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etalian posted:Yeah it's a similar thought process to how the MBA originally shipped with a special hacked up discrete video card but further down the road Apple realizes that Intel graphics just make sense in terms of power/performance efficiency. I'd say it was not so much a realization, but more that the integrated GPUs have been getting better faster than those on dedicated graphics cards. When compared to dedicated graphics cards, early HD graphics were pretty crappy, HD Graphics 4000 is decent, and GT3 looks pretty good, even for gaming.
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Jan 21, 2013 21:31
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mister ginger posted:So I'm finally going to replace my black macbook (can't believe it still works perfectly) and I'm just wondering when the next mac keynote is going to be. Would it be safe to assume they will offer a slight upgrade on the macbooks? Obviously not a major upgrade, but worth waiting an additional 2-3 months instead of buying one sometime in February.
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Jan 21, 2013 21:34
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Urgh. I posted here a while back and got some pretty helpful replies about this; I'm basically just trying to confirm what I heard then, again. I have a few more specifics on my situation so I'm just trying to make sure I'm not going to screw myself by NOT spending money, or by spending money unnecessarily. This is the 2009 15" Macbook Pro I have now. When I posted about this previously I wanted to know if an investment in a newer, better computer (specifically I was looking at the then-upcoming 27" iMacs at the time) was warranted. I had a vague notion about getting into some animating and modeling and didn't know if I'd be able to handle it. The general consensus was essentially to save my money and I'd probably be able to make it work. Rendering seems like it would be the only thing that really matters and I very likely have resources I can use to render on machines that I won't actually be able to work on. Now, I've got a project coming up that I'll be using CG for everything, Maya, Mudbox, modeling, animating, rigging, blah blah, I'm going to need to be able to work on all of this and although I still don't know ALL the specifics I know it's going to be pretty intensive, and I definitely don't want to gimp the project by not being able to work past a certain level on my current computer. Does this change anything? Would it be worth my time to upgrade? In an ideal world I could afford and would be able to quickly buy (I'm pretty sure) a new 27" iMac (bare bones with no upgrades; I could also buy an upgraded version but I'd want to really be super sure of that before having to wait a month to get it). Maybe it would be better for me to upgrade, but just get a nicer Macbook Pro? I was also torn between this and upgrading my long-used Intuos to a Cintiq as it would really streamline the workflow I've got going on already and would come in handy in a lot more ways than just for this project. Actually being able to complete this project is my highest priority right now though, so I don't want to shoot myself in the foot by buying that instead unless I'm reasonably sure my computer would work.
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Jan 21, 2013 21:50
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echobucket posted:I had this problem with my 2009 27" iMac. It had what looked like smudges in the top right corner. I took it in, and they apparently changed the entire display. When I got it back, it was flawless and it has remained so for almost a year now. Ever since I had it replaced for the second time, I've stopped taking it into the bathtub with me, and I've stopped burning candles under it and pouring candle wax on it during the evening group chants. The geniuses were giving me that dust story too. All I can say is that if that were the case, it would still be a design flaw. What I think is really funny here is how people are giving me those "just world" theories about my apartment having to be some kind of deadly environment for iMacs because it's not possible that this thing is badly designed, not even in light of a huge thread about smudges on Apple's support forums. I suppose the people posting there are all tremendous dirtmongers too. What I think is most plausible and what has been posted in that thread is that the display isn't properly shielded from the motherboard and that the discoloration is caused either by dust from the heatsink or a discoloration caused by the temperature. This isn't the user's fault unless you consider using the iMac the fault of the user. kuskus posted:When I got my iMac there was one blurry spot, just between two functioning pixels. I was crushed, but it didn't seem like something to really whine about. "How am I supposed to design around this area and ignore it." A year later I lifted off the plexiglass and I realized it was a loving piece of lint that I could have fixed in 15 seconds with a duster. Your warranty will run out. Well I did put on my big boy pants too, stopped crying and used the iMac for long stretches, but I have paid for AppleCare, which runs out in September of this year, so until that time, I'm not going to open that sucker up myself. Plus, in case you haven't read what has been talked about here at length: The main issue are the discolorations, and those can't be cleaned with a cloth or at all.
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Jan 21, 2013 22:06
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mister ginger posted:So I'm finally going to replace my black macbook (can't believe it still works perfectly) and I'm just wondering when the next mac keynote is going to be. Would it be safe to assume they will offer a slight upgrade on the macbooks? Obviously not a major upgrade, but worth waiting an additional 2-3 months instead of buying one sometime in February. There are rumors that the traditional MacBook Pro will get axed or at least re-designed. If that happens you might lose some upgradeability. I doubt they would solder on the RAM and go SSD only but you never know. redjenova posted:Does this change anything? Would it be worth my time to upgrade? In an ideal world I could afford and would be able to quickly buy (I'm pretty sure) a new 27" iMac (bare bones with no upgrades; I could also buy an upgraded version but I'd want to really be super sure of that before having to wait a month to get it). Maybe it would be better for me to upgrade, but just get a nicer Macbook Pro? Geekbench is a dumb benchmark but: (I know you said you have a 2009 but it's only like 200pts higher)  vs 
Bob Morales fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Jan 21, 2013 |
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Jan 21, 2013 22:13
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Yikes. That is significant. One thing that is appealing to me for convenience and affordability is I could run to my campus IT store tomorrow and get a 15" rMacbook Pro i7 and 16GB Ram right then and there, which is faster and cheaper than any of my other options. But I don't want to do something stupid but it does seem like a nice option, unless there's a reason I would really regret getting a laptop instead of a desktop.
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Jan 21, 2013 22:34
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redjenova posted:Yikes. That is significant. Does this convince you? 
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Jan 21, 2013 22:39
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Bob Morales posted:Does this convince you? Sorry for the derail, but I'm curious where you find these awesome graphs/benchmark stats? I've noticed you do this for quite some time but never thought to ask. Edit: etalian posted:The formatting looks like it's from Anandtech That's the Ticket!! Thanks. decypher fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Jan 22, 2013 |
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Jan 21, 2013 23:40
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decypher posted:Sorry for the derail, but I'm curious where you find these awesome graphs/benchmark stats? The formatting looks like it's from Anandtech
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Jan 21, 2013 23:47
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Yeah, that's crazy. I think ultimately I'm going to have to bite the bullet although I'll sit on it a few days regardless. Although I keep hitting stumbling blocks when I look into what I need, and cost. I was price-comparing these: Standard 15" rMBP 2.6GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz 8GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM 512GB Flash Storage NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB GDDR5 Or this upgraded 27" iMac: 3.4GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB 1TB Fusion Drive NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX 1GB GDDR5 The iMac ends up being cheaper, actually, although the month delay is a pain. Still I imagine this is the better investment if I want it to be useful post-graduation. Regardless, thanks for dealing with my questions. It sucks not having any idea how this stuff works, I really need to educate myself.
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Jan 22, 2013 00:11
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Retina owners: How do you make the screen 'less black' or saturated or whatever, or do you just get used to it after a few days? A black terminal window is like staring into a black hole or something.
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Jan 22, 2013 01:41
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etalian posted:Yeah it's a similar thought process to how the MBA originally shipped with a special hacked up discrete video card but further down the road Apple realizes that Intel graphics just make sense in terms of power/performance efficiency. Mmmm, agree with you on Apple's policy, not on your description of the first gen MBA. I'm currently typing on an original MacBook Air first generation, it's got this horrible GMA X3100 that's based on a desktop chipset but it sure as poo poo doesn't have discrete VRAM, it's an integrated chip that uses 144 MB of main RAM, 160 if I can find the cable to hook up to an external monitor. Tom's hardware lists the X3100 as being in the same graphics horsepower class as the old FX5200 that came with the first PowerMac / iMac G5s. I remember being able to cause the FX5200 in the iMac to keel over by running an old demo called Chimera that featured a 'Connie Refit' approaching a starbase. The X3100 is so horrible, I can't even play Netflix movies fullscreen without flicker / stuttering unless I move the resolution down to 800/640 resolutions, default is 1200 * 800. Binary Badger fucked around with this message at 02:50 on Jan 22, 2013 |
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Jan 22, 2013 02:43
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redjenova posted:Or this upgraded 27" iMac: One other thing to consider: the Retina laptop is stuck at whatever level of RAM you bought it at; the iMac can still be further upgraded to 32 GB of RAM if necessary. Also the GeForce GTX 675MX kills the laptop GPU as it runs at a higher clock speed.
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Jan 22, 2013 02:49
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redjenova posted:The iMac ends up being cheaper, actually, although the month delay is a pain. Still I imagine this is the better investment if I want it to be useful post-graduation. Desktops always tend to be better "value" if you look at performance vs. price, the other factor is if you want a computer that's easy to haul around on a regular basis by going with the more expensive laptop option. If you already have a beat up laptop or do most of your projects from home then a desktop makes more sense.
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Jan 22, 2013 02:53
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I accidentally plugged my lightning connector into my 2012 11" MBA, and it immediately shut down. What the hell happened? (The other end wasn't plugged into anything)
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Jan 22, 2013 05:08
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Bob Morales posted:Retina owners: How do you make the screen 'less black' or saturated or whatever, or do you just get used to it after a few days? A black terminal window is like staring into a black hole or something. That's exactly how it should be. 
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Jan 22, 2013 05:09
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Yeah, Retina displays have a very deep black, they also have twice the contrast ratio of their non retina counterparts.. something like ~900:1 for the Retina displays versus ~500:1 for non-Retina displays. It helps reduce eyestrain a lot from personal experience and clients who rave about their Retina screens. If you don't like staring into the abyss, go hook up a still working CRT or use a lovely sub-$100 external LCD monitor and you'll get your not-really-black blacks back. Or you could just employ the amazingly complex and different method of using a different theme in Terminal, or editing the background color yourself, it's not chiseled in stone you know. Binary Badger fucked around with this message at 06:27 on Jan 22, 2013 |
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Jan 22, 2013 06:22
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comper posted:That's exactly how it should be. That just made me really want the rMBP again. I've been looking at lots of laptops, but I'll be damned if I don't keep coming back to that screen. Jarringly deep black levels just sounds amazing. Aren't black levels in general one of the holy grails in terms of modern screen capabilities?
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Jan 22, 2013 06:50
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Lexicon posted:I accidentally plugged my lightning connector into my 2012 11" MBA, and it immediately shut down. What the hell happened?
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Jan 22, 2013 06:50
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I've had the iMac screen discoloration issue pop up on mine multiple times. Replacement screen developed the exact same marks as the old one. Definitely a heat issue, as I've stopped subjecting the computer to heavy use and it's mostly faded. The upshot is that I basically can't game on the thing anymore, and I don't much see the point in having the screen replaced again if the underlying problem can't be addressed.
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Jan 22, 2013 15:14
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Well insurance has changed their minds and has decided to ship me a MBP MD101BA. Which I think is a direct replacement of my old one. The question is if I sell it BNIB whats my return likely to be? I want a 13" MBA?
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Jan 22, 2013 17:07
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Binary Badger posted:Yeah, Retina displays have a very deep black, they also have twice the contrast ratio of their non retina counterparts.. something like ~900:1 for the Retina displays versus ~500:1 for non-Retina displays. It helps reduce eyestrain a lot from personal experience and clients who rave about their Retina screens. I'm just having trouble getting things looking right - it's one of those things where it looks too good and it just fucks with my brain? I have a very slight astigmatism in my right eye which doesn't help. It's like I'm looking at a color printout instead of a screen.
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Jan 22, 2013 17:37
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Bimmi posted:I've had the iMac screen discoloration issue pop up on mine multiple times. Replacement screen developed the exact same marks as the old one. Do you know off hand how much the replacement goes for? My 24" core 2 duo 2007 iMac's screen is pretty yellow and splotchy in some areas. You get used to it after a few minutes of using it, but it's pretty noticeable when you first sit down. I used it pretty heavily for years, and have since replaced it with a 15" rMBP, but the computer itself still works fine, if not a little slow with a lot of tabs open and flash going. I was going to give it to my mother to use, but want to see if I can somehow fix the screen first.
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Jan 22, 2013 18:15
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Mine was under warranty, but I believe the 27" displays are something like $600-700 a pop (not even sure if that includes labor). If it goes bad again, I'm just gonna sell the bitch for parts. Not real thrilled with iMacs these days. I am disinclined to ever buy another, but the Mini's kind of milquetoast and the Pro is just too damned expensive. I got my G5 tower for under $2k new and REALLY wish they still sold something like that. Hell, bring back the Cube. Anything but this contrived, inefficient all-in-one bullshit.
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Jan 22, 2013 19:03
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Hermi On Me posted:Do you know off hand how much the replacement goes for? My 24" core 2 duo 2007 iMac's screen is pretty yellow and splotchy in some areas.
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Jan 22, 2013 19:22
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Bimmi posted:Mine was under warranty, but I believe the 27" displays are something like $600-700 a pop (not even sure if that includes labor). If it goes bad again, I'm just gonna sell the bitch for parts. Is the Cube any different? It seems pretty much like the mini but with evolved technology.
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Jan 22, 2013 21:07
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kuskus posted:Last time I had to price a non-new one it was $200 on the modest end, but since they're generally all the same there's a good chance of yellowing in any replacement you get. Is this at the apple store, or do you mean ordering a used one myself and installing it?
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Jan 22, 2013 21:22
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Bimmi posted:Mine was under warranty, but I believe the 27" displays are something like $600-700 a pop (not even sure if that includes labor). If it goes bad again, I'm just gonna sell the bitch for parts. I saw something saying $6xx for display cost when I brought it in two days ago. Bimmi posted:Not real thrilled with iMacs these days. I am disinclined to ever buy another, but the Mini's kind of milquetoast and the Pro is just too damned expensive. I got my G5 tower for under $2k new and REALLY wish they still sold something like that. I'm actually impressed with the new iMacs because they're thin and they seem to have properly shielded screens now. However, for the foreseeable future, my "iMacs" are likely to be Macbook variants with Thunderbolt Displays.
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Jan 22, 2013 21:42
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thegasman2000 posted:Well insurance has changed their minds and has decided to ship me a MBP MD101BA. Which I think is a direct replacement of my old one. The question is if I sell it BNIB whats my return likely to be? I want a 13" MBA? Since it's a new recent gen model in new condition you can get really good resale value on it.
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Jan 22, 2013 22:03
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clockworx posted:Is the Cube any different? It seems pretty much like the mini but with evolved technology. I'd like to see something like the Mini but overall better specs - room for another drive or two, a real video card, poo poo like that. An option for those who want better performance than the Mini but don't care for the iMac's limitations. People have been wishing for something like this for a very long time though, and given that such a machine would likely compete directly with the iMac it's probably never going to happen. edit: VVV iPod nano is arguably a separate product category. The iPad mini is just weird and probably is drawing sales away from the bigger one. Now that Jobs is out of the picture I actually do expect to see more of this sort of thing. Bimmi fucked around with this message at 23:52 on Jan 22, 2013 |
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Jan 22, 2013 22:06
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Yeah, Apple would never release new products that compete with existing ones... like the iPad mini does with the big iPad or the iPod nano did with the disk-based iPods or anything like that... oh wait!
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Jan 22, 2013 22:52
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Jobs said "Cannibalize your own products or someone else will." Isn't that what they're doing?
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Jan 23, 2013 01:19
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I didn't see anything in the OP and macrumours doesn't seem to cover it, so here goes: I'm looking to buy a time capsule. Is now a good time to buy one or could there be a new one looming on the horizon? I know the usual schedule of iPhones but I don't know if the time capsule has any sort of schedule...
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Jan 23, 2013 01:46
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fleshweasel posted:Jobs said "Cannibalize your own products or someone else will." Isn't that what they're doing? Yes, and yes. It's better that they introduce a product that "hurts" sales of a current product so that they still get to profit from it- it's especially non harmful when they're able to do so while maintaining high profit margins.
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Jan 23, 2013 01:56
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Bimmi posted:I'd like to see something like the Mini but overall better specs - room for another drive or two, a real video card, poo poo like that. An option for those who want better performance than the Mini but don't care for the iMac's limitations. It sounds like you want a Mac Pro- but also one that's cheaper and smaller than an iMac. That's not at all a bad idea- you're basically just describing a bog standard PC, only one designed/built/sold by Apple. Unfortunately, that kind of flies in the face of the MO they've made for themselves. Now, Apple is supposed to be launching a completely revamped Mac Pro in 2013 (if Tim Cook's cryptic email responses are anything to go by) and the speculation is that it might be smaller than the current chassis. Granted, we won't know for sure until the thing launches- and I really doubt it'll be cheap(er than an iMac).
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Jan 23, 2013 02:14
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Electric Bugaloo posted:It sounds like you want a Mac Pro- but also one that's cheaper and smaller than an iMac. That's not at all a bad idea- you're basically just describing a bog standard PC, only one designed/built/sold by Apple. Unfortunately, that kind of flies in the face of the MO they've made for themselves. The main factors in the cost of the Mac Pro are the Xeon processor and ECC RAM. Everything else could be somewhat affordable. Unfortunately Xeons basically start at 1k USD just for the chip. I don't think they can compromise on the Xeon issue unless they want to stop offering dual-socket models.
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Jan 23, 2013 02:51
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wdarkk posted:The main factors in the cost of the Mac Pro are the Xeon processor and ECC RAM. Everything else could be somewhat affordable. Unfortunately Xeons basically start at 1k USD just for the chip. Oh, don't get me wrong- I know all that. It's just that "cheaper Mac Pro sans workstation-grade hardware" isn't in Apple's MO either. They've made their philosophy pretty clear- "simplicity, elegance, and comfort for the user trump everything else." For the average customer, that means shiny sealed boxes that you're not supposed to open and tamper with. That's how you end up with ultra-light Airs full of proprietary hardware and custom batteries and whatnot all soldered together (a very generalized description) and "it just works" iOS devices. For professionals, a sealed box obviously wasn't going to fly, so Apple made the Mac Pro really accessible and simply laid-out and easy to expand instead. They're two different applications of the same philosophy for what Apple considers to be two very different markets. They will never, ever offer a cheaper "consumer grade" Mac Pro.
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Jan 23, 2013 03:20
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Well, in theory they could target the "enthusiast" and create a machine that had a single slot that you put the GPU in, but that'd require that mac GPUs come out more often than "every time the Mac Pro refreshes" to work out for the consumer, and also it'd require there to be a lot of enthusiasts that will buy Macs for Apple to make any money there.
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Jan 23, 2013 03:37
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Is there a list of recommended USB DVD drives to use with Macs? Assuming ones that can be run power over USB and aren't incompatible for some weird reason.
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Jan 23, 2013 03:43
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Apple used to have a "low end" on its towers which was effectively abandoned with the introduction of the Mac Pro. The modern equivalent of my old blue & white Power Mac doesn't exist: iMac crept up to swallow that price point, and tough poo poo if you hate the form factor I guess. A marginally expandable box sans monitor seems like a real obvious hole in the lineup. I know that model creep almost sank Apple once upon a time, but surely there's a happy medium to be found between the Performa era and the current situation?
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Jan 23, 2013 04:43
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