2015 MBP Purchase Question...

[JumpinFlash22]

I wasn't sold on the 2016 mbp even though it looks like a great machine. For what I needed specd out, the 2016 was $844 more than the 2015, so I went with the 2015.

I ordered it and it should be here this week. Upon further research I realize I may of ordered the wrong one for my needs.

I got the 2015 2.8ghz, 1tb 16ram with the Iris Pro.. This is the option on Apple so I thought it was the best. I ended up ordering it on BHPhoto since it was in stock and available for shipping asap. After doing some research I found out that if I went with the 2.5ghz and the 512gb HD I could of had the AMD Radeon R9 M370X gpu.... wtf! So a slower processor and cheaper overall price has better performance?

Or will the 2.8ghz processor with Iris Pro give me that extra boost I need and compensate for not having the AMD Radeon R9 M370X. I rather have the larger HD so I went with the 1tb but then again I need the performance. I will be doing photo and video editing so every bit helps.

Should I return it and get the 2.5ghz, 512gb HD WITH the AMD Radeon R9 M370X or should I stick to my 2.8ghz 1tb HD with Iris Pro??? I wish I caught this sooner.

Any feedback or advice would be great.

 

[MrGuder]

Are you sure what you ordered doesn't come with the AMD graphics? Apple only recently removed the Raedon graphics from their 2015 model. What B&H had might of been older stock.

 

[JumpinFlash22]

Are you sure what you ordered doesn't come with the AMD graphics? Apple only recently removed the Raedon graphics from their 2015 model. What B&H had might of been older stock.

Check Apple, no mention of the AMD chip.

 

[Mlrollin91]

Check Apple, no mention of the AMD chip.

I think you misread what the OP stated. He said Apple has removed the AMD, but B&H might have older stock with AMD still available. So the B&H with AMD is an 'older' machine.

 

[Clix Pix]

For what it's worth, I've been very happy with my 15" 2015 rMBP purchased at the Apple store in December 2015 with AMD Radeon R9 M370x GPU in addition to the built-in Iris Pro graphics, 2.5 Ghz i7, 512 GB SSD and 16 GB RAM. As for the 512 capacity on the SSD, I was pleasantly surprised at how relatively painless it was to clear off a lot of stuff from the 1 TB drive I'd had on my previous machine, and how much of it I really hadn't needed and didn't need to have available at my fingertips absolutely every time I turned the computer on. I use a couple of external drives as "supplementary drives" for quick access to anything I think I might need fairly immediately, and so far that system has worked well for me.

 

[JumpinFlash22]

I'm wondering if having a 2.8ghz without the amd gpu is equivalent to having the 2.5 with the amd gpu. It sucks that at the time of purchase there was no option to but the amd gpu in my 2.8ghz 1tb setup.

 

[thekev]

I'm wondering if having a 2.8ghz without the amd gpu is equivalent to having the 2.5 with the amd gpu.

No, but I don't think it matters. The two processors perform roughly the same. They aren't far enough apart for you to see any difference. You simply bought into too much misinformation on these things. I'm always a little wary of Apple notebooks and discrete gpus, because my results haven't been great with them, however the performance difference in gpus is orthogonal to any difference in cpus, which in this case is virtually no difference at all.

 

[motime]

To answer your question the processor upgrade won't make any noticeable difference but the amd card is quite a bit more powerful than the integrated Iris pro, so you will see a big difference there when it comes to doing graphics card intensive things such as video editing and playing video games.

Essentially, the 2.5 ghz model with the amd card is much better, apart from the ssd size of course, but most people can do just fine with 512.

Just return the one you have and buy the 2.5 ghz model. Also if you check the refurbished store:
http://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/macbook

You can find the 2.5 ghz model for 2100. I bought one recently and it comes in a sealed box as good as new with a full warranty. If it is not there then check back a day or two later as they keep being sold out.

 

[Clix Pix]

If you decide to go with the 2015 2.5 Ghz model and its 512 GB SSD, you might want to also pick up a Samsung T3 external SSD. These come in several capacities up to 2 TB. Perfect to use as a supplementary drive to your main internal SSD!