Anyone with 2018 MBP i9 keeping it?

[KarmaRocket]

So I'm still on the fence on which model of the 2018 MBP to get. The i9 or i7 2.6? Wondering if those of you who bought the i9 exchanged it or decided to keep it and why?

I'll mostly be doing Xcode/Swift and 4K editing on FCPX. Some game development with Godot, Unity and Unreal Engine. Maybe some Blender, Cinema4D or Maya for 3D assets etc.

I don't think the i9 will benefit me that much, but wondering if others who might be doing similar tasks are seeing better results with the i9 or i7? I'm leaning towards the i7 2.6 since it seems like it hits a certain sweet spot in terms of power and heat.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[Patcell]

So I'm still on the fence on which model of the 2018 MBP to get. The i9 or i7 2.6? Wondering if those of you who bought the i9 exchanged it or decided to keep it and why?

I'll mostly be doing Xcode/Swift and 4K editing on FCPX. Some game development with Godot, Unity and Unreal Engine. Maybe some Blender, Cinema4D or Maya for 3D assets etc.

I don't think the i9 will benefit me that much, but wondering if others who might be doing similar tasks are seeing better results with the i9 or i7? I'm leaning towards the i7 2.6 since it seems like it hits a certain sweet spot in terms of power and heat.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

I don't have the 2018 MacBook Pro, let alone the i9 version, but I would say that based on test results around the internet it is probably not even close to being worth the upgrade price over the base or mid-tier CPU.

Take a look at this for example:

 

[Newtons Apple]

I bought the mid rage 15" with 2.6/16/512 and it will suit most needs for years.

 

[zoom25]

How is the battery life between the base 2.2 and mid range 2.6 base option?

 

[Adeel_]

How is the battery life between the base 2.2 and mid range 2.6 base option?

I’m also curious to know this. Why no one test it?

A good configuration is not only about benchmarks and score

 

[lovejimbo]

I've got the i9 and a co-worker has got the 2.6ghz i7.

Both have 32GB ram and 2TB hard drives.

My old machine was the 3.1ghz 2017 i7 with 2tb drive and 16GB ram.

As an exercise whilst we were bored, we exported from a heavy After Effects project that we're currently producing.

Same apps and processes running.

The 2017 took 48min 14sec.

The 2018 2.6ghz i7 took 37min 09sec.

The 2018 i9 took 30min 57sec.

Sure, it's not scientific - but there seems to be advantages in certain real world situations.

 

[zoom25]

I’m also curious to know this. Why no one test it?

A good configuration is not only about benchmarks and score

Battery life is an important criteria to me. I have a Retina Mid 2012 2.6 GHz and the battery life is short at 5-7 hours on basic tasks (web browsing on Safari, Youtube, Spotify).

I also have a Mid 2015 2.2 base model which gives much better battery life.

For my use, I'm not daily running taxing things like Lightroom or FCPX. So for most of the casual days, the battery life is an important criteria between the base models.

 

[KarmaRocket]

I've got the i9 and a co-worker has got the 2.6ghz i7.

Both have 32GB ram and 2TB hard drives.

My old machine was the 3.1ghz 2017 i7 with 2tb drive and 16GB ram.

As an exercise whilst we were bored, we exported from a heavy After Effects project that we're currently producing.

Same apps and processes running.

The 2017 took 48min 14sec.

The 2018 2.6ghz i7 took 37min 09sec.

The 2018 i9 took 30min 57sec.

Sure, it's not scientific - but there seems to be advantages in certain real world situations.

Interesting. I'm not impressed with the synthetic benchmarks from Geekbench or Cinebench. The real world tests seem to give some speed advantage.

How are the temps with your i9? Do you notice the fans running hard when you're working in after effects?

 

[stevemiller]

I've got the i9 and a co-worker has got the 2.6ghz i7.

Both have 32GB ram and 2TB hard drives.

My old machine was the 3.1ghz 2017 i7 with 2tb drive and 16GB ram.

As an exercise whilst we were bored, we exported from a heavy After Effects project that we're currently producing.

Same apps and processes running.

The 2017 took 48min 14sec.

The 2018 2.6ghz i7 took 37min 09sec.

The 2018 i9 took 30min 57sec.

Sure, it's not scientific - but there seems to be advantages in certain real world situations.

Wish there were more tests like these out there besides all the codec transcodes that seem to be the focus of most youtubers. Your results there show a bigger i9 benefit than literally anything else I've seen posted around online!

As I'm getting more heavily into ue4 and unity work, I'm wondering also if it's worth skipping the i9 and putting that money towards the razor core x egpu enclosure so I can pair an rx vega 64 or something.

 

[Ifti]

I purchased the i9 with 32GB RAM and 512GB SSD.
I returned the system two days later. Sure, there are advantages to the i9, but I was more concerned about the extra heat having an affect on the overall life of the machine, considering I want to keep it for the next 5 years at least.
Hence I decided to purchase the high end 13" machine as my mobile system which will tie me over until the iMACs are finally updated and I'll pick up a new iMAC instead.

 

[leman]

I have a i9 and I am keeping it. Why? It's faster for what I do.

 

[appleino]

The 2017 took 48min 14sec.

The 2018 2.6ghz i7 took 37min 09sec.

The 2018 i9 took 30min 57sec.

That‘s impressive indeed, are you both on exactly the same software and OSX versions / is everything updated the same?

 

[lovejimbo]

That‘s impressive indeed, are you both on exactly the same software and OSX versions / is everything updated the same?

Hi there,

Yep everything the same as they're used for production. All the OS and App installs are derived from a master image that includes all the plug-ins, typefaces and tools needed within our companies workflow.

Like I said, not scientific, but the i9 seems to beat the i7 in literally every situation in After Effects, Photoshop, C4D and Maya.

As a rule of thumb it looks like its roughly 10min for even hour of rendering.

I do notice a lot of people quoting Premiere Pro benchmarks... to me that seems a bit redundant and Premiere Pro is based upon the Mercury playback engine that's run on the GPU. So I'd expect to see them all come close as they run the same GPU.

As for people quoting synthetic benchmarks. Sure, that shows you potential, but that's not really how real life usage scenarios work.

Interesting. I'm not impressed with the synthetic benchmarks from Geekbench or Cinebench. The real world tests seem to give some speed advantage.

How are the temps with your i9? Do you notice the fans running hard when you're working in after effects?

Fans run hard when exporting, but they're not loud - temps seem to idle in the 40's and 50's and when outputting from programs go between 85-95 at 3.4-3.8ghz with a few spikes into 4.0ghz territory when compiling the frames.

When generally working within AE or C4D I don't notice the laptop making much noise.

Hope that helps.

 

[Scary Spice]

I just got mine from B&H on Friday. The delay allowed me to skip all the throttle-gate drama.

This is the best laptop I have ever had. I am keeping it.

(Note that the I9 replaces a 2016 I7 mbp that had the top case (aka keyboard) replaced 3 days before warrantee ended. Regular good advice applies to avoid first gen models )

 

[Fishrrman]

The OP wrote:
"I don't think the i9 will benefit me that much"

Then... don't bother with it, and all the controversy that surrounds it.

Get the i7. You'll save money with "a known commodity".

 

[MrBukey]

My i9 arrives tomorrow. I briefly thought about cancelling the order just after placing it and switching for an i7... But then the patch dropped, and synthetic testing showed that the bouncing clock speeds/thermal issues had been, le'ts say "handled".

I decided to leave my order alone. I guessed that I'd already paid for it, really need it for video editing (my 2014 just ain't cutting the mustard anymore), and really need to be getting on with some work. I figured that Apple rushed out a patch to appease, and hope that they'll iteratively improve performance moving forwards... Maybe with the public release of Mojave too (to encourage people to upgrade, and to also show off Mojave as being awesome on the i9?).

I've since seen some real world tests, and they've seemed to fair better for the i9 than synthetic tests, too.

So for good or for bad, I'm going to ride out with the i9 and stick with it... (And I've made that decision even though it's not quite here yet...)

 

[appleino]

Hi there,

Yep everything the same as they're used for production. All the OS and App installs are derived from a master image that includes all the plug-ins, typefaces and tools needed within our companies workflow.

Like I said, not scientific, but the i9 seems to beat the i7 in literally every situation in After Effects, Photoshop, C4D and Maya.

As a rule of thumb it looks like its roughly 10min for even hour of rendering.

I do notice a lot of people quoting Premiere Pro benchmarks... to me that seems a bit redundant and Premiere Pro is based upon the Mercury playback engine that's run on the GPU. So I'd expect to see them all come close as they run the same GPU.

As for people quoting synthetic benchmarks. Sure, that shows you potential, but that's not really how real life usage scenarios work.



Fans run hard when exporting, but they're not loud - temps seem to idle in the 40's and 50's and when outputting from programs go between 85-95 at 3.4-3.8ghz with a few spikes into 4.0ghz territory when compiling the frames.

When generally working within AE or C4D I don't notice the laptop making much noise.

Hope that helps.

Thanks a lot, that helps indeed and shows that I made the right choice ordering the i9. 10 minutes per hour would be the 16-17% of time saved I was hoping for and the CPU also speeding up Photoshop work over the i7 is just perfect for me.

 

[risottto]

I got my i9 32GB with an alumni discount for under $3500, and $100 off applecare, pretty happy so far. Lightroom export of the same set of 50 raw files was HALF of the 2012 2.6 i7. Lightroom auto edge brush on 50MP images is actually usable (2012 was a nightmare of ..brushstroke ... beachball .... brushstroke slowly appears 10 seconds later in fractions)

For S&G I managed to choke up the i9 with 100% sharpen and denoise, de-moire, 50 clone stamps, then a dozen brush strokes and I got it to finally choke in Lightroom.

Only slightly disappointing bit is that the 2012 runs at 3.6Ghz boost SOLID LINE in cinebench, the i9 runs around 3.1/3.2 ... but the score is 565 vs 1024 nevertheless! ... I also just blew out the fans and re-pasted the 2012 with Arctic Silver 5.

Maybe when the warranty runs out I might shove some thermal pads on the heatpipe and connect it to the shell and see if I can squeeze some more heat out of it (at the expense of frying my lap, which I hardly ever use it on).

PS - got a cheap $16 cooling pad with 200mm fan, makes no difference at all, seems like Apple intentionally separates the bottom shell from the cooling system so the bottom stays cool, most of the heat is at the top of the keyboard.

 

[Texh49]

Picked up the i9 and keeping it.

 

[Dovahkiing]

I picked up the i9 and I'm taking it back to exchange tomorrow (the last day of my 14 day period).

I bought it to future proof the machine; but it's pretty clear from all sides that it isn't any better for 95% of jobs than the i7. Also - my washing machine broke the other day . Swapping out the 15" w/ i9 and 1TB drive for the standard top-end version will save me ~$600 - almost exactly what my new washing machine just cost!

 

[dan9700]

after doing so many tests my i9 32gb ram encoding a 4k video in final cut was going so low like 2.1 this can't be right, tomorrow is my last day of 14 day I dunno what to do

 

[narcolpetic-haze]

Can't imagine how hot the i9 must get. I have the i7 2.6GHz and 10 mins in Reason or Logic and it's literally too hot to touch in some places.

 

[dan9700]

Yea the i9 burns lol i wonder if the i7 would be faster cos it can boost past the i9 base clock i dont wanna waste money on a slower machine

 

[KarmaRocket]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions. I've been saving since 2014. Waiting for my "perfect" version of the MBP. But I think I'm coming to realize that won't happen. My late 2013 MBP is showing it's age and I need to get some serious work done.

I just pulled the trigger on an i9 32GB 2TB 560X. I know it has issues. I'll test it out for my use case and hopefully it will work out. Otherwise I can exchange it for an i7. I'll never know without testing it out myself to see if it fits my needs.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[risottto]

Yea the i9 burns lol i wonder if the i7 would be faster cos it can boost past the i9 base clock i dont wanna waste money on a slower machine

Can the i7 sustain a full 4.3ghz boost speed in a 2 hour encode? (my 2012 could do it at 3.6, albeit at over 100C looks like sustained boost speed is no longer a thing!)

Stressing the i9 with Handbrake after half an hour it hovers around 2.6-7ghz and 89ish degrees in a solid line (it's like 80F in the room though). 4.8 boost / 2.9 base is a BS claim compared to previous generations. Istat menus has never shown above 3.66 (edit 4.5) boost in 7 days. Going to keep it and maybe mod the cooling system when warranty is out to squeeze some more life out of it, worth having the overhead there.

R/E dan9700 that looks like something wonky going on there, did you patch? it should be a solid-ish line... perhaps try a handbrake encode for comparison?