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Another "should I?" Thread...

Kal-037

Kal-037

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 7, 2015
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Depends on the day, but usually I live all over.
Sorry, this isn't as much of a question of what mac should I buy but more of the capability of this machine.
I've decided I really want a Mac computer again to have as my main hub for my iDevices. I sold my 15" for the iPad Pro and other stuff (it was going to waste) I want something thinner and lighter. So... my conundrum now is if the speed on this guy is at all capable of image editing and some light illustration design. I also sometimes do a little iMovie projects. Again I really want something really light with an HD screen and also semi quick to a fairly good extent. The MBPs are too big and bulky, and actually have more power than I really need, are these new MacBooks at least powerful enough to run Pixelmator or Acorn without much issue? And is the 480p FaceTime camera a real deal breaker?
I'm not asking if I should buy it in the general sense, but more if this is a good machine and would actually do the stuff I want to, without much trouble.
The other thing is does anyone think that Skylake will make a HUGE difference in specs, (aside from a better GPU?)
Thanks for any help, it is appreciated.
 
It will do the job if you are painted in a corner, with no other recourse at hand. I would not use my rMB for any graphics work for a livelihood. The processor and screen-size will be too limiting in my opinion.

I am curious though, for thin-and-light: you are buying the iPad Pro. Why are you buying another device whose reason for existence is also: thin-and-light? Why not cover the more powerful end of your use spectrum with a rMBP?
 
mtneer said:
It will do the job if you are painted in a corner, with no other recourse at hand. I would not use my rMB for any graphics work for a livelihood. The processor and screen-size will be too limiting in my opinion.

I am curious though, for thin-and-light: you are buying the iPad Pro. Why are you buying another device whose reason for existence is also: thin-and-light? Why not cover the more powerful end of your use spectrum with a rMBP?
Click to expand...
MBPs are too heavy and were overkill, as I only used 2% of their processing power. I plan to do hand drawn sketches and designs on my iPad Pro then clean everything up and make it all nice and neat using Pixelmator. Eventually when I can, I'll get a 5k iMac, but for now I mainly need an HD Mac that can be portable and light so I can take it and the iPP anywhere I want. Again both MBPs are a tad to heavy for me to lug around.
I know this obviously will not be anywhere near as powerful as the Pros, but again I really just need it to do photo/image editing on the go.
I am just curious if it can edit stuff well, and can do it without too much of the swirling beachball. lol

Kal.
 
Almost seems like a MacBook Air would be a good candidate but you'd lose the sexy screen resolution. It'd save you a good chunk of cash though. If an MBA won't cut it....I'm not so sure the MacBook is strong enough. It really is designed for the always on the go user that has pretty light computing needs. Tough call. The MacBook Air is more powerful than the MacBook by an appreciable amount.
 
Kal-037 said:
Sorry, this isn't as much of a question of what mac should I buy but more of the capability of this machine.
I've decided I really want a Mac computer again to have as my main hub for my iDevices. I sold my 15" for the iPad Pro and other stuff (it was going to waste) I want something thinner and lighter. So... my conundrum now is if the speed on this guy is at all capable of image editing and some light illustration design. I also sometimes do a little iMovie projects. Again I really want something really light with an HD screen and also semi quick to a fairly good extent. The MBPs are too big and bulky, and actually have more power than I really need, are these new MacBooks at least powerful enough to run Pixelmator or Acorn without much issue? And is the 480p FaceTime camera a real deal breaker?
I'm not asking if I should buy it in the general sense, but more if this is a good machine and would actually do the stuff I want to, without much trouble.
The other thing is does anyone think that Skylake will make a HUGE difference in specs, (aside from a better GPU?)
Thanks for any help, it is appreciated.
Click to expand...
These kind of questions are always fairly subjective and dependent on your expectations, but I have Pixelmator on the base rMB and it works great for light to medium editing/creation work. Photoshop will work great too. It's probably not ideal for 1GB photoshop files with a 100 layers.

A lot of people around here read "photo editing/illustrative work" and translate that to "working on the next Marvel/Pixar movie". Make sure you're talking "apples to apples".

The FaceTime camera is a "utility" camera - it doesn't look great.

No one knows what the next update will bring or when. There are already a number of speculation threads to read through, but you will not get a better "answer" than those no matter how many times the question is asked. The Skylake CPU itself will probably offer ~10% better performance over Broadwell used in rMB.
 
I'm a little confused by talk of power limitations for the MBK. I remember when i started as a graphic designer in 1999, we used iMacs with 64mb of Ram and iBooks. QuarkXpress, Photoshop and Illustrator were superb on them. Why 16 years later is this an issue or am I missing something?
Also, i've worked on Final Cut Pro X on a friends new MBK and it's super. 4K takes longer to export than say a MBK Pro but other than that, it's super. To me, the MBK Pro is looking incredibly dated now and really needs a new design direction. The silver is so year 2000.
 
I understand your situation. I've toyed with getting an iPad Pro, but in the end decided it probably won't be worth the price once the pencil + keyboard are added. I also had reservations about the Adobe iOS programs, and initial reviews saying the keyboard was only serviceable (which makes me pause because I do a lot of writing as well). Once I realized that it would essentially be the same price as a base rMB, I turned to it instead.

Long story short, I recently purchased a rMB and love it. I have adobe CC installed and LR and PS work quite well on it, which is a nice surprise. Scrivener, my writing program of choice, is very snappy. And I actually love the keyboard, though I've never been a forceful typer, so I don't mind the short throw.

As far as the next iteration is concerned, I think it'll be early next year. Although the skylake y chips are available, they must be optimized first. Plus I can't see apple adding skylake to the rMB before the rMBPs. In any case, the broadwell chip is surprisingly good and should perform admirably for the next few years.
 
Nychot said:
It's an opinion. not being rude. just bored with the same old, same old.
Click to expand...
I agree that it can be annoying when people post the same thing over and over, however you're expressing your opinion in a rude way and it's uncalled for here. You are rude in many threads - it's not cool. It would be appreciated if you tried to be more considerate of people's feelings and offered helpful pointers rather than putdowns. Thank you.
 
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