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i5 or i7?

E

Emoo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 11, 2010
176
0
Texas
I'm getting my Macbook Pro on Saturday. After the squealing subsided, I was told that I can pick any one I want. So, I'm thinking the i7 is a good idea, plus there's the 512 mb discrete graphics. Question is, how does the battery life differ from the i5? Enough that I would care?
 
Oh, I'll be dual booting xp for now, and running Photoshop CS5 once I'm at uni and can buy the suite. I'll run PS, Flash, and Dreamweaver on windows for now though.
 
Emoo said:
I'm getting my Macbook Pro on Saturday. After the squealing subsided, I was told that I can pick any one I want. So, I'm thinking the i7 is a good idea, plus there's the 512 mb discrete graphics. Question is, how does the battery life differ from the i5? Enough that I would care?
Click to expand...

There's a detailed pair of threads linking to reviews on exactly those q's (battery and perf. difference). not more than a week ago.
 
I was in similar dicision before, but look spend as much as u could afford.

for the i7 it only acouple hundred dollars more, if it doesnt hurt ur pocket do it.

In the future the resell price on i7 (top notch) will turn out not bad if u intend to upgrade to the next refresh mbp
 
The real reason I'm looking at the i7 is because I have the choice, so I can get whatever I want. Also I'm thinking the extra VRam may be useful later.

I'm keeping this thing for four years, so it needs to stay at least semi up to date for that long.
 
Getting an SSD upgrade will give you a larger performance boost than the i7 will.
 
I need the extra space of the 500 GB hdd. My only external is my backup drive. Maybe once the ssds drop in price and increase in size I can make a switch.
 
ExcelonGT said:
word.

http://anandtech.com/show/3659/apples-15inch-core-i5-macbook-pro-the-one-to-get
Click to expand...

Core i7 vs. Core i5 Performance Summary

The two Core i5 models Apple offers ship with a 2.40GHz or 2.53GHz processor, both with a 3MB L3 cache. The $2199 15-inch MacBook Pro comes with a 2.66GHz Core i7, with a full 4MB L3 cache. Compared to the entry level model that's an 11% increase in clock speed and a 33% increase in L3 cache.

While I don't believe there's much reason to go for the 2.53GHz over the 2.40GHz model (L3 cache size remains the same, clock speed goes up by a small amount), the Core i7 is actually pretty decent. For a 22% increase in total system cost you end up with 11 - 15% better performance in CPU bound applications. It actually even feels snappier in general use as well.

I'd still suggest opting for an SSD before considering any CPU upgrades, but if you're looking to keep your new MacBook Pro for a while the Core i7 is worth it.
 
rawd said:
Core i7 vs. Core i5 Performance Summary

The two Core i5 models Apple offers ship with a 2.40GHz or 2.53GHz processor, both with a 3MB L3 cache. The $2199 15-inch MacBook Pro comes with a 2.66GHz Core i7, with a full 4MB L3 cache. Compared to the entry level model that's an 11% increase in clock speed and a 33% increase in L3 cache.

While I don't believe there's much reason to go for the 2.53GHz over the 2.40GHz model (L3 cache size remains the same, clock speed goes up by a small amount), the Core i7 is actually pretty decent. For a 22% increase in total system cost you end up with 11 - 15% better performance in CPU bound applications. It actually even feels snappier in general use as well.

I'd still suggest opting for an SSD before considering any CPU upgrades, but if you're looking to keep your new MacBook Pro for a while the Core i7 is worth it.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I found this around ten minutes ago. I'm happy with my decision. :)
 
i wonder if anyone here has some realworld battery comparisons between i7 and i5, the above article is good, is that what people are finding true?
 
Various battery drain tests are saying between 4:30 and 5:20ish hours. 4:30 being web browsing with flash and running itunes and a hulu video (if I remember correctly) and 5:20 being the simple movie-loop rundown test.
 
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