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Advice on refurb 15 rMBP

C

catgo

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 8, 2007
81
7
Miami, FL
Currently on the market for a refurb 15 rMBP since I just passed down my Late 2012 13 rMBP to my brother.

Im definitely purchasing from the Apple.com refurb store but I'm currently debating on which of those I should buy. My two options are the following:

Early 2013 2.4 i7 8GB Ram 256GB SSD + Nvidia GT 650M for $1,659 + tax

or

Late 2013 2.0 i7 8GB Ram 256 SSD + Intel Iris Pro for $1,699 + tax.

As I see it, the main difference between these two is the dedicated video card on the Early 13 model vs the faster SSD on the Late 2013 model.

I will use the machine daily for internet browsing, word, excel, email, itunes, and will use Aperture, Illustrator CC and Photoshop CC perhaps a few times per month when I'm away from my 27'' iMac.

In addition, I will sometimes play FSX on Windows 7 using bootcamp.

Which of these machines would you buy taking account what I will use it for?

BTW I'm planning on keeping the machine possibly between 1 - 1.5 yrs.

Thanks for your input!
 
catgo said:
Currently on the market for a refurb 15 rMBP since I just passed down my Late 2012 13 rMBP to my brother.

Im definitely purchasing from the Apple.com refurb store but I'm currently debating on which of those I should buy. My two options are the following:

Early 2013 2.4 i7 8GB Ram 256GB SSD + Nvidia GT 650M for $1,659 + tax

or

Late 2013 2.0 i7 8GB Ram 256 SSD + Intel Iris Pro for $1,699 + tax.

As I see it, the main difference between these two is the dedicated video card on the Early 13 model vs the faster SSD on the Late 2013 model.

I will use the machine daily for internet browsing, word, excel, email, itunes, and will use Aperture, Illustrator CC and Photoshop CC perhaps a few times per month when I'm away from my 27'' iMac.

In addition, I will sometimes play FSX on Windows 7 using bootcamp.

Which of these machines would you buy taking account what I will use it for?

BTW I'm planning on keeping the machine possibly between 1 - 1.5 yrs.

Thanks for your input!
Click to expand...

Considering that you're using it for gaming, the GT650M on the early-2013 model will beat the Iris Pro in every way.

The Iris Pro is only better than the GT650M in OpenCL tasks.
 
Thanks for your input! Is the difference with the new pci based SSD's be noticeable? If no gaming would be done on the machine would you choose the newer model?
 
yjchua95 said:
If no gaming would be done, I'd choose the newer model in a heartbeat.

The difference is noticeable especially in I/O-intensive tasks.
Click to expand...

Im leaning towards the newer Iris Pro model as well. It would be great if I could get all the benefits from the new model and run FSX on bootcamp at 25 fps...that would be enough for me. I´m thinking that most of the work that will be done on the machine will benefit more from the speedier SSD than the dedicated video card.
 
Apparently newer MacBook Pro's are 100% plug and play compatible with eGPU set ups so you might not be screwed on gaming if you get the money later for the adapters and set one up.

Just search for nando4. He's a member of Tech Inferno that set up and wrote guides on Thunderbolt external GPU's.
 
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