Help with Buying Decision

[alexis12345]

Hello,

Any help/opinion is appreciated. My work consists mostly of web browsing, email, media consumption and photo editing. For photo editing I use Photoshop and Pixelmator and usually I edit files that are around 50Mb to 150Mb max.

I have a 13" 2013 rMBP, base model and for my needs runs very smoothly.
I am considering upgrading to a 13" 2015 rMBP or a 2015 rMB. (both cost exactly the same in my country)

Does anyone know how the rMB 1.2 ghz handles editing 150 mb files in Photoshop/Pixelmator?

I want speed and for that the 13" 2015 rMBP would be more than enough, but I would prefer the change/redesign and sleekness of the rMB, IF it runs smoothly doing what I need.

I don't expect blazing fast speeds with rMB, but I don't want to wait 3-5 seconds to make a change (photo editing) either.

Thank you!

 

[tbirdparis]

I'm sure plenty of people here who,have rMBs will be able to share their experiences with you. But just FYI, in the Apple Store near my place, pixelmator was installed on the demo models so I was able to play around with it there. So if you have a store near you, it might be worth seeing if they at least have pixelmator on a machine if not photoshop, so you can get a feel for the way it handles it in your own personal way. Getting opinions online is great, but what might be fine for someone else might actually seem really slow and unusable to you, or the other way around.

The only downside to this is that the demo machines seem to all be 1.1 base models, at least here they are. So you might not get to try out exactly the model you want. But even then, I'd say it's worth going in, pulling down some photo files that you are working with from your own Dropbox or whatever and just working with them in pixelmator for an hour or so. Best way to get a feel for what it will be like. If you are able to go to a store that is..

 

[Tilen Turk]

I'm buying new computer for university because i need to write dissertation and i am intrested in buying rMb base model because it's light and portable.

I will use it as a main computer and mostly use it for microsoft office (excel, word, ppt), safari browsing and sometimes for editing photos and videos and for music. Will it fit my needs?

Will it handle huge amounts of data in excel (for numeric methods) and maybe some drawing in AutoCad and other usage of scientific programs like Matlab?

Is it future proof so i could use it for many years?

 

[Dark Void]

Hi,

I wouldn't go from a 2013 rMBP to a 2015 rMBP with the usage that you listed. The hardware has improved since your model, of course, but you more than likely won't notice any difference at all since with what you listed you are hardly putting your 2013 through its paces in the first place.

The rMB may be a pretty good fit for you if you favor its design and its weight/size/footprint differences in comparison to the rMBP. If your Photoshop or Pixelmator usage is typical as you have listed I wouldn't worry about any sort of stuttering on the rMB. The CPU plays a good part in editing but mainly, since the rMB is equipped with a SSD, loading images won't have you experiencing any sort of lag or wait times. In terms of using tools and CPU processing tasks, you shouldn't experience any sort of this negativity either as long as your usage isn't heavy with many large high resolution files.

I hope this helps.

 

[The Humble Blogger]

I'm buying new computer for university because i need to write dissertation and i am intrested in buying rMb base model because it's light and portable.

I will use it as a main computer and mostly use it for microsoft office (excel, word, ppt), safari browsing and sometimes for editing photos and videos and for music. Will it fit my needs?

Will it handle huge amounts of data in excel (for numeric methods) and maybe some drawing in AutoCad and other usage of scientific programs like Matlab?

Is it future proof so i could use it for many years?

That should be just fine for you, I would just make sure that you have enough storage in it to future proof it in terms of music and video downloads. You might also want to think about upgrading to the 16GB of ram instead of the base 8GB.

 

[Tilen Turk]

That should be just fine for you, I would just make sure that you have enough storage in it to future proof it in terms of music and video downloads. You might also want to think about upgrading to the 16GB of ram instead of the base 8GB.

I think that i cannot upgrade RAM just CPU frequency so base rMB will be good for my needs anyway?

 

[The Humble Blogger]

You can indeed upgrade the RAM, I just checked on Apple's website 8GB of ram will be fine for now but if you're thinking of future proof, 16GB will serve you better in the future. I wouldn't worry about upgrading the processor though because the speed difference between the two is barely noticeable other than just when running bookmarks.

 

[Tilen Turk]

One more question is Retina MacBook faster than my MacBook Pro mid 2010 with Intel Core 2 Duo 2,4 GHz and 4GB of RAM and SSD disk?

 

[David58117]

You can indeed upgrade the RAM, I just checked on Apple's website 8GB of ram will be fine for now but if you're thinking of future proof, 16GB will serve you better in the future. I wouldn't worry about upgrading the processor though because the speed difference between the two is barely noticeable other than just when running bookmarks.

16GB is such a huge waste for the OPs use, especially with the limitations already of the rMB.

In regards to future proof - any future where 16GB is the base or even necessary for general use, is a future where the already limited processor in the rMB is way outdated.

Besides, SSDs have made swap files less of an issue then they were when everything was a platter HDD.

 

[The Humble Blogger]

16GB is such a huge waste for the OPs use, especially with the limitations already of the rMB.

In regards to future proof - any future where 16GB is the base or even necessary for general use, is a future where the already limited processor in the rMB is way outdated.

Besides, SSDs have made swap files less of an issue then they were when everything was a platter HDD.

I was talking about the rMBP, there's no way that I would try to do the things he was talking about with Photoshop on a rMB.