13 inch rmbp or 15 inch rmbp ?

When I have the money definitely will be 15"!

Hitcher44 said:

Hi im new to the forum and im considering buying a macbook pro for college as i am doing a level 2 interactive media course would anyone be able to tell me the pros and cons for getting a mac and if getting a retina display will make much of a difference towards my experience ?

many thanks in advance

Hitcher44

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Cons: doubtful any of the interactive media applications you'll be using are retina friendly.

Just very briefly:

The base 15 inch pro retina, costs not much more money than the 13 inch model with the larger hard drive.

Also it benefits from Quad core processor, and a dedicated GPU.

In addition you can add extra RAM if required - not possible on the 13".

The 15" screen is stunning, and IMO the larger the better if working on photographs / video.

Also Final Cut pro can make use of the dedicated GPU.

IMO if portability is not a factor, then go for the 15".

I love the size of the 13 but not the specs for the price. Ill be going with the maxed out 15 inch probably next year. It'll be a computer I hang on to for awhile.

Hitcher44 said:

the only problem i have is the portability factor for the 15 inch macbook pro would there be any better alternative macs for value for money ?

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Macbook Air ( 11" or 13" ) or non-retina MBP 13"

Hitcher44 said:

would the 13 inch macbook air be able to run program's like adobe photoshop and final cut smoothly ?

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"smoothly" will be determined by the kind / amount of work you are planning to do. It for sure can run both programs, but if you are a heavy user of those programs and you're regularly working with really large files, then it might not be butter smooth or fast. It will still most likely get the job done, but it's hard to say how smooth it will be...

You just need to give it a shot... get the MBA if that's what you like. Throw the heaviest workload at it that you can come up with... depending on how it handles what you throw at it, you can surely decide if you'll return it within 14 days and get your money back or keep it for longer.

Hitcher44 said:

Hi im new to the forum and im considering buying a macbook pro for college as i am doing a level 2 interactive media course would anyone be able to tell me the pros and cons for getting a mac and if getting a retina display will make much of a difference towards my experience ?

many thanks in advance

Hitcher44

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i was in your same position last week. after reading up on the rMBP's and seeing all of the problems, i decided to go with the cMBP 13". I love it. I got the cheapest base model i could for 999 and bought a 256gb SSD and 16gb of ram. fastest computer i have ever had experience with.

with the retina you are loosing:
Optical drive
Ethernet port
Firewire port

gaining:
display
hdmi port
reduced size and weight

if you go with the cMBP you can get WAY more bang for your buck.

If weight is not an issue, I'd get the 15", if money and performance are an issue, the 13" cMBP or MBA, both being quite nice machines. The 13" rMBP is nice too, I have it and I love it. But it doesn't give you as much bang for the buck as other macs and I suppose you really have to want it.

In any case, photoshop should run fine on all of them; final cut should run well too, with rendering probably being a bit slower than on a quad core 15". But if your university or whatever still uses CS3, which is ancient (what, like 5 years old?) it's likely the computers are just as old or even older; so your mac will be plenty fast no matter what you buy.

blaake said:

with the retina you are loosing:
Optical drive - External Samsung 6x Blu-ray Driver - 90 $
Ethernet port - Thunderbolt to Ethernet Adapter - 30 $
Firewire port - Thunderbolt to Firewire Adapter - 30 $

gaining:
display
hdmi port
reduced size and weight

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You can have these lost parts back on rMBP with extra 150$ budget if you need them. (Red coloured) But for display and reduced size and weight is not something you can purchase later on. If you have the budget, I would deffinitely suggest you to go for Retina. I have it and I'm sure you won't regret it. Things you will gain in Retina, are definitely much more!

Cheers!

Hitcher44 said:

we use the following software btw if this helps :

Adobe photoshop cs3
adobe photoshop elements
gamemaker 8.1
microsoft office suite

and we also use final cut in the mac room in the college

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only the latest version of final cut is retinized. if you're still on photoshop cs3 it sounds like your school has really old software so who knows if you actually have final cut pro X. MS office is partly retina friendly. cs3 will never be updated for retina and neither will elements.

depends on how it will be used. I would say 15 is better, but I dont carry around my laptop everywhere I go.

Hitcher44 said:

hi since you have the 13 inch rmbp could you tell me how well final cut and photoshop run ?

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I'm sure they run fine considering the ssd.

Hitcher44 said:

but besides hardware wise is there any major differences to the non retina model except the price ?

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Two more processor cores and a dedicated graphics card.

Hitcher44 said:

hi since you have the 13 inch rmbp could you tell me how well final cut and photoshop run ?

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Orlandoech said:

I'm sure they run fine considering the ssd.

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Exactly. I'm right now working on a photoshop project on the 13" rmbp (i7, 265gb) and it's just like it's used to be. I'm using the scaled 1440px resolution and see no hickups whatsoever. I also expected the non-retina-optimized photoshop to feel worse than on a classic display, but seriously, I don't even notice it.

Also, the mac runs at a remarkably cool 45°C cpu temperature, which is something my old macbook only managed to do when sitting outdoors in a snowstorm - and I'm sitting in my bed and have it running on a down blanket...

Still, for that price the 15" is probably the better deal, because it's basically just as expensive and gets you a quadcore and dGPU. It's just that I don't like 15".

cang87 said:

You can have these lost parts back on rMBP with extra 150$ budget if you need them. (Red coloured) But for display and reduced size and weight is not something you can purchase later on. If you have the budget, I would deffinitely suggest you to go for Retina. I have it and I'm sure you won't regret it. Things you will gain in Retina, are definitely much more!

Cheers!

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of course you can buy external stuff, but that wasnt what he was asking. cant forget about all the negative feedback on the 13" retina

blaake said:

of course you can buy external stuff, but that wasnt what he was asking. cant forget about all the negative feedback on the 13" retina

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You're right about 13'' Retina. I also went to the Apple Store for 13'' Retina but went out with 15'' Retina There is not too much differance in the price between the base model 15''. That's why even if he may need to wait some more for extra budget, I think it would be worth for it!

cang87 said:

You're right about 13'' Retina. I also went to the Apple Store for 13'' Retina but went out with 15'' Retina There is not too much differance in the price between the base model 15''. That's why even if he may need to wait some more for extra budget, I think it would be worth for it!

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for sure. if you are going with retina defiantly go with the 15. so much more for your dollar.