Changed from 15" i9 to 13" i7

[cyb3rdud3]

I had a 2018 15" MBP with i9 6core 32GB RAM and 1TB ssd. It was a really nice MacBook and a good step up from my previous 2015 15" i7....

However things change, and I need to hand the MBP back to my employer but I needed another laptop. So last week I was so in two minds, shall I go for a tricked out 15" with the 8core CPU, get the same that I had, or go for slightly better portability as I carry it around with me everywhere.

Portability won in the end and I ended up going for a 2019 MBP 13" with CPU upgrade to a i7 quad core, memory upgrade to 16GB and ssd upgrade to 1TB.

I was expecting a small performance hit, but as mine is normally mainly software development, and at the office connected to a screen, and at home connected to a screen, portability was more important.

The weird thing is that actually nearly everything about the lower specced 13" feels faster;
* Screen at the office is 4K connected via usb-c, old laptop had discrete graphics this one doesn't...Hmmm
* Screen at home is ultra wide connected via usb-c, same as above...
* My use is mainly coding with dockers in the background, visual studio code with several projects open, could be around 15 at times.

I'm wondering wether there is still a lot of throttling going on with the on paper more powerful MBP's....I can't explain it otherwise.

Eitherway I don't care, I need not to have worried. The 13" with an i7 is absolute fine and a wonderful machine to work on and carry around.

 

[Significant1]

The internal gpu of the 13" is more powerfull than the internal gpu of the 15". So when you are not doing something which activates the discrete gpu of the 15", the 13" actually has better graphics power in daily day stuff.

 

[thomasthegps]

I had a 2018 15" MBP with i9 6core 32GB RAM and 1TB ssd. It was a really nice MacBook and a good step up from my previous 2015 15" i7....

However things change, and I need to hand the MBP back to my employer but I needed another laptop. So last week I was so in two minds, shall I go for a tricked out 15" with the 8core CPU, get the same that I had, or go for slightly better portability as I carry it around with me everywhere.

Portability won in the end and I ended up going for a 2019 MBP 13" with CPU upgrade to a i7 quad core, memory upgrade to 16GB and ssd upgrade to 1TB.

I was expecting a small performance hit, but as mine is normally mainly software development, and at the office connected to a screen, and at home connected to a screen, portability was more important.

The weird thing is that actually nearly everything about the lower specced 13" feels faster;
* Screen at the office is 4K connected via usb-c, old laptop had discrete graphics this one doesn't...Hmmm
* Screen at home is ultra wide connected via usb-c, same as above...
* My use is mainly coding with dockers in the background, visual studio code with several projects open, could be around 15 at times.

I'm wondering wether there is still a lot of throttling going on with the on paper more powerful MBP's....I can't explain it otherwise.

Eitherway I don't care, I need not to have worried. The 13" with an i7 is absolute fine and a wonderful machine to work on and carry around.

I think you’ll find my post ui lag interesting. I think you’ll be able to confirm my findings.

 

[Atreyu25]

I think you’ll find my post ui lag interesting. I think you’ll be able to confirm my findings.

The poster isn’t mentioning ui lag though.

If the 13” had a discrete gpu, I’d be all over that. It’s truly a beautiful form factor and extremely portable. Congratulations!

 

[macdudesir]

The internal gpu of the 13" is more powerfull than the internal gpu of the 15". So when you are not doing something which activates the discrete gpu of the 15", the 13" actually has better graphics power in daily day stuff.

I'm one to think this is what you're experiencing. Even long term benchmarks show that the 15" are in fact faster in processor intensive work. During not so intensive work though, you'll notice the integrated graphics performing better which will make the whole computer feel faster. There is also a chance that the 2019s have a bit faster SSD as they're always improving that. This would also make it feel faster.