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13" - 2.3 GHz i5 or 2.7 GHz i7

N

notclosetofour

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 1, 2011
33
0
What is the difference between these two processors? Is it worth the money to jump to the i7 performance-wise? Will the i7 make a difference in CAD and engineering applications or will the performance boost be barely noticeable? Thanks?

Here is some of the software I might be using...
Software Possibly Needed
ArcGIS
ArcIMS
ArcPad
ArcSDE
Autodesk
BadCopy Pro
Gaussian
GaussView
Ghost Solution Suite
JMP
Maple
MATLAB
Mathematica
NVivo
PowerTerm Pro
PuTTY
SciFinder Scholar
SHAZAM Pro
SigmaPlot
SpinRite
TurningPoint
 
Last edited:
miles01110 said:
CAD is not a very CPU-intensive program. "Engineering applications" is not specific enough to make a determination on whether or not the i7 will help you. Probably not, though, since you're asking the question.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I'm not really familiar with the software that I might be using but I did edit my OP and put some of the software that the school's website says I might need.

I don't really see a correlation between me asking the question and the actual amount of CPU I will need. I'm just a high school student trying to accommodate everything I will need for the next 4 years. I don't really know much about processing power so when I read i5 compared to i7, I don't really know what one processor has over another.
 
notclosetofour said:
Sorry, I'm not really familiar with the software that I might be using but I did edit my OP and put some of the software that the school's website says I might need.
Click to expand...

For a typical undergraduate engineering class you won't need anything spectacular for any of those applications. If you do need major computing power for a large simulation or something like that you'd be using a department-run cluster.
 
miles01110 said:
For a typical undergraduate engineering class you won't need anything spectacular for any of those applications. If you do need major computing power for a large simulation or something like that you'd be using a department-run cluster.
Click to expand...
Okay, thanks. So the i5 would be sufficient?
 
I recently picked up the 2.3GHz i5 13" and work in Engineering. This system will handle most anything you'll need for undergrad stuff. The laptops we use at work are less powerful than the 13" MBP and will run AutoCAD without issue and will even run solidworks (not amazingly, but it'll run). Stat programs will run well enough even the 2.3GHz i5.
Good luck.
 
Based on all the geekbench scores (including my own), the 13" i7 is 15% faster than the i5. For $300 more, youd get a 15% faster processor and 180GB more in internal HDD storage (500GB vs 320). Otherwise, the processors are essentially identical. My advice is get the base model and save that $300 or put it toward an external portable drive + Windows 7 license to install via boot camp on the MBP.

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