Is Waiting for the Haswell rMBP Really Worth It?

[SevenFourSeven]

Forgive me, as I'm sure this question has been asked numerous times by those who are impatient.

Other than a battery life boost, is there really any compelling reason to put off buying a rMBP until the Haswell models are released?


Some of the possible new features:

Of course, the main improvement brought by Haswell is increased battery life. However, 7 hours is already pretty good for a laptop, and that already is good enough to get me through my classes. Mavericks is supposed to improve upon this with its newfangled Timer Coalescing and whatnot.

I know that the new chips will have far better integrated graphics, but the HD4000 looks to be more than capable as is, with Mavericks looking to resolve a lot of issues people have had with graphics in the current generation.

802.11ac WiFi will be wicked fast, but, seeing as most routers used nowadays are 802.11a/b/g/n, will I even be able to take advantage of this potential speed without an 802.11ac router?

PCIe SSDs may be almost twice as fast, but current SSDs are already pretty speedy, especially when compared to those 5400rpm abominations we used to carry around, right?


Some ways buying now might be better:

Obviously, I can go out and get a current-gen rMBP NOW without having to wait an unspecified amount of time.

I can take advantage of the Back-to-School sale, which may be over by the time the new models are released.

Other outlets may be having sales/deals (such as this one I stumbled across yesterday) to get rid of current-gen inventory.

If there's anything I missed/was completely wrong about (highly likely), please let me know.


I ask because I'm a student going to college this August, and from the looks of things the new models won't be out until September or later. That is far too long for me to wait. Not to mention that this purchase will be my first Mac, and having to learn a brand new OS right before/as school starts may be problematic. I'd like to have as much time as possible to get used to OS X before I'll need to start doing work with it.

What are your thoughts? If you're in the same boat as me, what are YOU going to do?

 

[Ifti]

Yes, current gen is more then enough for most people. But so was last years, and the year before that to be honest. Hell, I have a 10 year old laptop that the kis use for basic web browsing etc, and even that works fine for what they need.

Ive ordered a new MBA and a TC, so will take advantage of ac wifi, so the ac update in the rMBP will have me sold, along with the graphics upgrade - Im not too concerned about Haswell and better battery life though and the PCIe speed will be a bonus.

Im certainly waiting.

 

[maflynn]

I posted in another thread that the C2D based computers are still more then up to the task of handling most of today's computing needs.

That said, the current Ivy Bridge and soon to be released Haswell chipsets are will give the consumer the longevity that allows them to keep the computer much longer.

I think the difference between the Haswell chipset and Ivy Bridge is small enough that if you need to get a computer sooner then later you'll not really lose out in too many of the benefits.

Sure you'll get better battery performance, the cpu performance is only marginally faster and supposedly the GPU is where you'll see the biggest bang for your buck, provided you use the laptop in such a way to stress the GPU. Plus I wonder how much of a difference a faster integrated GPU will be when the 15" MBP includes a discrete GPU.

 

[Moonjumper]

As your signature says you will be getting the 13" model, it may be worth waiting for the improvement in integrated graphics.

Some people say that find their retina MBP is fine for performance, while others find it a bit sluggish. That could be down to which software they are using. It will be worth researching the main applications you will be using to find out if they work well when driving all those retina pixels.