MacBook Pro getting Radeon Pro Vega graphics options in November

AppleInsider · October 30, 2018 3:32PM

Lost in the excitement of the new MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and iPad Pro, Apple added a new graphics configuration for the MacBook Pro starting in November.

15-inch MacBook Pro

Customers will be able to order a MacBook Pro from Apple with Radeon Pro Vega graphics with performance jumping up to 60 percent faster, according to Apple. Users dealing with graphics-heavy workflows such as video editing, 3D design, and rendering projects will see the most improvement with the new configurations.

The new configurations will be custom-order only from Apple's online and retail stores as well as through Apple Authorized Resellers starting Wednesday, November 14th. Pricing is not yet available.

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ascii · October 30, 2018 3:37PM

Have you guys found an accidental leak here? It says:
"Configurable to Radeon Pro Vega 16 with 4GB of HBM2 memory or Radeon Pro Vega 20 with 4GB of HBM2 memory"
but I thought those chips weren't announced yet.

fastasleep · October 30, 2018 3:54PM

Glad I held off on buying! Was about to order an i9 15” with the 460X. Hope this doesn’t push the top end higher price wise.

ascii · October 30, 2018 3:59PM

The BlackMagic eGPU is going to be available in a Vega version too. Both good for Mac gaming.

duhsesame · October 30, 2018 4:03PM

Will it mean there will be a redesigned thermal system?

llsorens · October 30, 2018 4:11PM

No New iMac? I was looking to get a new one

ne1 · October 30, 2018 4:17PM

I'm not usually subject to Early Adopter Disgruntled Syndrome (EADS), but in this case, I'm pissed I bought a top of the line MBP i9 when released. I suggest those who did contact Apple and make some noise to see if they will offer a trade up upgrade program for the new GPU models or discount on eGPUs to early purchasers.

tomahawk · October 30, 2018 4:38PM

ne1 said:

I'm not usually subject to Early Adopter Disgruntled Syndrome (EADS), but in this case, I'm pissed I bought a top of the line MBP i9 when released. I suggest those who did contact Apple and make some noise to see if they will offer a trade up upgrade program for the new GPU models or discount on eGPUs to early purchasers.

You're upset that the laptop you purchased around July didn't offer a graphics card that wasn't even announced by AMD until today? Can't we just be happy that for one of the first times in a long time Apple is actually announcing an upgrade as soon as a newer, better, component is available rather than waiting a full year like they have been recently?

ne1 · October 30, 2018 4:44PM

tomahawk said:

ne1 said:

I'm not usually subject to Early Adopter Disgruntled Syndrome (EADS), but in this case, I'm pissed I bought a top of the line MBP i9 when released. I suggest those who did contact Apple and make some noise to see if they will offer a trade up upgrade program for the new GPU models or discount on eGPUs to early purchasers.

You're upset that the laptop you purchased around July didn't offer a graphics card that wasn't even announced by AMD until today? Can't we just be happy that for one of the first times in a long time Apple is actually announcing an upgrade as soon as a newer, better, component is available rather than waiting a full year like they have been recently?

Sure, I'm happy about it-- also, I want an upgrade path to get a better GPU, especially if it offers better power management. These things are not mutually exclusive.

fastasleep · October 30, 2018 5:26PM

ne1 said:

tomahawk said:

ne1 said:

I'm not usually subject to Early Adopter Disgruntled Syndrome (EADS), but in this case, I'm pissed I bought a top of the line MBP i9 when released. I suggest those who did contact Apple and make some noise to see if they will offer a trade up upgrade program for the new GPU models or discount on eGPUs to early purchasers.

You're upset that the laptop you purchased around July didn't offer a graphics card that wasn't even announced by AMD until today? Can't we just be happy that for one of the first times in a long time Apple is actually announcing an upgrade as soon as a newer, better, component is available rather than waiting a full year like they have been recently?

Sure, I'm happy about it-- also, I want an upgrade path to get a better GPU, especially if it offers better power management. These things are not mutually exclusive.

It’s called buying the new one and selling your old one, which doesn’t work any worse than when you bought it.

People complain when they don’t update their Macs often enough, and complain when they update them too often. Would you rather the Vega got announced and it simply sat there outside of the MBP and hopping into PCs until next year? Give me a break.

mazda 3s · October 30, 2018 6:30PM

I think Apple is doing some fuzzy math here. The PR:

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/10/all-new-macbook-air-takes-flight/

It states: "Apple also today announced new MacBook Pro graphics options that will bring powerful Radeon Pro Vega graphics to MacBook Pro for the first time. These new graphics options deliver up to 60 percent faster graphics performance for the most demanding video editing, 3D design and rendering workloads.1"

That "1" footnote states:

"1 Testing conducted by Apple in October 2018 using preproduction 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-based MacBook Air systems with 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD."

So that 60 percent performance gain is versus a MacBook Air with integrated graphics instead of the current MacBook Pro with Radeon Pro 560X.

Either that or their press release is f**ked.

edited October 2018

soundsinamotion · October 30, 2018 6:38PM

ne1 said:

I'm not usually subject to Early Adopter Disgruntled Syndrome (EADS), but in this case, I'm pissed I bought a top of the line MBP i9 when released. I suggest those who did contact Apple and make some noise to see if they will offer a trade up upgrade program for the new GPU models or discount on eGPUs to early purchasers.

I wouldn’t worry too much, sometimes these upgrades in real world testing only amount to minuscule performance boosts. It’s probably not worth selling the last edition for this small boost.

mike wuerthele · October 30, 2018 7:17PM

mazda 3s said:

I think Apple is doing some fuzzy math here. The PR:

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/10/all-new-macbook-air-takes-flight/

It states: "Apple also today announced new MacBook Pro graphics options that will bring powerful Radeon Pro Vega graphics to MacBook Pro for the first time. These new graphics options deliver up to 60 percent faster graphics performance for the most demanding video editing, 3D design and rendering workloads.1"

That "1" footnote states:

"1 Testing conducted by Apple in October 2018 using preproduction 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-based MacBook Air systems with 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD."

So that 60 percent performance gain is versus a MacBook Air with integrated graphics instead of the current MacBook Pro with Radeon Pro 560X.

Either that or their press release is f**ked.

I think the footnote is just mislabeled. The 2016 MBP blew the current MBA's on-board GPU out of the water.

marvin · October 30, 2018 9:38PM

mazda 3s said:

I think Apple is doing some fuzzy math here. The PR:

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/10/all-new-macbook-air-takes-flight/

It states: "Apple also today announced new MacBook Pro graphics options that will bring powerful Radeon Pro Vega graphics to MacBook Pro for the first time. These new graphics options deliver up to 60 percent faster graphics performance for the most demanding video editing, 3D design and rendering workloads.1"

That "1" footnote states:

"1 Testing conducted by Apple in October 2018 using preproduction 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-based MacBook Air systems with 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD."

So that 60 percent performance gain is versus a MacBook Air with integrated graphics instead of the current MacBook Pro with Radeon Pro 560X.

Either that or their press release is f**ked.

That footnote 1 is in a number of paragraphs there. The correct footnote for the Vega GPUs is on the following page (footnote 15):

https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/

"Testing conducted by Apple in October 2018 using preproduction 2.9GHz 6-core Intel Core i9-based 15-inch MacBook Pro systems with Radeon Pro Vega 20 graphics, and shipping 2.9GHz 6-core Intel Core i9-based 15-inch MacBook Pro systems with Radeon Pro 560X graphics, both configured with 32GB of RAM and 4TB SSD. Cinema 4D R20 tested using a 15.7MB scene. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of MacBook Pro."

The 560X performance is here:

https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-Pro-560X-GPU-Benchmarks-and-Specs.318630.0.html
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Pro-15-2018-2-6-GHz-560X-Laptop-Review.317358.0.html

60% higher would put it just above NVidia's 1050ti Max-Q. Of course NVidia will have their 2000 series in mobile soon with hardware-accelerated raytracing:

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-turing-mobility-rtx-2080-mobile-gpu/

but the AMD chip should be getting close to 3TFLOP. The old Mac Pro D700 GPUs were 3.5TFLOPs each.

mazda 3s · October 30, 2018 11:21PM

Marvin said:

mazda 3s said:

I think Apple is doing some fuzzy math here. The PR:

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/10/all-new-macbook-air-takes-flight/

It states: "Apple also today announced new MacBook Pro graphics options that will bring powerful Radeon Pro Vega graphics to MacBook Pro for the first time. These new graphics options deliver up to 60 percent faster graphics performance for the most demanding video editing, 3D design and rendering workloads.1"

That "1" footnote states:

"1 Testing conducted by Apple in October 2018 using preproduction 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-based MacBook Air systems with 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD."

So that 60 percent performance gain is versus a MacBook Air with integrated graphics instead of the current MacBook Pro with Radeon Pro 560X.

Either that or their press release is f**ked.

That footnote 1 is in a number of paragraphs there. The correct footnote for the Vega GPUs is on the following page (footnote 15):

https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/

"Testing conducted by Apple in October 2018 using preproduction 2.9GHz 6-core Intel Core i9-based 15-inch MacBook Pro systems with Radeon Pro Vega 20 graphics, and shipping 2.9GHz 6-core Intel Core i9-based 15-inch MacBook Pro systems with Radeon Pro 560X graphics, both configured with 32GB of RAM and 4TB SSD. Cinema 4D R20 tested using a 15.7MB scene. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of MacBook Pro."

The 560X performance is here:

https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-Pro-560X-GPU-Benchmarks-and-Specs.318630.0.html
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Pro-15-2018-2-6-GHz-560X-Laptop-Review.317358.0.html

60% higher would put it just above NVidia's 1050ti Max-Q. Of course NVidia will have their 2000 series in mobile soon with hardware-accelerated raytracing:

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-turing-mobility-rtx-2080-mobile-gpu/

but the AMD chip should be getting close to 3TFLOP. The old Mac Pro D700 GPUs were 3.5TFLOPs each.

Thanks for the clarification!

ne1 · October 30, 2018 11:27PM

fastasleep said:

Glad I held off on buying! Was about to order an i9 15” with the 460X. Hope this doesn’t push the top end higher price wise.

Oh, of course it will

ne1 · November 1, 2018 8:58PM

fastasleep said:

ne1 said:

tomahawk said:

ne1 said:

I'm not usually subject to Early Adopter Disgruntled Syndrome (EADS), but in this case, I'm pissed I bought a top of the line MBP i9 when released. I suggest those who did contact Apple and make some noise to see if they will offer a trade up upgrade program for the new GPU models or discount on eGPUs to early purchasers.

You're upset that the laptop you purchased around July didn't offer a graphics card that wasn't even announced by AMD until today? Can't we just be happy that for one of the first times in a long time Apple is actually announcing an upgrade as soon as a newer, better, component is available rather than waiting a full year like they have been recently?

Sure, I'm happy about it-- also, I want an upgrade path to get a better GPU, especially if it offers better power management. These things are not mutually exclusive.

It’s called buying the new one and selling your old one, which doesn’t work any worse than when you bought it.

People complain when they don’t update their Macs often enough, and complain when they update them too often. Would you rather the Vega got announced and it simply sat there outside of the MBP and hopping into PCs until next year? Give me a break.

Nope, but they should have waited until the Vegas were available and made one update later this year, or announced that the Vegas were coming so those of us who bought could have waited.

Clearly, they didn’t want to risk losing sales until they could get the Vegas. If it was a year cycle, not a big deal, but 3 months? That’s a little ethically loose.

viclauyyc · November 11, 2018 6:35AM

ne1 said:

fastasleep said:

ne1 said:

tomahawk said:

ne1 said:

I'm not usually subject to Early Adopter Disgruntled Syndrome (EADS), but in this case, I'm pissed I bought a top of the line MBP i9 when released. I suggest those who did contact Apple and make some noise to see if they will offer a trade up upgrade program for the new GPU models or discount on eGPUs to early purchasers.

You're upset that the laptop you purchased around July didn't offer a graphics card that wasn't even announced by AMD until today? Can't we just be happy that for one of the first times in a long time Apple is actually announcing an upgrade as soon as a newer, better, component is available rather than waiting a full year like they have been recently?

Sure, I'm happy about it-- also, I want an upgrade path to get a better GPU, especially if it offers better power management. These things are not mutually exclusive.

It’s called buying the new one and selling your old one, which doesn’t work any worse than when you bought it.

People complain when they don’t update their Macs often enough, and complain when they update them too often. Would you rather the Vega got announced and it simply sat there outside of the MBP and hopping into PCs until next year? Give me a break.

Nope, but they should have waited until the Vegas were available and made one update later this year, or announced that the Vegas were coming so those of us who bought could have waited.

Clearly, they didn’t want to risk losing sales until they could get the Vegas. If it was a year cycle, not a big deal, but 3 months? That’s a little ethically loose.

And people will complain why Apple wait for an update that not everyone needs. I really doubt how many people will needs/want the Vaga GPU. It is not like Apple just switch to Nvidia after 3 months of a new release.

If you pay attention to AMD’s roadmap, you should know Vega is coming.

MacBook Pro getting Radeon Pro Vega graphics options in November

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