2.7-2.8ghz: worth the money?

[IKBest]

I'm going to buy a 15" rMBP soon and plan to buy the following configuration:

Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz
16GB 1600MHz memory
512GB flash storage1
Intel HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory

But I can't decide wether it's worth $250 to upgrade the processor to 2.8ghz instead of 2.7ghz.

I'm a freelance videographer and photographer, I use my Mac for video editing in FCS and photo editing in Adobe creative suite. Is it worth $250? Thanks in advance.

 

[cirus]

I'm going to buy a 15" rMBP soon and plan to buy the following configuration:

Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz
16GB 1600MHz memory
512GB flash storage1
Intel HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory

But I can't decide wether it's worth $250 to upgrade the processor to 2.8ghz instead of 2.7ghz.

I'm a freelance videographer and photographer, I use my Mac for video editing in FCS and photo editing in Adobe creative suite. Is it worth $250? Thanks in advance.

No. Literally only a few % difference (unnoticeable outside of benchmarks). If you are making lost of money and you absolutely need more speed (like something gets done in 9:45 vs 10:00) then it might be worthwhile. But generally if you have to ask then you probably don't need it.

 

[B...]

Not at all. Cirus put it very well.

 

[TheBearman]

It really is just 3% faster in benchmarks with the .1mhz and 2mb of additional cache. Even with your processor intensive work it really is hard to justify.

 

[Pentad]

Is it worth $250? Thanks in advance.

I'm not trying to sound arrogant, but I am a professional user. I have 9 spaces running and each space has an intense application running. I use multiple VMs, multiple IDEs, and DBMS.

I normally purchase the upgraded CPU for the following reasons:

-My time is valuable and I bill accordingly. Let's say that on a large compile, video convert, or whatever, I gain 2 mins over the slower CPU. That 2 min gain multiplied hundreds of times a year adds up to a great deal of time.

-Most people here are trying to decide between 8 and 16 GB of ram. I'm thinking "Boy, if I could get 32 GB I could open four more VMs to do such and such testing..."

-I upgrade every year so it increases the resale value.


This isn't for everyone. This is right for me. However, I make money with my MBPr, it is the most important tool that I use, and if I can get it to work faster than it is valuable to me.

Good luck!
-P

 

[dtziheucdavis]

I got your exam same configuration about two weeks ago. I got the upgraded processor because I figured "what the heck". It's only $100 and the laptop is so expensive already. But yeah I agree it's not gonna make a difference at all almost. Just remember it's impossible to upgrade later though.

 

[dekka007]

You get more CPU L3 Cache with the 2.8ghz.

It is a bigger speed bump than just the .1Ghz in clock speed.

 

[Bear]

You get more CPU L3 Cache with the 2.8ghz.

It is a bigger speed bump than just the .1Ghz in clock speed.

People always seem to forget that, just as they forget some applications can actually make use of the all the cores an i7 has.

...
But I can't decide wether it's worth $250 to upgrade the processor to 2.8ghz instead of 2.7ghz.

I'm a freelance videographer and photographer, I use my Mac for video editing in FCS and photo editing in Adobe creative suite. Is it worth $250? Thanks in advance.

This is a tough call, the processing speed isn't that much. The cache increase only really helps for some applications.

You will have a performance improvement, the question is if it will be noticeable to you or not.

 

[Ifti]

I would say go for it. I probably will! Purely for the fact that I will want it to last as long as it possibly can since its not something that can be upgraded later; and when I'm spending that much in the first place may as well spend the little extra!

 

[MacEver]

Do it...else you may regrest when it's too late.

 

[fratey]

The speed difference is almost exactly 4,7 percent according to Geekbench, which makes sense (100mhz is a 3,7 difference, and then some small gains from the L3 cache)

Ergo, if you urgently need a 4,7 percent difference, you probably would win more by waiting two weeks for Haswell.