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How much faster will a new MBPro be than my souped up older one

J

jakobox2

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 5, 2011
14
0
I've got an older Macbook pro that I souped up with some aftermarket memory and a solid state drive from OWC. The specs are: 2.26 Intel Core 2Duo, and 6 gigs of ram.

I'm a photographer, and primarily edit off a pretty speedy mac Pro. I would LOVE to have a mobile setup that can keep up (currently it's fast enough to use in a pinch when I'm on the road, but for any heavy lifting I have to get in front of the Mac Pro). So when the new Macbook Pros came out, I figured they were worth considering.

The thing is, I wonder if one of the new ones will really be that much faster. I've already got the SSD. It's just a couple gigs of ram less than I would get with the MBPro. It would seem to me the main differentiator would be the processor. If that's true, are the new processors (I'm mostly looking at the 2.5 and 2.9 dual cores that come in the 13") going to be a noticeable difference?

For what it's worth, the main programs that I want to have a lot of power for are Lightroom and Photoshop.

Also, while I hear the retina displays are amazing, it's not a selling point for me right now.
 
jakobox2 said:
I've got an older Macbook pro that I souped up with some aftermarket memory and a solid state drive from OWC. The specs are: 2.26 Intel Core 2Duo, and 6 gigs of ram.

I'm a photographer, and primarily edit off a pretty speedy mac Pro. I would LOVE to have a mobile setup that can keep up (currently it's fast enough to use in a pinch when I'm on the road, but for any heavy lifting I have to get in front of the Mac Pro). So when the new Macbook Pros came out, I figured they were worth considering.

The thing is, I wonder if one of the new ones will really be that much faster. I've already got the SSD. It's just a couple gigs of ram less than I would get with the MBPro. It would seem to me the main differentiator would be the processor. If that's true, are the new processors (I'm mostly looking at the 2.5 and 2.9 dual cores that come in the 13") going to be a noticeable difference?

For what it's worth, the main programs that I want to have a lot of power for are Lightroom and Photoshop.

Also, while I hear the retina displays are amazing, it's not a selling point for me right now.
Click to expand...

Photoshop is a RAM eater, you definitely want 16g ram. Next, CPU and GPU.

I'd advise you two things - to reconsider the 13" and look to one of the 15" (2 cores vs 4 cores, discreet GPU), and to check out a photographer and mac wiz's website

http://macperformanceguide.com

As well as http://barefeats.com
 
jakobox2 said:
I've got an older Macbook pro that I souped up with some aftermarket memory and a solid state drive from OWC. The specs are: 2.26 Intel Core 2Duo, and 6 gigs of ram.

I'm a photographer, and primarily edit off a pretty speedy mac Pro. I would LOVE to have a mobile setup that can keep up (currently it's fast enough to use in a pinch when I'm on the road, but for any heavy lifting I have to get in front of the Mac Pro). So when the new Macbook Pros came out, I figured they were worth considering.

The thing is, I wonder if one of the new ones will really be that much faster. I've already got the SSD. It's just a couple gigs of ram less than I would get with the MBPro. It would seem to me the main differentiator would be the processor. If that's true, are the new processors (I'm mostly looking at the 2.5 and 2.9 dual cores that come in the 13") going to be a noticeable difference?

For what it's worth, the main programs that I want to have a lot of power for are Lightroom and Photoshop.

Also, while I hear the retina displays are amazing, it's not a selling point for me right now.
Click to expand...

In raw processing power? Slightly over 4 times more powerful according to benchmarks you could've googled yourself. Check geekbench for more precise comparisons.
 
Hey guys, thanks so much for all that info

CASLondon your links are very useful. Will be revisiting barefeats some more as there's obviously lots of great stuff there. Understanding more about how different processors clock in is invaluable, and to be honest I'd never heard of Mac Benchmarks before (not a newbie to working on a Mac, but definitely some of these hardware tests are new to me)

Orlandoech. I was arriving at almost your same conclusion. I'm very seriously considering getting one of the Mid 2012 15 inches and dropping in a SSD and some RAM.

Question on gauging how much Ram I need: If I keep an eye on Activity Monitor on my current Mac Pro and watch how much I'm using would that be a good starting point for considering how much to invest in for the Macbook Pro? Or would having a different processor effect that significantly?

Thanks again guys.
 
jakobox2 said:
Hey guys, thanks so much for all that info

CASLondon your links are very useful. Will be revisiting barefeats some more as there's obviously lots of great stuff there. Understanding more about how different processors clock in is invaluable, and to be honest I'd never heard of Mac Benchmarks before (not a newbie to working on a Mac, but definitely some of these hardware tests are new to me)

Orlandoech. I was arriving at almost your same conclusion. I'm very seriously considering getting one of the Mid 2012 15 inches and dropping in a SSD and some RAM.

Question on gauging how much Ram I need: If I keep an eye on Activity Monitor on my current Mac Pro and watch how much I'm using would that be a good starting point for considering how much to invest in for the Macbook Pro? Or would having a different processor effect that significantly?

Thanks again guys.
Click to expand...

You're more likely to be held back by lack of available RAM than the processor. You'd be hard pressed to see a real world difference between the regular and upgraded processors on most any mac.
 
snaky69 said:
You're more likely to be held back by lack of available RAM than the processor. You'd be hard pressed to see a real world difference between the regular and upgraded processors on most any mac.
Click to expand...

Exactly, unless it was benchmarks for bragging rights.

The 2.3GHz i7 in the 15" is plenty capable and sufficient, it will also provide the best battery life.

Save the $ and get these;

Samsung 830 or 840 SSD
16GB RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...04-317^20-104-317-TS,20-233-265^20-233-265-TS)
 
I have just bought a new base 13 inch with the 2.5Ghz i5. I came from the 2009 Mac mini with the same processor you currently have, the 2.26Ghz C2D, and my Benchmark has more than doubled, if that helps.
 
I agree with all of this, I too am a pro photographer, however I really only use the Macbook pro for tethered capture and travel and everything is edited on a gig Mac Pro in the studio.
max out your ram for sure. I am also about to replace my old macbook pro however I really don't want to because of its lack of use, after the ipad purchase I don't have a need to even open the macbook pro aside from capture and ocasional editing on the road.

What I have not been able to find out is, how much better battery performance in the 2.3 as stated below?
is it like another 30 min or more?



Orlandoech said:
Exactly, unless it was benchmarks for bragging rights.

The 2.3GHz i7 in the 15" is plenty capable and sufficient, it will also provide the best battery life.

Save the $ and get these;

Samsung 830 or 840 SSD
16GB RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...04-317^20-104-317-TS,20-233-265^20-233-265-TS)
Click to expand...
 
richphoto said:
I agree with all of this, I too am a pro photographer, however I really only use the Macbook pro for tethered capture and travel and everything is edited on a gig Mac Pro in the studio.
max out your ram for sure. I am also about to replace my old macbook pro however I really don't want to because of its lack of use, after the ipad purchase I don't have a need to even open the macbook pro aside from capture and ocasional editing on the road.

What I have not been able to find out is, how much better battery performance in the 2.3 as stated below?
is it like another 30 min or more?
Click to expand...

I believe it was 30-60min. Ill have to research further.

I too am a photographer, www.orlandoech.com
 
Fantastic guys. This stuff helps a ton. I'm really narrowing it down. Looking very seriously at a refurbished 2.3GHz i7 thanks to your suggestion Orlandoech. The plan would be to max out the ram, drop a SSD in the optical drive. and use that for the boot drive and keep working files on the other drive.

It looks like the only refurbished options for the original drives are 5400 RPM. Think that will be a hit on performance worth the $350 or so I'd have to spend to get a 7200 RPM in a non-refurbished model?

Off the original topic, but what are you using to tether to the iPad, richphoto? I've been experimenting with eye-fi card to shuttersnitch, but find it incredibly buggy.

Also, great work, both Orlandoech and richphoto... thanks for sharing.

J
 
jakobox2 said:
It looks like the only refurbished options for the original drives are 5400 RPM. Think that will be a hit on performance worth the $350 or so I'd have to spend to get a 7200 RPM in a non-refurbished model?
J
Click to expand...

Buy the cheaper one, you can buy an aftermarket 7200rpm drive for less than $100 and put that in. They are worth the upgrade, especially f you get a hybrid, though the hybrids cost a wee bit more.
 
A 2.3 or 2.6 (or 2.7) GHz i7 will be stonkingly faster than your similarly clocked Core2Duo. Internal cache, RAM speed, and GPU speed also big factors here (and of course you can bump up the RAM to 16Gb). You will be pleasantly surprised. Is there any way you can get to play on a modern rMBP and compare it with what you have?
 
Thanks for the thought tillsbury.. I'm in NYC so can always go to the mac store, but I guess they wouldn't let me load it up with everything I'm currently running to really get a feel for it. Ha, same probably goes if my friends have something with those specs too. Based on the advice here I'm pretty much ready to pull the trigger though.
 
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