Macbook Pro Processor Comparison (2.4ghz vs 2.93ghz)

[ymk]

Hey all,

I am thinking of buying a 15" Macbook Pro and of course waiting until after WWDC. I definitely know that there is going to be a revision/just something better later this year so I am a bit reluctant about shelling out the extra money for a 2.93ghz MBP instead of the 2.4ghz.

I am a Film and Television major going into a new university so my main usage is normal college student use (surfing the web, listening to music, writing papers), light/medium video editing and some stuff with Photoshop, AfterEffects and other things in Adobe Creative Suite 4. I am looking for something that will provide me with the hardware I need to be somewhat future proof (firewire, express34 card slot) but DO NOT care if my program renders 5 secs faster on a 2.93ghz than a 2.4ghz.

Does anyone know if there is any other significant reasons besides a little more speed that I should consider buying the 2.93 processor? Does the 6mb cache vs the 3mb cache significantly affect functions that I will be using? Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Dwalls90]

Hey all,

I am thinking of buying a 15" Macbook Pro and of course waiting until after WWDC. I definitely know that there is going to be a revision/just something better later this year so I am a bit reluctant about shelling out the extra money for a 2.93ghz MBP instead of the 2.4ghz.

I am a Film and Television major going into a new university so my main usage is normal college student use (surfing the web, listening to music, writing papers), light/medium video editing and some stuff with Photoshop, AfterEffects and other things in Adobe Creative Suite 4. I am looking for something that will provide me with the hardware I need to be somewhat future proof (firewire, express34 card slot) but DO NOT care if my program renders 5 secs faster on a 2.93ghz than a 2.4ghz.

Does anyone know if there is any other significant reasons besides a little more speed that I should consider buying the 2.93 processor? Does the 6mb cache vs the 3mb cache significantly affect functions that I will be using? Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.

My father uses the most recent iMac with 3.06ghz and 8 Gb of memory. That said, he rarely uses up half of the total computing power, more so the memory.

The only time you'll notice performance gains is when you are encoding honestly. The architecture of the CPU has much more to do with performance than the clock rate itself. Because they're both C2D, you'll be set either way.

More memory would be more cost-efficient in your situation, over a CPU upgrade.

Also, don't buy now if you can wait. The Macbook and Macbook Pro are both due for at least a minor update come early June, and then again in the fall with Quad-cores reaching the mobile platform.