2010 15" MPB vs. 2011 13" MPB?

[Doneaux]

Alright, so one of my agents will go to the US in the end of February, and assuming the 2011 MPB won't be announched before that, I could have one of the 15" models imported to my land of residence, as they are a lot more expensive to buy over here (for comparison, the cheapest 15" MBP model is about $2600 around here). Buying a 13" in the US is out of the question, as I'm not paying that much for so old tech (C2D...).

Were I to buy a 13" over here though, I'd wait for the 2011 model as I assume it will have new a CPU... but then again, a 13" MPB in Sweden, is about as much as a 15" in the US...

Waiting is not really an issue for me, not bothered by the lack of SB, and the 2010 MPB seems like a sturdy gen, but, the 256MB GPU is kind of... off putting. Would it be worth it to upgrade to the 512 GPU? I'd like to play a few games, not the newest ones or on high settings.

Waiting for the next gen would probably give me the advantage of an SSD, but I guess I could install one myself later on... Damn you Apple.

So... current gen MPB 15" GPU, ok? Which 15" base model is recommended? Is the 15" that much greater than a 13"? Should I just wait?

 

[altecXP]

Alright, so one of my agents will go to the US in the end of February, and assuming the 2011 MPB won't be announched before that, I could have one of the 15" models imported to my land of residence, as they are a lot more expensive to buy over here (for comparison, the cheapest 15" MBP model is about $2600 around here). Buying a 13" in the US is out of the question, as I'm not paying that much for so old tech (C2D...).

Were I to buy a 13" over here though, I'd wait for the 2011 model as I assume it will have new a CPU... but then again, a 13" MPB in Sweden, is about as much as a 15" in the US...

Waiting is not really an issue for me, not bothered by the lack of SB, and the 2010 MPB seems like a sturdy gen, but, the 256MB GPU is kind of... off putting. Would it be worth it to upgrade to the 512 GPU? I'd like to play a few games, not the newest ones or on high settings.

Waiting for the next gen would probably give me the advantage of an SSD, but I guess I could install one myself later on... Damn you Apple.

So... current gen MPB 15" GPU, ok? Which 15" base model is recommended? Is the 15" that much greater than a 13"? Should I just wait?

Well we don't know the specs on the 13in yet, only guesses, and its possible the current 15in will be faster then the 2011 13in.

Also the memory space on the GPU doesn't effect gaming performance that much, unless you are running on a HUVE display. The general difference on my 15in and my friends 15in MBPs are about 3-5 FPS in Warcraft with the same settings. We both had 15in, with the high resolution, and SSD, and 8GB of ram. Only he had an i7 and 512MB, and I had an i5 and 256. I don't know how much of that was CPU and how much was GPU, but we both were doing well in 25man raids.

Currently the 15in destroys the 13in. I'd wait and see what happens with the 13in, then maybe you can get a left over 15in cheap if the new 13 isnt to your liking.

 

[Doneaux]

Well yes, that's pretty much what it comes down to: if a current high-end 15" will perform better than the next-gen 13". Saving $800-400 depeding on the model is nice too.

 

[skiltrip]

I'd get the 15" now. Don't bother waiting for the 13". If it'll end up costing you the same either way it's a no-brainer. The new 13" is highly unlikely to outperform the current 15".

 

[icebiker]

Wirelessly posted (Opera/9.80 (iPhone; Opera Mini/5.0.019802/22.478; U; it) Presto/2.5.25 Version/10.54)

I would go with the 15", but i'm pretty sure the 2011 13" will outperform in normal day task the 15"; 15" will still be better in terms of graphic, no doubt about that...

(i'm conviced the 13" will get an ssd)