Intel i7 quad core 2.5Ghz or 2.8 Ghz for Architecture

[dyao]

Hello All,

I am an Architecture student who is seeking a new laptop,
I am looking at the new mid 2014 15" MacBook Pro.
I have narrowed down the selection between the Intel quad core i7 2.5 Ghz or 2.8Ghz.
I am wondering if the 2.5 Ghz will do the job just fine, I have to do some presentation quality renderings as well as Rhino 3D modeling and ArchiCAD; should I upgrade to the 2.8 Ghz CPU?
Is there going to be a big difference in terms of rendering time?

Most of the guys at Apple Store were saying there's not much difference between the 2.5Ghz and 2.8 Ghz.

Thank You Very Much

 

[maflynn]

I don't think the performance increase with the 2.8GHz will be noticeable in real world applications. I recommend the 2.5 and save yourself some money.

 

[austinpike]

Theoretically there should be ~10% difference. Rendering will certainly peg all the cores. No, you won't notice the difference on a daily basis, but you might save 5 min on an hour rendering. Conversely, you could save a few bucks, take maybe a 10% speed cut and get a 2013 refurb model. You wouldn't really notice the difference between that and the 2.5 on a daily basis either.

Personally once you are spending nearly $2500 the extra $200 bump seems pretty reasonable to me to have the absolute fastest.

 

[The Mercurian]

I just got the 2.8GhZ and love it - truly a beast of a machine. So fast. I'm getting stuff done soooooo much quicker than my late 2011 machine.
Another consideration - hard disk size. The larger drives are faster.

I guess it comes down to this - what is more important to you in the long run ? Small % time saved over next few years or several hundred dollars expense now?

 

[0940732]

I recommend to go for "base" 2,5GHz with optional 1TB SSD - difference between 2,5GHz and 2,8GHz is up to 10%, mostly not even 10% ..so even when you are going to render all day long, the real world difference will be in minutes, but much faster and bigger SSD that's money well spent

 

[CmdrLaForge]

You will definitely not need the faster machine. If you still should buy it depends on many things like how much money you have, how many years you want to keep the machine and so on.

 

[merrickdrfc]

Save your money, 2.5 GHz is more than enough in the real world and if you really need it put the money toward the 1TB SSD

 

[dyao]

Thank you for all the helpful advices.
If it is up to 10% difference, does that mean if I have a two hour rendering it would only be 12 minutes faster the most with a 2.8 ghz? (Theoretically)

Seems like you guys are more leaning towards save up the $180 on CPU and upgrade the hard drive to 1TB if I want to spend the extra money on the laptop.

Thank you very much again.

 

[JHUFrank]

Get the 2.5 and spend the saved money on extra storage or toys for your new rMBP

 

[thunng8]

According to geekbench .. The difference is less than 4% for 64bit CPU mufti core. Definitely not worth it.

http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

Bare feats has the 2.8ghz model being slower in some tests than the outgoing 2.6ghz model because of throttling.

 

[Zwhaler]

I think it's worth it just so your machine will last longer in the future. I got the 2.66GHz i7 over the 2.53 i5 back in 2010 and it makes a big difference these days with Final Cut Pro X. If I hadn't got that i7 with hyper-threading and had the 2-core i5 instead, I probably would have felt upgrading was necessary at this point, but instead I can continue using the machine for awhile longer.

 

[Eithanius]

I think it's worth it just so your machine will last longer in the future. I got the 2.66GHz i7 over the 2.53 i5 back in 2010 and it makes a big difference these days with Final Cut Pro X. If I hadn't got that i7 with hyper-threading and had the 2-core i5 instead, I probably would have felt upgrading was necessary at this point, but instead I can continue using the machine for awhile longer.

i7 vs i5 was a big difference back then compared to the current i7 vs i7...

 

[thunng8]

If I hadn't got that i7 with hyper-threading and had the 2-core i5 instead, I probably would have felt upgrading was necessary at this point, but instead I can continue using the machine for awhile longer.

The i5 has hyper threading. Difference between the i5 2.53ghz and i7 2.66ghz is less than 10%

 

[Zwhaler]

The i5 has hyper threading. Difference between the i5 2.53ghz and i7 2.66ghz is less than 10%

Indeed it does, it didn't use to in my gen MBP... I'm just saying down the line buyers tend to appreciate every bit of upgrade they can get when it gets older.

 

[maflynn]

Indeed it does, it didn't use to in my gen MBP... I'm just saying down the line buyers tend to appreciate every bit of upgrade they can get when it gets older.

The cost vs what you really see in performance gain is such that its better to put the money elsewhere.

 

[thunng8]

Indeed it does, it didn't use to in my gen MBP... I'm just saying down the line buyers tend to appreciate every bit of upgrade they can get when it gets older.

not sure what you mean. I5 in laptops have always had hyper threading no matter what gen. First i5 in apple laptops were in 2010 and it had hyper threading.