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

i7 vs i5 and 1600mhz on MBP 13" (2011 version)

A

AvnGr

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 8, 2011
4
0
Hey peeps,

I realize this question might be asked elsewhere but i tried looking for it to no avail so I am posting my own thread and I have 2 questions.

1) I'm completely new to the Mac world and I am wondering if the 300$ difference is worth it for the i7 processor on the MBP 13"?

I am a college student majoring in Mechanical Engineering. I love creating stuff on the side like music (Garage band YAY!) and I use Photoshop a lot to create photo manipulations for fun. I also play the occasional video game but nothing too serious. That being said, is the difference worth it?

2) will 1600 mhz DDR3 SO-DIMM Ram (specifically Kingston Hyperx) work on the core i5 or core i7 13" MPB?

Cheers
 
The i7 isn't worth the price difference for the 13". However if you got money to burn, then get the i7. As for the 1600mhz on ram, they do work - however the system is limited to 1333mhz and you won't utilize the full potential. But if you HAVE TOO have 1600mhz it will work. But it won't run at it's full speed of 1600mhz.
 
There's very little real world benefits to the i7 or the faster ram in the 13". If you really want a faster system your best bet is to add an SSD or upgrade to the 15". Or, grab the 15" and get the SSD.
 
DustinT said:
There's very little real world benefits to the i7 or the faster ram in the 13". If you really want a faster system your best bet is to add an SSD or upgrade to the 15". Or, grab the 15" and get the SSD.
Click to expand...
This...

You will really see no benefit from the i7 in day to day use. It might encode your movies 5% faster than the i5, but when doing school work, writing papers, surfing the net, listening to music, etc. you won't notice any difference.

1600mhz RAM will work just fine, i wouldn't expect huge speed increases when using it though.

Apple Expert said:
The i7 isn't worth the price difference for the 13". However if you got money to burn, then get the i7. As for the 1600mhz on ram, they do work - however the system is limited to 1333mhz and you won't utilize the full potential. But if you HAVE TOO have 1600mhz it will work. But it won't run at it's full speed of 1600mhz.
Click to expand...
i don't think that's true for the new mbp's. There is a whole thread with people who have installed 1600mhz ram and the machine is recognizing it and performing slightly better in memory tests than machines with 1333mhz ram.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1133642/
 
Last edited:
xxBURT0Nxx said:
This...

You will really see no benefit from the i7 in day to day use. It might encode your movies 5% faster than the i5, but when doing school work, writing papers, surfing the net, listening to music, etc. you won't notice any difference.

1600mhz RAM will work just fine, i wouldn't expect huge speed increases when using it though.


i don't think that's true for the new mbp's. There is a whole thread with people who have installed 1600mhz ram and the machine is recognizing it and performing slightly better in memory tests than machines with 1333mhz ram.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1133642/
Click to expand...


It is true. I'm one that has both the 1333 and the 1600 memory. Yes, the 1600 is a tad faster, but not dramatically since the cpu can only transfer so much.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I think in gonna get the MBP 13" with the i5 and replace the HDD with a WD scropio black and add the 8gb Kingston Hyperx 1600 kit.. How does that sound?
 
I'm afraid somthings come up and have to wait till the fall. Thanks for the info though
 
Apple Expert said:
Originally Posted by xxBURT0Nxx
This...

You will really see no benefit from the i7 in day to day use. It might encode your movies 5% faster than the i5, but when doing school work, writing papers, surfing the net, listening to music, etc. you won't notice any difference.

1600mhz RAM will work just fine, i wouldn't expect huge speed increases when using it though.


i don't think that's true for the new mbp's. There is a whole thread with people who have installed 1600mhz ram and the machine is recognizing it and performing slightly better in memory tests than machines with 1333mhz ram.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1133642/
Click to expand...

It is true. I'm one that has both the 1333 and the 1600 memory. Yes, the 1600 is a tad faster, but not dramatically since the cpu can only transfer so much.
Click to expand...

Wrong, wrong and wrong. I hope you didn't waste your money on the HyperX. Won't work on your MBP. Only High-end quad cores...
 
MacsOnAnabolics said:
Wrong, wrong and wrong. I hope you didn't wast your money on the HyperX. Won't work on your MBP. On High-end quad cores...
Click to expand...

actually you are wrong, wrong and wrong... it will work just fine. It will still be 1333mhz but it's still going to work
 
MacsOnAnabolics said:
Wrong, wrong and wrong. I hope you didn't waste your money on the HyperX. Won't work on your MBP. Only High-end quad cores...
Click to expand...

Your wrong. It does work, but you won't get the full benefits of speed like the higher end MBP quad cores. You will see a small increase, but it will be there. The question is do you want to spend the extra money for a small increase? You can say all you want about it not working. Until you have both the MBP and memory you should listen to the people who have that equipment.
 
jonnysods said:
I got the i7 13". I couldn't help myself! I just needed to know I had the top of the line for that model size.
Click to expand...

Why?

That seems a rather vain reason--why not get the base and donate the $300 (or $500, if you're near a Microcenter) to homeless relief or something similar? Just a question.
 
More RAM is better than RAM speed. Frankly RAM speed has very little to say except in synthetic benchmarks:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ram-speed-tests,1807.html

The results must look disappointing for the memory vendors, as the largest performance differences we found amount to 7-8% with DivX and WinRAR, while almost all other benchmarks and applications perform alike: a 1-3% performance delta cannot be noticed at all. Some games showed several per cent performance difference between low-latency high-speed memory and conventional high-latency average speed DIMMs. The synthetic benchmarks on the memory revealed even more differences, but these clearly aren’t very relevant in everyday life.

Our conclusion is very simple: you get the best bang for the buck if you stick to the mainstream of the memory market, which currently is still DDR2-800 or 1066, preferably at low latencies. DDR3-1066 and -1333 memory do not yet result in better performance, and so should only be considered by hardcore enthusiasts, who aim for maximum overclocking performance knowing that they will get little benefit for spending a fortune.
Click to expand...
 
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