MBP 13inch Retina - Advice needed

[MartinBKK]

I am considering buying a new Macbook Pro Retina.

13-inch: 2.6GHz
with Retina display
Specifications
2.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz
8GB 1600MHz memory
256GB PCIe-based flash storage
Intel Iris Graphics
Built-in battery (9 hours)

How would this machine perform for a full time poker player? I really like the portability of the 13 over the 15 but do you think it is powerful enough to multi table smoothly at ipoker and pokerstars. Usually i play 9 regular tables or 4 zoom/speed tables with NoteCaddy Edge.

Any advice/opinions appreciated.

Many thanks.

[Patvs]

Because of the i5 + SSD (PCIe flash storage), 8 GB RAM, it's extremely fast.
It's a faster system than most desktops computers.


There is one downside though.
The 13 inch Retina display has a 2560x1600 pixel resolution (it's a great screen).

...but HoldemManager / PokerStars sort of 'expect' you either have a regular screen resolution (15 to 27 inch screen with 1920x1200)
or in very rare occasions a 30 inch screen with 2560x1600 resolution)

There have been some issues with the high resolution of the Retina, where you have to change the Windows DPI settings to 100%: DPI Display Size Settings - Change - Windows 7 Help Forums (http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/443-dpi-display-size-settings-change.html)

Also read: http://forums.holdemmanager.com/general-support/438251-huge-huds-macbook-retina-15-a.html (... but all these issues can be fixed with changing DPI settings, or changing the HUD font size)

[MartinBKK]

Thank you for your reply pat.

Overall then it sounds like the machine will be ok for me.

I am just a bit nervous because my first gen i5 laptop (also 2 core) does not really handle multi tabling, hm2 and notecaddy and tst very well. Its all very laggy and sluggish. Im confident that on the quad core mbp it would all be fine but really prefer the portability of the 13 inch mbp which is dual core.

Do you think the dual core will be powerful enough?

[udbrky]

Quad core will be preferable.

[MartinBKK]

Ok i think i will go for the 15 inch quad core then. Just one more question do you think that the intel iris pro graphics will be fine for running Hm2, 9 tables on external 24 inch monitor, tst and tableninja? Whats the advantage with going for the NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2GB GDDR5 memory? That is a lot of money for the upgrade. What do you think?

[Patvs]

The only advantage of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2GB GDDR5 is if you want to play World of Warcraft all day on your laptop in a high resolution.

For all regular use (including multitabling HoldemManager) the default card should be fine.