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core 2 duos obsolete?

RedCja2008

RedCja2008

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 29, 2011
20
0
VA, USA
I was wondering if I purchased a core 2 duo macbook pro how long it would be before I would be forced to upgrade. I know many people still function off their old macs to this day, but how long until things like photoshop and such would require that you run an operating system that requires an i3 i5 or i7 processor?
 
Core 2 Duo on Macs from 2010 and prior are about the same in capability to Core i5 and Core i7 dual-core on 2011 Macs. If I have to guess, you'll still be able to use Core 2 Duo until the end of Lion's lifetime, which is... many years from now.
 
If you are going to buy now I would go ahead and get the i5 or i7 because they can handle more RAM and they will get more updates in the future.

macfan74318
 
macfan74318 said:
If you are going to buy now I would go ahead and get the i5 or i7 because they can handle more RAM and they will get more updates in the future.

macfan74318
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I can't afford a 2010. Unless I find a really good deal. The 2009's are in my price range for a 15" on ebay. I know it's a risk in the case there's no more warranty, but I need a new laptop and I don't want a PC.
 
Core2duo is far from obsolete, but if you have the money now I would go ahead and get an i5/i7

If you don't have the money, then a core2duo macbook should be able to last you at least another 2-3 years. Just be careful with it because it won't have a warranty.

If you plan on using it for that much longer, I would invest in a new battery because most used ones won't last you that long anymore due to their age.
 
We have a 2008 15" Core 2 Duo and it still works just fine. I recently replaced it with a 2011 i7, but that's really because we wanted to pass down our old white MacBook to my mom. So hubby got my 2008 MBP and I got the new one. It still runs fine, though I can't comment about the current version of Photoshop. I was using CS4 on it and that worked with no problems.
 
Drop an SSD in it when you have the extra money and it'll perform just as well for most tasks (Photoshop filters and other CPU intensive specific things might take longer to do).
 
A Core 2 Duo will still funtion perfectly fine, what would you be using it for?

I went from a 2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo to a Dual-Core 2.8Ghz i7, and using it day to day, I don't notice much difference, its only when applying effects to large photos in Photoshop and rendering video do I notice its a tad faster, but then again that's probably mostly down to the extra 800Mhz, and not the iCores more efficient design.
 
Benjy91 said:
A Core 2 Duo will still funtion perfectly fine, what would you be using it for?

I went from a 2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo to a Dual-Core 2.8Ghz i7, and using it day to day, I don't notice much difference, its only when applying effects to large photos in Photoshop and rendering video do I notice its a tad faster, but then again that's probably mostly down to the extra 800Mhz, and not the iCores more efficient design.
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Day to day i would use it for internet. But I like video and picture editing and such. Looking for a future in Photography. I mean I've been using this little netbook for year, just can't edit videos. So a larger processor would be enough. I'm just looking long term if I can still use a core 2 duo for awhile or if I run the chance of not being able to use it in a couple years
 
I don't know how the OP wants to define "obsolete", but the Core i5/7 speeds are significantly faster than the C2D chips.

I personally would not want to buy a C2D machine but if I did not have a choice, then I could probably get used to the slower speed.
 
The Core 2 Duo Pro line will be able to video/photo edit just fine. You won't notice a huge difference when doing simple tasks like web browsing.
 
MrNomNoms said:
Umm, you do remember the whole fiasco of nvidia gpu's failing? It was widely reported on tech and non-tech media alike:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2377
http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/10/all-nvidia-8400m-8600m-chips-faulty/


IMHO I'd avoid the whole 8xxx like the plague as replace parts are also faulty since it is a design fault inherited throughout the production run.
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No honestly I don't. Never watched the news and didn't really get tech savy until the last few years. In addition I didn't pay attention to macs this close until the last few months. It wasn't something that pertained to me until recently.

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VMMan said:
I don't know how the OP wants to define "obsolete", but the Core i5/7 speeds are significantly faster than the C2D chips.

I personally would not want to buy a C2D machine but if I did not have a choice, then I could probably get used to the slower speed.
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I stated how I meant it. There were a lot of rumors saying that Lion wasn't going to support core 2 duos, but when it released thankfully it did. So more than likely the next line of OSx won't. Which is what I'm afraid of. By the software stand point what I want to know is will I still be able to use this machine for the next few years without updating and upgrading issues as far as software? A couple have given their opinions based on such and I thank them :D

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ABadSanta said:
The Core 2 Duo Pro line will be able to video/photo edit just fine. You won't notice a huge difference when doing simple tasks like web browsing.
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Sounds good thank you!
 
VMMan said:
I don't know how the OP wants to define "obsolete", but the Core i5/7 speeds are significantly faster than the C2D chips.

I personally would not want to buy a C2D machine but if I did not have a choice, then I could probably get used to the slower speed.
Click to expand...

Aside from speed, the i5 and i7 aren't a whole lot different compared to the C2D. That's in terms of how capable the chips are (64-bit and all that). The Core Duo was obsolete simply because it did not support 64-bit, but otherwise the Core Duo was also about the same as the C2D speed-wise.

But I can understand that if given a choice, you wouldn't want to go C2D, and personally, I wouldn't either.

I stated how I meant it. There were a lot of rumors saying that Lion wasn't going to support core 2 duos, but when it released thankfully it did. So more than likely the next line of OSx won't. Which is what I'm afraid of. By the software stand point what I want to know is will I still be able to use this machine for the next few years without updating and upgrading issues as far as software? A couple have given their opinions based on such and I thank them :D
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I think you were referring to Lion not supporting the Core Duo CPUs. And it did not, officially. Apple released the Core Duo (without 2) CPUs for a short while from 2006 to 2007, and then started using Core 2 Duo instead. Speed-wise, the Core 2 wasn't that big a step-up (not as big as the i5/i7 compared to current Core 2), but it supported 64-bit, and thus more memory in Macs that supported it.

For the next few years, I'd imagine that Apple would be hard at work at releasing 10.7.x updates instead of introducing 10.8 immediately. OSX is a workstation/desktop OS, and it doesn't undergo revolutions as fast as a mobile OS. Of course that's all just me.

Personally, I was in your boat. And I decided to suck it up and go Core i instead. The speed difference was something I very much needed, and it pretty much secured the update to Lion (no issue, no performance problem).

I wouldn't consider Core 2 obsolete just yet, but I can very much testify that Core 2 doesn't handle Lion that well at all.
 
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Video playback hardware acceleration is what is hampering the longevity of my Core 2 Duo notebook. I would not settle for anything before the 9400M/9600M GT era. Even then it would only be at a good price.

Apple's refurbished site offers some of the best deals. If you want something portable get a 320M based Macbook Air if you do not care about CPU performance alone.
 
Eidorian said:
Video playback hardware acceleration is what is hampering the longevity of my Core 2 Duo notebook. I would not settle for anything before the 9400M/9600M GT era. Even then it would only be at a good price.

Apple's refurbished site offers some of the best deals. If you want something portable get a 320M based Macbook Air if you do not care about CPU performance alone.
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Considering cost issues I probably would already have a macbook air. but I'm visually impaired and this 11" is barely cutting it. I don't want to go smaller than the 15" honestly.
 
RedCja2008 said:
I was wondering if I purchased a core 2 duo macbook pro how long it would be before I would be forced to upgrade. I know many people still function off their old macs to this day, but how long until things like photoshop and such would require that you run an operating system that requires an i3 i5 or i7 processor?
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You'll be fine. The Core 2 Duo was a fine processor and remains fully up to the demands of today's 64-bit software. Just stuff in as much RAM as you can afford, and run Lion, which makes better use of RAM than Snow Leopard did.

Oh, and be sure it's a Core 2 Duo, not a Core Duo (which is an older 32-bit processor and won't run Lion).

I'm rocking an early-2010 Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro and pound the hell out of it on a daily basis. I'll upgrade in 2012, but only when small, bus-powered Thunderbolt drives become available. I run virtual machines off a FireWire drive... Thunderbolt really has my attention, more than the processors do. They offer more speed and more cores, but today's software doesn't fully take advantage of the cores, and it'll be a while before a high core count is required.
 
bill-p said:
I wouldn't consider Core 2 obsolete just yet, but I can very much testify that Core 2 doesn't handle Lion that well at all.
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I have a 2008 Core 2 Duo that runs Lion perfectly. It was a little rough when I just upgraded it from SL, but doing a clean install of Lion worked like a charm.
 
RedCja2008 said:
I stated how I meant it. There were a lot of rumors saying that Lion wasn't going to support core 2 duos, but when it released thankfully it did. So more than likely the next line of OSx won't. Which is what I'm afraid of. By the software stand point what I want to know is will I still be able to use this machine for the next few years without updating and upgrading issues as far as software? A couple have given their opinions based on such and I thank them :D
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Ah, well, I think it more probable that a C2D user will sooner want to update their machine because of its speed limitations than because the OS will not be compatible.

But who knows? Apple skates to where the puck is going and not to where it's been.


bill-p said:
Aside from speed, the i5 and i7 aren't a whole lot different compared to the C2D. That's in terms of how capable the chips are (64-bit and all that). The Core Duo was obsolete simply because it did not support 64-bit, but otherwise the Core Duo was also about the same as the C2D speed-wise.

But I can understand that if given a choice, you wouldn't want to go C2D, and personally, I wouldn't either.
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I agree.
 
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RedCja2008 said:
There were a lot of rumors saying that Lion wasn't going to support core 2 duos, but when it released thankfully it did. So more than likely the next line of OSx won't.
Click to expand...

I didn't hear any of those rumors. Like bill-p said, you're probably getting confused with the rumors (which turned out to be true) concerning lack of support for Core Duo/Solo (as opposed to Core2 Duo) processors. The biggest difference is the 64-bit support, which the former lacks and the latter has.

I seriously doubt that the next version of OS X will drop support for the Core2 series. It will probably be a different thing that sets the requirement, such as a RAM requirement. Maybe the next version will require DDR3 RAM or something else. Who knows? A little early to worry about it now, though.

bill-p said:
I wouldn't consider Core 2 obsolete just yet, but I can very much testify that Core 2 doesn't handle Lion that well at all.
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I have Lion on both the Macs in my sig, and both are Core2 Duos, and both have no problems running Lion at all. Lion pretty much flies on my MBP. I haven't noticed any significant difference in speed yet.
 
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