Debating on which one to get for development

Discussion in 'MacBook Pro' started by snappleyum, Oct 27, 2016.

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  1. snappleyum, Oct 27, 2016

    snappleyum macrumors newbie

    snappleyum

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    #1
    I'm on the fence about which new 2016 MacBook to pick up. I could go either 13 inch or 15 inch but I'm not sure where the bottleneck in hardware will be. I know for sure I'm getting 16 gigs of ram. My question is if it's even worth it to get a quad-core or is it fine to just get the dual-core i7 or even i5?

    Basically I will be running Xcode (swift) which is a processor hog for compiling and an Ubuntu Vagrant box + docker. I'm guessing the ram will be my issue before the processor difference is even noticeable but I haven't been looking at hardware in awhile.
     
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  2. samparmenter, Oct 27, 2016

    samparmenter macrumors 6502

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    #2
    Depends whether portability or a little more power is more important to you. Personally I am in a similar situation to you and I am considering the 13" middle spec with 16gb RAM
     
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  3. snappleyum, Oct 27, 2016

    snappleyum thread starter macrumors newbie

    snappleyum

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    #3
    Yea I think the portability might be more important if processing power isn't really noticeable.
     
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  4. mildocjr, Oct 27, 2016

    mildocjr macrumors 65816

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    #4
    I'm looking at the lower 15" MBP with Touch Bar. I could see that being helpful with debugging, the quad-core seems to be worth it when it comes to compiling large projects.
     
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  5. jerryk, Oct 27, 2016

    jerryk macrumors 68040

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    #5
    I went with a 15" screen for development. I find with debugging, code, and UI windows I needed as much screen real estate as possible.
     
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  6. cambookpro, Oct 27, 2016

    cambookpro macrumors 603

    cambookpro

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    #6
    I've gone for a 13" one with an adapter so I can use my Thunderbolt Display. Only went with 8GB RAM as that was all that the budget would allow, in an ideal world I would've picked 16 but 8 should be fine for 90% of the time. My current 2011 MBP only has 8 and it copes with most of my Xcode projects fine so I hope it'll suffice.
     
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  7. snappleyum, Oct 27, 2016

    snappleyum thread starter macrumors newbie

    snappleyum

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    #7
    Yea good point. I have an 8gb air right now and it can deal with projects fine. Maybe I'm overly worried about specs.
     
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  8. poorcody, Oct 27, 2016

    poorcody macrumors 6502

    poorcody

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    #8
    Ditto here... I just never have enough screen real estate with development... especially with all those Xcode panels. I particularly like Retina screens because I can drop the resolution when space isn't as tight to make things bigger without any noticeable fuzziness. I had stayed away from the 15-inches until now because of size, but the new one doesn't seem much bigger than my 13" Air (and is actually thinner).

    Honestly I would think a dual-core would be enough, but obviously you can't get that at 15".
     
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  9. antipex, Oct 27, 2016

    antipex macrumors member

    antipex

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    #9
    I've been doing iOS and Mac development on a 13" rMBP for a year and a half now; I just ordered a 15" version of the new rMBP. The extra resolution will be very helpful, and I'm looking forward to having a dedicated GPU so I can play a few games on the side.
     
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