game.

Faster solutions are probably on an Asus laptop near you, but I don't think you'd like the tradeoff in heat output and battery life.
Click to expand...

Sorry i didn't know it was already discussed. Even then, i can't barely play the witcher 2 on ultra on 1080p, so i really don't think it will run it nice...

Well, i know a MBP is not made for gamming.
 
B

bionic77

Member
RBH said:
A RAM upgrade would probably be more beneficial rather than upgrading from i5 to i7.
Click to expand...
I concur.

That is exactly what I am doing. I am tempted to spend the 200 or whatever to upgrade to the 256 GB HD, but that is just too much for that much space. I will learn to be content with 128 and store my movies and photos on an external. I need a better program than iPhoto for the pictures though.
 
B

BruceLeeRoy

Banned
tigerin said:
Yea, that's true. Due to your experience, is it better to sell it before the apple conference? and I noticed your MacBook had no AppleCare, is it harder to get a buyer compared to having one?
Click to expand...

Yeah I sold it before the conference by one week. I have sold phones with AppleCare and phones without and it never made a difference on price people were willing to pay.
 
S

Sanjuro

Member
Best Buy has some great deals to be had, not going to lie. I would check their open box inventory checker as well.

I ended up getting a $799 Mac Mini for around $450 not too long ago. Basically, couldn't pass it up for my needs.
 
D

Dennis

Banned
How long before the first Retina Display Macbook Pro is in the hands of a gaffer?

I am sorely tempted myself but it would be nice with some hands-on impressions.
 
E

eznark

Banned
DennisK4 said:
How long before the first Retina Display Macbook Pro is in the hands of a gaffer?

I am sorely tempted myself but it would be nice with some hands-on impressions.
Click to expand...

Whitta implied that he or one of the Tested guys might have one for the podcast today.
 
C

Chris R

Member
RBH said:
Best Buy may be doing their own back to school offer:



http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1385410
Click to expand...

Man that would be really tempting. The only downside to buying at Best Buy is that they only carry the "stock" configurations (with the exception of the CPU) so no extra ram.

Though if they had their already cheaper than Apple prices (usually ~80 less than retail) and you could get the giftcard on top of that it would be a great deal.
 
A

Ambitious

Member
Is it true that registered Mac developers get 10% discount at the store? So 20% in total, if you're a developer and a student?

edit: Seems this was the case once, but isn't anymore. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Bloomberg: Apple Pushes Back Mixed-Reality Headset Debut Two Months, to June at WWDC
5
2K
ZehDon replied
Apple’s XR Headset Will Use Seamless ‘Extended Reality’ to Interact With Your iPhone and Mac with Continuity & Handoff features
11
3K
theHFIC replied
Apple WWDC 2021 | Keynote June 7 @ 10am PDT
Event 2
79
8K
RJMacready73 replied
Shacknews: Everything we saw at the [invite-only] 'Gaming at Apple' Dev Showcase
41
4K
digital_ghost replied
Apple announces Mac transition to Apple silicon
News
38
3K
supernova8 replied
Top Bottom