15 Retina MBP or 13 MB?

[SHNXX]

In the past, I've used the 15" retina MBP (mid 2012) along with 27" imac (2014, pre 4k) and a 2010 Mac pro.
I've also used macbook air for a year before the MBP and another macbook pro before that.

The mid-2012 retina MBP is getting long in the tooth and is having lots of problems with battery and sluggish performance (it has 2.3 Intel Core i7 and 8GB ram). Considering my profession (tech startup) and how frequently i use my laptop, I think having a good computer is pretty important although i'm trying to cut down unnecessary spending lately.

Do you think the new 15.4 MBP that has been just updated is necessary or can I get away with the 13" MB?

 

[ayzee]

15 Retina MBP or 13 MB?

The main difference between the 13" & 15" is the 15" has the quad core processor. For this reason I am upgrading my 2012 15" rMBP to another 15" rMBP 2015.

I want to ensure it can handle 4k video editing to "future proof" it. So a quad core is a must.

The 13" would be a perfect size for me as it would be a little more portable. But I can't justify spending that much money on a pro machine that only has a dual core processer

 

[ZXMustang]

Weird thing is the 13" pros have 1866mhz memory, while even the new 15" pros only have 1600mhz. Yes quad core, but why slower memory?

 

[T5BRICK]

Weird thing is the 13" pros have 1866mhz memory, while even the new 15" pros only have 1600mhz. Yes quad core, but why slower memory?

The new Broadwell CPUs in the 13" models support faster memory than the Haswel CPUs in the 15" models.

 

[CaptainChunk]

^ That, and the ever so slightly increased memory bandwidth makes little to no difference in the real world.

If you can justify having quad-core power and (on the higher-end model) discrete graphics, the 15" model is a no-brainer.

 

[cookies!]

Having two Safari/Excel windows side by side with BetterSnapTool is so much better on the 15". Having four cores is a lifesaver for some tasks, and so is having a discrete GPU.

These facts won't change when Skylake happens almost one year from now. Most of the performance gains you will receive from upgrading your 2012 model will happen if you upgrade today. Hell, probably 80-90% of those gains! Why? Because gains from 3 years of upgrades are greater than gains of one year of upgrades, and this year had a pretty good upgrade, minus the CPU.

So your decision relies on the nature of your work— do you actually use four cores? A discrete GPU? Side-by-side windows regularly? If so, get some variant of the 15". If not, get the 13". If you want to save money, replace your battery for $150 or whatever it costs these days, and run less stuff at the same time if the performance is bothering you.

 

[SHNXX]

Side by side windows pretty frequent.
GPU pretty much none I think.
I don't do anything that's super computationally demanding anymore.
Mostly just light coding on Xcode and other dev apps, using browser, and dealing with some databases.

 

[thekev]

Weird thing is the 13" pros have 1866mhz memory, while even the new 15" pros only have 1600mhz. Yes quad core, but why slower memory?

It's not slower to any meaningful degree. I mean you could argue that memory bandwidth can be a bottleneck under certain circumstances, but the difference between them is still insignificant. The 13" uses a newer architecture, so they updated ram.

Side by side windows pretty frequent.
GPU pretty much none I think.
I don't do anything that's super computationally demanding anymore.
Mostly just light coding on Xcode and other dev apps, using browser, and dealing with some databases.

That seems odd that your current machine is lagging.

 

[SHNXX]

I wS talking about the 13 MacBook the new one, not the old MacBook Pro 13.

 

[newellj]

Post edited and deleted.

 

[Blackstick]

12" MacBook vs 15" retina. Kind of like comparing the 2 series coupe BMW to their flagship sedan 7 series, wouldn't you say?

I work for a mid sized enterprise IT staff. We've only deployed 6 new 12" MacBooks, and 2 have been returned to our department due to the user (each of them VP or C-level) not being able to cope with the single port and adapter situation. I think the 12" MacBook is an amazing machine for the right person, but at work I leverage a 15" pro and so do most of our users, some opt for 13" Pros or Airs. A minority always in airplanes leverage the 11".

The issue with the 12" MacBook is that single port. It's better to think of it as an iPad that learned some tricks from a baby MacBook air rather than a compromised mac. You're coming from a 15" pro, aside from the weight, you're losing two thunderbolt ports, quad cores, two fans, sd card slot, some screen real estate and two fixed type A ports.