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emir

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 5, 2008
610
4
Istanbul
Hey MacRumors;

It's been a long time. I've beeen an owner of a mid 2010 15" Macbook Pro this past 8+ years and have done a lot with it. Even though I swapped the old timer's SuperDrive with an SSD bay back in 2012, I can feel the thing is in its deathbed.

My recent use of the computer consists of (besides regular browsing, reading, writing) heavy spreadsheet work, Final Cut Pro video editing for YouTube(Which is modern torture with this computer) and occasional Photo editing.

Also I'm always mobile. I carry my computer everywhere I go in my backpack and use the same computer in office and for personal use. My girlfriend bought a 2017 13" Macbook Pro last year and after my heavy old timer it always felt like a bless. It is so much easier to use in bed, so much better to use in a coffe house or something with the little footprint, easier to carry so on.

With the long awaited 2018 refresh all 15" get 4GB video! Great, just when I started contemplating 13"...

What do you guys say? Anyone downgraded from 15 to 13 after years of usage? In terms of performance I think I'll be fine. Sure I edit videos for my YouTube channel but if things get bad I can always buy an external GPU for the 13". Right? I was thinking of going clamshell mode in the office too and just buy a monitor. I need your well appriciated advice.
 
I am curious to see the replies. I am contemplating a similar move for a system used primarily for Office, Adobe (mostly LR), and development.

A weight and size decrease would make carry the thing much nicer.
 
My current setup:

I have 2013 Mac Pro for home use, 2012 RMBP 15", 2015 RMB 12".

My choice:

I will buy 2018 RMBP 13"; 13" has 'enough' CPU, GPU doesn't really matter in almost any Mac apps unless you do lots of heavy video processing or something, and for gaming there's Windows computers anyway.. 16GB/1TB should be plenty, or possibly 512GB, I have >2TB of data I care about so external drive will be necessary for rarely used stuff anyway.

I will probably get rid of 2015 RMB, and keep 2012 RMBP as backup computer. 2015 model's CPU is a joke, and sadly enough battery has degraded in 3 years more than 2012 model's in 6 (roughly similar # of charge cycles).
 
15" MBP because my 15" 2013 Haswell MBP can keep up with modern Quad Core CPU's quite well, which is a joke.

Might as well keep using a 5 year MBP and use a desktop GPU with it?
 
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