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MacBook Pro Now or Wait Until Next Update?

C

comicboy514

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 16, 2009
1
0
I am a graphic designer, and my current home computer is a 4 year old powermac 1.5ghz G4, yeah it's slow (at my office I use a 2.2ghz intel iMac).

I was planning on updating now to the new line of Macbook Pros, but I’ve seen a few things that are making me wonder if I should wait or not. One is that nVidia just released a new mobile GPU which happen to much better than whats in the macbook. The second is the rumor of Apple moving to quad-core laptops within a year. The third is that Apple has clipped the hard drives wings, making a SSD seem pointless.

What do you think?
 
My question is, how long can you wait? Apple just did a update to the line - my guess is the next batch of updates will come January/Feb 2010.

Apple may switch to the newer graphics cards but I would never 100% assume they would. And maybe they might address the current harddrive speed issues in the next update. If those things are really worth it to you, I would wait.

If you can wait, something better will always come out. It just depends if your current Mac is sufficient.
 
Only buy a computer when you need it. There is always better things being developed and released, you will wait forever if you keep that up. Is your work suffering because of the slow speed? Then get one, if not hold out until that time.
 
The next big things coming down the stretch are probably minor processor/architecture upgrades, maybe a midrange graphics card, and USB 3.0 (although I don't know when/if that's going to be approved, according to Wiki we'll see it first quarter in some products in 2010). USB 3.0 will probably be a 2010 WWDC thing though, no doubt.
 
Always buy based on need, and if you happen to be close to an expo/unveiling(June/January) wait.
So if you want/need one now, go for it. O_O
 
Said if often enough here, Arrandale will boost the speed by roughly 10%-50% or even more because of Hyperthreading. It's been 3 years since the C2D's in the MBP's, if you want one of those buy now.
 
You might also get stuck with an intergrated intel graphics card if you wait for next big update and its Arrandale.
 
Apple can't ship Intel GFX anymore unless its Larrabee, they can't sell ANYTHING once Snow Leopard ships that doesn't support OpenCL. It would be the first time they would ship Hardware that doesn't support the Features of OS X at that time.

Or wait.. a MBP with Larrabee would be badass, imagine Grand Central + OpenCL on a 48 Core GPGPU :p
 
Everybody said, get a pro now! like 2 weeks ago. "there will only be minor speed bumps and nothing noteworthy" and look what happened. None of these goobers on here have a clue what is going on.
 
comicboy514 said:
I am a graphic designer, and my current home computer is a 4 year old powermac 1.5ghz G4, yeah it's slow (at my office I use a 2.2ghz intel iMac).

I was planning on updating now to the new line of Macbook Pros, but I’ve seen a few things that are making me wonder if I should wait or not. One is that nVidia just released a new mobile GPU which happen to much better than whats in the macbook. The second is the rumor of Apple moving to quad-core laptops within a year. The third is that Apple has clipped the hard drives wings, making a SSD seem pointless.

What do you think?
Click to expand...

1. I would suggest trying the new MBPs with the software that you're running to see if the GPU is good enough for your needs. The GPUs are not top of the line, but very good. I use CS3 just fine on a classic MBP.
2. It's a sketchy rumor at best. The first quad core processors will have slow clock speeds and use a lot of power. It's not clear that Apple will use those. You could very well be waiting much more than a year.
3. SSDs aren't pointless with 1.5 Gb SATA connections. They will still be screaming fast, with the only major issue being transferring large files.

In the end, the new MBP will be a large step up from your current system and will last you years.
 
I have the UMB and I see it not worth upgrading to a Pro just yet. I have a feeling the next Pro update will have a better discrete graphics option, and then I'll jump! only b/c I like to game on my machines lol
 
Tallest Skil said:
Minor speedbumps and nothing noteworthy.

Honestly, prove to me that anything else happened. Did we get a new CPU? GPU? Matte screens?



Enjoy waiting forever.
Click to expand...

13" pro, eliminated express slot, sd, eliminated removable batt., 1.5 transfer rate. Note worthy.
 
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