2012 Retina vs 2015 Retina for Photoshop?

[Doc69]

I have a friend who is a heavy Photoshop and Lightroom user. Her 2012 2.6 GHz Retina Macbook Pro (with GeForce GT 650M) is soon out of warranty. So she is thinking about selling it to buy a new one.

Is the latest 2.5 GHz Macbook Pro (with Radeon R9 M370X) worth the upgrade? The difference between the i7-3720QM and the i7-4870HQ seem to be minimal.

Will there be any improvements in speed for Photoshop or Lightroom due to the Radeon card, i.e. can Photoshop better use the Radeon GPU to accelerate things?

Will the next version of the MBP be more likely to bring about better GPU accelerated Photoshop speeds, i.e. optimized for Metal etc?

Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

 

[CoastalOR]

I have a mid 2015 MBP with the Radeon R9 M370X. As soon as I launch Photoshop it switches to the Radeon R9 M370X GPU which is faster that the GeForce GT 650M. The SSD is faster which effects the reading and writing of large graphic files. Specifications says it should be faster and I think it is faster, but I can't give you an exact number.

Guessing the future is just a guess.

If the purpose is to get improved performance with a MBP that is under warranty, then the mid 2015 15" with Radeon R9 M370X will do that. Who knows about the future?

 

[ThisOldMacHead]

Yes... There will be some improvement, but it depends entirely on her workflow and whether her workflow impacts her livelihood. Even then... We're talking about shaving minutes off operations here and there.

The real question is... Does her current Mac still provide her with adequate service - regardless of whether it's under warranty or not? If it does and she uses it for work... It's currently costing her nothing to operate and she should run it into the ground.

It seems to me her biggest worry is AppleCare coverage. AppleCare is certainly nice to have... But is it worth spending a minimum of $2800 for the luxury? From most things I've read, one of the more common failures is the graphics card... Which will be covered until February 2016. So your friend should take that into consideration.

 

[MacInTO]

I am in the same situation and was thinking the same thing. I'm using a 2012 2.7 GHz rMBP and my Applecare is ending soon. However, my current rMBP has been running solidly.

I'm sure the 2015 rMBP will be faster but it is a big outlay of cash. Time is money, but not that much. I'm going to wait for the next iteration, hopefully it is Skylake.