Macbook Pro F1 2017?

[gergei]

Hi all,

I'm changing jobs and therefore getting back to a Mac laptop after two years Dell-hell - and I've been given the choiche between the 13" and 15" MacBook Pros.

Screen size per se is somewhat of a non-issue since I'll have plenty of external display(s) both at home and at the office.

To be honest, I think the 13" would be great for all my general needs (word processing, blogging, browsing, daily statistical modelling in SPSS and r, photo editing in Lightroom and, occasional 4k video editing maybe 2-3 times/month), and portability seems like a great advantage of the 13".

BUT... I'm not much of a gamer at all, but given the chance I'd like to be able to run the odd racing game - like F1 2017 - on an external monitor.

Would that be doable on a 13" MacBook Pro, or should I simply go for the 15" now that I have been given the chance, and just take the (small) portability penalty?!?!

Please help me choose!

 

[keysofanxiety]

15”. Discreet graphics, double the cores, 16GB RAM total. For longevity it’s the best bet.

 

[cambookpro]

I chose the 2016 13" for both price and portability concerns - my day-to-day use of my laptop had changed since I bought my previous MBP (15") in 2011, from it being used mainly as a desktop which changed location once or twice a week to something I carried everyday.

On most days, I'll take notes on it, model things in Stata, develop iOS app in Xcode, use Photoshop, and then slightly less often will cut video on FCPX and animate in After Effects.

I don't really play any games apart from Football Manager - it's not that graphically intensive, but does render the matches in 3D. I play it on my Thunderbolt Display on medium settings without issue.

The F1 2017 system requirements say the 13" MBPs 2016 and onwards are all officially supported, so I presume it should work well enough.

If portability really is a big concern, I'd say the 13" should suffice. I do regret not getting 16GB RAM as larger Xcode and AE projects start to choke on 8GB, but it was on the very edge of my budget when I bought it. Overall I'm very happy with it, I can throw it in my bag along with a textbook and it's fine to carry around all day. I don't think I'd go back to a 15" now.

The 15" will obviously be more powerful and it's definitely not clear cut which one to choose - is there an option to return the 13" to your employer if it isn't up to scratch?

 

[curtoise]

I had the same dilemma but I realized that every time I want to game I'll do it in the console on the couch now the all new games are 4k they look great on 4k tvs.

I got a good deal on Best Buy on a 13 TouchBar 256gb, I could get the 15 too but the portability on the 13 is just so good to pass, I have it hooked to a LG 4k 27' and its been great.

For gaming I loaded Doom, Hexen 2, Quake HD with Darkplaces engine and it looks amazing, for the amount of gaming I'll do on the go it will be good, I do have Borderlands 2 and it looks great too.

Portability on the 13 is fantastic.

 

[casperes1996]

occasional 4k video editing

I realised this is an infrequent task, but this will work much, much, much, much, much, much (for _ ... 20 { print("much"); }) better at this

You will be able to play F1 on the 13", but likewise, you will be able to run at much higher settings with much better frame rates on the 15". The computational difference between the two is rather high

 

[cambookpro]

I realised this is an infrequent task, but this will work much, much, much, much, much, much (for _ ... 20 { print("much"); }) better at this

You will be able to play F1 on the 13", but likewise, you will be able to run at much higher settings with much better frame rates on the 15". The computational difference between the two is rather high

Whilst true, if it is infrequent, I personally wouldn't want to make the portability sacrifice.

As an amusing aside, I know a professional film editor who had to do a short insert for the BBC in between larger projects (it's on their news website somewhere, about CEOs or something). All the footage was shot in 4K.

What was it edited on? A 12" MacBook on FCPX, all in native 4K without using proxy media. By all accounts it was a pretty good experience, only bit which took significantly longer than usual was exporting. If the things you're editing are only ~5 minutes, you can definitely get away with a less powerful machine.

Obviously there's a reason the 60 minute projects are edited on a Mac Pro or HP Z8, but especially with well optimised software (I doubt Premiere would have coped very well), low-end Macs are surprisingly capable.

 

[casperes1996]

What was it edited on? A 12" MacBook on FCPX, all in native 4K without using proxy media. By all accounts it was a pretty good experience, only bit which took significantly longer than usual was exporting. If the things you're editing are only ~5 minutes, you can definitely get away with a less powerful machine.

Yes - in general FCP X just runs incredibly on all Macs. – Try to edit it on the same machine with Premiere and you'll have a bad time.
Regardless, it's not just about the length of the project, but also its complexity. Number of plugins needed, colour grading layers, etc. I've more than once had my iMac 4k drop frames on even smaller timelines, because each clip had transformations with key frames, LUTs, etc. Now of course on any machine you could use a bake-in strategy to increase the fluidity once your effect is locked in, but if portability isn't a big concern, I'd argue the smoother experience would be worth it

 

[gergei]

Thank you all for your very valuable input - it's greatly appreciated.

After spending some time with both the 13" and 15" today I'm actually leaning towards the latter, despite the portability penalty - and the reasons are the following:

1. Performance advantage. 9 days out of 10 I will not appreciate (or even notice) the performance advantage of the 15" but every once in a while I most certainly will. I think that advantage outweighs the portability sacrifice - at least for me now.
2. Portability. Some years ago I did about 24-26 weeks air- and train- travelling a year. I used a Macbook Air back then and greatly appreciated it's extremely high portability (and I still love the Macbook Air formfactor, such a perfect design - despite the somewhat outdated thick bezel around the screen). Nowadays, however, my commute is much simpler, shorter and done by car, i.e. I will very rarely (maybe 2-3 times/year) have to use my laptop on airplanes or trains. Most days I'll be driving the Macbook back and forth between home and office. In sum: the clear portability disadvantage of the 15" is simply not such a dealbreaker for me as it certainly was a couple of years ago.
3. Screen size and eyesight. I'll turn 44 in a month or two, and the huge number of hours spent at the computer screen during the past 20 years have not been kind on my eyes. For the occasions when I do not want to be hooked up to an external monitor I will certainly appreciate the larger screen size of the 15" despite its larger footprint and - from what I hear - higher working temperature.
4. Emotional reasons. This may sound corny, but being able to pick the top of the line model is greatly satisfying.
5. Alternatives. In case I would still feel that the 15" is too bulky for travelling, I could probably pick up a cheap-is iPad + external keyboard combo and manage my needs during those days/weeks of travelling/year.

So, I'll probably order a maxed-out 15" on Monday Thanks again for your input!