13" Macbook Pro i5 2.9 GHz vs i7 3.3 GHz

[mklnz]

I'm thinking of getting the 512 GB SSD version with i5 2.9 GHz as standard but thinking of upgrading to the i7. However the price premium is a whopping $300 to get the i7.

I looked at a few benchmarks on notebookcheck and can only see about 10% improvement in synthetic benchmarks, so I'm not sure if this is worth it. Thoughts?

 

[mikeo007]

It is generally not worth it. The i5s and i7s are the exact same part as far as manufacturing, the i5s are just i7s that could quite handle the voltage. No extra cores, threads or cache. It would be the last thing I'd choose to upgrade.

 

[blahbrah]

As someone who bought into the i7 hype in 2011, my computer sucks about the same right now as it would if I had saved 200 bucks.

 

[mklnz]

It is generally not worth it. The i5s and i7s are the exact same part as far as manufacturing, the i5s are just i7s that could quite handle the voltage. No extra cores, threads or cache. It would be the last thing I'd choose to upgrade.

Yeah that's what I thought... Though you can opt for the $100 upgrade for a faster i5. Even then I'm not sure if it's worth it?

 

[T5BRICK]

Thoughts?

It's not worth it.

 

[hehe299792458]

so anyone....?

 

[mklnz]

I guess I'll wait for proper benchmarks to come out and see. Perhaps the $100 upgrade to i5 3.1 GHz _might_ be worth it

 

[dexterie]

I guess I'll wait for proper benchmarks to come out and see. Perhaps the $100 upgrade to i5 3.1 GHz _might_ be worth it

that's what I just did. no "scientific" reason behind it. i just thought that if I'm buying such an expensive machine... +100 won't make that much of a difference and at least it won't be the "entry level". it's a bit like a hope to have to last a bit longer

so I went to the 13", 512Gb, 16Gb ram and i5 3,1.
let's see how it goes