Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Hi res or better performance

A

Arsenal09

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 13, 2011
35
0
Belgium
Hi everyone,

i know there are much threads about the hi res sreen for the 15inch, and as i can see, almost everyone says it's worth it. so i'm planning to buy the 15inch, but i cannot effort me to go over 2100 euro.

so here's the deal, i don't know what buy, the base one (2.0 Ghz) with hi res for 1900 from Apple or i can buy the high end (2.2 Ghz) for only 2050 on a online webshop in my country. it's not that i surely need the power of the high end. i'm gonna do some gaming, but not intense, but it's overall a better performer and more futureproof.. what would you choose?

Cheers.
 
Personally, I don't think that you would miss .2 GHz, but you would REALLY miss a higher resolution screen.

So get the high-res screen.
that's my two cents.
 
One thing to note is the difference in graphics cards. 256mb vs 1GB and the 1GB one is MUCH faster. If you plan on any gaming or graphics intensive work, skip the lower end model.
 
If you're not going to spend another cent on this laptop, ever, go with the base model. You get a much more "complete" package.

HOWEVER, everything you mentioned (with the exception of high res screen) is a self-serviceable part. That's to say, when your budget allows it, somewhere down the line, you can upgrade RAM, or upgrade SSD, or buy that case. There's no rush.

BUT, if you go with the 2.0 model, and decide later that the GPU wasn't enough. Sorry, but you're SOL.

And for the hi-res screen, there's the option of screen replacement, which is a bit tougher, along with just getting an external, which is much cheaper and better.
 
if ur gonna do more graphics related things, i would def. recommend the 1GB DDR5 GPU instead of the lower model.

the thing is... even if u opt to not get the high res screen you can always buy urself a huge 24-27 inch screen and connect it with the mbp. so that's already future proof right there. the 1 GB DDR5 GPU will handle the external screen much better than the 256 MB.

so my suggestion:
spend the money on the one with the 1 GB DDR5 and forget the high res. you can always replace the high res with a 27 inch dell if u want more screen real estate.
 
When people say graphics for GAMING. The 1 GB of graphics won't do much for Illustrator/Photoshop etc. Not sure about 3D rendering (I'm assuming it will help) or Video editing (still 2D, no?).

EDIT: I was stuck on the hi-res screen as well, but the lack of companies selling them (other than apple) made me spring for the base Model 15" which I got for $1625 shipped new in box. If I bought from apple with the upgraded screen I was going to be near $2000 after tax.

I thought I'd be disappointed with the 1440x900 glossy screen.....but surprisingly I'm not! Ther are always external monitors...
 
Pretty much the entire adobe suite supports opengl, which can be accelerated using dedicated GPU. What are you on?

Granted, nvidia chips with their CUDA cores are better supported, ATI nevertheless can lend a helping hand.
 
awer25 said:
It's a tough call - what do you plan on using it for?
Click to expand...

It will be my main computer. so pretty much; the casual webbrowsing and stuff, and some photo/video editing and some gaming.

Maybe it will be better to wait till i have enough money for the high end with hi-res. but that will be around october i think.. it will be hard to wait so long.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back