Why I switched to The Dark Side

[NeoZeon]

my early 2011 macbook pro still fast as ever (it's been my only computer since buying it). I don't expect that to be changing anytime soon.

[vectorx5000]

Finally, someone who appreciates that macs aren't crap, and that OSX at least not terrible.

[vectorx5000]

I actually had my mid 2007 iMac up until last year, and it was still running nicely at the end. I still have it, but don't use it.

[pit5000]

good read but for me personally, anything with HiDPI should have a dedicated GPU

 

my 2012 MBPr has a GT650M, it's not much but it's better than stock graphics

[vectorx5000]

Macs aren't crap at all. They have great build quality with pretty good support. It's just that after a teardown of all the specs, the  Mac price to performance ratio is blown out of the water by Windows machines.

 

For the price of the new $1100 iMac (i5, 8gb ram, 500gb hdd) I found a Windows all-in-one with an i7, 16GB of RAM, 2TB hard drive, and that was like $100 less. I found an iMac equivalent for $800.

 Yeah. That's my thing. They are very expensive new, but if you can get an older one cheaply, then they will stay working well for much longer than a windows machine in my experience. I was using my mid 2007 iMac until this year, and it worked pretty well.

[vectorx5000]

Really depends on how Windows machines are being used, and what OS is being used. I personally have a negative experience with Windows 10. It takes forever to boot up on my laptop (which has an i5), and just operates slow on my machine. Never had these problems with 8.1 on the same laptop.

 

There are two factors that are exclusive to Windows machines that can slow it down:

 

1) There are a decent amount more programs developed for Windows, so you can install a lot of programs. More programs = more processes. More processes = slower.

2) Generally easier to get adware/viruses on a Windows machine because of both more being in existence, and OSX being less permissive as to what it lets in.

 

Both of these things are easily resolvable with some programs that fight for the user, but more importantly, common sense. 

Yeah. I pretty much agree with all of that.

[Benji_w]

I absolutely hate, I cannot stress this enough, HATE Mac OS and my macbook pro, its an older model, It desperately needs overpriced ram and an SSD. I HAVE to use mac for my line of work once I get hired in a studio but seriously I cannot fucking stand it.

 

/rant

[iRandomize]

good read but for me personally, anything with HiDPI should have a dedicated GPU

 

my 2012 MBPr has a GT650M, it's not much but it's better than stock graphics

 

I have a split opinion on this matter. I don't need to render anything but graphs in Excel, which isn't exactly GPU intense. All of the work i do on my computer the iGPU handles just fine. Especially since the El Capitan update, that made animations more fluid. This is still not perfect though, and i do experience notable stuttering just rendering the OS X animations, which i really think is a shame, and takes away from the overall experience. Most importantly though, i don't find a discrete GPU to be a worthwhile compromise. It takes away from the battery life, which is one of the most important features in my day-to-day use of a laptop.

 

What annoys me the most though, is how Windows is so much more efficient in their graphics implementation. I hardly every experience any kind of stuttering or lag on Windows.

[Sauron]

I have a friend in university who has a mid end mbpr 13" - with an i7 and 16gb of ram. Cost him just under 2000 bucks. Now, I recently purchased a refurbished thinkpad x220 for 400 bucks and installed arch linux on it. There is not a single thing that he does with his macbook that I can't do just as well and comfortably on my x220. The weight of the two as well as battery life is very similar, so that's also a non-issue. The only real defect in my opinion is that the screen's resolution is a bit low, but multiple desktops make up for it almost every time. The rmbp is certainly a very good product, but when i could get nearly the same experience spending 1/5th as much... it's hard for me to recommend it to anyone. Sure, I have less ram (easily expandable by the way, 16gb of sodimm ddr3 can be had for less than 100 bucks) and a slightly outdated core i5 (not undervolted, which makes up for its age by a lot), but in everyday use I never notice. And if you really need more power you'll want to look at something else than a macbook anyway.

 

In general, apple makes good products (with a few exceptions, the new macbook and the entry level imacs are just straight up bad) but they cost way too much in my opinion.

[Mew]

 

What annoys me the most though, is how Windows is so much more efficient in their graphics implementation. I hardly every experience any kind of stuttering or lag on Windows.

 

It's just simpler animations and UI in Windows, just like Kit Kat compared to Lollipop and Android compared to iOS; you turn up the eye candy and it becomes much harder to maintain a smooth framerate.