Future proofing 2017 MBP

[Fishrrman]

NO computer can be "future-proofed".
SOME of them can be upgraded to extend their lives a little longer.

In my observation, the Macs that tend to "last the longest" are (oddly enough) the "base models" -- Apple doesn't have good luck with souped-up GPU's, which seem to have an abnormally-high failure rate in iMacs and MacBook Pros.

The best thing one can do to "extend useful longevity" is to have enough RAM and enough hard drive storage space.
Faster CPU's and GPU's are (at least with Apple) a crapshoot.

 

[Vazza]

NO computer can be "future-proofed".
SOME of them can be upgraded to extend their lives a little longer.

In my observation, the Macs that tend to "last the longest" are (oddly enough) the "base models" -- Apple doesn't have good luck with souped-up GPU's, which seem to have an abnormally-high failure rate in iMacs and MacBook Pros.

The best thing one can do to "extend useful longevity" is to have enough RAM and enough hard drive storage space.
Faster CPU's and GPU's are (at least with Apple) a crapshoot.

True, and of course I know you can't future proof a laptop but as explained I want to use it for many years without worrying about having to replace it. There's always the worry about a hardware failure but I did get 6 good years out of my 2010 MBP before the dGPU failed which I think was good value for money to me anyway.

 

[T-Bob]

I got the MBPTB 13" in part because of its GPU. That is one advance that skylake+ made over previous igpus, much more beef now.

I can't play high bitrate 4k HEVC though, so thats one future proof aspect I missed out on! Of course I'm sure Kaby can, has better decode support. On second thought the player was only using cpu so would choke on Kaby as well unless hardware accel worked, not looked into it enough yet to comment fully.

 

[Vazza]

I got the MBPTB 13" in part because of its GPU. That is one advance that skylake+ made over previous igpus, much more beef now.

I can't play high bitrate 4k HEVC though, so thats one future proof aspect I missed out on! Of course I'm sure Kaby can, has better decode support. On second thought the player was only using cpu so would choke on Kaby as well unless hardware accel worked, not looked into it enough yet to comment fully.

I believe it works fine on Kaby Lake 13" TB?

 

[T-Bob]

I believe it works fine on Kaby Lake 13" TB?

Not sure, Kaby only adds 10bit hardware decoding and this should have been 8 bit. Might be the video player just didn't do hardware decode on that file. Might take a closer look sometime.

 

[Jamalogo10]

NO computer can be "future-proofed".
SOME of them can be upgraded to extend their lives a little longer.

In my observation, the Macs that tend to "last the longest" are (oddly enough) the "base models" -- Apple doesn't have good luck with souped-up GPU's, which seem to have an abnormally-high failure rate in iMacs and MacBook Pros.

The best thing one can do to "extend useful longevity" is to have enough RAM and enough hard drive storage space.
Faster CPU's and GPU's are (at least with Apple) a crapshoot.

Preach my brotha.
People will look back at the first generation touchbar and laugh. Purchase the base version, upgrade the ram and ssd and call it a day.

 

[ilikewhey]

make sure you like the keyboard first, don't make the mistake like me where i have to go return it and hunt down a 2015 model. and if don't like the new keyboard, a 2015 15inch is only around 1000 usd