MacbookPro GPU Advice

fifou

Hi Isadora community,

It's been a long time i've been away from Shows including video and Isadora. On my latest project, one month ago, I noticed that my MacbookPro 2012 (16Go Ram + 2 SSDs) with a NVIDIA GeForce GT650M1Go was near the acceptable limit to have smooth playback (1080p@60fps). So I was thinking about buying a new MacbookPro.

I'm not fan of the latest ones, I'm expecially not fan of having to buy every USC-C adapter to be able to plug all my old stuff (firewire, usb, network...) These are expensive computer and I can't afford them. So I'm looking for an intermediate solution : Buying a 2014-2016 macbook.

In your opinions which video card is the best for what we are doing with Isadora ? : NVIDIA GeForce GT750M/2Go ? Iris Pro 5200 ? AMD Radeon R9 M370X/2Go ?

Thanks for your thoughts and advices.

All the Best and happy New Year to All.

Philippe

DusX

@fifou

I will say, Not the Intel iris.

As far as between the nvidia and amd, I would go for the nVidia, but thats based on my PC experience.
Apple has embraced AMD so perhaps they perform better with a Mac.
Your going to want to compare the specific models though.

mark_m

@fifou

I am not sure that Apple is still supporting NVIDIA GPUs in its latest OS.. but I am a Windows user, so you want to check it out for yourself.

sommerdi

I got a new one 16" 32GB, AMD 8GB with OS X 10.15.... i struggled a lot with this decision... i compared some of my Izzy 3.07 patches with old 2012 16GB / 2013 16GB OSX 10.13 MacBooks ... The performance improvement is in the range of a factor 3 - 4... much more compare to the old ones .. next advantage is the capability to run eGPU

Yes USBc / TB3 adapters is a penalty... i have one TB3 to TB2 adapter and have connected at my old docking station (FW800, Ethernet, Hdmi, USB3) without any problem. Motu released today their driver for 10.15 .... the major not apple software (Ableton, Max/Msp/Izzy, Affinity, libre office, cumin) for me is running

Fred

@mark_m apple have continued support for the GPUs that have been shipped with their products, there is no support for newer nvida gpus.

@fifou I still have my NVIDIA GeForce GT750M machine and it is pretty good, like @sommerdi I also got the same model 16" macbook pro, the performance is pretty amazing and I got a bunch of different docks and adaptors from ali express that work perfectly and were very cheap. It is an expensive computer and like @DusX I wish it had an nvidia gpu, but power, battery life, warranty, performance and the need to work with OSX for a number of collaborators led me to this. Easily the best laptop I have used.

msanii

@fred said:

'Easily the best laptop I have used.'

reconversion? didn't think I'd ever hear this from you on macs!

Fred

@msanii as far as laptops go I tried a lot of others and I'm very happy. I cannot just chose a laptop on raw power, but size weight and battery life as well. For an actual work machine I won't leave NVIDIA so Mac is not an option.

fifou

Thanks all for your advices, and feedbacks.

Latest Macbooks are far from my budget. It's going to be my latest mac (i think).

Unable to make a technical choice between NVIDIA and AMD, I think I'll go for the AMD Radeon R9 M370X/2Go, just because the mac and the card is 2 years younger..

All the best

Philippe