Best slim update option for my 2013 MBP

[New_Mac_Smell]

I actually didn't know that. Or should I say, I saw some marketing stuff but didn't understand if an i7 today was any different than an i7 of the same speed from a few years ago. Thanks.

It was Intel's attempt to simplify the marketing for consumers, previously you had Pentium 1-2 etc, core 2 duo etc. and it was a mess of not knowing which is better after a few years. So they simplified it to i3/i5/i7, entry/mid/professional - more recently the i9 which is more or less a Xeon. However they are still generational, and currently on 7th/8th generation (Which is denoted by the first number of the CPU i.e. i7 8XXXU or i5 3XXX). Don't worry about GHz or turbo-boost or any of those numbers, even an entry level i7 is more than enough for most people and the only time you really need to invest research is usually looking at desktop i3's or i5's (Whether they are unlocked and overclockable, how they sustain performance under load). An i7 is always going to be the 'best' (Except that pesky i7 dual core variant, although still technically better), so look at the generation and know the latest one is going to be the better one due to other internal changes. Essentially, GHz is just a single metric on the CPU and if you look over the last 8 years you'll notice it hasn't really changed all that much, however it's more like comparing a 2Ltr car today with one of 8 years ago, there's a lot more than the engine capacity.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Aren’t the Intel-AMD chips those (pretty powerful) quad core ones that already launched? I wasn’t aware of any further SKUs in development with this. I can ultimately see the 13” pros being dropped (13” MacBooks would continue using the formfactor). The 15” is now very portable, and can offer a dGPU, the 13” is stuck with igpu and that is unlikely to change, or improve to the extent it rivals a dGPU. Ultimately it comes down to the fact a decent cpu and gpu will almost certainly continue to need a combined TDP of at least 40 Watts (15-28 CPU, 25-20 GPU) and that seems to exceed what can be cooled comfortably in the small chassis of a 13” machine. Apple would be better off focusing on being able to offer a 15” machine with slightly lower end components for ~$1,700 to replace the all but the bottom end of the 13” pro range.

No they released quad core 15w chips with intel graphics the AMD equipped intel chips aren’t released yet as far as I can tell.

 

[KiterTodd]

Thanks for the help. Just ordered a refurbed 13".

I'm hoping the keyboard isn't an issue (saw complaints in another thread) but it doesn't sound like there will be a full hardware update anytime soon, so I don't have much choice there.

 

[KiterTodd]

Thanks for the help. Just ordered a refurbed 13"..

Well that was a quick DOA and return!

Stayed home this afternoon to receive the computer and begin setting it home. Opened it up, looked great, it starts up and I get the folder with the question mark. Call support, they take me through an OS reinstall and I get the same thing.
TWO HOURS on the call with Apple getting transferred around from person to person and I finally got a return label approved? Honestly, I have no idea why it took so long. I've never had trouble with Apple customer support before. This was nuts.

Here's a tip... when the last Senior Advisor put me on hold for 50 minutes while he waited to speak with a more senior advisor so he could get approval, I went to the Order Chat and someone had it done for me in less than 10 minutes. Ridiculous. When the final woman came back and said "okay, we'll see what we can do about getting you a refund of computer and shipping" she looked and found that one had just been processed. What a disconnect.

Thing is, I was going to send this back, order another one, start over tomorrow. They wasted so much of my time today, I'll wait. See if something else gets released. I've ordered refurbed from Apple before and have never had an issue.