MacBook Pro for Graphic Design - 2019 i7 vs i9

[DJinTX]

Greetings all, its been awhile but I need some help.

I have researched this to death, both on Google and in these forums, but not seeing what I am looking for. My wife is a Graphic Designer (lots of creative cloud: photoshop, indesign, illustrator, etc.), and she leaves many windows open constantly (drives me crazy). She does not do video editing, and barely any animation in her design. Her old 17 inch MacBook pro finally bit the dust so we need to get her a replacement fairly quickly.

Definitely going for the 2019 15-incher, 256 GB SSD, and probably 32 GB ram, but trying to decide between the i7 and i9 processor. From what I have read, performance issues related to heat/speed throttling on the 2018 models have been greatly improved or fixed, but I'm wondering if this processor is just overkill for her and therefore not worth the upgrade price. I know many here say buy the most expensive model and be done with it, but we are on a tight budget and don't want to spend more than we need to. I know both are getting rave reviews for what they do, and I also see where if she were doing a lot of video editing that the i9 sounds like it would be a much better choice. Since she is not, what are we looking at here? Will she see any benefit to spending more on the i9? if it is just a small increase then maybe the i7 is a better purchase.

Please weigh in if you can. Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks,
-DJ

 

[savagemic]

Just using the Adobe suite(no video editing) I don’t think you will see a measurable difference in the two processors.

 

[DJinTX]

Just using the Adobe suite(no video editing) I don’t think you will see a measurable difference in the two processors.

Your comment is in line with what I was thinking, although I am not good at interpreting a lot of the tech specs myself to draw this conclusion. I was hoping for some reviews that specifically compared both for her use case to give recommendations, but I am just not seeing that level of specificity. I just kept hearing if you do intensive video editing or high end mathematical calculations, etc. that the i9 would definitely be the one to get. My wife says that she does intend to start offering clients some animation work as she gets better at it but it wouldn't be a big portion of her workload, so I am thinking the i7 would be the sweet spot giving really good performance at a better price for us.

Anyone else out there have any input? Graphic designers using the 2019 i7 MBP? One other question along these lines for someone using creative cloud on this MacBook Pro (2019, i7) how does it perform? Does it seem to struggle at all with any of the higher end tasks?

 

[savagemic]

Your comment is in line with what I was thinking too, although I am not good at interpreting a lot of the tech specs myself to draw this conclusion. I was hoping for some reviews that specifically compared both for her use case to give recommendations, but I am just not seeing that level of specificity. I just kept hearing if you do intensive video editing or high end mathematical calculations, etc. that the i9 would definitely be the one to get. My wife says that she does intend to start offering clients some animation work as she gets better at it but it wouldn't be a big portion of her workload, so I am thinking the i7 would be the sweet spot giving really good performance at a better price for us.

Anyone else out there have any input? Graphic designers using the 2019 i7 MBP?

The i7 will do just fine for video editing. You’re mostly talking about time and efficiency when rendering videos. But in the grand scheme of things i7 vs i9 we are probably talking saving minutes.

 

[fathergll]

She'll notice a storage bump to 512GB over the processor upgrade.

 

[DJinTX]

She'll notice a storage bump to 512GB over the processor upgrade.

Are you saying the 512GB SSD is faster than the 256GB at read/write speeds? Or are you just saying you'll benefit more from doubling the space vs doubling the ram?

 

[dpny]

Your comment is in line with what I was thinking, although I am not good at interpreting a lot of the tech specs myself to draw this conclusion. I was hoping for some reviews that specifically compared both for her use case to give recommendations, but I am just not seeing that level of specificity. I just kept hearing if you do intensive video editing or high end mathematical calculations, etc. that the i9 would definitely be the one to get. My wife says that she does intend to start offering clients some animation work as she gets better at it but it wouldn't be a big portion of her workload, so I am thinking the i7 would be the sweet spot giving really good performance at a better price for us.

Anyone else out there have any input? Graphic designers using the 2019 i7 MBP? One other question along these lines for someone using creative cloud on this MacBook Pro (2019, i7) how does it perform? Does it seem to struggle at all with any of the higher end tasks?

You will see no difference. InDesign/Illustrator/Photoshop are all effectively single-threaded, and to spot the difference between the i7 and the i9 you'd need a stopwatch. More RAM and a discrete GPU will make much more difference than the CPU. You definitely want to invest some money in some external drives or a NAS, as her work files will fill up that SSD very quickly.

The reality is that any i5/i7 from the last couple years is more than enough to handle design needs, given enough RAM and a proper GPU. Honestly, she'd be fine with a Mac Mini and an eGPU.

 

[DJinTX]

You will see no difference. InDesign/Illustrator/Photoshop are all effectively single-threaded, and to spot the difference between the i7 and the i9 you'd need a stopwatch. More RAM and a discrete GPU will make much more difference than the CPU. You definitely want to invest some money in some external drives or a NAS, as her work files will fill up that SSD very quickly.

The reality is that any i5/i7 from the last couple years is more than enough to handle design needs, given enough RAM and a proper GPU. Honestly, she'd be fine with a Mac Mini and an eGPU.

She definitely wants to be portable as she goes to different job sites and meetings. A couiple of follow-ups:

1. Is 16GB ram a good target? I see the creative cloud requirements and recommendations all seem to top out at 8GB. Will we regret not going with 32GB?

2. Also, any performance (read/write) improvements going to 512 SSD over 256?

 

[dpny]

She definitely wants to be portable as she goes to different job sites and meetings. A couiple of follow-ups:

1. Is 16GB ram a good target? I see the creative cloud requirements and recommendations all seem to top out at 8GB. Will we regret not going with 32GB?

Depends. If you want the most future-proofed machine possible, more RAM is always better. However, unless she works on really big Photoshop files, 16 GB will be enough.

2. Also, any performance (read/write) improvements going to 512 SSD over 256?

I don't know. I have the 1 TB in my machine and haven't benchmarked it since I got it.

 

[DJinTX]

Depends. If you want the most future-proofed machine possible, more RAM is always better. However, unless she works on really big Photoshop files, 16 GB will be enough.



I don't know. I have the 1 TB in my machine and haven't benchmarked it since I got it.

I'm going to assume very similar read write speeds. SO from here its one of those hard choices, 16GB ram is enough now, but how will it be in 3 years. I hate those choices.

Another question which sounds stupid, i see some good refurb deals through apple for the i9, are there any downsides to this one, like since it is more powerful it will run hotter and fans will be on all the time, or any other downsides to factor in?

 

[fathergll]

Are you saying the 512GB SSD is faster than the 256GB at read/write speeds? Or are you just saying you'll benefit more from doubling the space vs doubling the ram?

I meant space. 256GB is not much especially on a device that expensive and something you'll probably use for many years.

 

[DJinTX]

I meant space. 256GB is not much especially on a device that expensive and something you'll probably use for many years.

Gotcha. That's a good point.

 

[savagemic]

I'm going to assume very similar read write speeds. SO from here its one of those hard choices, 16GB ram is enough now, but how will it be in 3 years. I hate those choices.

Another question which sounds stupid, i see some good refurb deals through apple for the i9, are there any downsides to this one, like since it is more powerful it will run hotter and fans will be on all the time, or any other downsides to factor in?

R/W speeds will probably be the same and again you wouldn't notice the difference if they weren't the same.

I think what everyone is saying is buying the i9 is not going to make a difference. Other factors, such as having more space, will benefit her more.

Edit - If it were me spending the money I would future proof some with the ram and bump to 32GB.

 

[DJinTX]

Thanks to all of you for taking time to help, I really appreciate it. I don't have a decision yet as it is really going to come down to how much money we want to spend now vs how much future proofing we want to go with. Thanks again!

 

[savagemic]

Thanks to all of you for taking time to help, I really appreciate it. I don't have a decision yet as it is really going to come down to how much money we want to spend now vs how much future proofing we want to go with. Thanks again!

No problem! Just keep in mind I ordered my last MacBook Pro in 2013 and am just now upgrading. I don’t even NEED to upgrade but I want to for various other reasons.

 

[superparati]

Hello,

Working with mainly for static work with Photoshop, Lightroom, Indesign, Illustrator a bit of video and web dev I highly recommend to save money and spend it on storage. Most of those software are mainly beneficing from high frequency than cores.
RAM is a good things to have when you hard drive is full and you still have to keep working.
It happens so often to me not being able to save my work due to a hard drive almost full. The system is not able to process my job as I do not have enough ram. The OS is therefore taking the available space on my hard drive to execute the job.
I don't have this issue on MacPro and its 96GiB 😀. well this is just fine for Safari.
Joke aside, the 24 cores are fully working only when I export either photo from Lightroom or doing some video export. But this is just 5% of my working time.

If I had to buy a new laptop I would select an i7 with 32GB ram and 512GB HDD (NVMe) as a bonus knowing this won't be enough for my job anyway.

Hope this help.

 

[hardax]

I use a 2014 15” MBP in a graphic design environment. Same software as your wife and I regret only getting a 256gb ssd. Definitely go for 512.

I’m looking to upgrade myself and wonder about the need for a dedicated GPU As I’d like to consider a new 13“ for portability.