mb vs mbpro

[eimis993]

So, im multimedia student. I do some programming, adobe and office, also when have too much free time in college i like to play league of legends, also run windows in parallels on daily basis. My current stock mba 13 2013 cant do comfortabily all these things i suppose mainly because of lack of ram. So im thinking of upgrading. I could go as far as middle pro with 256gb ssd and 8 gb ram or macbook with 1.3ghz cpu if its even worth upgrading. Oh also i carry my laptop every day in the backpack so portability and weight is kinda important. Which one would you recommend. I know that pro would be better choice but would make a big difference between those 2?

Thanks

 

[palpatine]

macbook pro. i don't even know why you'd consider the macbook under those conditions. i have both (15" mbp and mb).

if i were you, i might re-consider what free time is: time to study, reflect on what you've learned, and do research. in that case, i'd consider a computer for home (mbp) and an ipad for school if weight is important. you'll waste less time with games when you ought to be studying, and save the games for when you get home. not that i'm judging -- i was a pretty avid gamer most of my life, but if i could go back in time and do it again, i would radically curtail my gaming -- i missed out on a lot of great opportunities because i didn't make good use of my "free" time.

if you'd prefer to play games, you'll need to lug around the mbp. if your mbp is struggling now, an mb won't do any better for that stuff.

 

[eimis993]

macbook pro. i don't even know why you'd consider the macbook under those conditions. i have both (15" mbp and mb).

if i were you, i might re-consider what free time is: time to study, reflect on what you've learned, and do research. in that case, i'd consider a computer for home (mbp) and an ipad for school if weight is important. you'll waste less time with games when you ought to be studying, and save the games for when you get home. not that i'm judging -- i was a pretty avid gamer most of my life, but if i could go back in time and do it again, i would radically curtail my gaming -- i missed out on a lot of great opportunities because i didn't make good use of my "free" time.

if you'd prefer to play games, you'll need to lug around the mbp. if your mbp is struggling now, an mb won't do any better for that stuff.

well i dont really need a laptop at home, because i have fairly high end windows pc with i7 and gtx980, so laptop would be just for college and when i travelling. And yeah i probably shouldnt do gaming in college but im just used to doing all the study and assignments at home. Im in second year and so far it worked for me

 

[boltjames]

So, im multimedia student. I do some programming, adobe and office, also when have too much free time in college i like to play league of legends, also run windows in parallels on daily basis. My current stock mba 13 2013 cant do comfortabily all these things i suppose mainly because of lack of ram. So im thinking of upgrading. I could go as far as middle pro with 256gb ssd and 8 gb ram or macbook with 1.3ghz cpu if its even worth upgrading. Oh also i carry my laptop every day in the backpack so portability and weight is kinda important. Which one would you recommend. I know that pro would be better choice but would make a big difference between those 2?

Simple.

Give Up Gaming: The Retina MacBook is a dream come true for your use-case and as a college student backpacking across campus all day.

Keep Gaming: You don't want a Retina MacBook, get the Pro.

BJ

 

[eimis993]

Well the only thing i would play would be league of legends which im able to play on mba with hd5000. Are you saying that macbook would be worse that mba for light gaming?

Simple.

Give Up Gaming: The Retina MacBook is a dream come true for your use-case and as a college student backpacking across campus all day.

Keep Gaming: You don't want a Retina MacBook, get the Pro.

BJ

l

 

[SteveJUAE]

The rMB is going to be fine for your college work and portability

There's plenty of Youtube's showing LOL running on the rMB at modest settings giving ~40 fps and as you would expect the rMBP will do better, you should be able to judge those against your current experience

i'm sure your more than capable of finding the right balance between learning and play, enjoy your time wisely

PS LOL will probably run better under bootcamp

 

[boltjames]

Well the only thing i would play would be league of legends which im able to play on mba with hd5000. Are you saying that macbook would be worse that mba for light gaming?

I can't comment as I have no experience with that particular game. At this point, Gaming is the only achilles heel for the RMB. This video will probably be useful for you though.

BJ

 

[eimis993]

I can't comment as I have no experience with that particular game. At this point, Gaming is the only achilles heel for the RMB. This video will probably be useful for you though.

BJ

Thanks!

Yup, its very similar to what im getting on air currently. I think anyways I will wait for next gen macbook which should come out soon, new cpus promise 30% gpu improvement, so that would be nice

 

[lite426]

A very nice benefit to gaming on the MacBook that you don't hear talked about much is you don't have to put up with the annoying fan whirring up and making it sound like your laptop is struggling. The silence of the MacBook gives a psychological impression, while slower than the fanned MacBook Air/Pro, that it's handling tasks without a sweat.

 

[Koudspeel]

It's funny that you say that your current mba can't do all these things fluidly. I own a mba 2012 stock and I do basically the same things on my mba as you do, except playing LoL.

I'm programming in Netbeans mainly, use Paralles for MS Visio, use Office 2016 Mac and play some indie games on it, all without the mba breaking a sweat.

Since the current rMB has about the same power as a mba 2012 I wouldn't advise picking it up since your struggling with the 2013 as of now. Either get a Macbook Pro or upgrade to mba 2015 higher specced.

 

[eimis993]

It's funny that you say that your current mba can't do all these things fluidly. I own a mba 2012 stock and I do basically the same things on my mba as you do, except playing LoL.

I'm programming in Netbeans mainly, use Paralles for MS Visio, use Office 2016 Mac and play some indie games on it, all without the mba breaking a sweat.

Since the current rMB has about the same power as a mba 2012 I wouldn't advise picking it up since your struggling with the 2013 as of now. Either get a Macbook Pro or upgrade to mba 2015 higher specced.

As for cpu, I think im good. RAM is the issue when running parallels and dreamwever. Also im not happy with the display quality, particularly when i upgraded to 4k on my desktop so another air is not an option. Also i see benefit of having usb type c, because you can charge macbook using power banks, with 20,000mah bank i could recharge macbook 4 times fully. I know pro is more powerful but im not sure if i would see the difference as they both dual core with igpus. My desktop would leave in the dust even 15inch one especially in terms of gpu. Well, anyways i think im gonna wait till april when next gen macbook and macbook pro sould be announced.