My roommate is thinking of upgrading to 2.6 but not sure if it's worth it. What do you guys think?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
2.5 Ghz vs. 2.6 Ghz
- Thread starter brguitarist
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I have the same question too... from what I understand, since they are both on the same "class" of processor, that means they both have 6 MB L2 Cache, same instruction extensions, etc. That said, the clock frequency what we can use to judge their performance difference. So, 0.1 GHz out of 2.5 GHz is that difference. And, it is merely a 4% improvement. In real life, you shouldn't be able to tell that difference. No? I wonder what's the thought of the others.
Unless you happen to be encoding video for a month and want to save an hour, there is absolutely no noticeable advantage whatsoever. The difference between the speeds is just too small for it to be worth it. In fact, the whole 2.4/2.5 Ghz is not noticeable at all either. The real significant difference between the 2 15"ers is the VRAM on the GPU and HD capacity (L2 cache might have an effect though). Save your money and buy the 15", use the money you saved to buy more RAM (not from Apple though).
rich people or ones that want the best will probably purchase it.. ones that can waste money.. i think the 0.1 increase isnt worth it and id rather save it for the upgrade to 4gb of ram and other stuff you might wanna purchase for your mac.
**edit**
as for the above post i dont know how L2 cache works but the 2.4 has 3MB and the 2.5/.6 have 6MB. so there would be some difference.
**edit**
as for the above post i dont know how L2 cache works but the 2.4 has 3MB and the 2.5/.6 have 6MB. so there would be some difference.
Basically it works this way... There are different kinds of memory. The closest one to the processor is the one called "cache". That is, the memory that the processor is using while it is processing stuff. There are 2 or 3 levels (depending on the model) of this type of memory. L1 is the closest, then L2 and so on. It is the fastest type of memory (followed by RAM and other kinds such as HDD) but also the most expensive one. Therefore, an increase of cache memory can be very important for the performance of the computer.
I believe the difference between 3 and 6 MB of L2 memory would be noticeable and worth paying a little extra money, but probably not as much as Apple charges you for the different processors.
Complete waste of money. I wouldn't pay $50 for it, because I wouldn't notice it. If a process takes 43 seconds on a 2.5 GHz machine, it may take 42 seconds on a 2.6 GHz machine. And?
So absolutely no one sees any advantage or need by anyone to get the 2.6?
Why did Apple bother.
& why do I feel like I need the 2.6 for better future-proofing? lol
Why did Apple bother.
& why do I feel like I need the 2.6 for better future-proofing? lol
