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macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 16, 2013
707
365
I never thought I would get to this point...

I bought a new 2019 MBP, upgraded storage to 256Gb. Maybe this is a credit to my old 2013 MacBook Air but I can barely tell the difference in performance. I’m mostly basing this on general use and iMovie exports.

There is no difference in export time between 2013 MBA and brand new MBP. Also, for the first time ever iMovie crashed on the MBP and I lost my edited video. This never happened on my MBA. What the hell?

Also exporting failed on MBP and that never happened on MBA. I know for sure my expectations were high for this machine, but it doesn’t even seem to outperform my old MBA. In fact seems more unreliable.

I would get something else if I could choose again.
 

cfdlab

macrumors regular
Feb 26, 2008
179
220
I get same feeling comparing my 2013 15inch mbp with my 2018 15inch mbp. No noticeble improvement in performance but lot of compromises.
 

Howard2k

macrumors 603
Mar 10, 2016
5,165
4,980
It’s almost like not everyone needs an 8 core :p

The newer generation are undoubtedly faster at peak performance, but if you never get close to that then you’re less likely to notice.
 

mcpix

macrumors 6502
May 13, 2005
300
81
It’s almost like not everyone needs an 8 core :p

The newer generation are undoubtedly faster at peak performance, but if you never get close to that then you’re less likely to notice.
This is something I wonder about when thinking about replacing my 2015 15" MBP. I love all the ports and for what I do, it's perfect. However, I sometimes think about upgrading to a newer 2019 MBP. I do a lot of photo editing that never really seems to stress my current machine and most of the video I do is 1080p or less. I think the only time that I would really notice the difference is when I'm using Compressor to encode a 1080P video to DVD. Even then, I usually treat this as a walk away project, so I don't know if I'd really notice the faster encoding time.
 

throAU

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2012
8,759
6,920
Perth, Western Australia
I bought a new 2019 MBP, upgraded storage to 256Gb. Maybe this is a credit to my old 2013 MacBook Air but I can barely tell the difference in performance. I’m mostly basing this on general use and iMovie exports.

Have you timed it? Are you running the projects from the internal SSD and not some slow external storage? Because if your 2019 is quad core, it should be significantly faster unless there are some other bottlenecks (like external storage) in play.

Definitely copy your raw material to the laptop first, as storage can be a significant bottleneck if you're working with video.
 

throAU

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2012
8,759
6,920
Perth, Western Australia
^^ i mention the above, because my 13" retina from 2015 absolutely smokes my old quad core 2011 15" in heavier video editing because of the SSD. Whilst the 13" is pegged on CPU (mine is only a dual core) the 2011 used to thrash the disk to death and the CPUs would be less loaded. The 2011 died before i ended up putting an SSD in it... (GPU death). The CPU in the 2011 15" is much faster though.
 

mmomega

macrumors demi-god
Dec 30, 2009
3,879
2,089
DFW, TX
Returning it is the only thing that makes sense.

Any purchase at all, if you don't like it, return it ASAP.
 

sparkhill

macrumors regular
Oct 27, 2010
216
123
I think the new machines are always a bit slow out of the box, mostly as you install software and the drive is indexed. I purchased an iMac a few months ago and thought he same thing: it might not be much of an upgrade. But now, when I do back to my old iMacs, they seems so slow. Same with previous laptops.
 

jpn

Cancelled
Feb 9, 2003
1,854
1,988
I never thought I would get to this point...

I bought a new 2019 MBP, upgraded storage to 256Gb. Maybe this is a credit to my old 2013 MacBook Air but I can barely tell the difference in performance. I’m mostly basing this on general use and iMovie exports.

There is no difference in export time between 2013 MBA and brand new MBP. Also, for the first time ever iMovie crashed on the MBP and I lost my edited video. This never happened on my MBA. What the hell?

Also exporting failed on MBP and that never happened on MBA. I know for sure my expectations were high for this machine, but it doesn’t even seem to outperform my old MBA. In fact seems more unreliable.

I would get something else if I could choose again.

i had the same Macbook Air as you.
but when i needed a new machine, i chose to go with the Late 2018 MacBook Air.

but to yr points:

1 export time.
i assume you mean when you export something over a cable?
aren't you using USB-C Thunderbolt cables on new mac?
even on my new 2018 MacBook Air the export times are dramatically improved from my earlier MacBook Air.

2 export fail
this sounds like some kind of OS/software conflict on yr machine somehow not what the machine is capable of.

i dont understand how a movie project can be "lost" by exporting it...

3 getting something else next time.
absolutely. for most people, who do anything less than earn-a-living doing professional video editing, the MacBook Air, fully spec'ed with RAM etc is the way to go.

in yr specific case, if i were you, i would delete everything on yr macbook. totally. totally wipe it. and get a fresh copy of all latest software you are using. and don't hack it in any way that you dont know how to fix it.
maybe macOS Catalina next week is great chance for you...
a new machine doesn't sound being needed.
 
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mmomega

macrumors demi-god
Dec 30, 2009
3,879
2,089
DFW, TX
Or... you know. Find out if the product is actually defective and fix the issue you may be having and make use of a far more powerful device....
People dont understand basic troubleshooting anymore, then they get stuck with an item they don't particularly care for because they couldn't figure out in 2 weeks if the item would work for them or not.

Return it and move on.
 
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PROFESS0R

macrumors 6502
Jul 30, 2017
352
336
I see this all the time with my students. As soon as they run into something that they do not know, they immediately throw their hands up in despair and ask for help. There is something about this latest generation (and I am generalizing) that has caused them to be unable to think much beyond what they already know. Rather than even try to figure something out, or even perform a Google search, they just ask for help. The cure to this problem is not to give answers, but rather, to inform how to find answers... this is what I do with my students when it is clear that they have not given more than a nanosecond's worth of thought to figuring out a problem.

Joe

People dont understand basic troubleshooting anymore, then they get stuck with an item they don't particularly care for because they couldn't figure out in 2 weeks if the item would work for them or not.

Return it and move on.
 
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SnoFlo

macrumors regular
Feb 5, 2010
194
136
In day to day tasks my new 2018 laptop generally seems to perform about the same as my Ivy-Bridge 6-core workstation from 2013. In benchmarks the new laptop destroys the old desktop, but I guess this doesn't necessarily translate to a huge apparent increase in speed for mundane stuff.
 

ascender

macrumors 601
Dec 8, 2005
4,934
2,819
Whenever I see thread titles which start "disappointed in..." followed by a product name it just makes me think of someone having that talk with their kids after they've done something they shouldn't have.

But yeah, the new MBP will be way more powerful in raw terms than your MBA, but that doesn't always tell the full story.
 

username:

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 16, 2013
707
365
I should have returned it except I didn’t find out these things until about a month later. I didn’t have time to sit down with the laptop properly until then.

I now think I know the reason for iMovies epically bad performance. Screen capture now is at retina level resolution on the MBP, and was not so high resolution on the MBA. So the files being processed by iMovie are significantly larger.

Having said that, the fact that iMovie crashed while processing and has now just crashed the laptop (the reason I am back here) is just pathetic.

This is not worth the money. It seems in order to go “pro” I need to invest in a different brand.
 

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,004
7,851
I should have returned it except I didn’t find out these things until about a month later. I didn’t have time to sit down with the laptop properly until then.

I now think I know the reason for iMovies epically bad performance. Screen capture now is at retina level resolution on the MBP, and was not so high resolution on the MBA. So the files being processed by iMovie are significantly larger.

Having said that, the fact that iMovie crashed while processing and has now just crashed the laptop (the reason I am back here) is just pathetic.

This is not worth the money. It seems in order to go “pro” I need to invest in a different brand.
Did you migrate using Migration Assistant or do a clean install?
 

SantaClawz

macrumors newbie
Jun 17, 2019
24
18
Toronto area
I see this all the time with my students. As soon as they run into something that they do not know, they immediately throw their hands up in despair and ask for help. There is something about this latest generation (and I am generalizing) that has caused them to be unable to think much beyond what they already know. Rather than even try to figure something out, or even perform a Google search, they just ask for help. The cure to this problem is not to give answers, but rather, to inform how to find answers... this is what I do with my students when it is clear that they have not given more than a nanosecond's worth of thought to figuring out a problem.

Joe

Well, not everyone is a computer expert capable of figuring out what's wrong with their computer. One of the main reasons why many people own Apple computers is precisely the ease of use, which is why I personally got out of windows pc's and into Macs.
Buying a new laptop and then having to troubleshoot problems is most definitely a piece of **** computer that needs to be returned for a refund, instead of a lazy next generation that needs to troubleshoot a machine they JUST bought for thousands of dollars.
 

macman4789

macrumors 6502
Jul 12, 2007
304
14
Like others have said, I think it depends on how you utilise the power within your laptop. If you buy a Ferrari and a Ford but you only drive them to work everyday on the same road with the same speed limit I guess you’re not going to notice much difference. Apart from the extra trips for fuel ?
 
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nosajgames

macrumors member
Apr 28, 2015
62
23
New York NY
i've been thinking about grabbing a late 2015 15' MPB as i do a lot of music production. I have a late 2013 2.66ghz and the only complaint will be the speed i get with Logic Pro X. Correct me if i'm wrong, was RAM not upgradable on the late 2015's?
 

cyb3rdud3

macrumors 68040
Jun 22, 2014
3,153
1,953
UK
There is a lot of lack of detail in the OP post...

My old MBA was an i7 8GB RAM and 256SSD. My 2019 MBP 13" is an i7quad-core this time) with 16GB and 1TB SSD. I also had a 2018 MBP 15" hex-core with 32GB and 1TB, and for my use, it wasn't faster under most circumstances, just heavier and larger.

Sure when benchmarking the 2019 model MBP is faster. In everyday use, there is barely a difference between them. The difference between a dual-core and quad-core is not that great either unless you use software that specifically utilises that.

Heck even from a battery life perspective the old MBA was/is awesome.

However, I have a much better screen, touchpad, touch bar, security features, ability to have 4K external monitor, faster wifi, faster USB connections and so on. There is a lot more to an upgrade than just speed.
 
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