[Help] 4540s' - With or without dedicated Graphics?

[imade]

Hello good people,
I'm planning to buy a Probook 4540s this Christmas.
Since there are two models available here, one is 3rd gen i3 with intel HD 4000 and another one with i5 with AMD graphics.

I plan to use this computer for game development, for both Android and iPhone which includes using Photoshop and a 3d game engine.
Which model of 4540s would suffice this?

Thanks!

 

[kpkp]

If you plan to use OS X on it, the dedicated GPU will not work anyways...

 

[imade]

If you plan to use OS X on it, the dedicated GPU will not work anyways...

Thanks for the quick reply, i think i will go with HD4000 as i only intend to use OSX.
How about the display, Is it as crisp as the mac books? My friend MBP has a stunning display, and its not even retina.

 

[nguyenmac]

If you plan to use OS X on it, the dedicated GPU will not work anyways...

+1

However, the i5 CPU is still much better than i3, and you can switch to Windows + ATI card to do intensive works.

 

[kpkp]

Thanks for the quick reply, i think i will go with HD4000 as i only intend to use OSX.
How about the display, Is it as crisp as the mac books? My friend MBP has a stunning display, and its not even retina.

I don't have that model, but from what I heard is nothing to write home about... Some people have been replacing the panels with better ones, that seems like the way to go if you want a solid panel.

 

[nguyenmac]

Thanks for the quick reply, i think i will go with HD4000 as i only intend to use OSX.
How about the display, Is it as crisp as the mac books? My friend MBP has a stunning display, and its not even retina.

The 15" screen is not that bad compared to Apple MBP:

4430s:

4540s:

Apple Macbook Pro non-Retina:

 

[imade]

The 15" screen is not that bad compared to Apple MBP:

4430s:

4540s:

Apple Macbook Pro non-Retina:

That looks great, thanks man. I think you can also upgrade the stock display to a FHD 1080p screen on 4540s.
Even stock screen will be good for starting off.

Another quick question, if i get a 4540s with a dGPU will i have to explicitly enable and disable my graphics card in bios every time i boot using dual boot. OSX, Windows.

 

[nguyenmac]

That looks great, thanks man. I think you can also upgrade the stock display to a FHD 1080p screen on 4540s.
Even stock screen will be good for starting off.

Another quick question, if i get a 4540s with a dGPU will i have to explicitly enable and disable my graphics card in bios every time i boot using dual boot. OSX, Windows.

We are currently working on a patch to automatically disable ATI card on OS X. It works now, but the system shutdowns if you choose to restart.

 

[imade]

Sorry to ask too many questions. One thing that has been troubling me, it's about the stability/reliability of probook hackintosh.
I do understand that this is not the 'real thing' , this might be subjective to some extent but how reliable is hackintosh? I mean it would be an absolute nightmare if one day you suddenly cannot boot into OSX.

How do you guys backup your apps/files when you upgrade?

 

[nguyenmac]

Sorry to ask too many questions. One thing that has been troubling me, it's about the stability/reliability of probook hackintosh.
I do understand that this is not the 'real thing' , this might be subjective to some extent but how reliable is hackintosh? I mean it would be an absolute nightmare if one day you suddenly cannot boot into OSX.

How do you guys backup your apps/files when you upgrade?

Yes, it may happen (only if you are experiment system things). I use Time Machine to back up my files, it's very much like True Image in Windows.