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How different is the min-spec 13"mbp and the top-spec?

anxti

anxti

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 25, 2015
2
0
Here's what I run on a daily basis that uses CPU and memory:
Android Studio
XCode
Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator/Premier (As long as the interface in premier is responsive I don't care that much about render times as I do that infrequently, but right now the UI is kind of janky.)

I currently have a min-spec (2.7/8/256) 13" macbook pro, early 2015. I'm finding it a little pokey and spend a little bit too much time looking at a beachball. It's got a clean install of EC, so I don't think it's a software issue. I'm wondering if I'm swapping out memory to disk a lot, or if a minor cpu upgrade (I think the max spec is 3.1ghz) might be a little bit smoother. I've been watching activity monitor, and while I do see the CPU pegged at points, it doesn't look like I'm using up the memory until I run multiple VM's.

So my question is, am I just pushing the limits of what a 13" mobile laptop can do - and an upgrade would only be a marginal improvement? I kind of hate having to sync things, but the other option is to buy an imac or a mac pro, but obviously that's not mobile. The 15" machine is just a hair too heavy for trekking around the city with it on my back (From experience.)

Thoughts?
 
The 3.1GHz i7 is 2-4% faster than the 2.9GHz i5. The upgrade isn't worth $200.

If you aren't seeing memory go into the red in activity motor, you may just be seeing the limitations of a dual core CPU.
 
anxti said:
Here's what I run on a daily basis that uses CPU and memory:
Android Studio
XCode
Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator/Premier (As long as the interface in premier is responsive I don't care that much about render times as I do that infrequently, but right now the UI is kind of janky.)

I currently have a min-spec (2.7/8/256) 13" macbook pro, early 2015. I'm finding it a little pokey and spend a little bit too much time looking at a beachball. It's got a clean install of EC, so I don't think it's a software issue. I'm wondering if I'm swapping out memory to disk a lot, or if a minor cpu upgrade (I think the max spec is 3.1ghz) might be a little bit smoother. I've been watching activity monitor, and while I do see the CPU pegged at points, it doesn't look like I'm using up the memory until I run multiple VM's.

So my question is, am I just pushing the limits of what a 13" mobile laptop can do - and an upgrade would only be a marginal improvement? I kind of hate having to sync things, but the other option is to buy an imac or a mac pro, but obviously that's not mobile. The 15" machine is just a hair too heavy for trekking around the city with it on my back (From experience.)

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Not different enough by the sounds of it you need a quad core processor.
 
T5BRICK said:
The 3.1GHz i7 is 2-4% faster than the 2.9GHz i5. The upgrade isn't worth $200.

If you aren't seeing memory go into the red in activity motor, you may just be seeing the limitations of a dual core CPU.
Click to expand...

What about the upgrade in the 2015 15 inch models? Is the upgrade worth jumping ship from 2.5ghz i7 to 2.8 i7
 
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