Help on Mac purchase

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"How to maximise your MacRumors troubleshooting experience" created by mad jew in 2006​

 

Wait until June. They will most certianly (95% chance I think) update all laptop Mac lines then, maybe not the cMBP.

 

What do you think the changes on the MBA line will be? Any chance for a retina MBA being announced?

Also, any speculation on how the upgrades will effect the prices? Will they likely be the same prices as current models and all previous models will become cheaper?

 

No rMBA this year, as it would basically be a rMBP.

Changes should mostly be processor and graphics, but also AC wifi and maybe other small changes.

Prices: maybe $100 for Air, maybe $100 drop for rMBP 13 and $200 for the rMBP 15", but only if they discontinue the cMBP 15 and/or 13.

 

How would you be giving up gaming on your Mac? Even the current Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics are night and day difference compared to your existing MacBook's graphics. So at the very least, you will have a better experience.

I have a 2012 13" MBA base model (4GB memory and 128GB SSD). Here is what I use it for and do not experience any lag, slowdowns, beachballs or anything of that nature: programming (Xcode, Eclipse, Netbeans, Android Studio), virtual machines (Linux, Windows running IDEs), Mail, Safari, iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, office suites (iWork and Office), Photoshop, Final Cut Pro X, Aperture and Matlab. I also play the occasional (or more) game of League of Legends with High/Medium settings, clamshell mode and on an external display with full 1080P HD resolution with 30-40 FPS.

I recommend the MBA unless you like the Retina display and other Retina-only features like HDMI, second Thunderbolt port and slimmer/improved form factor. I personally feel the 15" MBP (non and Retina) is too big and clunky even though it has discrete graphics. In your case, except for gaming, you really don't need discrete graphics. All of your bottlenecks are CPU, RAM or HDD/SSD.

 

Any white MacBook does not have dedicated graphics. That is what I read from your OP.

I'm confused with what computer(s) you are talking about here, the one(s) you currently own and the one(s) you are looking at. 13" MBPs and 13" MBAs have relatively the same amount of computing and graphical power. As for a 15" MBP with dedicated graphics, it is an increase in both CPU and GPU when compared with any 13" Mac notebook. You can still get HDMI output using a cheap Mini DisplayPort adapter. Monoprice sells these for <$10 (I can't remember exact prices which also change over time). A Retina MBP just has this built-in, but also costs more. I apologize if this isn't what you are looking for, I just have trouble understanding how you went from "white MacBook" in your OP to "right now I have dedicated graphics" in the above quoted post.

 

I would wait till june as we will maybe see haswell chips its not going to be night and day but it will at least be 6am to 8am

 

I would either wait for Haswell or go 15" with dedicated GPU if you like gaming. You're already pushing an integrated GPU with the retina display on a 13" a fair bit so adding gaming on top would probably result in a disappointing experience.

 

Games don't tend to be terribly ram hungry. You don't have dedicated graphics. I'm not looking up the 2010 white one, but I'm assuming you read the name NVidia somewhere. Some macbooks had the NVidia version of integrated graphics (separate die, but sharing memory and still not that great in terms of performance). Anything from 2012 is faster than that. If you want a discrete gpu, you could look at a refurbished 15" rmbp assuming you're in the US. They're $1600 for the base model. Either way a new one will be on the way. The gains should be decent for gaming. NVidia is using the same architecture, but it may be better tuned. Intel's options are more stratified, but they will represent an upgrade over the HD 4000.