The 2.66 seems to be one of the most pointless models in recent history IMO, its far too little of an upgrade from the base model to even be considerred.
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2.4Ghz or 2.66GHz 2010 Macbook Pro 13.3"?
- Thread starter Ash9414
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Check out these benchmark tests. you will have to scroll down and also extrapolate for the 7200RPM. At a quick glance, using HALo frame rate test, the 15" i5 would have a slight edge of maybe 10% at the most
13"
http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Framework.cfm?page=/Benchmarks/MacBookPro13UnibodySnowBench.html
15"
http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Framework.cfm?page=/Benchmarks/MacBookPro15UnibodySnowBench.html
For web surfing, office work, etc, an SSD and C2D should smoke an i5. Apps will open almost instantly, documents too.
If you get the i5 with discrete graphics though, that will make a massive difference for anything that uses the graphics card.
Also, screen sizes are different. Will you get an external monitor?
I have been thinking about this also. For what I can tell. If you
1) Like gaming
2) Do video and picture work
Then 15 inch > 13 inch MBP else, 15 inch MBP = 13 inch MBP. The screen size is no problem. For the price difference you can get a nice IPS 24 inch montor for when you're at home or a SSD drive like you mentioned
I'm going to also put SSD if I go for the 13 inch MBP. I'm currently waiting for Apple to fix the GPU switching problem which is holding me back to go for the 15 inch models. If they don't fix it, it's the 13 inch for me with SSD
I may get an external monitor, but I really prefer just using a laptop. I am a law student and all I am ever doing is typing or reading. I take notes, surf the net, download stuff, stream hd video to my ps3. I never play games, edit photos/video, or anything that (if I understand correctly) would make the i5 or i7 worthwhile.
Any MacBook Pro would have ample power for what you want to do, I basically do all of that (bar video HD streaming to PS3) on a Rev A MacBook Air. I'd say for your use investing in a SSD would be a better way to spend your money.
I don't play games on mine, but i run Win7 with VMWare Fusion once in a while and it does alright. I can't imagine that such a small difference between the two would be very noticeable at all. Just get the base model and spend the cash you save on memory.
Not really... VM benefits from RAM, not from CPU, so unless you're planning to do something heavy while VMing, no. Again, save the money towards 8GB if you do a lot VMing
Ok. I found this article about the differences between the processes. Beecause I'm new to the "Apple" side of computer, can you tell me what the tables towards the bottom tell us?
http://www.macworld.com/reviews/product/464058/review/13inch_macbook_pro24ghz_spring_2010.html
Note: You have to click "Read More" to see the full article.
2.66GHz is faster in some tests but still doesn't worth the 200£... In most tests, it's less than 10% faster but 200£ is more than 10% of the price so IMO not good deal.
Hmm ok, the thing is the 2.4GHz is slower than the one I was originally intending on getting, which was the 2.53GHz, 4GB RAM, 250GB HD with the 9400M graphics.
You get faster GPU in new ones. Seriously, those few extra MHz are NOTHING! If you want something faster, get 15" i5. I've already told you 10000 times that 2.66GHz over 2.4GHz is nothing else but waste of money.
If a car with 240hp costs 100 000£ and a car with 266hp costs 120 000£, which one would you buy? 10% performance increase for 20% more money is poor upgrade
Personally, I would choose a car more on how it looks but I see your point. One last thing, will Sims 3 (and similar games) run well on the 2.4GHz? On that website that I posted, there was about a 0.3 FPS difference so I think it will be possible. Also, is 38.9 FPS good for a game like CoD4 on a MBP?
Note: When I say run well, I mean with med-high settings.
If the two cars are identical, only difference is the 26hp in motor? Same outlook and other specs?
+30FPS is acceptable. My sis runs Sims 3 fine on her MacBook, it's 2.26GHz with 9400M at medium settings so yours should have absolutely no issues. For gaming you shouldn't get a laptop anyway, so most games run okay at low-med settings and 2.66GHz will give less than a frame more anyway so you should get the 15" to get noticeably better performance
Ok, yes I would go for the one with less BHP unless I was rich. Taking that analogy over to the MBP situation, it looks like I'm going to get the 2.4GHz because I've realised that it's about £250 less due to the school discount (and even more on top of that because I'm selling the free iPod from the BTS deal to my brother).
Edit: I realised you edited your post. I decided against the 15" because I want the portability for school and also I can't really afford over £1200.
That's what I was worried about. Are new programs going to be using more of the processor? (Office, iWork, some games, 3rd part apps etc.)
Office, iWork etc. speed depend on user-input (i.e. how fast you type), not on CPU. Most games won't benefit from 260MHz and as benches showed, you get ~1FPS more
You are very tough one to convince
You are very tough one to convince
He's not the only one
I am in the same situation. It can be hard to hear that the less powerful choice is the right choice to make