Running only Windows 8 on rMBP - No bootcamp

I'm not sure this is the right section, but I'm a windows user and need to get a new laptop for work/school. I am annoyed that the only nicely built, full powered laptops are pretty much the Razer Blade and the Macbook Pro. Macbook wins for it's superior touchpad and also display.

I want to wipe OSX completely from the computer and install Windows only. Who has done this and can provide insight for any problems. I wouldn't think there would be any since it's running pretty standard parts. One thing is no right mouse click button as well as no start key. I know touchpad ++ supposedly works well and adds windows 8 gestures to it as well. I do IT work from home often, so I do need a fully functioning Windows experience with little to no workarounds.

I read about everyone using Bootcamp, but I have no desire to keep OSX and consider it a waste of space. Plus I don't want any part of Apple built windows drivers.

Please let me know if you are doing this and how it is going.

 

While possible to do a straight EFI install of Windows on a Mac, it is not a good idea for several reasons:

1) All firmware updates are done through the App Store.

2) There is no automatic graphic switching support on models with a discreet GPU so battery life is reduced by 1/2-2/3.

3) A lot of users who have tried this method report non functional sound with no way of getting it to work outside of an external device.

There is a thread elsewhere here (in the hardware subsection below what notebook should I buy) that has a list of current and upcoming ultra high resolution notebooks. One of those would be better suited for you.

 

Dell precision m3800 is coming up very soon and you can look at its review at dell forum section.

Sent from my HUAWEI Y300-0100 using Tapatalk

 

Samsung ativ 9 has a good display (3000ish pixels) which is much better than Macbook Air's non-retina display.

 

You forgot business-class laptops. Dell Latitude E6xxx or Precision, Lenovo Thinkpad X/T/W, HP Elitebook or ZBook...

I don't have any advice for installing Windows 8 on a MBP, so I'll take my leave now.

 

Listen to saturnotaku. This is a terrible idea.

The Dell Precision m3800 is the best combination of build quality, ultra-high resolution, and power if you want those three things on a Windows machine. Running Windows only on a MBP is generally a recipe for heartache, since Apple has little incentive to make quality drivers for Windows for its laptops.

 

you can throw the superior touchpad factor out the window. Apple's trackpads in windows are a mediocre experience at best, terrible at worst.

 

I'm sorry, but these laptops are no match for the macbook pro. I am not a fanboy at all and absolutely hate all things apple, but they can build a quality laptop. I use Lenovo's for work but it doesn't have the same quality build and sleekness as the macbook. Let alone the hardware. Dell laptops have only broken on me and we don't use them for our business anymore.

 

I looked at the M3800 and it is nice but i'm concerned with it being a Dell. Thats what I have a problem with.

Running windows shouldn't be a problem at all since it's using normal hardware. I can find all the drivers for every individual component if it was in a windows machine. That's the part i'm having a problem understanding where it doesn't work. Touchpad I can understand. Intel drivers are normal. PCI ssd drivers could be a problem. Nvidia drivers with optimus shouldn't be a problem either.

I ended up going with a razer blade 14. As nothing else can match the nice aluminum chassis and the fact it has a i7-4702 with nvidia 765m. Plus 6 hour battery for normal battery usage. The only thing that made me wait so long is the terrible display. But I have little other options. Except for the m3800 which I am still debating. Price will get up there.

 

Umm... What?

MBPs aren't designed to stand up to the same abuse as something like a Thinkpad can (stuff like MILSPEC situations). Perhaps you're talking about the Thinkpad Edge or L or SL series (which aren't built as well as the "true" Thinkpads)?

Anyway, it still stands that Windows drivers for MBPs aren't the highest quality, so I wouldn't recommend running a MBP purely on Windows. But you said you already got a Blade 14, so I guess this whole thread is now moot...

 

Except when it is...

 

I think when he talks about "quality," he's talking about "feels sexier" and "feels luxurious" instead of "is more durable." The two are most definitely not the same. A MacBook feels very "luxurious" and "sexy" in the hand, but it can't take even a fraction of the punishment of, say, a Thinkpad T. And some people just have a subjective bias against plastic-skinned metal-framed cases of Thinkpads, even though it's an extremely sensible design from an engineering standpoint.

 

Well, if that's what OP meant, then sure, though that's highly subjective. But to each their own.

 

No Mac laptop is as durable as my Lenovo ThinkPad W530.
Macs are just consumer grade laptops.

I dare to say that If I used Mac laptops, they probably wouldn't survive the workload I would put on them.

I heard some people on this forum have experienced Mac laptops dying on them since they aren't suited for heavy duty work.

My ThinkPads with their rubber coated tops feel luxurious

Rubber can be sexy too you know.

 

Yes I guess I did not mean "more durable."

We use T series out in the field and our employees are anything but gentle to them. I wonder what kind of punishment the laptops had to endure to end up with what I get back from them. I am currently using a T420 at the moment. And i'm tired of the plastic creaking all over. Even new lenovo's fresh from the factory have the same problem to some degree. It only gets worse with age. Sure the Titanium helps protect it if I were to stab it but that's not my line of work.

I am not abusive to my laptop but I do spend hours on it everyday. It travels with me from work to school to home. I wanted something full powered in a slim sleek body. Plus get decent battery life if I am doing light work on it.

I "decided" to go with the Razer but haven't placed my order yet. I was trying to buy used but that isn't working out too well. So I still have not placed an order yet.

saturnotaku - I'm really not trying to be argumentative but I'm just trying to understand. If I put Windows on it without bootcamp and downloaded drivers for Nvidia to put on it, how is it any different than me taking for example: The razer blade, put a fresh install of windows and downloaded Nvidia drivers for it? The "why" is what i'm trying to understand. A 750m is a 750m whether it's in a mac with windows or a dell with windows. What am I missing on this? I can understand trying to use Mac's windows drivers for it and how that would be a terrible idea.

Again, I'm not trying to be a pain. I am trying to fully understand why it doesn't work since it seems like the same hardware as in a windows machine.

 

^^ I think what he's getting at is that the trackpad tends to be a bit wonky with Windows on Apple's gear. And, if you have a dGPU, Optimus doesn't work, so I hear.

 

op knows that, he wants to know why

 

The hardware is the same, but the implementation of switchable graphics is different. So as not to get overly technical, the MacBook Pro's switchable graphics is based on older technology where the integrated and discreet GPUs have a connection to the display. In modern Optimus (NVIDIA) and Enduro (AMD) notebooks, only the integrated GPU (iGPU) is connected. All data that the discreet GPU (dGPU) parses is run through the iGPU and on to your display.

Apple's hybrid master boot record/EFI setup disables the iGPU's connection when Windows is installed via Boot Camp. Thus, only the dGPU is available. When attempting a straight-up EFI installation of Windows on a Mac (bypassing Boot Camp), both GPUs show up in device manager, but switching does not work. The iGPU has to be disabled or else the system becomes unstable. Try as they might, the community has yet to find a workaround for this limitation.

 

Thank you. That is exactly the information I was looking for. We can marked this as answered and I will have to move on. It is very unfortunate though.

 

Funnily enough, the lack of switchable graphics on Windows was a selling point for me when I purchased my first Sandy Bridge MacBook Pro in 2011. My prior experience with Optimus-enabled Windows notebooks was sub-par to say the least. When it worked, it was fantastic. When it didn't, which was the case for a lot of older titles I played, it was a disaster. In the nearly two years I've owned 2011 MacBook Pros (the one in my sig was an upgrade from an early-2011 model), I can count the number of times I've used Windows while unplugged on one hand.

Now Optimus has, no doubt, improved since then, but I'm too entrenched in the Apple ecosystem to change. Besides, my current system more than serves my gaming needs. I've also been relying on Windows much less since many of my favorite games have seen ports to OS X, a trend that will continue now that Apple has embraced OpenGL 4.0 and 4.1 in 10.9.

 

OMG need brain soap

 

The same abuse that would make a Thinkpad creak would dent a MBP or badly jostle its components (the tightly-packed aluminum unibody chassis doesn't have the bump-absorbing characteristics of a Thinkpad frame).

It's not the Nvidia drivers that will give you heartache. It's the trackpad, camera, power management, etc drivers that will give you heartache. You need Apple's drivers for those.

 

Your battery life will be mediocre if you run Windows exclusively on a mac

 

I personally haven't had any problem with trackpad, camera, or power management. Is it worse than native OS X? Yes. But is it worse than any other notebook out there? No.

I get about 6 real hrs of use in Windows. That's not any worse than any other higher end notebook out there. I don't reduce my brightness to 50% and only check web mail. I'm talking about real use.
The trackpad works great once you know how to use it. Single touch click works, two finger touch double click works. Double finger scroll works. Physical click and drag works. I'm not sure what's wonky about that.

The main drivers needed are from Intel, which are the same for any notebook. There's nothing special about these and they work.

I can't comment on nvidia as I use a a late 2013 rMPB 13"

 

Trackpad performance under Windows is wonky. Not every gesture is carried over and not everything always works just as it does in OS X. The pinch-to-zoom option would often take two tries for it to work on my various MacBooks under Windows 7. Scrolling wasn't nearly as smooth as OS X either. It worked but not optimally. Running Windows 7 through Parallels actually improved trackpad performance for me as more gestures are carried over, scrolling was smoother, pinch-to-zoom always worked, etc.

The main comment about power management mainly comes from systems that have dedicated graphics along with integrated options. For example, my 15" MBP has an Intel HD 4000 integrated chip along with an Nvidia GT 650M. When using OS X, it will seamlessly switch between one and another when need be. The Intel IGP is used when I'm watching a movie in iTunes (even an HD movie), browsing the internet, watching HD Flash content, working in Office, checking e-mail, etc. It is more than suitable for everyday tasks, no need for the more power hungry Nvidia GPU. However, I can open up AutoCAD or a game and OS X will switch over to the Nvidia GPU since the Intel IGP can't handle those tasks. It means my battery life will be a little reduced but it is fine for everyday activities. Ever since installing OS X Mavericks, I've been getting an average of 7-7.5 hours on a single charge with my 15" MBP (~70% brightness, bluetooth and wi-fi on, backlight keyboard on). That's actually really, really good for a 15" notebook with a quad-core Core i7 processor. However, I can fire up Windows 7 or 8.1 and my battery life is reduced to 3-4 hours as it cannot access the Intel IGP, only the Nvidia GPU is used and that can't be switched off. So the more power hungry GPU is used when I'm in Office, browsing the internet, and completing other everyday activities that can be perfectly handled (with ease) by the Intel IGP. That's a big killer right there.

It isn't as noticeable with units that have only Intel IGP's or on Mac desktops where battery life doesn't matter. Even so though, you'll easily get an extra 60-120 minutes using OS X Mavericks on a compatible Mac notebook with an Intel IGP over Windows 7/8.1.

 

I was planning to run Windows on a rBMP 13 inch, too. Are the problems significant enough to deter me from doing this?

The few Ultrabooks comparable to the rBMP are more expensive and offer less configuration options. I guess the Yoga Pro 2 is a good buy for the specs but I have no use for the convertible feature. Would that laptop still be worthwhile if I plan to exclusively use it as a laptop?

 

You can always use virtual machine to run windows unless you dont want osx at all.

Yoga 2 pro is very good considering the price, i ordered one online $15XX including tax for a i7 8g 512g Y2P, but cancelled before it was ready to ship after i played with it a bit in a lenovo showroom. The screen is good unless you are a serious photographer and color accuracy is very important to you, this is the reason i cancelled my order). The battery life isnt impresive too. Other than these cons, all pros.

 

I hear they've fixed the color inaccuracy with a software update. Also, doesn't the i7 on the Yoga actually perform worse than the i5 on the Retina Macbook Pro? They're both dual cores but the Macbook has a higher clockspeed.

 

no the i7 is actually faster, clock speed is not a good indication of a CPU's speed nowadays especially in multithreaded applications.

 

^ This.

Someone on YouTube did a comparison of the Haswell rMBP vs the outgoing Ivy Bridge model. Despite the former's lower clock speed, in several multimedia applications where CPU power is tested, it was noticeably faster.

 

Buy a PC notebook for Windows/Linux and a Mac for OS X, general logic here. The XPS 15 is a great laptop for the OP, assuming he can afford one.

Haswell has some improvements over IB in the performance department (especially in terms of GPU performance) however Haswell really shines when it comes to power consumption and battery life.