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MBPR Hardware Suggestions?

T

tisonvoigt24

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 23, 2014
3
0
Hi Everyone,

I'm looking to get a new MBPR in the next month or so but I'm having trouble identifying the real life differences between some of the numbers I'm seeing. My last computer was a late 2009 iMac and obviously the specs have changed a bit since then.

This new 13-inch MBPR will be my only computer, and I'll use it primarily for school, but I'm interested in playing a few games on it as well and thats really where my questions are coming from:

What are the differences between the processor speeds offered? Will it make a marked difference in terms of gaming if I were to get the best speed available?

What about RAM? I was thinking to upgrade to 8GB, but what impact will that have, and again, would an upgrade to 16GB make a life changing difference?

What other suggestions/advice might you give me based on what I'm looking for?

Thanks in advance for your help!
 
As far as processor speeds go the base 2.4 i5 is a really good processor and for gaming the GPU will make the most difference. I really would only recommend a higher clocked CPU if you are looking to do heavy video editing as video compression can take forever so the better the CPU the quicker video editing will go. As far as RAM goes I personally think 4GB is plenty for 90% of people; OS 10.9 (Mavericks) has really good memory compression so it is almost able to turn 4GB into like 10, however, if you really want to do a memory upgrade I wouldn't go past 8GB as anymore than that and you are really just wasting money as I hardly see anyone going past 8 and if you were to since you have a PCIe SSD writing to the SSD doesn't really do as great a performance hit as writing to a HDD does.
 
tisonvoigt24 said:
What are the differences between the processor speeds offered? Will it make a marked difference in terms of gaming if I were to get the best speed available?
Click to expand...
Not much at this point, you'll see a tiny boost in speed between the 2.4GHz and the 2.8GHz

What about RAM? I was thinking to upgrade to 8GB, but what impact will that have, and again, would an upgrade to 16GB make a life changing difference?
Click to expand...
4GB for most people, 8GB of you'll be running some apps at once. 16GB if you'll be using VMware and a lot of apps at the same time. Since the ram is soldered onto the logic board, aim higher then you need for the future. If need 4, then get 8, since apps and operating systems don't slim down but require more ram as they get upgraded. As for the charging, there's no real difference or impact on the battery with more ram.
 
JCSColin said:
for gaming the GPU will make the most difference.
Click to expand...

Thanks for everyones help so far! I'm feeling much closer to being able to make a decision.

My last question is in regards to the GPU. I understand that all of the 13-inch MBPR only come with the Intel Iris Graphics (which I understand is an integrated graphics unit). Can I expect at least average gaming capabilities with this? or am I setting myself up for failure and frustration?

Thanks!!!
 
Intel Iris is a really good integrated GPU and you should be able to play most games at moderate settings, however, if you are looking to do hardcore gaming I would have to recommend for you to get a PC as PCs support DirectX(a windows only API) which more games are more optimized for while Macs use OpenGL and other less used graphics APIs. While Apple's APIs, when optimized, produce AMAZING results most game publishers don't take the time to fully optimize their games for Macs so truthfully games will almost always look and play better on PCs. I love Macs and I think overall they are some of the best computers, however, if you are really interested in gaming I'd recommend you look at getting a nice gaming PC. You are able to find some really nice gaming laptops for around $1000 especially on places like newegg.

A few examples:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834317538
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152563
 
Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who responded to my message. I wasn't sure where else to turn and really appreciate the help!

Have a great day!
 
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