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13 vs 15 for regular guy (rMBP)

S

SuperMiguel

macrumors 6502
Original poster
So im on my last semester of college, about to get my degree in computer engineering. I was forced to use linux but thats about to end in 1 month So i can finally get a mac (i know i could off run linux on it before, but didnt have the money) i know have the money and im looking to get a laptop...

Main task:
- "mild" (very mild) Photoshop picture editing
- Programming, C, android, java, maybe ill get into IOS programming
- Web browsing
- More programming and probably some python robotics simulation

So im wondering if i should go with the 13 vs 15 both retina dispay
 
SuperMiguel said:
So im on my last semester of college, about to get my degree in computer engineering. I was forced to use linux but thats about to end in 1 month So i can finally get a mac (i know i could off run linux on it before, but didnt have the money) i know have the money and im looking to get a laptop...

Main task:
- "mild" (very mild) Photoshop picture editing
- Programming, C, android, java, maybe ill get into IOS programming
- Web browsing
- More programming and probably some python robotics simulation

So im wondering if i should go with the 13 vs 15 both retina dispay
Click to expand...

I am in a computer science program. I personally prefer the 15 for the screen real estate. My wife has the 13. For me, the 13 isn't enough room.
 
SuperMiguel said:
ya money is not a problem..
Click to expand...

Then I would get the 15 if I were you. A lot of people talk about portability....Yes the 13 is lighter but I don't find it a big deal to carry around my 15. Its still only ~5 pounds. For me screen real estate > then a couple pounds.
 
Wondering if it's worth it, getting the maxed out 15 vs the 13 vs the air... I do have a gaming computer (desktop) that I use mainly for WoW and was going to play Bf but sure if worth it selling it and getting a a maxed 15 and use it as my main computer and get a Xbox one or ps4
 
WoW looks fantastic on the retina display even at low settings. when you play it in retina resolution the other settings just don't matter lol

i can't really comment on other games as i don't play them
 
Working on android? I don't think Apple will be happy to see you working on Android using Apple laptop. I think you should try Dell XPS ultraportable laptop to run with Linux and Android. :apple:
 
Badrottie said:
Working on android? I don't think Apple will be happy to see you working on Android using Apple laptop. I think you should try Dell XPS ultraportable laptop to run with Linux and Android. :apple:
Click to expand...

Doesnt really matter much, eclipse will run in anything really, biggest problem with windows is that they limit your virtual machine to 700MB and i dont give a **** about what apple thinks =)

Basically what im thinking now is if i keep my gaming PC ill buy a 13" and barely use it, if i buy a 15 ill sell my desktop and use the **** out of it, and play WoW, and probably league of legends on it.
 
Last edited:
im just a bit worry that the graphics on the 15 wont be able to play new coming mmos, like everquest next (only one i really care about)
 
SuperMiguel said:
im just a bit worry that the graphics on the 15 wont be able to play new coming mmos, like everquest next (only one i really care about)
Click to expand...

Hard to say. Depends on the hardware demands of the game. They aren't out yet so you never know. The game doesn't look graphically intensive and the past EQ games have always been more CPU heavy then GPU.
 
For coding, the 15" scaled at 1920X1200 will allow you to view more lines of code. That's how I have my 15" rMBP setup.
You should consider getting 16GB as well. I regret going with 8GB and ever since updating to Mavericks, I'm constantly running out of memory and I see applications like preview crash and I get beach balls. I have 299 MB of free memory with 2GB of inactive memory and I'm not even doing much. 🙁
 
SuperMiguel said:
Doesnt really matter much, eclipse will run in anything really, biggest problem with windows is that they limit your virtual machine to 700MB and i dont give a **** about what apple thinks =)

Basically what im thinking now is if i keep my gaming PC ill buy a 13" and barely use it, if i buy a 15 ill sell my desktop and use the **** out of it, and play WoW, and probably league of legends on it.
Click to expand...

When I got a new 2012 15" rmbp 6 months ago I tried to sell my powerful desktop pc nobody wants to buy it so I keep it in the public self storage. 🙁 I probably will use it again when I am done with school. :apple:

----------
Mr Mystery said:
Please tell me this a joke.
Click to expand...

I am not joking I don't like working on Android with my rmbp knowing that Android is far better OS than iOS. :apple:
 
I'd do the 13 + external monitor at home. Mission control works better for me on smaller monitors anyways and it's super nice having one extra persistent screen on the side with mavericks.

The 15 might be better if you want the extra cores to keep a virtual machine chugging along smoothly all the time. A lot of them will let you go full screen and you can just treat one of your mission control spaces as a separate OS which is really nice as well.

The thing I hate about developing for android on OSX is well, every java IDE out there is coded in.. you guessed it, java and not a native cocoa app. I've always disliked java front-end software even on windows. On OSX, they're just really clunky.. it doesn't even share the same hotkeys as the rest of your system most of the time.
 
leftywamumonkey said:
For coding, the 15" scaled at 1920X1200 will allow you to view more lines of code. That's how I have my 15" rMBP setup.
You should consider getting 16GB as well. I regret going with 8GB and ever since updating to Mavericks, I'm constantly running out of memory and I see applications like preview crash and I get beach balls. I have 299 MB of free memory with 2GB of inactive memory and I'm not even doing much. 🙁
Click to expand...

Mavericks changed the way the system handles RAM. In earlier versions if there was no space left on the drive, the system would either eliminate memory from the ram or write it out to the disk. In mavericks it would rather keep it in the ram and compress it. In this usage scenario free ram is wasted ram. You can tell if you need more ram if you have a lot of swaps.
 
mangotears said:
I'd do the 13 + external monitor at home. Mission control works better for me on smaller monitors anyways and it's super nice having one extra persistent screen on the side with mavericks.

The 15 might be better if you want the extra cores to keep a virtual machine chugging along smoothly all the time. A lot of them will let you go full screen and you can just treat one of your mission control spaces as a separate OS which is really nice as well.

The thing I hate about developing for android on OSX is well, every java IDE out there is coded in.. you guessed it, java and not a native cocoa app. I've always disliked java front-end software even on windows. On OSX, they're just really clunky.. it doesn't even share the same hotkeys as the rest of your system most of the time.
Click to expand...

Even if the 15" has extra cores, wouldn't it be better for a 13" with 16gb rather than 15" with 8GB memory?
 
nabeel24 said:
Even if the 15" has extra cores, wouldn't it be better for a 13" with 16gb rather than 15" with 8GB memory?
Click to expand...

Like I've demonstrated here, you don't need a ton of memory to keep your system running smoothly. I typically only do 1 or 2 things at a time on a virtual-machine, so it's not really memory-hungry.. usually programming or server-side stuff. I haven't used windows in a very long time so I don't know how that fares.

On the other hand, I do notice some hiccups in some really basic things such as system-wide animations once you start stressing the CPU. Performance on things such as iOS/android simulators are also bottlenecked by CPU (gets much worse on android). Compiling times are dependent on CPU (thought not super significant most the time).

I don't know the nitty gritty on how virtual machines manage/share system resources, but I think 16gb on any system is a waste of money unless you're doing specific tasks that utilize it. Programming isn't one of those things.
 
eagandale4114 said:
Mavericks changed the way the system handles RAM. In earlier versions if there was no space left on the drive, the system would either eliminate memory from the ram or write it out to the disk. In mavericks it would rather keep it in the ram and compress it. In this usage scenario free ram is wasted ram. You can tell if you need more ram if you have a lot of swaps.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I get that, but it's a usage problem when I start getting beach balls and apps start not responding.
 
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