If you had told me that the Vega 20 was a 4-5 TF part that traded successfully with a GTX 970 or RX 470/570...I'd be impressed. After all, that 4.5-5 TF barrier is what you need to truly break for 4K or VR content creation. And if this is a pro-laptop, that's exactly the kind of horsepower you need.
But for a GPU that can't do that kind of crunching, what is exactly the point, other than convenience and a speed boost for video/sound editors? I guess it depends what kind of "pro" this laptop is targeted at. You don't need a 1080 in your laptops but you do need something that can produce 4.5-5 TF of grunt in order to do the threshold heavy lifting you see in today's newest technologies.
I don't blame Apple, per se. AMD has been dragging its feet on mobility. The fact that we now see rumors of a RX 3080 coming to the high end iMac refresh might also mean that the MBP might get another speed boost increase next year in the GPU. Maybe a mobility 3060 (equivalent to a RX 580) or 3070 (less likely) will likely move the MBP strictly into pro-territory.
I'm about ready to plunk down my money for nearly this exact model MBP 15" (will use AppleInsiders Adorama deals as I did last year when I upgraded my iMac). But something is still bothering me and it is a test that AppleInsider did recently where they compared this model running MacOS vs Windows 10 in Bootcamp ( https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/11/22/benchmarked-amds-radeon-vega-20-gives-macbook-pro-big-graphics-boost ) and found that bootcamp resulted in superior frame rates.
Could someone please explain how/why this would happen? It appears this is simply superior software on the part of Windows OS. But it could be that games/benchmarks are really optimized for OpenGL (which Apple has deprecated in favor of Metal), and the programs aren't yet optimized for Apple's new hardware.
Which brings me to a bigger issue - in the past hardware specs combined with standardized benchmarking defined performance. Today with divergent hardware (companies are increasingly developing their own chip sets) and changing standards, benchmarking isn't correlating to my needs. I find the specialized software that I run isn't keeping up with the latest hardware, and in many cases may never be optimized for hardware configurations I end up purchasing.
With unlimited funds I can always purchase a bigger hammer (faster hardware) and I will probably get a bump in program efficiency, but there is no way for me to do a cost/benefit ratio on this using today's tools. Or am I missing something?
Don't use Adorama whatever you do. I just went through hell with them and back. It took 2.5 weeks just to get them to refund my $5k back after tons of phone calls and chats. Long story short, ordered a mbp, said was in stock, was backordered after I ordered it, I canceled the order, then 4 days later they shipped it. So they didn't cancel my order. I yelled at them, many times, said I had to wait to get it and return it. I returned it, it took them a week to acknowledge I returned it after threading them with chargeback on my card. Finally received it and credited my card. They also didn't ship overnight after I paid $77 for it. I had to fight them on that too to get it refunded.
Never again. Apple shipped me the laptop within a day of my order.
I'm about ready to plunk down my money for nearly this exact model MBP 15" (will use AppleInsiders Adorama deals as I did last year when I upgraded my iMac). But something is still bothering me and it is a test that AppleInsider did recently where they compared this model running MacOS vs Windows 10 in Bootcamp ( https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/11/22/benchmarked-amds-radeon-vega-20-gives-macbook-pro-big-graphics-boost ) and found that bootcamp resulted in superior frame rates.
Could someone please explain how/why this would happen? It appears this is simply superior software on the part of Windows OS. But it could be that games/benchmarks are really optimized for OpenGL (which Apple has deprecated in favor of Metal), and the programs aren't yet optimized for Apple's new hardware.
Which brings me to a bigger issue - in the past hardware specs combined with standardized benchmarking defined performance. Today with divergent hardware (companies are increasingly developing their own chip sets) and changing standards, benchmarking isn't correlating to my needs. I find the specialized software that I run isn't keeping up with the latest hardware, and in many cases may never be optimized for hardware configurations I end up purchasing.
With unlimited funds I can always purchase a bigger hammer (faster hardware) and I will probably get a bump in program efficiency, but there is no way for me to do a cost/benefit ratio on this using today's tools. Or am I missing something?
Don't use Adorama whatever you do. I just went through hell with them and back. It took 2.5 weeks just to get them to refund my $5k back after tons of phone calls and chats. Long story short, ordered a mbp, said was in stock, was backordered after I ordered it, I canceled the order, then 4 days later they shipped it. So they didn't cancel my order. I yelled at them, many times, said I had to wait to get it and return it. I returned it, it took them a week to acknowledge I returned it after threading them with chargeback on my card. Finally received it and credited my card. They also didn't ship overnight after I paid $77 for it. I had to fight them on that too to get it refunded.
Never again. Apple shipped me the laptop within a day of my order.
I just ordered from Adorama, and yeah the communication with regard to availability is problematic. However, my backordered bto MBP shipped in about 4-5 days, was dropshipped so the card was charged right away, then they were slow to get me my actual tracking info — received it *after* DHL had already attempted delivery. I was out of town at that point for the week, so it didn't matter that much to me, but it was still kind of annoying to do all the back and forth with customer service to try and get more information about actual shipping times and tracking. Dropshipped items are kind of a black box for them as the order goes straight to Apple and coordinated between them and DHL, so Adorama is kind of in the dark as well. That said, I took advantage of the $225 discount via APINSIDER as well as lack of sales tax (not sure why they haven't followed B&H on this yet but I'll take it) for around $700 in savings.
I did though get the 2018 MBP 15" i9, 32gb, 2tb, Vega 20 model and love it to death. No issues at all.
Me too, the same exact model in space gray. By far the best Mac I've ever owned and I haven't even had a chance to push it to the limits yet. I don't know what all the bitching is about, I absolutely love this keyboard — I'm typing faster than I ever did on my 2011. Touch Bar I'm adjusting to but already it's far more useful than the fn keys ever were. Already installed BetterTouchTool and built two custom buttons to run Applescripts I use every day in Mail, looking forward to leveraging that much more in the future.
Looking forward to putting this thing through its paces with AfterEffects/Premiere/Fusion/Resolve/C4D etc.
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But for a GPU that can't do that kind of crunching, what is exactly the point, other than convenience and a speed boost for video/sound editors? I guess it depends what kind of "pro" this laptop is targeted at. You don't need a 1080 in your laptops but you do need something that can produce 4.5-5 TF of grunt in order to do the threshold heavy lifting you see in today's newest technologies.
I don't blame Apple, per se. AMD has been dragging its feet on mobility. The fact that we now see rumors of a RX 3080 coming to the high end iMac refresh might also mean that the MBP might get another speed boost increase next year in the GPU. Maybe a mobility 3060 (equivalent to a RX 580) or 3070 (less likely) will likely move the MBP strictly into pro-territory.
Don't use Adorama whatever you do. I just went through hell with them and back. It took 2.5 weeks just to get them to refund my $5k back after tons of phone calls and chats. Long story short, ordered a mbp, said was in stock, was backordered after I ordered it, I canceled the order, then 4 days later they shipped it. So they didn't cancel my order. I yelled at them, many times, said I had to wait to get it and return it. I returned it, it took them a week to acknowledge I returned it after threading them with chargeback on my card. Finally received it and credited my card. They also didn't ship overnight after I paid $77 for it. I had to fight them on that too to get it refunded.
Never again. Apple shipped me the laptop within a day of my order.
Me too, the same exact model in space gray. By far the best Mac I've ever owned and I haven't even had a chance to push it to the limits yet. I don't know what all the bitching is about, I absolutely love this keyboard — I'm typing faster than I ever did on my 2011. Touch Bar I'm adjusting to but already it's far more useful than the fn keys ever were. Already installed BetterTouchTool and built two custom buttons to run Applescripts I use every day in Mail, looking forward to leveraging that much more in the future.
Looking forward to putting this thing through its paces with AfterEffects/Premiere/Fusion/Resolve/C4D etc.