Questions about the macbook pro

I was thinking on buying a macbook pro for school however i have several questions hopefully someone can answer them, The main purpose would be running windows by using bootcamp because most of the editing software i use only run on windows, you might ask why dont i just buy a normal windows laptop the answer is i like the design/materials used on the macbooks and the battery duration. Anyways the questions i have are:

1) When running windows on macbook pro using bootcamp, will it run windows just as fast and normal as a windows laptop?

2) Apples website says it runs for 8 hours on battery for mac os, is it fair to assume that windows will have a comparable time?

3) During customization their are several different processors, does anyone know the models of them? I wanted to look at their specs

4) Last and probably most important, Is it know that a newer version is coming out soon, if i knew that a newer version would come out in a month i would hold off until then


thanks

 

1) Yes.

2) No. Depending on the model you want to buy, you will see a reduction in battery life of anywhere from 30-70%.

3) Mac Specs, Prices, Answers and Comparison @ EveryMac.com, Est. 1996

4) The only possible change that will come in the immediate future is if Apple bumps the processor speeds. Usually it's not more than 100 MHz or so. The next major update to the line will be when Broadwell is introduced. The CPUs themselves are not slated to release until Q4 '14, so any Macs with them likely won't be out until sometime in Q1 '15.

Buying a Mac just to run Windows is a bad idea. Driver support, the trackpad, and most importantly battery life are all inferior when compared to OS X. If you are primarily editing video, you should really consider a professional workstation, eg Dell Precision, HP Elitebook, Thinkpad W-Series. They're not as aesthetically pleasing as a Mac, but they are built better and come with better warranties, including next-business day on-site support and accidental damage coverage, neither of which is offered by Apple. The Dell Precision M3800 is a fine substitute for a 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro, and it's available with a GPU that supports both OpenCL and CUDA.

 

First thing first, don't buy a MacBook Pro if you want to primarily run Windows. You would be better off with a Wintel machine even if you think the MBP is the best designed notebook on the market. Here's my answer to your questions"

1. Yes. There are a few things that won't transfer over well though. The trackpad doesn't function nearly as well in Windows as OS X but that is due to shoddy drivers from Apple.

2. No, not at all. This, again, is due to a driver issue. The MBP is able to get that because it switches over to Intel's integrated graphics (IGP) instead of relying on the Nvidia GPU for most tasks. It will fire up the Nvidia GPU when needed but switch back to the Intel IGP. This saves power. However, under Windows, the Nvidia GPU is always running so it will be consuming more power. Things are better on MBPs with just Intel integrated graphics but you still won't get the 8 hours of battery life. For example, when I had a 2011 13" MBP, I would normally get about 6.5 hours of real world usage on a single charge in OS X (it was rated for 7). I would boot into Windows 7 and that dropped to 4.5-5 hours.

3. Apple doesn't list the CPU ID's. However, you can find them using Google (or websites that claim to have them). These are the ones for I found on Wikipedia for the 15" model (first 3 are for the model with integrated graphics only, the last 2 are for the model with the Nvidia GPU):

2.0 GHz Core i7 (I7-4750HQ)
2.3 GHz Core i7 (I7-4850HQ)
2.6 GHz Core i7 (I7-4960HQ)
2.3 GHz Core i7 (I7-4850HQ)
2.6 GHz Core i7 (I7-4960HQ)

Are these 100% accurate, I don't know. You would have to conduct your own Google search to determine if they match up or not.

4. No one aside from Apple knows this. We can try a predict when an update is coming but it won't be accurate. Historically speaking, Apple comes out with two updates/models a year. They will come out with an early or mid-year update and then a late year update. So, for the current models, they were released in early 2013 and updated late 2013 in October. An update could come early in 2014 (Jan-March) or in mid-2014 (April-Sept). Your guess would be as good as anyone else's. The update cycle also depends on new/updated hardware that Intel releases. I don't think Intel has come out with any new Core i7 Haswell CPU since June 2013. I know they released one in September 2013 but it's low end, Apple wouldn't use it in the 15" MBPr.

 

1. Depends on what you do. if you only have 4gb ram in your macbook and you allocate 2gb to windows while playing a game or video editing, you will suffer. if however you allocate more ram (8 gigs) you are set.

2. not really, windows uses your discrete card = lower battery performance

3. they are basically the same thing - you won't notice the difference between same class models (i.e quad core i7 2.3 vs 2.4)

4. idk

 

in many applications yes, but in others no. depending on your software you can take a massive performance hit from lack of certain hardware options and upgrade paths. as was said Apple supplied drivers can be very sub par and on occasion quite glitchy.

if you have a model with intel IGP only they are fairly similar ( within about 10-15% ) BUT any models with a dedicated GPU such as the 15" models you will see your battery life cut close to half because if the inability to switch GPU's or throttle the dedicated card back sufficiently. (both my rMBP 15" units drops battery life by over half in windows )

was listed well above. however between the models used there tends to be very little difference in real world applications, and if you need maximum CPU usage for editing I honestly find them all a tad weak and have on occasion throttling issues which pull back your performance by 50-60% for short periods of time, unless the APM gets stuck at a low power state and I need to hard reboot.

no one has a clue, Apple does not announce new models too far in advance, I would suspect no minor upgrade until summer myself.

and as to what others have said, if you are editing on windows mostly look at something like the m3800 or another editing station. and it also depends on your software and needs. I haul around a Precision M6800 17" unit a lot because in AVID and Adobe Premier I can run circles around a current gen Mac Pro for video editing. Pick the proper tool for the job and needs IMO.

 

looks like people are against the idea, i guess i will look for another laptop also i meant to software that compiles files to program electronics and not like video editing, i phrased it wrong