The network continues to actively discuss the new MacBook Pro, and especially “get” the 15-inch laptop – according to some users, the prefix “Pro” is not compatible with AMD graphics Polaris as a more affordable and versatile alternative to Nvidia which would be the best choice. We already wrote about the fact that some independent portals conduct their own experiments in performance and came to the conclusion that GPU from AMD makes it possible to process 3D graphics and ensures best visual effects, while Nvidia with these tasks copes slightly worse, but allows you to play modern games at higher settings. Experts believe that Apple made the right choice and there are several reasons.
MacBook Pro is created not for games
Despite the fact that Apple puts a good discrete graphics (which is very warmly foreign observers), she doesn’t handle games. However, here we are talking about modern games that run at high settings — a separate category of “gamers” prefer to look at the world, rather than focusing on the gameplay, and the adventure, for example, the appearance plays a far greater role than the study area as a process. MacBook Pro is positioned as a “device work”, and in the potential target audience included employees of creative professions, such as videoriver, designers, photographers, musicians, and indeed all whose work the laptop without the prefix “Pro” can’t do.
You need to pay attention that Nvidia continues to develop on the market of the gaming industry and in combination with the DirectX graphics processor can achieve really good results. However, this applies to the Windows operating system and game manufacturers continue to focus on it. With macOS, everything is much more complicated — it is a waste of your resources only the big vendors, and existing customers may not always be comparable to the Windows alternative. For example, Hearthstone from Blizzard on the MacBook looks very mediocre, because it has a low resolution (1280×800) and on Retina screens looks awful.
The desire to stand out
Apple — custom company, so with her look “perfect” to be reckoned with. Another reason why the choice was made in favor of AMD is the better performance of the GPU with the operating system. And since the company is praised for the perfect combination of software and components, the cupertinos have this title to be maintained. Together the above mentioned DirectX Apple has its own alternative called Metal. Because of this, the developers there is a kind of dissonance, but the essence lies elsewhere. Nvidia cares about their developers and trying to do everything for comfortable work.
Since Apple tends to stand out among the PC makers, she chose a different path of development, where there is no chip from Nvidia. The fact that they use hardware and software architecture parallel computing, which can significantly increase computational performance – it is called CUDA, and Nvidia has invested a lot of energy. As noted in the public domain, “architecture CUDA allows the developer the discretion to arrange access to the instruction set of the graphics accelerator and monitor his memory.”
So if you want to work with Nvidia, you have to work with CUDA, and it imposes certain restrictions that Cupertino is not ready to go. In turn, AMD offers a less powerful graphics, but does not restrict developers in the programming environment and customization that plays into the hands of Apple, which is easier to develop your Metal. So instead of “sewn” CUDA in Nvidia company makes a choice in favor of AMD’s open platform and creates an alternative.
The advantages of AMD
Ultimately you need to understand that Apple is developing its own, so will do everything possible to promote their solutions and his vision for the graphic industry. The new MacBook Pro delivers the highest performance when working with video. Final Cut Pro on the laptops leaves no chance of Adobe Premiere on Windows to competitors.
Graphics MacBook Pro handles all the necessary tasks and is certainly not a weak point of the “professional” line of Apple laptops. Also important is another aspect: AMD supports DisplayPort, which allows you to simultaneously connect two 5K monitor to MacBook Pro that is not available for Nvidia graphics.
