2012 Macbook Pro 13" Question, and advice needed

[BigMak903]

Dear All,
I am new to here, and planning to purchase my first Mac this week.
But I have a few questions regarding the new mackbook pro 13", and wondering if it would fit my need.

I do moderate traveling, once a month nationally, and twice a year internationally for business and personally reasons.
So the 13" MCP and MCA are both very tempting to me.

But I also do some moderate gaming like Diablo 3, SC2, LOL

In addition, this will be my only laptop(computer). So I will be heavily using it for normal usage as well (Email, Documents, Photo Editing, and some light numerical analysis)

Should I get the New 13"? Hows the graphic card?
Please give me some advice


Thanks for all of your help.

 

[Stetrain]

Both the 2012 Macbook Air and the 2012 13" Macbook Pro have Intel HD4000 integrated graphics.

Here are some benchmarks on how Diablo 3 runs with those graphics:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/05/28/intel-hd-4000-investigation/5

To stay in the same price range and get some more graphics power, a refurbished 2011 15" Macbook Pro might be a better choice.

If you really want the best of both worlds, the new Retina Macbook Pro has the dedicated graphics performance of the 15" and weighs slightly less than the 15" Macbook Pro. Of course it's also much more expensive than the 13" Macbook Pro.

 

[BigMak903]

But with the price of the new MBP Retina.
I can buy a decent gaming desktop + a 11" MBA.....


Dont get me wrong, I absolutely love the display when i first saw it yesterday at the apple store. Just the price is too steep, but is it worth it?

 

[Stetrain]

It depends on whether you really want to play games and have the low weight.

You're right about the price. I think I would go with a 2012 13" Air and deal with the GPU performance or get a refurb 2011 15".

 

[Rmafive]

If you are looking for a machine that will be able to perform well gaming-wise and is light at the same time, you should probably go with the retina Macbook Pro. The base model isn't too much more than a maxed out macbook air (~$400 difference).

Also, a refurbished 15" macbook pro might be the way to go. You should get great performance from a refurb as well.