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Beware: the Core i7 is probably not worth it this time

Hi guys,

I wanted to get the 15" with i7 , 500g with 7200 rpm and 512 GPU,

main uses will be photo editing and HD video editing. After reading this read am not sure if the i7 is really worth it. But i really want the 512 GPU which i think will really boost the performance in the long run.

Anybody in a similar position. i have not been keepiing with with the technical aspect of the computer world.

Any thoughts or comments would be great.

Will i5 with 256mb GPU be ok for the work i need to do?

Quite peeved that the i5 dont come with 512mb option . Quite alot of dough for a laptop . i dont want to get buyer's remorse ...

Cheers :)
 
MrSingh said:
hi,

this wil be my first MBP or portable Mac of any kind. i currently use a Mac Pro for serious work and a Dell mini 10v hackintosh for browsing, skyping, checking mail and sometimes dumping images to when on location via Lightroom.

lately i have realised that i would like to actually edit stuff when mobile - and 10v just won't cut it :). the relatively recent increase in color gamut of MBP screens has finally made me consider MBP's and i like the idea of editing films too however the 17" is just not mobile enough and the new matte, high-res 15" option is very appealing.

My queries:

- Technically speaking, given i will be editing very large 21mp RAW images and editing massive 1080p files in Final Cut, does it make sense for me to go the i7 route with my MBP given the extra VRAM - will this give me a crucial performance bump compared to the i5 option?

- Final Cut Studio 4 will probably be fully 64bit and will very likely allow intensive tasks like editing h.256 footage in real-time. Again, will the i7 route with more VRAM help me here? However perhaps this is a moot point given that only certain video-cards will allow editing h.264 in real time...

- I plan on visiting a store soon to eye what a 15" screen looks like in the flesh with those 33% extra pixels the high-res option will give. However, anyone seen one already? Did you have to squint and did it really give a decent real-estate bump? Could be quite crucial for me given all those panels on Lightroom and Final Cut Pro...and i really don't want to lug-around a 17"

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Returned IPad - took my store credit - applied it to laptop....


I purchased the i7. Came from a 2006 Core Duo - not Core Duo2.

Overall - love the unibody, love the keyboard, multitouch mouse. Laptop still gets a little warmer than i like - but it isnt burning me like the 2006 model did. Battery life - granted, i havent fully charged it yet, but i dont think i am going to be seeing 8-9 hours. I really see 6-7. The screen res is fine to me. That high res option - while nice to have .... i really take issue with UPS/FEDEX shipping a laptop. Think about how many times your 2kplus$ machine will be shoved, dropped, kicked, shuffled around.... makes me nervous.

Pulling my data to the new machine - the firewire port is a different shape than my 2006 model - i didnt have the proper cord to transfer the data. Used the timemachine backup using usb 2.0, didnt take all that long. Was happy to get that data ported over without a problem.

Dad was a little pissy i went with i7 versus i5, but i also do high end final cut pro work, CSMaster Collection work...... needed a zippy machine.

Very happy. - my final cut / CS programs load without even a "bounce" in the icon dock.

Only complaints -
wish it was cooler -
safari locked up on me once - the force quit command did not work.
speakers are not as nice sounding as the 2006 model.
 
dreven79 said:
Hi guys,

I wanted to get the 15" with i7 , 500g with 7200 rpm and 512 GPU,

main uses will be photo editing and HD video editing. After reading this read am not sure if the i7 is really worth it. But i really want the 512 GPU which i think will really boost the performance in the long run.

Anybody in a similar position. i have not been keepiing with with the technical aspect of the computer world.

Any thoughts or comments would be great.

Will i5 with 256mb GPU be ok for the work i need to do?

Quite peeved that the i5 dont come with 512mb option . Quite alot of dough for a laptop . i dont want to get buyer's remorse ...

Cheers :)
Click to expand...

i'm in exactly the same boat as you my friend (want 15", matte, high-res) - and in this and other threads people are giving conflicting advice :-(

can the 'uber-geeks' advise us unequivocally, pretty please:

- If editing large RAW images (via Photoshop/Aperture/Lightroom) and editing HD files (via Final Cut, Prem Pro etc.) does it make sense from a performance and 'future-proofing' perspective to get the i7 15" so you get double the VRAM instead of the i5 15"?
 
It's really hard to be quite sure. I was on the 17", where the vram is always 512MB regardless, so it didn't matter. I went for the i7, too, because I think it will probably do a better job of my workloads. I could be wrong.
 
mediaprodguy said:
Returned IPad - took my store credit - applied it to laptop....


I purchased the i7. Came from a 2006 Core Duo - not Core Duo2.

Overall - love the unibody, love the keyboard, multitouch mouse. Laptop still gets a little warmer than i like - but it isnt burning me like the 2006 model did. Battery life - granted, i havent fully charged it yet, but i dont think i am going to be seeing 8-9 hours. I really see 6-7. The screen res is fine to me. That high res option - while nice to have .... i really take issue with UPS/FEDEX shipping a laptop. Think about how many times your 2kplus$ machine will be shoved, dropped, kicked, shuffled around.... makes me nervous.

Pulling my data to the new machine - the firewire port is a different shape than my 2006 model - i didnt have the proper cord to transfer the data. Used the timemachine backup using usb 2.0, didnt take all that long. Was happy to get that data ported over without a problem.

Dad was a little pissy i went with i7 versus i5, but i also do high end final cut pro work, CSMaster Collection work...... needed a zippy machine.

Very happy. - my final cut / CS programs load without even a "bounce" in the icon dock.

Only complaints -
wish it was cooler -
safari locked up on me once - the force quit command did not work.
speakers are not as nice sounding as the 2006 model.
Click to expand...

I'm trying to reconcile these two statements here. ;)
 
Wow. I'd take 5-6 hours. Presently, I'm lucky to get 3 and that's with a new battery. 7-9 hours is more than ok with me. Methinks I'll be purchasing an i7 MBP in the near future.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Looks like the differences in the 5xxx scores and the 6xxx scores is due to which version was run -- 32bit or 64bit version, respectively.

Link to all i5 and i7 scores
Click to expand...

This doesn't seem like an insignificant difference between the i5 and i7 to me. The i7's score is more than 28% greater than the i5s.

Anyone have any insight on how this translates to perceived speed?

I suspect that that additional bump will give the i7 a little more longevity (maybe one more product cycle) before demanding to updated.
 
ModernDemagogue said:
So your dad winces at a $300 price difference, but has no problem buying you 3k worth of software?

Yeah, okay.
Click to expand...

I know, rigggght?!

Makes me want to strangle him, but i do understand he is concerned. The Adobe software was well worth saving the gas money to drive to school often, spend 2 hours in the car over the course of 2.5 years. IMO....money well spent.
 
M1K3YY said:
interesting info...iwas leaning towards the i7..but after seeing this i might stick with the i5
Click to expand...

I totally agree. The difference for the money almost doesn't justify the price for me. I still like the power boost option with the i7 though. Thanks to the OP for the post.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Looks like the differences in the 5xxx scores and the 6xxx scores is due to which version was run -- 32bit or 64bit version, respectively.

Link to all i5 and i7 scores
Click to expand...

apparitionX said:
This doesn't seem like an insignificant difference between the i5 and i7 to me. The i7's score is more than 28% greater than the i5s.

Anyone have any insight on how this translates to perceived speed?

I suspect that that additional bump will give the i7 a little more longevity (maybe one more product cycle) before demanding to updated.
Click to expand...

seems the i7 is between 12% and 31% better than the i5 (there is no significant difference between the i5's).

but that measures only the processor. the impact on the overall system is certainly less since the HD slows everything down. unless you transcode or use handbrake it should not matter too much.

my early 2008 MBP scores 3100, the i5's are ~4800 and the i7 is 5400 (or 6300). so i guess i would get a nice speed bump if I go i5.
 
andiwm2003 said:
seems the i7 is between 12% and 31% better than the i5 (there is no significant difference between the i5's).

but that measures only the processor. the impact on the overall system is certainly less since the HD slows everything down. unless you transcode or use handbrake it should not matter too much.

my early 2008 MBP scores 3100, the i5's are ~4800 and the i7 is 5400 (or 6300). so i guess i would get a nice speed bump if I go i5.
Click to expand...

I wonder how long its going to take for some real world 17" i7 to 17" i5 comparisons to show up........Im on the fence between the two.
 
jjahshik32 said:
All I can tell you is that a 1st gen 2.66GHz 4-core Mac Pro desktop gets a benchmark of 5500-5800 and this 2.66GHz i7 17" mbp gets a benchmark of 6200. :D

Definitely feel the HUGE difference from the previous gen mbp. I know I've said this a few times in other threads but FINALLY a TRUE desktop replacement notebook from Apple!

I absolutely LOVE the auto gpu switching. I dont have to log out and relaunch all my apps in the spaces anymore. I've been on campus (typing from there right now) for the last 3 hours and the battery life is still showing 7 hour and 36 minutes! I saw battery life go as high as 11 hours and 20 minutes. Its crazy how fast these new i7 mbps are while getting a battery life similar to ultraportable notebooks!
Click to expand...
I am thinking about getting exactly the same model with you. Can you tell me how does the heating issue goes with this machine? would you describe it as warm or hot after using it for a long time? if you have the tempreture of the system that'll be even better! Thanks!
 
sth said:
In this test, the difference in power consumption doesn't look as extreme as in the chart posted earlier:

bb3767348a.gif

- http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Intel-Core-i3-i5-i7-Prozessoren-Arrandale.25078.0.html

Like many mentionened in this thread, there's not a big performace benefit either according to the test. But at least it doesn't look like the i7-620M will suck up all your battery life.
Click to expand...

Very nice, I am pretty sure I will get 512M of VRAM, and I really don't want to lug 17'' around. Your post is encouraging. Thank you dude!
 
I'm pretty sure opening of Applications is dependent on the speed of the hard disk more then the CPU. I have a C2D Mac Mini that opens Photoshop in one bounce because it has an SDD inside.
 
I have a question, since the power consumption difference between the i5-520M and the i7-620M isn't that much significant, that also means the i7 model wouldn't produce more heat than the i5, true? (which also means not much additional fan noise..?)

I'm a Graphic Design student, and this is my first Mac purchase, I was already set on getting the entry-level 15" MacBook Pro, but since some have been saying that I would need the extra 256MB of VRAM for applications as Photoshop that I would be using daily, I think I would be willing to pay the extra $400.00 for a more efficient notebook, since I would be keeping it for at least 4 years.
 
ModernDemagogue said:
So your dad winces at a $300 price difference, but has no problem buying you 3k worth of software?

Yeah, okay.
Click to expand...

Student pricing is a wonderful thing.

darkredbbb said:
I'm a Graphic Design student, and this is my first Mac purchase, I was already set on getting the entry-level 15" MacBook Pro, but since some have been saying that I would need the extra 256MB of VRAM for applications as Photoshop that I would be using daily, I think I would be willing to pay the extra $400.00 for a more efficient notebook, since I would be keeping it for at least 4 years.
Click to expand...

Nope. Spend that money on something more tangible (additional ram, SSD, Display Calibration tools) instead of the additional vram. For all intents and purposes, it'll be unnecessary. Unless you are using some of Apple's tools like Color, visualization/scientific type stuff,or giant compositions across a 30" display in 3d space in Photoshop, it'll be useless.
 
I cancelled my 15" i7 order yesterday, because of this thread! I'll probably go for the 2.4 i5 now.

Now, how to spend the money I'm saving ;)

I have found a local reseller (in Amsterdam, I've used them before) that offers an interesting RAM upgrade for the new MBP, to 6 MB. It's €150.

How will the unmatched memory pair affect performance? Is this an upgrade I should go for?
 
mediaprodguy said:
I know, rigggght?!

Makes me want to strangle him, but i do understand he is concerned. The Adobe software was well worth saving the gas money to drive to school often, spend 2 hours in the car over the course of 2.5 years. IMO....money well spent.
Click to expand...

Final Cut is $250 and CS4 Master Collection is $1000 [for students]; you got gypped… sorry. :(
 
I know alot of people have been asking about the difference between i5 and i7 in relation to graphics and video editing but I'm wanting to get a Macbook (never had a mac before) primarily for making music on... using Logic and Ableton etc..

I was gonna go for the 15-inch: 2.66GHz i7...

But would a 15-inch: 2.4GHz i5 get the job done as I don't need the extra ram in the video card?
 
MrSingh said:
i'm in exactly the same boat as you my friend (want 15", matte, high-res) - and in this and other threads people are giving conflicting advice :-(

can the 'uber-geeks' advise us unequivocally, pretty please:

- If editing large RAW images (via Photoshop/Aperture/Lightroom) and editing HD files (via Final Cut, Prem Pro etc.) does it make sense from a performance and 'future-proofing' perspective to get the i7 15" so you get double the VRAM instead of the i5 15"?
Click to expand...

Yeah its a tricky situation. i guess if you can wait a while you can judge from more test results posted on the web.

Can't believe they charge such a premium price and just give you 256 mb GPU and call it a PRO model as well. Disgraceful on many levels.

I am leaning towards the 2.66GHz i7 15" right now just for the 512 MB GPU,

a 2.53 GHz i5 with 512 MB GPU would have been more than sufficient for me :(

Since i have come this far paying , i'd might as well cough up abit more blood and go i7 15".
 
chikhao said:
I am thinking about getting exactly the same model with you. Can you tell me how does the heating issue goes with this machine? would you describe it as warm or hot after using it for a long time? if you have the tempreture of the system that'll be even better! Thanks!
Click to expand...

I've done away with my ilap that I used to use (with the automatic gpu option checked) and its just mildly warm on my lap at most.

It runs very cool!
 
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