M5 vs M7?

good luck on getting a meaningful answer. I'll say this, do you have the $100 to spare (isn't it $150)? if yes, then isn't more always better? we are talking about less that a 10% cost increase. this machine is no where near a powerhouse to begin with so any little helps.

 

This should answer your question http://www.notebookcheck.net/Face-Off-Apple-MacBook-12-Core-m3-Core-m5-and-Core-m7.172046.0.html

 

if you need a machine that holds up under a sustained load, the Mac Book aint it. from the review linked above, the MacBook Air is the performer in the small and light category. also in that, the m7, under light load, delivers better battery life than the m5 or m3, but not as much as the 13" Air.

so the m7 is better for general use but gets throttled harshly under sustained load. the 13" Air i7 is definitely the better machine for performance and battery. I am a fan of the Air, typing this on one now. the only thing wrong with it is the same thing wrong with the bulk of the Apple lineup, the new baby gets all the attention and the other children are left alone and in the cold. but if you want shiny and new, maybe the base MacBook Pro is the better option.

 

For "general" use, the typical user won't be able to tell the difference in any of these MacBooks (pro, air, standard).

 

I did. No regrets.

 

Some users have experienced better performance with M5 than the M7, this may seem absurd but it is probably to do with heat/throttle management. Some benchmarks actually had the M5 outperform the M7.

I'd go with the M5 personally. Or if you can wait till April/May, the Kabylake M processors seem quite a bit better (and you'll get native thunderbolt), and that is excluding other potential upgrades like the P3 screen (which uses 30% less energy usage, is much brighter and displays far more colours).

 

M3 works fine for me for casual use and some light photo and video editing. No issues at all.

 

I went for the M5 model (at the time I made the purchase the difference was $200).
To me, the difference between M5 and M7 is not worth $200 (maybe it is if it were $100)

 

The m7 cpu does not throttle as much as people think. I did the following test on my 2016 m7 rMB: I loaded the processor to a constant 100%. It took less than a minute for the processor to go full speed at 2.6GHz and 93'C. After less than a minute it started to throttle down at 2.30/2.40 GHz and about 90'C. It stayed there for about 10 minutes and than I stopped it. It took about a minute to cool down to 40'C and another 6 minutes to go down to 35'C.

Bear in mind that under normal usage you can hardly load the processor this much. Regarding battery life I think the m7 is mostly on par with the m5. I regularly get about 9-10 hours of battery life with Safari browsing and office work and the brightness at 50%. So if you can, go for the m7. You won't be affected much by cpu throttling and the battery life won't suffer.

 

Agreed....true for the M5 as well. You might be interested in this thread.

In terms of M3 vs M5 vs M7 this review is interesting and a bit surprising, and is discussed more in this thread.

 

That's what I did, no regrets. Maxed out Macs, nothing to leave behind there.