Macbook pro 2012 vs 2014

[vijaykrc]

Hi,
I want to buy one of these please suggest.

2012 Macbook pro 13'' 2.5ghz Upgraded to 16GB RAM and 250SSD. Non Retina Display.

2014 Macbook pro 2.7ghz 13'' 8gb ram 128gb ssd (These cannot be upgradable as they are soldered i believe) This is retina display

which is a better buy? Please suggest.
Basically with respect to performance as 2012 has 16GB and 2014 has 8GB. Both are SSD and i am not too much worried about 128GB vs 256GB.
Cost wise 2012 with upgraded to the above specs cost 50$ cheaper than 2014.
Please suggest mainly with performance for the next 4years.

Usage: Eclipse, xcode (Java and iPhone apps)

 

[ApolloBoy]

You're gonna get better performance out of the 2014 model and you get a better display. The 2012 cMBP is still a fine computer mind you (I was using one up until last year), but if you were to give me a choice between the two at the same price, I'd pick the 2014 model without hesitation.

Also you can't upgrade the RAM on the 2014 but you can upgrade the SSD.

 

[keysofanxiety]

If we're going for the product we'd rather use, I'd go for the 2014. The SSD is quicker (PCI-e rather than SATA), screen is much nicer, it's thinner, at least 3 hours more battery life, HDMI, 2x Thunderbolt 2...

That said: the 2012 is easy to upgrade, considerably cheaper used due to market saturation (Apple were selling them for nearly 5 years), and its EOL span is likely to be around 2021 so it'll have a couple more 'serviceable' years over the 2014. However it's bulkier, heavier, and those HDD SATA cables are properly unreliable – although Apple still have a silent repair program for them.

Genuinely it's a bit of a difficult one because it depends on what you want your laptop for and how much each of them cost. If they're a similar cost, I'd buy the 2014 without question. If the 2012 costs less... find an even cheaper 2012 model and upgrade the SSD/RAM yourself.

 

[vijaykrc]

You're gonna get better performance out of the 2014 model and you get a better display. The 2012 cMBP is still a fine computer mind you (I was using one up until last year), but if you were to give me a choice between the two at the same price, I'd pick the 2014 model without hesitation.

Also you can't upgrade the RAM on the 2014 but you can upgrade the SSD.

Thank You, Also performance wise between 16gb 2012 and 8gb 2014 - which one performs better.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Thank You, Also performance wise between 16gb 2012 and 8gb 2014 - which one performs better.

2014. The RAM doesn't matter that much for the machines you're talking about. If you'll be hitting the 8GB RAM bottleneck with normal usage in macOS then you'll almost certainly be hitting the CPU bottleneck well before that point.

TL;DR: 2014 is the faster and more powerful machine.

 

[vijaykrc]

If we're going for the product we'd rather use, I'd go for the 2014. The SSD is quicker (PCI-e rather than SATA), screen is much nicer, it's thinner, at least 3 hours more battery life, HDMI, 2x Thunderbolt 2...

That said: the 2012 is easy to upgrade, considerably cheaper used due to market saturation (Apple were selling them for nearly 5 years), and its EOL span is likely to be around 2021 so it'll have a couple more 'serviceable' years over the 2014. However it's bulkier, heavier, and those HDD SATA cables are properly unreliable – although Apple still have a silent repair program for them.

Genuinely it's a bit of a difficult one because it depends on what you want your laptop for and how much each of them cost. If they're a similar cost, I'd buy the 2014 without question. If the 2012 costs less... find an even cheaper 2012 model and upgrade the SSD/RAM yourself.

Thank You for the update, 2012 with 16GB and upgraded to 250 SSD i am getting for 50$ cheaper than 2014 - 8GB 128GB SSD Retina. More on the performance side which performs better - only thing is 2012 has 16GB does that outperform the 2014 with 8GB?? since both are SSD.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Thank You for the update, 2012 with 16GB and upgraded to 250 SSD i am getting for 50$ cheaper than 2014 - 8GB 128GB SSD Retina. More on the performance side which performs better - only thing is 2012 has 16GB does that outperform the 2014 with 8GB?? since both are SSD.

I'd get the 2014 then.

Not all SSDs are created equal. The SSDs in the 2014s are considerably quicker. The 2012s are capped at SATA 6Gb/s, whilst the 2014s have no SATA bottleneck as they're PCI-e. This means boot up/application load times in the 2014 will be faster. Real-world performance will be much better.

In this instance, more doesn't necessary mean better when it comes to RAM. If with macOS you find yourself exceeding 8GB RAM and the OS is paging to disk, you either haven't shut down for a month or you're doing resource intensive work that would require a far more powerful processor in the first place. It's a non-issue.

Go for the 2014.

 

[jerryk]

Thank You for the update, 2012 with 16GB and upgraded to 250 SSD i am getting for 50$ cheaper than 2014 - 8GB 128GB SSD Retina. More on the performance side which performs better - only thing is 2012 has 16GB does that outperform the 2014 with 8GB?? since both are SSD.

What are you planning on using the system for? If it is just general computing 8 GB is probably enough.

 

[vijaykrc]

r

I'd get the 2014 then.

Not all SSDs are created equal. The SSDs in the 2014s are considerably quicker. The 2012s are capped at SATA 6Gb/s, whilst the 2014s have no SATA bottleneck as they're PCI-e. This means boot up/application load times in the 2014 will be faster. Real-world performance will be much better.

In this instance, more doesn't necessary mean better when it comes to RAM. If with macOS you find yourself exceeding 8GB RAM and the OS is paging to disk, you either haven't shut down for a month or you're doing resource intensive work that would require a far more powerful processor in the first place. It's a non-issue.

Go for the 2014.

Thanks a lot for the quick suggestion, Yo made my decision quicker and simple. I will go for 2014.

 

[keysofanxiety]

r

Thanks a lot for the quick suggestion, Yo made my decision quicker and simple. I will go for 2014.

Good man. She's a beautiful machine, you'll be really happy with her.

 

[vijaykrc]

What are you planning on using the system for? If it is just general computing 8 GB is probably enough.

This will be for my niece, he is a student and mostly used for Java based programming (Mostly Eclipse and xcode)
no graphics related stuff.
[doublepost=1494450542][/doublepost]

Good man. She's a beautiful machine, you'll be really happy with her.

Thanks again for the super fast response.

 

[keysofanxiety]

This will be for my niece, he is a student and mostly used for Java based programming (Mostly Eclipse and xcode)
no graphics related stuff.

Yeah that'll be absolutely fine. The 2014 will happily eat that up and ask for sides. Memory management on macOS is fabulous so no cause for concern.

Thanks again for the super fast response.

No worries bud.

 

[jerryk]

This will be for my niece, he is a student and mostly used for Java based programming (Mostly Eclipse and xcode)
no graphics related stuff.
[doublepost=1494450542][/doublepost]
Thanks again for the super fast response.

Should work fine. I run IntelliJ, which is much heavier that Eclipse, and XCode. 8 GB is more than enough for that unless you startup a lot of virtual/emulated phones and other devices.