15" MacBook Pro, Retina (Mid 2014) advice

[thekeyring]

Currently using a 13" MacBook Pro (Mid 2012) with a 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 and 4GB of RAM.

I was thinking of upgrading to a 15" MacBook Pro (retina) (Mid 2014) with a 2.2 Quad-Core i7, 16GB of RAM and flash storage (not a slow traditional hard drive).

For basic tasks, my Mac works just fine. However, FCP X is slow, Toon Boom Studio is slow, Flash is slow, boot up is slow, waking from sleep is slow, etc etc.

Do you think this spec bump is enough for me? I'm hoping the move to a SSD will help the system run more quickly, and an up-to-date Intel chip with 4x the RAM I currently have enable me to animate without tearing my hair out.

 

[Tonsko]

A cheaper option would be to buy an SSD and put it in there yourself.

 

[Weaselboy]

Do you think this spec bump is enough for me?

That is more than enough power for the work you described. It would be a huge improvement, particularly the flash storage.

 

[Traverse]

Or as Tonsko said, you can add an SSD. I really don't think Haswell will be a huge leap in terms of speed. If you need more RAM you can add it. I added an SSD to my old Mac and it made a world of difference.

 

[Altemose]

Currently using a 13" MacBook Pro (Mid 2012) with a 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 and 4GB of RAM.

I was thinking of upgrading to a 15" MacBook Pro (retina) (Mid 2014) with a 2.2 Quad-Core i7, 16GB of RAM and flash storage (not a slow traditional hard drive).

For basic tasks, my Mac works just fine. However, FCP X is slow, Toon Boom Studio is slow, Flash is slow, boot up is slow, waking from sleep is slow, etc etc.

Do you think this spec bump is enough for me? I'm hoping the move to a SSD will help the system run more quickly, and an up-to-date Intel chip with 4x the RAM I currently have enable me to animate without tearing my hair out.

It would indeed make a big difference but having an SSD and a RAM upgrade will make a huge difference in performance on your existing machine and in your wallet compared to the rMBP.

 

[Tonsko]

It would indeed make a big difference but having an SSD and a RAM upgrade will make a huge difference in performance on your existing machine and in your wallet compared to the rMBP.

^^. Mr. Memory (for the UK, I believe NewEgg in the US is the place to go) 16Gb RAM upgrade for ~100 quid, 512Gb SSD for ~250 quid. Nearly £1000 saved! For the record, I have the 2.9 i7 mid 2012 with those upgrades, and it runs 3 VMs simulatenously with 4Gb RAM each beautifully; and pretty much anything else I throw at it.

 

[Altemose]

^^. Mr. Memory (for the UK, I believe NewEgg in the US is the place to go) 16Gb RAM upgrade for ~100 quid, 512Gb SSD for ~250 quid. Nearly £1000 saved! For the record, I have the 2.9 i7 mid 2012 with those upgrades, and it runs 3 VMs simulatenously with 4Gb RAM each beautifully; and pretty much anything else I throw at it.

I have 16 GB and a Samsung 840 Evo in my mid-2012 and it handles anything I throw at it.

 

[Tonsko]

840 here too.

Incidentally, if you do decide to user-replace the SSD, there are some settings that you need to follow iirc to stop the life of the SSD being shortened, such as turning off RAM save to disk etc. There's a howto somewhere on MR.

SSDs might have advanced enough to solve this, not sure.

Also, download TRIM enabler.

 

[Altemose]

840 here too.

Incidentally, if you do decide to user-replace the SSD, there are some settings that you need to follow iirc to stop the life of the SSD being shortened, such as turning off RAM save to disk etc. There's a howto somewhere on MR.

SSDs might have advanced enough to solve this, not sure.

Also, download TRIM enabler.

Do not use TRIM enabler if you plan on trying the Yosemite beta as it is unsupported and will prevent booting.

 

[p3ntyne]

Do not use TRIM enabler if you plan on trying the Yosemite beta as it is unsupported and will prevent booting.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I thought that was rectified in a later version.

 

[Altemose]

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I thought that was rectified in a later version.

Indeed it was recently updated and fixed. I do not use it but I know that initially people had many problems trying to upgrade to Yosemite and TRIM Enabler wouldn't launch and could prevent booting.