Macbook Pro Core i5 and Macbook Pro Core i7

[sultansaadat]

Hi,
Guys. I'm planning to buy a macbook pro but i am not able to decide between macbook pro core i5 2.53ghz or core i7 2.66ghz. Although the price difference is of around $300 which i don't have. What do you guys recommend? Plus, i'm a bit confused why do macs have vga cards with 256mb and 512mb when the rest of the world is touching 2gb graphics memory?
I'm basically a programmer so please give me the best advice that which macbook pro will suit me the most, price wise and other specification details wise.
Thanks.

 

[miles01110]

Guys. I'm planning to buy a macbook pro but i am not able to decide between macbook pro core i5 2.53ghz or core i7 2.66ghz. Although the price difference is of around $300 which i don't have. What do you guys recommend?

Why does it even matter what we recommend? You clearly stated you cannot afford the i7 for an extra $300. Logic and economics would suggest you should therefore get the i5.

 

[MacBookPro13"]

Why does it even matter what we recommend? You clearly stated you cannot afford the i7 for an extra $300. Logic and economics would suggest you should therefore get the i5.

What he said.


If you don't have the money, why are you even contemplating it?

 

[Hellhammer]

Are you looking at 15" or 17" MBP? I don't think it's worth it in your case to pay extra for the better CPU. If you're looking for 15", just get the 2.4GHz i5.

There are only very few mobile GPUs that even support more than 1GB of VRAM and those are the ultra high-end chips that are only suitable for very big and clumsy laptops. Besides, the amount of VRAM is pretty negligible as the GPU is too slow to use it. There is nearly no difference between 256MB 330M and 512MB 330M in benchmarks.

 

[sultansaadat]

Are you looking at 15" or 17" MBP? I don't think it's worth it in your case to pay extra for the better CPU. If you're looking for 15", just get the 2.4GHz i5.

There are only very few mobile GPUs that even support more than 1GB of VRAM and those are the ultra high-end chips that are only suitable for very big and clumsy laptops. Besides, the amount of VRAM is pretty negligible as the GPU is too slow to use it. There is nearly no difference between 256MB 330M and 512MB 330M in benchmarks.

I should go for the base model instead of the 2.53 one? I have heard that the base model has issues? And do you guys recommend using windows 7 on basecamp on an MBP?
About finances, i can afford an i7 by asking some friend to lend me but is there a considerable difference, benchmarks say 0-6% difference only between 2.53 and core i7 which is not much of course.

 

[sultansaadat]

What he said.


If you don't have the money, why are you even contemplating it?

I can manage the economics part but what about the logic part what would you've done if you were at my place?

 

[Hellhammer]

I should go for the base model instead of the 2.53 one? I have heard that the base model has issues? And do you guys recommend using windows 7 on basecamp on an MBP?
About finances, i can afford an i7 by asking some friend to lend me but is there a considerable difference, benchmarks say 0-6% difference only between 2.53 and core i7 which is not much of course.

The base model is exactly the same as the other ones, despite the minor difference in clock speed and HD capacity. It does not have any issues. i7 is about 10% faster than 2.4GHz i5 and about 5% faster than 2.53GHz i5. It's not worth it unless you're going to run CPU intensive tasks for an hour after hour.

 

[Erasmus]

The difference (in the best CPU limited case) is just a question of clock speed. The i7 only has a small amount of extra cache, and is clocked slightly higher. There are minimal differences, and certainly not worth borrowing money for.

For most cases (which will likely be HD limited) they will perform the same.

If you want a speed increase, save up a couple of hundred, and then buy an SSD in a couple of months.

Other manufacturers will put in the maximum amount of VRAM as they generally use that number for marketing. How often do you look in a brochure and see the type of graphics card offered? Not very often. Usually just the VRAM. Graphics cards are just like little self contained computers. That makes marketing graphics potential based on VRAM as logical as marketing computers based on the amount of RAM they have. As long as they have enough, more makes no difference. If you're going to be playing demanding games on a large external monitor, 512MB might benefit you. If not, it won't. The graphics core isn't fast enough to use much more than 256MB in most cases.

 

[sultansaadat]

The difference (in the best CPU limited case) is just a question of clock speed. The i7 only has a small amount of extra cache, and is clocked slightly higher. There are minimal differences, and certainly not worth borrowing money for.

For most cases (which will likely be HD limited) they will perform the same.

If you want a speed increase, save up a couple of hundred, and then buy an SSD in a couple of months.

Other manufacturers will put in the maximum amount of VRAM as they generally use that number for marketing. How often do you look in a brochure and see the type of graphics card offered? Not very often. Usually just the VRAM. Graphics cards are just like little self contained computers. That makes marketing graphics potential based on VRAM as logical as marketing computers based on the amount of RAM they have. As long as they have enough, more makes no difference. If you're going to be playing demanding games on a large external monitor, 512MB might benefit you. If not, it won't. The graphics core isn't fast enough to use much more than 256MB in most cases.

So it should be 2.53 hands down, and oh yeah SSDs do increase performance! by the way how is the battery life of the new ones? i have heard people talking that they churned out 8 hours of battery from a core i5 based MBP.

 

[Erasmus]

So it should be 2.53 hands down, and oh yeah SSDs do increase performance! by the way how is the battery life of the new ones? i have heard people talking that they churned out 8 hours of battery from a core i5 based MBP.

I don't know, I don't have one. But I believe considering Apple's new battery testing methodology, you should be able to get, or even beat in some cases, what Apple suggests with light use. Of course, if you start playing games, that will plummet to like 2 hrs.

 

[Tamasi]

So it should be 2.53 hands down, and oh yeah SSDs do increase performance! by the way how is the battery life of the new ones? i have heard people talking that they churned out 8 hours of battery from a core i5 based MBP.

No man, get the 2.4. The 2.53 is hardly any better and definitely not worth the extra money. Save some money and use it for extra third party RAM and possibly an SSD.

 

[Erasmus]

No man, get the 2.4. The 2.53 is hardly any better and definitely not worth the extra money. Save some money and use it for extra third party RAM and possibly an SSD.

Good point. I second this. Put the extra 300 bucks saved towards a nice SSD (check out Optibay if you don't use your optical drive much), and if you wait for the next generation Intel drives, you should be able to get a pretty big one for reasonably cheap. The result would be a computer that would trounce even the i7 in almost everything.

 

[s1lv3r]

2 weeks ago i was wondering about that too.

after reading and reading. i decided to go for the i5. The price difference isn't worth the GPU/CPU difference, which are pretty small.

Also, you should consider the 2.4 i5 i.o. the 2.53 for the same reason. On the 2.53 u got extra HD space (320gb x 500 gb) and amost no clock difference, but u pay some bucks more. If u're running low of money, this maybe a good choice.

 

[greytmom]

My rule is - if I can afford it, I go for the best. If I can't, I go for what I can afford.

Works for me.