MacBook 13’(2020) 10th gen. i7/16/512 or i5/16/512?

[Mattie12345]

Any opinions appreciated.

Is that bump to i7 worth it ?

I have waited a long time to get a new MBP. The shops in Australia are opening tomorrow. If I didn’t have to wait for a BTO, then most likely I should be able to get the i5 tomorrow in the shop (fingers crossed).

I don’t know if the i7 configuration would be available in the shops.

 

[illutionz]

It's almost certainly not worth going from the i5-1038NG7 to the i7-1068NG7. Both will be 28W TDP part and perform very similarly except the base and boost clock.

The performance delta is going to be some 7-10%. Not worth the upgrade imo.

 

[LFC2020]

Don’t waste your money stick with the i5.

 

[ATC]

I’m in the same boat as the OP.

I’m more concerned with potential heat and battery life implications with upgrading to i7. I don’t think I’ll see a difference in performance for what I do, so I’m sticking with the i5.

OTOH the 512 vs 1TB has me going back and forth.

 

[Mattie12345]

I do a backup of my stuff every once in a while and take off stuff I don’t need. Never reached 256. So 512 is a realistic option.

32 RAM is an overkill in my situation. I do a little bit of home video editing and even though, I wield some mighty big spreadsheets sometimes.

But I don’t know about how different i5 and i7 really are.

Have any of you been able to order and pick up at the Apple store in your city?

I wonder if the BTO options are available in the shops too, when they open？

 

[LFC2020]

Have any of you been able to order and pick up at the Apple store in your city?

That option is not available in Australia at the moment.

Guessing pick up should be available in the next couple of days.

Apple stores reopen tomorrow down here is Aus. 😊

Don’t forget to take your face mask with you or no entry. 😷

 

[Mattie12345]

What configurations BTO options do you think might be on offer at the Apple Shops for immediate pickup in Australia?

Would the shops in Australia have any standard configuration ready to go? I called the Apple helpline and they say they have shipments coming in but do not know what they are. They could be other products.

 

[altdimension]

Usually it wouldn't have entered my mind to get the i7 considering the cost, but after watching this YouTube video it convinced me that, in a machine I'll keep for potentially 5 years, the additional cost is worth it.

tl;dr the results show that the i7 gets better performance, longer battery life and doesn't generate additional heat (he actually notes that the fans were quieter with the i7).

Of course take it with a pinch of salt given that he tested using a Dell running Win10!

 

[Mattie12345]

Usually it wouldn't have entered my mind to get the i7 considering the cost, but after watching this YouTube video it convinced me that, in a machine I'll keep for potentially 5 years, the additional cost is worth it.

tl;dr the results show that the i7 gets better performance, longer battery life and doesn't generate additional heat (he actually notes that the fans were quieter with the i7).

Of course take it with a pinch of salt given that he tested using a Dell running Win10!

Thanks for the reply and video link.

I was going with the i7 but I decided I was being greedy. Decided to stick to i5 in the end knowing I will probably need another upgrade in 3-5 years time. Ok, being greedy there again !!!

 

[BoneHead001]

It's almost certainly not worth going from the i5-1038NG7 to the i7-1068NG7. Both will be 28W TDP part and perform very similarly except the base and boost clock.

The performance delta is going to be some 7-10%. Not worth the upgrade imo.

I seriously considered getting the i7 upgrade, but decided to get the 1TB SSD instead. 5-10% speed bump did not seem to be worth the extra money.

 

[Mattie12345]

Just found out.

I thought I save you the waiting time in the queue.

The MPB with the 10th gen CPU (even the base models without modification) are not available in any of the Australian stores. You will have to order online. I waited in the queue and was disappointed.

They only have the 08th gen CPU ones ready to go in the store.

 

[KPOM]

Usually it wouldn't have entered my mind to get the i7 considering the cost, but after watching this YouTube video it convinced me that, in a machine I'll keep for potentially 5 years, the additional cost is worth it.

tl;dr the results show that the i7 gets better performance, longer battery life and doesn't generate additional heat (he actually notes that the fans were quieter with the i7).

Of course take it with a pinch of salt given that he tested using a Dell running Win10!

I get my 10th gen i5 tomorrow. I’ll post some benchmarks and other stats after that.

 

[StONE_ROdGEr]

I was debating this too, in the end I just pulled the trigger on i7.

My logic was: given it already being an expensive laptop that’s going to be my main and only driver, why skimp now? An extra £200 on top to have the best spec available for now and for the foreseeable future doesn’t seem like a bad move to me. I also got the same logic at play with the RAM; 32GB. SSD however I know I wont need more than the base 512 due to my USB C drives I have.

 

[shoppy]

I had a similar dilemma but I wanted to clone the storage on my 16" my last 13 BTO with i7 and upgraded ram hardly used it. I used the ram not the processor, I went back and forth between 512gb and 1tb and went for the 1tb. Main reason was that my supplier gave me a very generous discount on the stock model so ended up costing me less than my BTO Air I have just cancelled.

 

[illutionz]

I seriously considered getting the i7 upgrade, but decided to get the 1TB SSD instead. 5-10% speed bump did not seem to be worth the extra money.

Wise decision imo. In Intel laptop world, going from i5 to i7 doesn't really mean much. The Amount of cores and Wattage of the part means a lot more than the "brand" name. In Intel's laptop world, it seems that the difference between i5 and i7 are merely clockspeed.

The difference between the $1799 model i5-1038NG7 and BTO i7-1068NG7 is just the clock (2.3Ghz vs 2.0Ghz base and 4.1Ghz vs 3.8Ghz Boost)

Since they are both the same 28W parts and the same architecture, you can calculate the performance improvement is ~7% between 4.1Ghz and 3.8Ghz at max boost.

Everything else are identical.

 

[KPOM]

Wise decision imo. In Intel laptop world, going from i5 to i7 doesn't really mean much. The Amount of cores and Wattage of the part means a lot more than the "brand" name. In Intel's laptop world, it seems that the difference between i5 and i7 are merely clockspeed.

The difference between the $1799 model i5-1038NG7 and BTO i7-1068NG7 is just the clock (2.3Ghz vs 2.0Ghz base and 4.1Ghz vs 3.8Ghz Boost)

Since they are both the same 28W parts and the same architecture, you can calculate the performance improvement is ~7% between 4.1Ghz and 3.8Ghz at max boost.

Everything else are identical.

The i7s get a little more cache, but yes, the performance differences are minimal.

The whole naming convention is confusing, particularly since “generations” no longer reflect architectures, and short burst Turbo Boost speeds make low wattage chips seem closer to the higher wattage chips than the really are.

 

[illutionz]

Usually it wouldn't have entered my mind to get the i7 considering the cost, but after watching this YouTube video it convinced me that, in a machine I'll keep for potentially 5 years, the additional cost is worth it.

tl;dr the results show that the i7 gets better performance, longer battery life and doesn't generate additional heat (he actually notes that the fans were quieter with the i7).

Of course take it with a pinch of salt given that he tested using a Dell running Win10!

I was debating this too, in the end I just pulled the trigger on i7.

My logic was: given it already being an expensive laptop that’s going to be my main and only driver, why skimp now? An extra £200 on top to have the best spec available for now and for the foreseeable future doesn’t seem like a bad move to me. I also got the same logic at play with the RAM; 32GB. SSD however I know I wont need more than the base 512 due to my USB C drives I have.

Just want to let you know that the guy is testing 2 COMPLETELY different chips.

The reason why you see a HUGE improvement in the i7 is because he is testing i7-1065G7 (15W i7 part with G7 graphics) vs i5-1035G1 (15W i5 part with G1 graphics).

The G7 graphics is 2x the amount of Execution Unit (64EU in G7 and 32EU in G1) hence you see the massive difference in Premiere Pro (over 20%). In any other tests, the i7 is faster by roughly ~10% which corresponds to the speed difference in the boost clock.

That said, with the 2020 Macbook Pro 13" Apple is using i5-1038G7 and i7-1068G7. These are the same 28W parts and note that they use the same G7 graphics so the graphics difference will be minimal (again, GPU clock difference).

 

[azentropy]

Back in the day I used to get the higher CPU option since ram and storage were user upgradable later if I needed (and was typically cheaper than Apple's options anyway). Since that is no longer the case I usually prioritize RAM. So I'm getting the 32GB RAM option with my i5.

 

[StONE_ROdGEr]

Just want to let you know that the guy is testing 2 COMPLETELY different chips.

The reason why you see a HUGE improvement in the i7 is because he is testing i7-1065G7 (15W i7 part with G7 graphics) vs i5-1035G1 (15W i5 part with G1 graphics).

The G7 graphics is 2x the amount of Execution Unit (64EU in G7 and 32EU in G1) hence you see the massive difference in Premiere Pro (over 20%). In any other tests, the i7 is faster by roughly ~10% which corresponds to the speed difference in the boost clock.

That said, with the 2020 Macbook Pro 13" Apple is using i5-1038G7 and i7-1068G7. These are the same 28W parts and note that they use the same G7 graphics so the graphics difference will be minimal (again, GPU clock difference).

Aye. I figured it wouldn’t be drastically different, but thanks for the heads up all the same friend 🙏

 

[KPOM]

Back in the day I used to get the higher CPU option since ram and storage were user upgradable later if I needed (and was typically cheaper than Apple's options anyway). Since that is no longer the case I usually prioritize RAM. So I'm getting the 32GB RAM option with my i5.

I agree that RAM is better vs a slightly faster CPU for longevity these days, though given that Apple still sells most Macs with 8GB RAM, 16GB will be sufficient for most people for a while. If you run virtual machines or other RAM-intensive applications 32GB will be beneficial.

 

[Mattie12345]

I agree that RAM is better vs a slightly faster CPU for longevity these days, though given that Apple still sells most Macs with 8GB RAM, 16GB will be sufficient for most people for a while. If you run virtual machines or other RAM-intensive applications 32GB will be beneficial.

Has anyone tracked how much RAM usually they have been using or have they have come anywhere close to 16GB?

The base model i5/16/512 seems to be a sweet spot for many, seeing how many of such sets being ordered.

and Space Gray!!! Looks like Silver is not as popular.

 

[KPOM]

Has anyone tracked how much RAM usually they have been using or have they have come anywhere close to 16GB?

The base model i5/16/512 seems to be a sweet spot for many, seeing how many of such sets being ordered.

and Space Gray!!! Looks like Silver is not as popular.

That’s what I ordered.

 

[Mattie12345]

There have been bench tests comparison between the i5 and i7 now that some owners got delivery of their i7.

What do you think of the bench test results between the 2 variants ? Worth the $$ for the i7?

 

[iRun26.2]

I seriously considered getting the i7 upgrade, but decided to get the 1TB SSD instead. 5-10% speed bump did not seem to be worth the extra money.

To me, the battery life is what makes it better (and I would have thought the battery life would be worse).

 

[Mattie12345]

Which battery life with which variant is better then? Is there any significant correlation between battery life and CPU power ?