Help me decide MBP18 i5/i7 or 512/1TB

[mortenjensen]

Hi all,
I've just been notified "from above" that I have clearance to go ahead with buying a new MBP 2018. The funding is good, though I have to make a decision in regards to CPU and SSD. The two options are:
- i5, 16 GB-ram, 1 TB HD.
- i7, 16 GB-ram, 512 GB HD.
What would you recommend? I am working with a horizon of 5-7 years of usage. Though I am not editing videos, I would consider my needs to be in the above average:
- Lightroom editing of RAW-photos.
- Fusion with Windows.
- Normally 6-8 "regular" programs open (Safari, mail, office, calendar and the like).

If I go with the 512 GB HD, I will be fine for now, but dependent on a storage drive. That is OK, I currently use Google's new "file steam"-solution with storage in the sky and no image on the drive.

I guess my question is, how much I will gain from the i7 in real life. I've read some comments on the i7 claiming that the gain is minimal due to throttling.

Is the i5 the real sweat spot on this thin MBP-monster?

Morten

 

[PROFESS0R]

Personally, I would purchase the i7.

 

[faxao]

Same kind of usage (apart from Fusion, I go Bootcamp for W10): just bought a Apple refurbished 13" i7/16Gb/1TB.

 

[Ploki]

i5.

Both i7 and i5 BOTH have hyper threading. (That was not the case last year ans years before, or even this year on mini. On the mac mini i5 doesnt have hyper threading so difference is much more substantial. There’s more to chips than i5 vs i7.)

Geekbench multicore is 16,5k vs 17,5k.
Single core is 4,5 vs 5,3, but thats due to higher turbo which dies out quickly.

Not worth it imo - i ordered i5/16gb/512gb.

And external tb3 case for samsung 970 EVO (2200mb/s)

I rather save money and upgrade computer faster - next years base model will outperform this year’s i7 (+i’ll be able to keep the external storage)

 

[mortenjensen]

Thanks for the answers!

What about battery life? I’ve read somewhere that there is a penalty for the i7, reducing a cycle with as much as one hour.

Morten