Macbook pro i5 gaming for the next 3-4 years

[Meever]

Do some research people! The i7 upgrade isn't worth it unless you do a lot of rendering or encoding, and even then it's a nominal gain.

Seriously look at it this way. Would you buy a car that goes 20mph higher for a couple grands more? I wouldn't. I would rather use the extra cash for something really worth it like ram, hard drive, apple care (best extended service ever), screen upgrade, etc, etc.

 

[Arondel]

(...)

Seriously look at it this way. Would you buy a car that goes 20mph higher for a couple grands more? I wouldn't. I would rather use the extra cash for something really worth it like ram, hard drive, apple care (best extended service ever), screen upgrade, etc, etc.

RAM? Hard drive? What are you driving, man?! This?

Cheers!

 

[jdhatt]

RAM? Hard drive? What are you driving, man?! This?

Cheers!

ahhahahahahahhahaaa!

 

[jdhatt]

hi
finally joined macrumors after 3-4 years of reading lol
anyways, my two cents:

i was in the same boat a week ago- until i made my choice.

i had a slightly lower budget, just enough for the low end 15" with the 500GB drive. bought it. and its AWESOME!!! the price really justifies its build quality, a friend of mine got an asus for 1300€ (around 1500$) with an i7 and 8gb of ram, 640GB drive and 17.3" screen, and all i can say is that my mbp screams compared to it. his lappy has a clean install of windows 7, while i have migrated my 250GB drive from my iMac, and my mbp boots up faster than the asus. hell he's still at the windows starting screen and i've started safari AND photoshop cs5.
As far as gaming is concerned, i play starcraft II betas fine on it, fallout, and portal, they're all playable and graphics dont really take a hit

i cant recommend a mbp enough!
buy the i7 i can only imagine MAC OSX on it!

haha yea the i7 is the plan i just hope my battery life doesnt take too much of a hit compared to the i5

 

[jdhatt]

13 really isn't much slower, and for the money you save you can get a ssd and more ram and it'll scream. Plus it has a more appealing form factor and better battery life.

i just dont want to have an outdated C2D for the next 5 years....and if i decide to sell the i7 it will have a much higher resell value

 

[jdhatt]

btw has anyone tested the battery life of the i5 vs i7? any noticeable gains with the i5?

 

[The Final Cut]

wow you guys are being ridiculous. i7=pointless upgrade imo (even more so in this matter), nothing relevant will change with it gaming wise. the new MBP'S can max 95% of the games on the market, over clocked.

 

[jdhatt]

not experienced enough to overclock....dont wanna screw up my macbook.....and getting the i7 and 512 vram futureproofs ur laptop for like 5-6 years

 

[mikeo007]

i just dont want to have an outdated C2D for the next 5 years....and if i decide to sell the i7 it will have a much higher resell value

It will only have a higher resale value because it cost more to begin with. Cheaper electronics usually sell for a higher percentage of the original value than the more expensive ones. Case in point, 13" MBs and MBPs from 2+ years ago sell on ebay for between $800-$900. 17" MBPs of the same age sell for $1200-$1300.

 

[ozreth]

Anybody who has done a large amount of gaming over at least the past 5 years on a wide array of games understands how significant the difference between a 256mb card and a 512mb card can be.

Go for the i7 if only for the 512 card.

 

[jdhatt]

exactly....i need this badboy to last....i dont wanna be sitting there with future titles like diablo III thinking....."crap".....

 

[DesmoPilot]

not experienced enough to overclock....dont wanna screw up my macbook.....and getting the i7 and 512 vram futureproofs ur laptop for like 5-6 years

512MB is hardly "future-proof" (if there was such a thing).

 

[jdhatt]

512MB is hardly "future-proof" (if there was such a thing).

ok well i love how u say that but would u not agree its atleast better for the future than 256mb? yep, thought so.

 

[DesmoPilot]

ok well i love how u say that but would u not agree its atleast better for the future than 256mb? yep, thought so.

256MB or 512MB won't matter in the future considering the speed of the 330M.

 

[LedCop]

ok well i love how u say that but would u not agree its atleast better for the future than 256mb? yep, thought so.

I'm not sure if it's that much better for games to warrant the $300-$400 cost though.