Am I going to notice a difference going from 2013 MBP to 2019 MBP?

[SW3029]

This is probably a stupid question, but bear with me. I understand how RAM can make a computer go faster, but I'm not totally certain how big an impact on everyday-use/speed CPU's have.

I have a late 2013 15" MBP with 16GB of RAM and a 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU.

I'm thinking of upgrading to a 2019 15" MBP with 16GB of RAM and a 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU.

Am I going to see a difference? I mean the specs only make it look like it's 300 MHz faster, but I know that can't be the case.

The main apps I use: browsers, iTunes, word processors, Photos.

Right now Photos has begun to slow down for me. Not scrolling through images or anything, but I notice when I apply the "Auto Enhance" tool, it takes about 4 seconds for it to take effect and it shows a progress bar while doing it. A few years ago the process was instantaneous.

I'm upgrading because my current MBP is showing its age (screen damage, etc). I want to stick with the MBP because a 15 inch screen is the sweet spot for me.

 

[psingh01]

The 2.3ghz 2019 is an i9 and has 8-cores vs your 4-core machine. It will have a small improvement in single core processes but a huge improvement in multi core processes. You should see the biggest noticeable benefit when doing your photo editing. Less so when browsing and using word. It has other benefits like faster ports (thunderbolt3) and ssd which will affect overall performance as well when you use them.

 

[mragarg]

I'm on a similar boat as you. I'm personally going to make the switch to the 2019 MBP 15" in the coming weeks. In terms of significant differences, there may not be many. However, here are the reasons why I'm making the switch myself:

• New form factor (physical size is smaller)
• Battery life (my battery is weak, I do know I can replace it)
• Programming/Better CPU (my current machine overheats quickly when doing basic browsing and programming)
• USB-C life (Yes, it means that I'll need a dongle but I am excited for utilizing its capabilities)
• Space Grey (lol it's a beautiful color)
• Trackpad is much bigger
• Touchbar (there are apps I noticed that can help modify the touchbar to be more useful i.e. Pock)
• it's the last iteration so most of its kinks are gone. I'll be using a monitor anyways as well as external peripherals so keyboards issues aren't in mind for me
• Newer internals (I've personally have been having issues with a few things such as the Wifi card and bluetooth not working time to time)
• Updated wifi card

I typically keep my machines for as long as possible. I've had mine for 6 years now and it's been great but it's time to upgrade. I'm really hoping I can do a one-cable setup so that either my SO or anyone with a USB C port can come to my desk and connect to all the peripherals.

 

[Zerosopher]

I'm on a similar boat as you. I'm personally going to make the switch to the 2019 MBP 15" in the coming weeks. In terms of significant differences, there may not be many. However, here are the reasons why I'm making the switch myself:

• New form factor (physical size is smaller)
• Battery life (my battery is weak, I do know I can replace it)
• Programming/Better CPU (my current machine overheats quickly when doing basic browsing and programming)
• USB-C life (Yes, it means that I'll need a dongle but I am excited for utilizing its capabilities)
• Space Grey (lol it's a beautiful color)
• Trackpad is much bigger
• Touchbar (there are apps I noticed that can help modify the touchbar to be more useful i.e. Pock)
• it's the last iteration so most of its kinks are gone. I'll be using a monitor anyways as well as external peripherals so keyboards issues aren't in mind for me
• Newer internals (I've personally have been having issues with a few things such as the Wifi card and bluetooth not working time to time)
• Updated wifi card

I typically keep my machines for as long as possible. I've had mine for 6 years now and it's been great but it's time to upgrade. I'm really hoping I can do a one-cable setup so that either my SO or anyone with a USB C port can come to my desk and connect to all the peripherals.

I am in the same boat. Mine is six years now. Are you going to just buy The 2019 model?
The 16 inches model is coming. I couldn’t wait any longer.

 

[mragarg]

I am in the same boat. Mine is six years now. Are you going to just buy The 2019 model?
The 16 inches model is coming. I couldn’t wait any longer.

In my honest opinion, I'm not going to get the 16" for many reasons.

1. Higher Price = Lower Specs than what I can get now
2. First Iteration = higher chance of failures
3. Time = it's likely but not confirmed that it'll be released in October
4. The 16" being bezel-less almost is beautiful but I'll probably lean towards using the money on another monitor/thunderbolt dock.

 

[BeatWilson]

Im in the same boat. Im thinking the first version of the 16 inch is gonna possibly have more problems. If my keyboard were to break down like 4 times with a 2019 model i would think they would give me a 2020 model to replace it like 2/3 years down the road. i would think they would run out of the old mold by then.
I dont want to pay more for less as well. But im also not sure about the vega 20. If the vega 20 runs all night rendering video, which i wont do video that long, but it does drain the battery over and over without letting the battery fully charge i believe which tells the computer the battery has been drained a bunch of times when really its just using more voltage than it can rendering video for that amount of time. I think people were treating it like a desktop computer and yeah it does have some desktop specs but it is still a labtop.

So due to voltage im not sure about the vega 20. Might go with the 560x. But if the 16 inch does get announced it may have some actually upgrades regardless to keyboard, how the screen actually looks, not just the size, and possibly something else. so missig out on that for possibly the same price would be a shame.

not sure what to do here.
cant go with pc really cause i want it for djing and music aswell as editing.

 

[Zerosopher]

That make senses. I would consider buying a Macbook 2019 again. Actually, I‘ve already bought one but I returned it (as the rumours came out).

There are some unrevealed models that could possibly be the non-TB versions.

I am still thinking.

 

[BeatWilson]

I am on the fence as well.
I will keep my eyes out, but I'm not holding my breath. No matter what i will make a purchase around xmas time. I just wish i could make it earlier. Im not a fan on how apple works, but there Laptops works great with Music Gear and Software. Very low-latency without an audio interface. Great for djing. I just don't want to make a $6,000.00(CAD) purchase on a computer that drains battery due to the charger not charging it properly If they would solve all this by the end of November I'm in. If they don't i may go with a Radeon 560X version. Its voltage is better. Doesn't get drained from the Vega chip even though the Vega apparently run Cooler.

I thought of a 13inch and a EGPU but i don't really want to make things complicated or weird if possible. If its more effective in price and in every way then i may do that. I don't care for the size of the screen being large. I just with the 13inch's packed a little more power.

 

[mragarg]

Wait, I did not know this. The battery drains while connecting to the charger if you have a Vega GPU?

 

[BeatWilson]

This guy did a test on it. If your Vega 20 is running overnight rendering, it will drain the battery fast, then the plug in will not refill your battery. it will keep draining after only giving a small percentage of power to the battery and re-drain it showing poor battery life cycles. I feel like thats a huge Flaw...

 

[Fishrrman]

What you'll notice:
- keyboard doesn't feel as good
- keys quit working
- the peripherals you have won't plug into the ports
- no magsafe

Actually, if you can hold out a while longer, I'd wait for the 2020 version of the MBP 13".
It should have the "new" (actually, return to the older "scissors keyboard") design.
You'll still have to live with the ports...

 

[mragarg]

Well, I thought I'd give an update. I pulled a trigger with the following specs:
- 15" 2.3Ghz 8-core, 32 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, Vega 16

 

[BeatWilson]

Let me know what you think of it. If your happy. Any Heat issues or keyboard. Things like that because i also debate on pulling the trigger. The new models will be more money for possibly lower specs so... and a lightly larger screen to me means dick all. I also heard of some guy reseting his SMC which I've done a bunch on my old laptops and this actually fixed his keyboard issues. so maybe its a software/firmware sensitivity issue? I'm not sure.

BTW those are basically the specs I was looking at.

Otherwise the vega 20 or radeon 560x but the 16 might be a nice inbetween. Let me know what you think of the card.

Cheers

 

[mragarg]

Let me know what you think of it. If your happy. Any Heat issues or keyboard. Things like that because i also debate on pulling the trigger. The new models will be more money for possibly lower specs so... and a lightly larger screen to me means dick all. I also heard of some guy reseting his SMC which I've done a bunch on my old laptops and this actually fixed his keyboard issues. so maybe its a software/firmware sensitivity issue? I'm not sure.

BTW those are basically the specs I was looking at.

Otherwise the vega 20 or radeon 560x but the 16 might be a nice inbetween. Let me know what you think of the card.

Cheers

Of course! From the intensive (overdone) research I did on this generation. I'm confident with the keyboard being reliable (as long as I'm not eating a crumbling Oreo on top of it or something). I'm nervous about the Vega 16 because of the posts I see about flickering, but I always tell myself that people are more like to post about bad experiences than good so.....

 

[BeatWilson]

where do you live? cause i hear people having more of an issue with returns for that only in certain areas.
They say the flickering is done on low resolutions so try that so if it occurs. also i heard it could of been fixed in a update to catalina.

 

[mragarg]

Well, I'm picking the machine up from a Shipping facility so I'll swap the resolutions on the settings to immediately test the presence of any flickering issue.

 

[Zerosopher]

Well, I thought I'd give an update. I pulled a trigger with the following specs:
- 15" 2.3Ghz 8-core, 32 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, Vega 16

The machine is going to be super powerful. I just noticed you do programming. What are the areas you are doing?
I am planning to get one for programming as well. I want the 13 inches but it does not have the 32 RAM. Unfortunately, I will step up for 15.

 

[mragarg]

I'm currently doing all kinds due to school. But the reason for the upgrade was because my previous machine couldn't handle the genetic algorithms I was running fast enough. My friend had the 2.6Ghz 6 core MBP touchbar and that ran it like a beast. Mine would be slow and turn on its fans to high. But so far I'm loving the machine.

Currently going through the new purchase phase were i'm being extra clean and careful about it lol.

 

[Zerosopher]

I'm currently doing all kinds due to school. But the reason for the upgrade was because my previous machine couldn't handle the genetic algorithms I was running fast enough. My friend had the 2.6Ghz 6 core MBP touchbar and that ran it like a beast. Mine would be slow and turn on its fans to high. But so far I'm loving the machine.

Currently going through the new purchase phase were i'm being extra clean and careful about it lol.

It ‘s good to hear. I am working on machine learning stuff but on a Macbook Air 2013. I maxed up the specification. Now it is getting slow now and I think I will go for the 6 cores like your friends. It should be working fine for many years. However, I am waiting to see the leaked models that were registered in the EU database. Hopefully, Apple will release the none- TB.

 

[ScreenSavers]

I would make the upgrade. The 2018-2019 are finally pretty decent. It takes years for them to get a design reliable.

 

[mragarg]

After a few days with mine, I would recommend doing it. It's been such a nice difference and it's been a lot better for my uses. I don't see the CPU temperature spiking at all. Connections, whether bluetooth or Wifi, has been better.

In short, you won't regret it. Also, I personally love the Touch Bar, especially after installing Pock!

 

[cynics]

This guy did a test on it. If your Vega 20 is running overnight rendering, it will drain the battery fast, then the plug in will not refill your battery. it will keep draining after only giving a small percentage of power to the battery and re-drain it showing poor battery life cycles. I feel like thats a huge Flaw...

USB C PD seems to have made a standard of power delivery + supplemental battery if needed. This gives manufacturers the ability to use more powerful hardware plus increase and/or remove artificial power limitations.

Charging slows down above 80% for the health of the battery. If you are consuming a lot of power it may linger in that area until you are done. Battery cycles work on percentages. Charging 50% two times = 100%, 1% one hundred times = 100%.

The reviewer is increasing the fan speed and by doing so this gives the CPU thermal headsroom to exceed its 1st power limit which is the CPU's TDP of 45w.

Here is my 25w (gray line) 2.3ghz i5 running at 3.2ghz exporting a video with the fans set to max.

Thermals are ok so its running at a higher clock speed but also consuming 36.42w of energy.

If we assume his i9 was consuming 55-65w @ 3ghz that doesn't leave much headroom for EVERYTHING else. Frankly I'm impressed its even possible with the i9. Generally Macs with high end CPU's struggle to maintain stock speed do to thermals.

This isn't an i9 MacBook pro problem or even an Apple issue. Its an easy goal to make ANY laptop that uses USB-C PD (or a proprietary tech that supplements the charger with the battery) if you don't have thermals and/or artificial limitations stopping you.

Easy demonstration for that claim is my 2018 13" i5 2.3ghz 8gb ram with integrated graphics on battery with an unrealistic heavy load on it. (Very similar to the video, USB C accessories, external 10bit display, max brightness, max fan, exporting a HEVC).

12.91v x 4.415amp = 56.99watt. I think that is the same as the battery which means 1 hour of use.

This is it plugged in with OEM 61watt charger and the same load.

Still draining (overhead).

However this goes unnoticed because usually its in quick burst. And if not the enhanced performance is is typically worth it. For example if I saved 30 minutes on a export at the expense of 10% battery....I'm completely ok with that. Assuming performance could be calculated linearly from clock speed I get 30% better performance at the expense of a little battery. Since my exports typically don't take more than 25 minutes I don't notice battery drain however I appreciate that 7-10 minutes.

Keep in mind this is only a thing if YOU increase the fan speeds over system. If not it will throttle on temp and consume less power. If you were able to overclock at the expense of battery to obtain better performance would you? If not than don't increase if the fan speed, if so then increase it enjoy the additional performance. Terrible analogy I know but with some mobos changing clock speed an voltages for the CPU via software is just as easy as changing the fan speed in this situation for obtain essentially the same effect.

Apple could "fix" this but it would likely be by them setting their second power level limit at or near its first (TDP) via firmware. This would mean your i9s performance is permanently capped. Which IMO wouldn't make any sense if all you had to do was not manipulate the fan speed in the first place.

The reviewers idea to go back to his 2018 doesn't seem very well thought out. Performance is still better without cranking up the fan speed but he has the ability to increase if he were to need to push a project out ASAP.