Hello I have a 2017 13 MacBook pro tb. I'm very intrigued at the idea of upgrading to the 2018 13 mpb. I was wondering if it is worth even upgrading at all and wait till 2019? I want a quad core to better "future proof". Is the 2.7ghz i7 quad core worth the extra 300 over the 2.3ghz? Or should I spend that money on 16gb ram. I would have this computer for 5+ years hopefully.
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2018 mbp 2.3 or 2.7?
- Thread starter Camark08
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If you have the 2017 model...why upgrade to the 2018? Proc upgrades that big of deal?
It was the biggest processor upgrade MacBooks have seen from a year to year standpoint ever. Quad core seems to be the new norm. I will probably just hold out till 2019 or 2020.
I have the 2017..and had not thought about upgrading. But you are now making me rethink. LOL
I'd get it, but with the 16GB if RAM, if you can afford it the i7 would be nice too, but not as important as the RAM IMHO.
Agreed. I like the idea of the 2018 quad core, it's a very significant upgrade for sure, but I'm waiting to see what happens with 2019/2020 and Sunny Cove or whatever it's called. Especially considering the apparent niggles with the T2.
Personally, there are not too many times it matters when I'm waiting for the CPU. The only times I really hammer the CPU is doing audio stuff, and then it doesn't really matter to me whether an audio transcode takes 2 minutes or 1 minute.
If I was using it professionally, and the time taken to HDR photos (for example) had an impact on my professional productivity, then that's another story.
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Any deviation from base specs isn't "worth" it and especially these too CPU's since there performance is negligible.
Apples profit margin increases exponentially with upgrades. That 300 dollar CPU upgrade actually cost you 300 dollars + the i5. You can find the i7-8559u in ultra small form factor PC's that have a TOTAL cost of 499, (I couldn't find Intels retail on it).
I can't even confidently recommend 16gb of RAM however I do feel you'll be better served by it.
I have a 2018 MBP i5 8gb ram 512gb SSD. Generally I wouldn't have got less than 16gb of RAM, however I got a good deal so I said to heck with it.
So far I've been very happy, surprised even. My workload consist of 10 poorly optimized web pages in safari tabs, email, messages, FaceTime, and photos which I still have open. Currently though I'm using Gimp to edit photos which I'm importing into iMovie with my work stuff still open.
MacOS is virtualizing RAM (swap) and its compressing a lot of data. However I wouldn't be able to tell you that without looking at activity monitor because everything feels smooth as silk, or at least as smooth as those programs feel being the only program open on a fresh boot.
Now I'm not editing RAW nor am I using HEVC codec however I feel I need to be reasonable since those task are more professional workloads that you'd want more than just 16gb RAM (dedicated graphics, larger SSD if you working locally, etc).
Future proofing a Mac is silly IMO because MacOS support is dropped arbitrarily based on the model year. An obsolete Mac that is 20% faster is still obsolete. While there is a quality of performance leading up to the planned obsolescence I've never found the maxed out model to be night and day compared to the base model. That is just my experience and opinion though. Its a free country, get what gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling.
Apples profit margin increases exponentially with upgrades. That 300 dollar CPU upgrade actually cost you 300 dollars + the i5. You can find the i7-8559u in ultra small form factor PC's that have a TOTAL cost of 499, (I couldn't find Intels retail on it).
I can't even confidently recommend 16gb of RAM however I do feel you'll be better served by it.
I have a 2018 MBP i5 8gb ram 512gb SSD. Generally I wouldn't have got less than 16gb of RAM, however I got a good deal so I said to heck with it.
So far I've been very happy, surprised even. My workload consist of 10 poorly optimized web pages in safari tabs, email, messages, FaceTime, and photos which I still have open. Currently though I'm using Gimp to edit photos which I'm importing into iMovie with my work stuff still open.
MacOS is virtualizing RAM (swap) and its compressing a lot of data. However I wouldn't be able to tell you that without looking at activity monitor because everything feels smooth as silk, or at least as smooth as those programs feel being the only program open on a fresh boot.
Now I'm not editing RAW nor am I using HEVC codec however I feel I need to be reasonable since those task are more professional workloads that you'd want more than just 16gb RAM (dedicated graphics, larger SSD if you working locally, etc).
Future proofing a Mac is silly IMO because MacOS support is dropped arbitrarily based on the model year. An obsolete Mac that is 20% faster is still obsolete. While there is a quality of performance leading up to the planned obsolescence I've never found the maxed out model to be night and day compared to the base model. That is just my experience and opinion though. Its a free country, get what gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling.