Windows (esp. Win8) experience on MBP - and compatibility with Retina Display?

[taylormah]

I have been a Windows user all my life. I am in market for a new notebook, but nothing has captured my heart more than a macbook pro. I am not a fan of Apple's OS but the MBP's hardware and design are irresistible mix of plain classic and sultry and sexy, and nothing else in Windows laptops market comes close to it. Envy is there, but I don't like it compared to MBPs. So my plan was to grab the latest refresh of MBP-15, and use bootcamp to put a copy of Win8 on it whenever that comes out. But before dropping $3000+ on my first MBP, I need help finding some answers.

I am a heavy user when it comes to stressing the hardware of the notebook. I play games, use photoshop, run emulators, have chrome always open with no less than 20 tabs at one time, run local ftp server on my notebook etc. etc. So my first question to the MBP community here is how compatible Win8 could be when running on MBP bootcamp? Other than some different keys on the keyboard, would it be exact same experience as if running it on some Windows laptop? Are drivers of native microsoft softwares or other programs any issue ever? Can it use the MBP's hardware to full extent while running CPU/GPU intensive tasks?

With the retina display in the picture now, would you experienced guys know if there would be any problem running Win8 or legacy Windows programs on this MBP? I read somewhere that Win8 would also be capable of HiDPI, but does it mean no use-issues even while using older non-microsoft updated software?

I understand I am asking about Win8, which is not even released yet. But with release preview out, I am assuming there must be some users here who have tried it on their current MBP's. Thanks for your help guys!!

[saturnotaku]

Boot Camp is little more than a courtesy to Windows users to ease the transition to Mac OS. Look, I understand you like the design of the MacBook Pro, and the Retina display is nice, but if you intend to run Windows exclusively or most of the time, a Mac is not a good choice. Things "work" in Boot Camp, but the experience is far from optimal. A Retina display and Windows 8 probably won't help matters.

[masterchef341]

You'll almost certainly run into a variety of issues with many, if not all of the things you just mentioned.

[kornchild2002]

Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't bootcamp only work with Windows Vista and Windows 7? I didn't think that Apple opened it up to the pre-release/beta versions of Windows 8 just yet.

As pointed out, the experience isn't the same. Apple's bootcamp drivers are laughable at best as the trackpad doesn't retain all of its gestures, you can only use the GPU and not the IGP, and there are a few other things.

The retina display may or may not cause problems for Windows 8. No one knows as the 2012 MBP hasn't hit homes yet and, if someone were to purchase it, I would be dumfounded if the first thing they did was install Windows 8 and stick with it. Macs have and will always be made for running OS X. No matter what design Apple uses, you should never buy a Mac if your main intention is to stick in Windows. There are a few people here in the forums that strictly run Windows but they represent a small, niche category of users who drastically overpaid just to have a flashy system with a sub-par Windows experience.

Stick with Windows notebooks if you want to run Windows. They will catchup to Apple's retina display soon enough and will provide an all around better Windows experience. Things would be different if you planned on staying in OS X 70-80% of the time. However, it doesn't sound like that is going to happen.

[Mitlov]

There is support for 16:9 retina-style screens (you can't see individual pixels with the naked eye) in Windows 8. No word on what it'll do with a 2880x1800 screen though, as I've only seen 16:9 screen setups with Windows 8.

Given prior driver issues with Boot Camp, if you want Windows 8 but high-res screens, I'd wait for Windows 8 machines with 2560x1440 resolution.



AnandTech - Microsoft Talks Screen Resolution in Windows 8, Suggests "Retina"-esque Tablets

[truciet]

Found this.

Supported resolutions: 2880 by 1800 pixels (Retina); scaled resolutions: 1920 by 1200, 1680 by 1050, 1280 by 800, and 1024 by 640 pixels

Default 1920x1200 I bet but still not bad for a 15.6"

[thedoberman90]

I'm thinking of doing the same thing you are. I really like the specs on the mac book pro mainly the quad core cpu, thunderbolt ports, and nvidia optimus all in a very portable form factor. Price isn't really an issue for me so the premium for Mac wouldn't be that troublesome.

However I really don't like OS X, and it would be incompatible with a few of the programs I run frequently. So I like you would like to minimize the mac os X partition or even uninstall OS X completely. Now tons of PC's already have a 1 gb Nvidia 650m and ivy bridge quad core. Doesn't that mean the drivers are already out there for the card? I'm sure windows could setup the wireless and other card drivers may not be as streamlined as OS X. So what driver problems are we looking at besides whether Windows supports the screen resolution?

[masterchef341]

optimus is totally out, you'll be limited right off the bat to using only the 650m, which means battery life is going to be short.

second, if you get rid of the OS X partition, you can't get firmware updates for your hardware (they are only available through OS X).

then there are the trackpad and keyboard issues, and fan issues, throttling issues.

I've found that if you only use your laptop plugged in, on a desk, with an external mouse, you can get by on windows on an apple laptop - if you manually push the fans up near the maximum with third party software, and don't mind noise. If you intend to use it as a laptop (off of a desk, without blaring the fans, not plugged in, using the trackpad) you aren't going to have a good experience in windows.

[saturnotaku]

Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't bootcamp only work with Windows Vista and Windows 7?

With Lion, Boot Camp only works with Windows 7. Vista support was dropped.

I'm thinking of doing the same thing you are. I really like the specs on the mac book pro mainly the quad core cpu, thunderbolt ports, and nvidia optimus all in a very portable form factor. Price isn't really an issue for me so the premium for Mac wouldn't be that troublesome.

If the new NVIDIA MacBook Pros are like the current AMD ones, there is no graphic switching on the Windows side. It runs on the discreet GPU all the time, meaning your battery life will be drastically reduced.

Again, if you don't like or don't intend to use OS X the majority of the time, a Mac is not for you.

Found this.

Supported resolutions: 2880 by 1800 pixels (Retina); scaled resolutions: 1920 by 1200, 1680 by 1050, 1280 by 800, and 1024 by 640 pixels

Default 1920x1200 I bet but still not bad for a 15.6"

Those are the supported resolutions for Mac OS, and 2880x1800 is the default on the Retina, not 1920x1200.

[Mitlov]

I'm thinking of doing the same thing you are. I really like the specs on the mac book pro mainly the quad core cpu, thunderbolt ports, and nvidia optimus all in a very portable form factor. Price isn't really an issue for me so the premium for Mac wouldn't be that troublesome.

With the Vaio S13 Performance, Sony offers a Windows laptop with a 15.5" 1080p screen, quad-core Ivy Bridge CPU, and Nvidia 640M GPU, that weighs 4.4 lbs just like the new MBP 15. Estimated battery life is 6:15 without a sheet battery (Apple estimates 7:00 in OSX; Windows battery life on the MBPs has always been bad because you don't have switchable graphics), and you can add a sheet battery to take battery life up to 12:45 (with corresponding increase in thickness and weight, of course).

There aren't Thunderbolt ports on the S15, though. Even so, if Windows is your primary OS, I'd think long and hard about getting the Vaio S15 over the MBP 15.