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MBP 15" intel or MBP new 13"

S

sirkification

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 15, 2011
16
0
I am a student doing my last year of high school going onto uni next year. Now I want my MBP to last me a long time but my dad gave me an offer since he lives in an mining area he bought himself the new MBP 13" and he getting another one in for my sister. I got the older model intel based with a 320gb hardrive bought september or october 2009. He said that I can swap it with him. But with what work I do now and what I want to continue requires me to do editing both movies and pictures with photoshop and final cut (Btw am I the only excited about the newer version?). I am asking you guys because I am not to good comparing with computer specs. Can the MBP 13" handle editing movies and pictures without that lag? Should I swap? My dad is coming down in three more days so could you give your opinion asap please?

P.S The only thing the matter with the 15" is that the bottom right hand corner is dented in and the update server thing that I posted before hand, everything else works fine.
 
Can you list the specs of both machines? The 13" has a better CPU but probably a worse GPU. In your tasks, the better CPU should be more important though.
 
15"
- 4 gb memory
- 320 gb hard drive
- 2.53 GHz intel Core 2 Duo
- NVIDIA GeForce 9400M

13"
2.3GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM — 2x2GB
320GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Intel HD Graphics 3000 processor with 384MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory

Is that all the specs what else should I include?
 
If you are serious about needing to use Final Cut, I suggest you take a look at the requirements:

http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/specs/

The current version of Final Cut will work with the Intel HD 3000, but it's the only integrated video card that it will work with. The new version may require a dedicated card, but there isn't a way to know for sure at this point (unless Apple released specs at the conference recently).
 
sirkification said:
15"
- 4 gb memory
- 320 gb hard drive
- 2.53 GHz intel Core 2 Duo
- NVIDIA GeForce 9400M

13"
2.3GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM — 2x2GB
320GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Intel HD Graphics 3000 processor with 384MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory

Is that all the specs what else should I include?
Click to expand...

That is all I need. I would switch because you have the slowest 15" with 9400M. If your MBP had 9600M GT in it, then it would be a harder choice since it's better than Intel HD 3000, but 9400M isn't.
 
bamf said:
If you are serious about needing to use Final Cut, I suggest you take a look at the requirements:

http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/specs/

The current version of Final Cut will work with the Intel HD 3000, but it's the only integrated video card that it will work with. The new version may require a dedicated card, but there isn't a way to know for sure at this point (unless Apple released specs at the conference recently).
Click to expand...

Im gonna buy the newer one when it comes out since its way cheaper than the current one, in the mean time i'll just use other sources. Can I add a dedicated card later on? How much would it cost me?

Edit: I almost forgot the 13" has apple care on it as well
 
Last edited:
no you wont be able to add a graphics card cause they got rid of the express slot after the '08 models for some reason!!!:mad:

that is the reason i held onto my 08 for as long as i could but unfortunately i just replaced it because of a faulty display.

sorry for the rant
 
sirkification said:
Im gonna buy the newer one when it comes out since its way cheaper than the current one, in the mean time i'll just use other sources. Can I add a dedicated card later on? How much would it cost me?

Edit: I almost forgot the 13" has apple care on it as well
Click to expand...

It is possible that some manufacturer may develop a Thunderbolt external video adapter, but that's pure speculation at this point. You can change the video cards that come with your Mac, so it's a limiting factor at this point that you really need to consider which way you want to go.

Now, the Intel HD 3000 may very well be better than the 9400m like HellHammer said above.
 
bamf said:
It is possible that some manufacturer may develop a Thunderbolt external video adapter, but that's pure speculation at this point. You can change the video cards that come with your Mac, so it's a limiting factor at this point that you really need to consider which way you want to go.

Now, the Intel HD 3000 may very well be better than the 9400m like HellHammer said above.
Click to expand...

The thunderbolt graphics card would be great!!! where did you hear about that?
 
could someone explain what thunderbolt exactly is? I know its a new feature but what does it exactly do?
 
sirkification said:
could someone explain what thunderbolt exactly is? I know its a new feature but what does it exactly do?
Click to expand...

USB 3.0 competitor, only faster. Up to 10Gbps of data speeds in both directions.

It also has Mini DisplayPort built in, so you can daisy chain an external hard drive, speakers and an external display all from just one port on your Mac.
 
Dont know if this helps you but I bought the base 13 inch i5 model
I use an Contour 1080 HD for my Downhill mountain biking and
just bought Aperture 3 off Apple's web site for £ 44.99p sterling pounds.

All I do is load up all video clips and photos on location and the do the editing
at home on the external 23 inch monitor.

My set up is the 13 inch i5 MBP and use a LaCie 1TB external hard drive
and a Samsung syncmaster 2333HD TV/Monitor.
 
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