Early 2015 2.9Ghz i5 versus Late 2013 i7 ?

[CRoebuck]

I've got a late '13 2.8GHz i7 13" with 16GB RAM. The SSD is starting to get a little crowded but offloading to external drive will compromise what I use the machine for. It runs several (5) Win 10 and Linux VM's (in Parallels)

I've got my eye on an refurbed early 2015 2.9GHz i5 with a 1TB SSD and 16GB RAM

Question is, how will the 2015 machine compare. I know the i5 has less on board cache but the 2x improvement in SSD read / write time and faster RAM sounds like it might benefit my use case, 1 hour extra battery would be nice too.

Biggest concern is the 2.9GHz i5 compared to my i7 CPU right now, doesn't seem like my VM work really pushes the CPU but maybe somebody out there has made this move and can comment ?

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I've got a late '13 2.8GHz i7 13" with 16GB RAM. The SSD is starting to get a little crowded but offloading to external drive will compromise what I use the machine for. It runs several (5) Win 10 and Linux VM's (in Parallels)

I've got my eye on an refurbed early 2015 2.9GHz i5 with a 1TB SSD and 16GB RAM

Question is, how will the 2015 machine compare. I know the i5 has less on board cache but the 2x improvement in SSD read / write time and faster RAM sounds like it might benefit my use case, 1 hour extra battery would be nice too.

Biggest concern is the 2.9GHz i5 compared to my i7 CPU right now, doesn't seem like my VM work really pushes the CPU but maybe somebody out there has made this move and can comment ?

It will make no difference at all the i7 is a 2-5% increase on benchmarks (over the haswell i5) that will be about the same as the i5 on the 2015 and you'll only notice that if you are pegging your cores at 80-100% all the time. The main thing for VM's is number of cores rather than anything else.

 

[MagicBoy]

The i5 to i7 (dual core) difference is negligible. Outside of special usage considerations you'd never notice. Given the price premium i7 is a triumph of marketing over common sense IMO. Personally I think they should have reserved the i7 badge for the quads.

 

[mafaky]

The i5 to i7 (dual core) difference is negligible. Outside of special usage considerations you'd never notice. Given the price premium i7 is a triumph of marketing over common sense IMO. Personally I think they should have reserved the i7 badge for the quads.

But don't these DC i7's have hyper-threading? (for the DC i7s in MBA and 13" rMBP models)?

 

[MagicBoy]

But don't these DC i7's have hyper-threading? (for the DC i7s in MBA and 13" rMBP models)?

So do the mobile dual core i5s. A couple of extra MB of cache and a couple of hundred MHz isn't worth the price premium on it's own.

Here's my dual core ThinkPad X220 at work right now :

 

[Samuelsan2001]

But don't these DC i7's have hyper-threading? (for the DC i7s in MBA and 13" rMBP models)?

All the macbooks have hyperthreading.

 

[mafaky]

So do the mobile dual core i5s. A couple of extra MB of cache and a couple of hundred MHz isn't worth the price premium on it's own.

Here's my dual core ThinkPad X220 at work right now :

Here in Turkey we have rather high prices for all Apple products. Now I must make a fast choice. I can get either an mid-2014 13" rMBP with 3.0 GHz DC i7 (the Haswell breed), 8GB RAM/512GB Storage with 9 hrs. battery life or the early-2015 13" rMBP with 2.8 GHz DC i5 (the Broadwell breed), 8GB RAM/512GB Storage with 10 hrs. battery life and the new Force Touch trackpad. The first one, I can get for around USD 200 less.

I am not a big user for trackpad, for some functions yes I do use it (mainly for scrolling) but otherwise more inclined to use a BT micro mouse. Whichever one I buy, I get a 2-year full warranty (my country's regulation...). I've tested the new Force Touch Trackpad in the local Applestore and found it somehow more difficult to use compared with the older style trackpad... The other noticeable differences will be in the graphics part; battery life and the higher speed of the Flash storage Drive in the 2015 model. If you were in my boots, which one would you buy?

P.S.: Over rule the option "wait for 2016's Skylake". I still retain the fear that 2016 rMBP models may come with a redesigned case, and with USB-C adoption, which I really don't want to use. I feel it much much "safer" to have a separate charger/power supply socket and so far I do love the MagSafe designs...

Thanks in advance for your valuable recommendations.

 

[newellj]

All you're going to get out of the i7 is slightly worse battery life.

 

[MagicBoy]

I'd get the 2015.

 

[cbautis2]

Broadwell is faster clock for clock than haswell so they're more or less tied in CPU performance. I'd get the 2015 for the jaw dropping Sequential SSD read/writes alone. Force touch is a bonus. Then again, skylake is just months around so you might regret your purchase though.