difference between a 2010 15inch and a new 13inch MBP

[lgfaver]

which one is faster/more powerful?

I currently own a 15 inch 2.4ghz core i5 MBP(2010) but i am thinking i might return it and get a brand new 13 inch model. Mainly for resale reasons. Obviously a computer 1 year older will never be worth as much, say a few years down the road when i decided to sell.

i love the size of the screen but it is considerably heavier than the 13inch model. I just feel like this notebook, since it's a refurb, it's not running on all cylinders. I could be wrong though....
i have had problems with it trying to get Flash to work properly on Safari, it works fine on bother Chrome and Firefox though. My boot up time is about 40 seconds, not sure if that's the norm. I would've thought this babies were significantly faster than PCs but that has not been the experience i've had with this machine.

 

[frenchamp]

Yeah its about the norm. I also have a 15inch 2010(2.66Ghz,i7) and it fire's up in about 40s. But when its actually running i have no problems at all and never see the rainbow wheel even for intensive tasks. As for the comparison of the old mbp 15" and the new 13", looking at geekbench results, the 13 inch is slightly faster but not enough imo for it to be worth an upgrade from your part.

 

[lgfaver]

right, that's what i thought too but for some reason my computer wont play videos smoothly, they're all choppy when i use Safari. This doesn't happen with Chrome or Firefox. I really don't get it...
I even went as far as installing OSX from scratch/formatting the disk and everything. All that for nothing...
going to the apple store today to see the new 13inch model in action.
I might have to just go ahead and return this one and get me a brand new one. i'd miss the heck out the 15inch screen tho.

 

[Naimfan]

Well, the new 13" is somewhat faster CPU-wise than the 2.4 GHz i5 15". Whether that's noticeable in real-world use depends on what you're doing with it; from your choice between the two I'd guess not.

The 15" obviously offers more screen real estate, and that's probably more valuable in resale terms than the new 13". If you look on Craigslist, 15" MBPs regularly sell for more than (much) newer 13" models. So the 15" you have now is probably worth more in resale down the road than a i5 13", even though the new 13" is a bit faster.

 

[frenchamp]

While you're at the apple store you may as well get a genius to look at the performance issues you're having, which clearly aren't justified seeing as this is still a 12 month old mac and it should still be nippy for those tasks.Who knows there might be some weird defect and they'll replace some parts.Apple are still helpful even if you're out of warranty.If they get your 15" working as it should you have no reason to upgrade

 

[Orlandoech]

I would go for the 15" if it were me.

 

[lgfaver]

While you're at the apple store you may as well get a genius to look at the performance issues you're having, which clearly aren't justified seeing as this is still a 12 month old mac and it should still be nippy for those tasks.Who knows there might be some weird defect and they'll replace some parts.Apple are still helpful even if you're out of warranty.If they get your 15" working as it should you have no reason to upgrade

yeah... i was thinking of doing that(taking it in for inspection). I just purchased this from the refurb online store so my warranty is intact AND i have about a week to return if i choose to do that.

 

[k4show]

I opted for a 2010 15" base model and I love it, my sister has the 13" and my mom has the 17" and I truly believe that the 15" is the best compromise between size and power. The 13" feels too small and quite frankly I don't think that thunderbolt will take off.

 

[newbiemacguy128]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8J2)

right, that's what i thought too but for some reason my computer wont play videos smoothly, they're all choppy when i use Safari. This doesn't happen with Chrome or Firefox. I really don't get it...
I even went as far as installing OSX from scratch/formatting the disk and everything. All that for nothing...
going to the apple store today to see the new 13inch model in action.
I might have to just go ahead and return this one and get me a brand new one. i'd miss the heck out the 15inch screen tho.

Chrome forces the discrete graphics, firefox also does when playing videos. Safari does not for some odd reason. Download gfxcardstatus and turn on the 330m when your watching videos, that does the trick for me.

 

[lgfaver]

what's the 330m to which you're referring? Sorry but im a mac noob. Actually, im not too technical when it comes to these things. I know a bit about Web Mastering but that's about it

How would i go about doing that anyways?

In any case FYI, I left my MBP @ the Apple Store(just got back from there). There were just too many people so ...
I should be getting a call tomorrow.

 

[TillysWily]

i got the 13 myself about 2 weeks ago and love everything about it coming from a pc (i will never go back) and my buddy has the 15 and to me the money wasnt worth it for the 15 myself but thats my 2cents

 

[Blondie :)]

right, that's what i thought too but for some reason my computer wont play videos smoothly, they're all choppy when i use Safari. This doesn't happen with Chrome or Firefox. I really don't get it...
I even went as far as installing OSX from scratch/formatting the disk and everything. All that for nothing...
going to the apple store today to see the new 13inch model in action.
I might have to just go ahead and return this one and get me a brand new one. i'd miss the heck out the 15inch screen tho.

I think it's a problem with Safari. I never use safari to watch videos. I get terrible performance with it too. My preferred browser for videos is Firefox

 

[newbiemacguy128]

what's the 330m to which you're referring? Sorry but im a mac noob. Actually, im not too technical when it comes to these things. I know a bit about Web Mastering but that's about it

How would i go about doing that anyways?

In any case FYI, I left my MBP @ the Apple Store(just got back from there). There were just too many people so ...
I should be getting a call tomorrow.

Basically your computer has two graphics cards, an integrated one (intel HD) and a discrete one (330M). The discrete graphics (330M) is a more powerful card and is supposed to activate and increase performance when its needed, but this is not always the case. Safari, doesn't activate this when you need it...the good news is you can force it to activate by using a program called gfxcardstatus. Just follow the directions below and it should get you some better performance...If you need help, feel free to PM me.

1) Download gfxcardstatus. Just google it, its the first one on the list.
- Install it.
- Once installed you will see a new icon at the top right of your screen (next to your clock, battery %, etc).
- Click on it, and you can force your computer to use discrete, integrated, or default. In your case, while watching videos you force it to use Discrete graphics. Keep in mind discrete graphics drain battery faster. So if you are not using it, change it back to integrated or dynamic switching to increase battery life.

2) Download the newest update to adobe flash. I think the newest one is 10.3. If you haven't updated flash, it allows hardware acceleration. Don't worry about not knowing what it does, it just makes flash run better =).

I would keep the computer if I was you. Although your having some trouble now, with a little tweaking its a more capable computer then the 13in MBP. The discrete graphics card is just so much nicer if you plan to game or do anything thats graphically intense.

 

[thunng8]

which one is faster/more powerful?

I currently own a 15 inch 2.4ghz core i5 MBP(2010) but i am thinking i might return it and get a brand new 13 inch model. Mainly for resale reasons. Obviously a computer 1 year older will never be worth as much, say a few years down the road when i decided to sell.

You shouldn't worry about resale values. Usually the 15" model has at least as good resale value as the 13" model. The new Sandy Bridge 2.3Ghz i5 in the 13" model is maybe 20% faster in term of CPU performance than the 2.4Ghz i5 in the 2010 15" model.

The GPU performance (i.e. gaming) in the 15" model is approx 2x faster due to the discrete graphics card.

i love the size of the screen but it is considerably heavier than the 13inch model. I just feel like this notebook, since it's a refurb, it's not running on all cylinders. I could be wrong though....

i have had problems with it trying to get Flash to work properly on Safari, it works fine on bother Chrome and Firefox though.

Definitely something wrong there. Your laptop should handle flash fine. Try going to energy saver and switching to discrete graphics only instead of automatic (this will lose you some battery life). Also try downloading the latest version of adobe flash (should be 10.3)

My boot up time is about 40 seconds, not sure if that's the norm. I would've thought this babies were significantly faster than PCs but that has not been the experience i've had with this machine.

Bootup time is more to do with hard drive performance rather than CPU performance.

 

[newbiemacguy128]

Didn't read the part about you already leaving it at the apple store! In any case...Its up to you what you want to do with it.

Performance between the 13in and 15in goes in favor of the 15in imo. Although some benchmarks have the 13in ahead of the 15in, the difference is really negligible in any real life situation...On top of this, the 15in has a significantly better graphics card, you'll just have to tell the computer to utilize it when your watching videos.

Just know before you make up your mind, the 15in is not having trouble running flash because its not powerful enough! And that it's a relatively easy fix.

 

[lgfaver]

Didn't read the part about you already leaving it at the apple store! In any case...Its up to you what you want to do with it.

Performance between the 13in and 15in goes in favor of the 15in imo. Although some benchmarks have the 13in ahead of the 15in, the difference is really negligible in any real life situation...On top of this, the 15in has a significantly better graphics card, you'll just have to tell the computer to utilize it when your watching videos.

Just know before you make up your mind, the 15in is not having trouble running flash because its not powerful enough! And that it's a relatively easy fix.

thanks a lot dude. i wish you could've read and posted before i dropped it off @ the apple store. I would've definitely tried what you suggested. Hopefully by the time i get it back it's all been fixed. If not, i'll be sure to follow your suggestions.
BTW why do you think the system isn't switching to the other graphics card if it's supposed to do it automatically?

 

[newbiemacguy128]

thanks a lot dude. i wish you could've read and posted before i dropped it off @ the apple store. I would've definitely tried what you suggested. Hopefully by the time i get it back it's all been fixed. If not, i'll be sure to follow your suggestions.
BTW why do you think the system isn't switching to the other graphics card if it's supposed to do it automatically?

I'm not really the best person to answer that question , as I don't want to give you false information. Gfxcardstatus gives you notifications when graphics cards are switched, all I did was note which graphics card was in use with certain programs open. Regardless, as long as I can watch videos without choppiness, i'm happy .