MBP i5 2.3 Quad Core vs MBP i7 2.7 Quad Core

[sood1992]

Hello Everyone,

I'm planning on upgrading my 2012 Macbook, which has been working decently for me after SSD upgrade and 16 GB Ram, However due to some issues it keeps turning off if the power adpater isnt plugged, I have tried everything including SMS reset, PRAM Reset. It just doesnt work. I'm planning to invest in a new MBP.

I'm a photographer and I use Lightroom, Photoshop and Premiere Extensively. I'm currently planning on getting the 2018 MBP with i5 2.3 Quad Core + 16 GB Ram upgrade.

Do you think its worth investing another USD 300 and upgrade processor to i7 2.7 Quad Core? How much difference would it make?

 

[leman]

Do you think its worth investing another USD 300 and upgrade processor to i7 2.7 Quad Core? How much difference would it make?

Few percent under demanding workloads, give or take. If you are a professional photographer, it might be worth it, since it would save you few seconds/minutes per day. But this all depends on your workflow and also how much time do you actually spend editing photos. I can imagine that it would make a bigger difference for someone that just processes photos on a commission — a slightly faster CPU could maybe allow them to do one or two more tasks per week. As a photographer, you probably spend more time actually taking pictures/selecting them than editing...

 

[Gamer-Dad]

Save the money. If its burning a hole in your pocket, then upgrade the SSD to 1TB.

In all honesty, the i5 quad in the 2018 is almost as fast as the i7 and you'll save headroom with thermals.

 

[Ploki]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/13-i5-vs-i7.2165006/#post-26995275

I posted this very thread yesterday, you can check the Geekbench results.

I think i5 are bang for the buck. I bought one. The difference is not 300$ and the difference itself will only show in applications that benefit from more Cache (Which you don't need else you'd know) and single-core bursts (not many scenarios)

Few percent under demanding workloads, give or take. If you are a professional photographer, it might be worth it, since it would save you few seconds/minutes per day. But this all depends on your workflow and also how much time do you actually spend editing photos. I can imagine that it would make a bigger difference for someone that just processes photos on a commission — a slightly faster CPU could maybe allow them to do one or two more tasks per week. As a photographer, you probably spend more time actually taking pictures/selecting them than editing...

I don't know how much photo processing relies on multicore performance, but i suspect the story with multicore load is similar as with the 15"-ers : Thermally limited to 3.2GHz

 

[internetrando]

Save yourself the headroom in the thermals for exports or larger rendering jobs. Trust me. Even if they both run at max power (which they won't for long), there is likely not enough of a difference to make the $300 worth it to you. You are talking small, single point percentage performance gains for more than a 10% increase in cost. Those performance gains are likely not even realized for power users, and in some cases, the i5 might actually perform better because it can run for longer periods before throttling.

Depending on your budget, I would keep the i5 and upgrade your storage to 1TB. That's a much better use of your money in the long run...at least that is my opinion.

 

[Ploki]

Save yourself the headroom in the thermals for exports or larger rendering jobs. Trust me. Even if they both run at max power (which they won't for long), there is likely not enough of a difference to make the $300 worth it to you. You are talking small, single point percentage performance gains for more than a 10% increase in cost. Those performance gains are likely not even realized for power users, and in some cases, the i5 might actually perform better because it can run for longer periods before throttling.

Depending on your budget, I would keep the i5 and upgrade your storage to 1TB. That's a much better use of your money in the long run...at least that is my opinion.

or you know, just save 500$ and upgrade sooner.

 

[Howard2k]

or you know, just save 500$ and upgrade sooner.

Agreed. Or put the money towards AppleCare, or external storage, or NAS, or a faster router, or whatever.