cMBP15 vs rMBP13

Refurb 15 inch rMBP from Apple for $1599.

Needs

The only reason to spend extra $$$ on a retina is if you have cash laying around gathering dust. The retina screen is nice, but if you have another gaming system and primarily watch movies on a large screen TV, then why not just use the screen everyone loved before the retina. Also, the non-retina MBP is RAM and hard drive upgradable, unless you like to buy a new laptop every few years.

MajkJaro said:

But would the 15 inch be much more powerful when it comes to photo editing? Or does in Lightroom/Photoshop the ssd come more useful?

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The 8GB RAM would be most useful for photo editing.

While I don't know about the MBPs, I use Lightroom 5 on my 2011 MBA and it's fine. Not much lag at all, which I put down to the SSD.

I also do a bit of editing in iMovie, and every now and again I'll get the spinning wheel for a few seconds but it's not a deal breaker. Again, i think it's the SSD responsible for the speed here.

Consider the regular MBP, but the retina is really ideal for full-on professionals and I think you'd waste your money. It's a LOT of money to spend on a computer, after all.

Depending on how much video editing you do, consider the MBA. Mine is from 2011 and copes extremely well, so the 2013 models would undoubtedly be worth looking at.

Alex

I have a early 2008 15" macbook pro, I upgraded the hard drive to a SSD and 4GB RAM, it's still running strong but I just can't decide if I should get the cMBP or rMBP when it's time to upgrade. I mainly use it for web browsing and some typing, just home stuff, online video streaming, no games. What should I do?

I would be wary of getting less than 8g of ram.

MajkJaro said:

Can someone compare the power of a cMBP15 and rMBP13?

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Have a look though these lists : http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

The advantages / disadvantages are as follows:

Macbook Pro 15" (Non-retina):
- Quad-core CPU - faster in any multi-threaded tasks such as video encoding / transcoding, rendering, and other tasks that benefit from multiple cores.
- Faster GPU - improves 3D tasks such as gaming and design work, and also applications that use the GPU to accelerate general processing.
- Ability to easily upgrade memory / HDD.
- Larger screen allows you to see more content at a time (1440x900 screen)


Retina Macbook Pro 13":
- Much, much, much, much faster SSD. Really, it's a night and day difference. For your usage, the SSD will make the Retina Macbook feel much quicker 9 out of 10 times, even though it has a slower CPU and GPU.
- More memory (but, you can't upgrade the memory)
- Screen looks way better and causes less eye strain. This, however, is a very personal thing. Some people (like me) look at the retina and are sold. Others hardly notice the difference - so I would suggest looking at one yourself.
- However, the screen does display less content by default - it's 2560x1600, but OS X doubles everything on Retina screens which gives you the same screen real-estate as on a 1280x800 screen. You can run at the scaled resolutions up to 1680x1050, but you do lose some quality and I find it creates additional eye strain.
- Smaller and lighter.
- Can't be upgraded easily.


Personally, to me the choice would be made as follows:
- Can you afford to upgrade the 15" with an SSD and additional memory in the next 6 months? If not, rather go Retina. The SSD is really that important.
- Can you notice the difference of the screen? If you can and you like it, it pushes you towards the 13".


In terms of your usage, either machine will be much faster than needed (assuming you upgrade the 15" with an SSD) so you can't really go wrong either way

The CMBP is best value for the money. You get a Quad core CPu and a much more powerful GPU.
Go to amazon.com and pick a samsung 840 drive, and your machine will be as snappy as the retina.
I have a cMBP with a 256 ssd + 1tb HDD (optical unit mounted) and is as fast as my brothers rMBP. In any CPU intensive (multithreaded) this machines is faster, and in gaming is way faster to (Geforce 650 vs crappy intel 4000).
Anyway, for your need I would get a maxed out Air.

The entry level 13 rMBP is a really bad purchase.

Check the benchmarks:
http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

For photo/video editing, I'd prefer the larger screen.