Hey everyone I know these are questions people hate but Im a bit lost as to what I should do. I mainly use my laptop in my room for school and netflix with a thunderbolt display. Currently I have a MB Pro 17 inch late 2011 2.4 i7, 250 SSD, 8GB RAM that I use plugged in there and then I have a MB Air mid 2012 i5 256GB flash. I bought the 17 inch last year refurbished because I thought I wanted the bigger screen and ability to move it. Well with thunderbolt now, it was a dumb move. Now I have two laptops for no reason. I was thinking of trying to sell them and get a 13inch rMBP because still small t carry if I need but I can plug it into the display and use it. My questions are how would a well equipped 13 rMBP compare to my 17 inch in terms of performance. The 17 only is loud when I watch videos but other than that it works perfectly. Is it worth it to do this or should I just deal with a change once these are ready to be replaced? Thanks
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Advice on if I should keep or not please
- Thread starter willydimes
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When comparing the 17" MacBook Pro to the 13" MacBook (Pro) it's important to remember that the 17" has a dedicated graphics card whereas the 13" does not. However, what with the 17" being the same age as my 15" MBP, it'll likely have the same ATI Radeon 6750M in it, which is "meh" on the gaming graphics scale, if you're into that sort of thing, and "sub-meh" on the video rendering scale.
The (current) 13" MBP on the other hand has Intel Iris graphics - importantly this is not the Iris Pro graphics - which will not be as good as a dedicated graphics card as can be found in the 15" MBP/retinaMBP.
However, if you have no interest in graphics-intensive applications, then by all counts the current 13" MBP will out-perform your 17" MBP in all areas, with the exception of default hard drive capacity
Basically, your choice is keep what you have, with better graphics but slower processing, or upgrade to faster processing power. Also, possibly a higher RAM count, depending on how much RAM your 17" MBP currently has in it.
Hope that's helped.
The (current) 13" MBP on the other hand has Intel Iris graphics - importantly this is not the Iris Pro graphics - which will not be as good as a dedicated graphics card as can be found in the 15" MBP/retinaMBP.
However, if you have no interest in graphics-intensive applications, then by all counts the current 13" MBP will out-perform your 17" MBP in all areas, with the exception of default hard drive capacity
Basically, your choice is keep what you have, with better graphics but slower processing, or upgrade to faster processing power. Also, possibly a higher RAM count, depending on how much RAM your 17" MBP currently has in it.
Hope that's helped.
I was also thinking perhaps a 15 inch with the dedicated GPU but wasn't sure if it was truly needed in my circumstances. Ive never felt like my laptop was slow just that when I watch movies its loud with fan. I guess thats my main desire is something that can run that a bit more quiet while still maintaining the performance of what I have currently.
It has 8GB ram now which i think is more than enough for what I do.
So if better graphics support is what I want should I just go for the 15 inch with the dedicated GPU? Looking at the 13 inch configurations and size it seems like I would go with the more expensive one and get the i7 upgrade which in that case I could get a refurb 15 for like 200 more with the GPU
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Also would the lower rMBP 15 do well graphically compared to my 17 inch or would i need the upgraded rMBP, most expensive one with iris pro and NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2GB GDDR5?
It has 8GB ram now which i think is more than enough for what I do.
So if better graphics support is what I want should I just go for the 15 inch with the dedicated GPU? Looking at the 13 inch configurations and size it seems like I would go with the more expensive one and get the i7 upgrade which in that case I could get a refurb 15 for like 200 more with the GPU
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Also would the lower rMBP 15 do well graphically compared to my 17 inch or would i need the upgraded rMBP, most expensive one with iris pro and NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2GB GDDR5?
The Iris Pro integrated graphics will actually out-perform the Radeon 6750M in your 17" MBP (something that still confounds me, because integrated graphics shouldn't be this amazing), so only go the extra step to the high-end one if you're actually going to be doing a log of gaming, or hours and hours of HD video editing, or massive amounts of photography work.
If you're already comfortable in 8GB of RAM then any of the current machines will suit you fine with a similar upgrade. I would also agree though that spending the 200 more on the refurb 15" will result in a far better experience overall - even the speakers on the 15" are better by magnitudes.
If you're already comfortable in 8GB of RAM then any of the current machines will suit you fine with a similar upgrade. I would also agree though that spending the 200 more on the refurb 15" will result in a far better experience overall - even the speakers on the 15" are better by magnitudes.
That makes more sense, it seems like going with one of the 15 might be better for longevity sake at least. Would it be bad to maybe look at one of the Feb 2013 ones with have the GPU and I could get one with more storage and ram for same price
haha yea I'm in dental school so I try and keep things as light as I can, i might just opt for an older one and save a few bucks on it. I can't imagine I would even be able to tell the difference
Well like I say, you'd only really need the dedicated graphics of the nV750 if you were going to do very intensive things. Iris Pro graphics will be more than enough for light gaming et al, with even the standard Iris graphics out-performing the ATI 6750M of your 17" MBP for some tasks.
All the newer machines will operate faster, processor wise, even though their clock speeds are slower, simply because of the generational improvements.
Ultimately, it's up to you which machine you pick, but you're going to see at least a speed boost from having SSDs as your primary drives, and at most a sincere boost to graphics, processor speed AND data speed
All the newer machines will operate faster, processor wise, even though their clock speeds are slower, simply because of the generational improvements.
Ultimately, it's up to you which machine you pick, but you're going to see at least a speed boost from having SSDs as your primary drives, and at most a sincere boost to graphics, processor speed AND data speed
yea I see what you're saying Noms, thanks for your help, I really appreciate it.
Techgod, thats good to know I think i don't realize how outdated my GPU really is so I probably shouldn't be trying to reach and pay more when I won't even reap the benefits
Techgod, thats good to know I think i don't realize how outdated my GPU really is so I probably shouldn't be trying to reach and pay more when I won't even reap the benefits
60-70fps with league of legends on medium high.
I'll be trying Borderlands 2 soon but MineCraft gets around 100fps on everything max, in comparison my 2011 MBP with HD 3000 gets 15-20fps on all max in Minecraft.
oh wow thats quite the difference yea well at least I know I don't need to get the crazy expensive one to do what I want.
Macbook Air 13" can let you watch movie with no problem and can hooked to big screen tv. Cheap then 13" and 15" rMBP. 