MATLAB and the new Macbook (2015/2016 12 inch)

Hey everyone

has anyone experience with matlab and the current MacBook (12", released 2015 and April 2016)? It would be so great if someone could share his/hers personal experience 'cause the internet doesn't have anything useful to offer.

Thanks a lot!!!

Cheers, Mara

Answer 1

[John D'Errico]

MATLAB runs on the current Mac OS and the last OS version. What else can we possibly tell you, since you tell us nothing about the reason you ask? So I can only confirm that it does run.

The system requirements page is here:

http://www.mathworks.com/support/sysreq/current_release/index.html?sec=mac

As it points out, there are certain memory limits that can be important. More memory is better than less. You need a hard disk with sufficient space, but I'd strongly recommend a solid state drive, as that will greatly improve speed in many cases. Your computer will run more quietly, as well as cooler and faster.

Answer 2

[Magda Ewa Cesarz]

Now that I am reading my post again I see that I am not clear at all. Sorry for that!

I'm asking about performance. I know that matlab in general is working on a Mac / El Capitan. My Question is if someone is using matlab currently on the new macbook (20015 or 2016, 12") and can tell me something about how it is? If its super slow or not, if it can handle simple tasks. Online i can't find any kind of information about MATLAB and the new MacBook, so if someone has experience I would be very thankful if you could share your opinion.

Thanks again :)

[Walter Roberson]

I have an 2012 15" MacBook Pro, 8 core i7 @ 2.6 GHz, with 8 gigabyte of memory and a built-in NVIDIA GPU. I do not generally have any complaints about the speed of it -- except when I run low on memory, which I am doing more and more often these days.

With my MacBook Pro, I get increasingly frustrated by the low port count, especially USB. It has 2 USB 3.0 ports, one Firewire 800 port, a Lightning port, and an ethernet port. I have:

• built-in DVD drive
• 750 Gigabytes internal storage (mostly unused now; has my BOOTCAMP image and my older operating system)
• wired ethernet plugged in
• 750 Gigabyte Firewire drive that was previously my Time Machine backup before I filled it up; I would replace this but I do not have any USB connectors left
• 2 TB external USB3 drive acting as main drive and Time Machine, after I filled 750 GB internal drive and my Firewire drive
• dongle for wireless mouse (more energy efficient than bluetooth)
• connection to my UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply), which allows for orderly shutdown if I lose power long enough for my UPS to drain down
• and I sometimes need to plug in my phone, iPod, or a (real) camera for various reasons

To fit the last three of those I had to get a USB hub, and when I need high performance transfer I have to unplug my USB hub (losing access to various devices)

By comparison, on the Macbook you are looking at you have:

• 256 Gigabytes of storage (PCIe Flash storage)
• one USB-C connector

And that's it.

If you are planning to use your system for anything serious, or if you are planning to toss a bunch of music or pictures on your system, you need to be planning for your Time Machine backup, and you need to be planning around the fact that wireless speeds are still much lower than wired speeds; see for example http://www.speedguide.net/faq/what-is-the-actual-real-life-speed-of-wireless-374 . In other words you will want an ethernet adapter and an external drive simultaneously, which is two connectors unless you use an adapter hub.

I have not used the new MacBook so I cannot give any impression about how quick it "feels". I would not get the i3 model; the i3 performance is considerably more restricted than i5 or i7 is.

[Magda Ewa Cesarz]

Thank you for your detailed answer! Surely, Im going to pick the new one with 1.3GHz dual‑core Intel Core m7 processor, but I'm not really sure if this is enough for matlab.

[Walter Roberson]

It looks like it is about half the speed of a full i7, which is about what you would expect from half the CPU clock rate.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+m7-6Y75+%40+1.20GHz