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    How significant is the difference between Iris 5200 and 5100?

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by York, Nov 23, 2013.

  1. York

    York Notebook Enthusiast

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    I was originally intending to get a 13 inch Retina Macbook Pro. However, I found out that it only has an Iris 5100 whereas the 15 inch model has the 5200. Benchmark software seem to show that the 5200 is 200% better than the 5100. That's a huge difference, but these benchmarks aren't always accurate.

    I intend to use the laptop for some light gaming (League of Legends, Minecraft) at native resolution.

    Will the Iris 5100 be sufficient for my needs? Or should I get a laptop with a 5200, instead? At the moment, it seems only the 15 inch Macbook and the ASUS UX301 have it. I'd really prefer not to spend more money than I have to. Plus, a 13 inch laptop is much more convenient for me than a 15 inch.
     
    York, Nov 23, 2013
    #1
  2. Jarhead

    Jarhead 恋の♡アカサタナ

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    Jarhead, Nov 23, 2013
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  3. KCETech1

    KCETech1 Notebook Prophet

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    performance wise there is no comparison. what are you wanting to run or do on your laptop? for gaming you would certainly NEED the 5200 IMO
     
    KCETech1, Nov 24, 2013
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  4. York

    York Notebook Enthusiast

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    The laptop will be mostly for academic use. However, I would still like to be able to play low-requirement games at the native resolution. I'm not sure if the 5100 would be enough to run something like League of Legends at 2560x1600.
     
    York, Nov 24, 2013
    #4
  5. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    You would need a dedicated gaming notebook with a high-end GPU to be able to do this. Even for a "low-end" game, that's still a lot of pixels to push. Now the 5100 and 5200 in the 13 and 15 would be sufficient for running at the rMBP's scaled "native" resolutions of 1280x800 and 1440x900, respectively.
     
    saturnotaku, Nov 25, 2013
    #5
  6. kornchild2002

    kornchild2002 Notebook Deity

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    Right. Pushing a game, any modern game really, at that high of a resolution would require a higher end GPU than the Iris offerings in both the 13" and 15" MBPr models. You would need a dedicated Nvidia or AMD GPU to play either of those games at the 13" MBPr's native resolution at an enjoyable framerate (i.e. not 15 fps, something unplayable).
     
    kornchild2002, Nov 25, 2013
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  7. GTRagnarok

    GTRagnarok Notebook Evangelist

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    BTW, the Asus UX301 has the HD 5100, not the 5200.
     
    GTRagnarok, Nov 28, 2013
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