late 2012 rMBP vs 2015 rMBP?

[j1oyama]

Long time lurker and reader of the forums! I have a late 2012 13' rMBP and was considering upgrading to the most recent version of the 13' rMBP and was wondering what kind of jump in performance I could expect. I'm a pretty light user; I would be using it for web browsing, keynote presentations, and light photo editing in photoshop. Being that I have the base model now and was also probably going to get the base 2015 model as well, I'm not sure there would a whole lot of noticeable increase in performance for what I do. Worth it to upgrade?

 

[SoundsEclectic]

Unless your 2012 is dead, don't waste your money.

 

[j1oyama]

Yeah, that's sort of what I figured; my current macbook is in really good condition although the hard drive is getting a little full, but I can always transfer stuff to another drive

 

[tubeexperience]

Don't bother. It won't make much of a difference.

Yeah, that's sort of what I figured; my current macbook is in really good condition although the hard drive is getting a little full, but I can always transfer stuff to another drive

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-pro-retina-display/2012-2013

 

[T5BRICK]

Worth it to upgrade?

Probably not. Especially since:

I'm a pretty light user; I would be using it for web browsing, keynote presentations, and light photo editing in photoshop. Being that I have the base model now and was also probably going to get the base 2015 model as well, I'm not sure there would a whole lot of noticeable increase in performance for what I do.

That being said, the 2015 model will certainly be faster and it'll have better battery life. You'll just never notice.

 

[jd_md3]

The late 2012 13' rMPB is ever so slightly thicker and heavier than the 2015 model too. As mentioned by everybody else, you'd probably hardly notice the difference. For me personally, I don't really feel much of a performance difference between my 2015 and my old 2012 non-Retina with an SSD apart from the screen, weight, and battery life.

 

[RoboWarriorSr]

The GPU is a pretty big upgrade, the HD 4000 wasn't good even on release, it wasn't until the Haswell before Intel GPU were really considered adequate (The Iris 5100, 6100 from what I've heard do substantially smooth out animations that were choppy on the HD 4000, not to mention fixed issues with scaled resolutions). Other than that, the models are fairly similar performance wise, the main differences are rather dependent on the person if they useful, like Force Touch, 1.5 GB/s SSD, faster RAM, quieter computer (due to Broadwell), among others.

 

[fenderbass146]

I agree with the RoboWarriorSr....it's a pretty big upgrade imo...Much faster ssd, way better graphics, better battery, wireless AC. The Intel 4000 graphics could barely push that Retina display.

 

[mtneer]

I have the same late 2012 13" rMBP, and I am not even considering an upgrade for the next 3 - 4 years. The hardware with a SSD and 8GB RAM is fast for all mundane daily tasks, battery still lasts 5 hours on 50% brightness. I am not a media professional, so I don't fancy spending $1500 to squeeze a few microseconds on occasional Photoshop edits. Neither Apple nor Intel has given me sufficient ROI to spend that kind of money on a rMBP the past few refreshes.

 

[maflynn]

I think the 2012 MBP line was the pinnacle of apple design and quality. My 2012 machine (its a 15" model) was and is the best laptop I've ever owned. I've thought about replacing it from time to time and I can't bring myself to do it. I do now own an iMac but the MBP is still used quite a bit.