mbp13 i5 vs i7 pros and cons

terencedriver said:

What are the cons of the i7 over the i5 for the 2015 MBP13?

Is battery life shorter under normal use? Or is it intelligent enough to not consume more energy tjan an i5 when not CPU stressed?

Are the pros really significant? The usual micro benchmarks show only a few % improvement. For real world tasks does the larger L3 cache translate into better UI and multitasking?

Click to expand...

Just my 2 cents.

I personally went for the 2.9 i5 over the 2.7 i5 and 3.1 i7.

The reason I did was I found it to be the perfect balance between cost and performance. Plus I also saw some benchmarks that really just didn't impress me with the i7.

You really wouldn't notice day to day between the 3 processors in all honesty. However if you were performing more heavy CPU tasks then I'd say the i7 would probably be worth it. I was doing a bit of both. So opted for the 2.9 with 16gb and it works really well for me (Lots of VM use/parallels).

Saw a 2015 rMBP 13" review the other day and the guy who reviewed the i7 model and the baseline i5 model noticed the i7 did have the fans ramp up much more quickly compared to the i5, especially while video rendering, etc.

You decide yourself what you need the Macbook for. But I do not regret choosing the 2.9.

terencedriver said:

What are the cons of the i7 over the i5 for the 2015 MBP13?

Is battery life shorter under normal use? Or is it intelligent enough to not consume more energy tjan an i5 when not CPU stressed?

Are the pros really significant? The usual micro benchmarks show only a few % improvement. For real world tasks does the larger L3 cache translate into better UI and multitasking?

Click to expand...

Your battery life is not impacted as significantly by which processor you choose as it is by other factors, such as screen brightness and workload. It's safe to say that most users never push the CPU far enough under normal workloads to notice any difference between the i5 and i7. You need to consider what your normal use would be to see if you would benefit from the faster processor.

There are many factors that impact your battery life. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details, including tips on how to maximize your battery life. The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.

terencedriver said:

Are the pros really significant? The usual micro benchmarks show only a few % improvement. For real world tasks does the larger L3 cache translate into better UI and multitasking?

Click to expand...

According to geekbench, it's about 5% faster than the 2.9GHz i5. The additional cost adds about 10% to the price. Is it worth it to you?

For what it's worth, I went with the i7. Partially because it was the only one available locally with 16GB of RAM, and partially because I just wanted the fastest CPU available in this model.

All things being equal, the i7 is 3-5% faster than the i5 offerings, but the upgrade price is significant in comparison (especially between the 2.9GHz i5 and 3.1GHz i7).

For me, it made more sense to pay for the 16GB RAM upgrade and stick with the base 2.7GHz i5.

terencedriver said:

What are the cons of the i7 over the i5 for the 2015 MBP13?

Is battery life shorter under normal use? Or is it intelligent enough to not consume more energy tjan an i5 when not CPU stressed?

Are the pros really significant? The usual micro benchmarks show only a few % improvement. For real world tasks does the larger L3 cache translate into better UI and multitasking?

Click to expand...

The higher price.

Temperature differences are almost nil since all the CPUs used in the 13" rMBPs have the same TDP.

The 3.1GHz i7 is only about 5-7% faster than the 2.7GHz i5, and considering the cost, I wouldn't recommend it. Save it for a larger SSD or more RAM, or even both.