I’ve been using a 2015 15” MacBook Pro w/ 2.2 GHz quad core i7 w/ 256 GB SSD and 16GB RAM for the past several years as my work computer. Ran into an issue lately where the screen was going black and work was willing to replace it w/ a newer model. Basically the budget was approximately $1500-1600. We are a small business w/ approximately 50 employees. I’m considered lucky enough to be one of the people here even allowed to have a MBP as their main work computer. Most people use Dell PC’s and we buy these for roughly $900-$1k (if that). The 2015 machine was plenty powerful enough for what I do at the day job. Since I used to work in IT for years I pretty much made this my main machine (even while at home for some personal things as well).
That all being said, they decided to upgrade me to a 2017 15” MBP w/ 2.8 GHz i7 w/ 500 GB SSD and 16GB (w/ Touch Bar). Just looking at the specs alone (and realizing that the model is 2 years newer), you’d expect this to be a faster machine than the 2015. I was shocked to find that my GeekBench scores were actually LOWER than my previous machine and even lower than some of my other machines that I’ve owned over the years. This was using GeekBench version 5. How is this possible? Shouldn’t a 2.8 GHz i7 be faster than a 2015 version at 2.2?
I’m still within the 14 day return period (they bought this 2017 machine from macofalltrades.com) for $1600. My question is if there is a better or more capable machine out there for roughly $1500-1600. It would be somewhat of a pain to request that they return this model and get me something else but I do have the leverage to do that if you guys think it would be worth it. From what I’m reading, the 2018 models got huge bumps in performance compared fro the 2017 model. Why they chose this specific 2017 model is beyond me…
I know this 2017 machine will be fine for what I’m using it for at the day job but it’s slightly annoying to find out that a newer machine (with either identical or even better specs) is actually slower in reality. Would I be better off w/ a 13” MBP from 2018? What and where would you suggest buying? I do use Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro some for personal things (and sometimes on occasion at the job for small projects) so it would still be nice to have the most powerful machine as possible.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
That all being said, they decided to upgrade me to a 2017 15” MBP w/ 2.8 GHz i7 w/ 500 GB SSD and 16GB (w/ Touch Bar). Just looking at the specs alone (and realizing that the model is 2 years newer), you’d expect this to be a faster machine than the 2015. I was shocked to find that my GeekBench scores were actually LOWER than my previous machine and even lower than some of my other machines that I’ve owned over the years. This was using GeekBench version 5. How is this possible? Shouldn’t a 2.8 GHz i7 be faster than a 2015 version at 2.2?
I’m still within the 14 day return period (they bought this 2017 machine from macofalltrades.com) for $1600. My question is if there is a better or more capable machine out there for roughly $1500-1600. It would be somewhat of a pain to request that they return this model and get me something else but I do have the leverage to do that if you guys think it would be worth it. From what I’m reading, the 2018 models got huge bumps in performance compared fro the 2017 model. Why they chose this specific 2017 model is beyond me…
I know this 2017 machine will be fine for what I’m using it for at the day job but it’s slightly annoying to find out that a newer machine (with either identical or even better specs) is actually slower in reality. Would I be better off w/ a 13” MBP from 2018? What and where would you suggest buying? I do use Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro some for personal things (and sometimes on occasion at the job for small projects) so it would still be nice to have the most powerful machine as possible.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
... Are you comparing Geekbench 5 score on each system, or are you comparing an older GeekBench score to GeekBench 5? If you are running the same version of GeekBench on both (which is what I assume you did), have you ran it multiple times? The scores can fluctuate slightly from run-to-run, do you mind sharing your results so we can see? For example here is the score from my 2015 MacBook Pro: