MBP Late 2013 Vs MBP 2015 - Need advice from you experts.

[willyboy104]

Hi there.

I am deliberating as to whether or not I should upgrade my current MBP which is:

Macbook Pro Late 2013
Processor: 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB

If I upgraded, I'd be looking at the top spec (without the expensive upgrades) MBP from Apple's website which is:

Processor: 2.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Memory: 16GB 1600MHz memory
Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 M370X with 2GB GDDR5 memory

Now obviously, from the specs above there doesn't seem to be a huge difference, but since they probably use different CPUs and perhaps different memory and obviously different graphics cards.

My question is, would I see a noticeable difference in every day use?

I use my laptop for about 16 hours per day, mainly running 8-10 Chrome windows with 150 - 200 chrome tabs (I know it's a lot) and Skype, Spotify, Outlook, a couple of to do list applications and Microsoft Office.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Nope they use the same CPU's they won't be updated for another couple of months from haswell to skylake, they skipped broadwell because intel took far too long to get it to market.

The dGPU is slightly better in benchmarks but in real life people haven't seen much of a boost and more importantly nothing you do uses it at all so it'll be a pointless upgrade.

The only thing you need more of is RAM for all that chrome work (chrome is poorly optimised for OSX and is just about the worst browser you can use on a mac in terms of use of: system resources and battery life, especially if you have flash running on all those ads, so if you are having issues another browser might be your best bet, although click to flash and adblock ad ons may help a lot).

Upgrading will make no difference to you unless you buy another make of computer with more RAM.

 

[Erdbeertorte]

@Samuelsan2001 is right. It's the same CPU and chipset generation and you will not notice 0.2 GHz more with your usage. Same for the GPU, there would be no noticeably difference for you. RAM type and speed is the same and 16GB is the maximum too, what can't be upgraded later in both.

The only thing that is much faster is the newer PCIe flash storage, it's PCIe 2.0 with a x4 connection. But the Late 2013 also use PCIe 2.0 flash storage (x2 connection) that is faster than any SATA SSD.

Also they have the same camera and ports (USB 3.0, Thunderbolt 2.0, HDMI, Audio, WiFi AC, Bluetooth 4.0, SDXC card slot). Microphones and speakers might also be the same or not really noticeable better.

So if you don't need a larger and faster internal SSD (what you might not even notice), the new force touch trackpad or want to connect external displays with a higher resolution than 2560x1440 @ 60Hz, a slightly better battery, there is no reason for an upgrade now.

I would also recommend to use Safari instead of Chrome if you have problems with 16GB of RAM. That should be more than enough for what you are doing with it. And if anything doesn't work for you with Safari, just keep Chrome and use it only when you really need it.

Maybe it isn't even necessary to switch the browser. You can see it in the Activity Monitor how much of your RAM is actually used and if it is full and swapping to your SSD.

You did not even mention if you find that your MBP is too slow for you at all...

Just have a look at http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/index-macbookpro.html to compare both models.

It's the best source for that in my opinion, because they don't just list the specs from Apple. You can also see (unofficial) upgrade options, benchmarks and differences between the newest model and the one before for example.

 

[willyboy104]

Thank you so much to both of you, I didn't expect such thorough replies I really, really appreciate it.

Apologies for not mentioning the reason for the upgrade, to be honest I love my MBP it's not slow at all, Chrome does sometimes get a little 'overloaded' but generally speaking it appears to be handling it's self very well.

The only negative I do have is Microsoft Office, but that's not even related to the MBP it's just Microsoft's crappy.

The reason I was looking to upgrade was simply to give this MBP to my girlfriend for Christmas, she is a web design and could do with a new laptop, so maybe I will just buy her a similar one to mine :/

 

[Erdbeertorte]

Do you use the 2016 version of MS Office? If you have an Office 365 subscription you are also able to to install the 2011 version. I only use Word and Excel and not many features of these programs and haven't ever tested Powerpoint and Outlook.
Maybe you should just try if the older version is enough for your usage. It's running much faster and seems to have no problem with El Capitan. The 2016 version seems to be very buggy. I think it's possible to have both versions installed at the same time if you want to try what is better.

I find it really nice that you want to give the MBP to your girlfriend.

But that's different situation if you plan to by a "new" one anyway.

In what country do you live? It seems in the USA there are some really good deals available at the moment if you don't buy directly from Apple.

Did you look in the refurbished section of your country's Apple online store? They still sell the 2013 and 2014 next to the 2015 MBPs there and the price difference is always very small.

Those in the picture are the top specked versions of the 2013 and 2014 MBP. The 2013 model is just 60€ less. And the one from 2015 with the same configuration is just 30€ more than the 2014 model. It's not listed at the moment there but I often saw it. That seems to prove that there is no big difference from 2013 to 2015.

 

[willyboy104]

Thank you, I actually use Office 365 and well it's Excel that crashes (Outlook has as well a few times) mainly, sometimes I might overload it but the majority of times it's just Excel sucking.

Ah, I am only considering buying a new MBP because I want to give this one to her

I am from the UK, but currently in South Korea - I've looked on the Refurbish store and there are a couple of good MBP, but my issue is that the brand new one is only a few £ hundred extra.

I did find the low spec MBP 2015 version which looks good but doesn't appear to have it's own graphics card which concerns me since she will be running Adobe package (Photoshop / Illustrator / Dreamweaver).

It just has the Intel Iris Pro Graphics, I am assuming that's onboard?

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Thank you, I actually use Office 365 and well it's Excel that crashes (Outlook has as well a few times) mainly, sometimes I might overload it but the majority of times it's just Excel sucking.

Ah, I am only considering buying a new MBP because I want to give this one to her

I am from the UK, but currently in South Korea - I've looked on the Refurbish store and there are a couple of good MBP, but my issue is that the brand new one is only a few £ hundred extra.

I did find the low spec MBP 2015 version which looks good but doesn't appear to have it's own graphics card which concerns me since she will be running Adobe package (Photoshop / Illustrator / Dreamweaver).

It just has the Intel Iris Pro Graphics, I am assuming that's onboard?

To be honest unless you are gaming or editing 4K video footage it won't really matter about a dGPU the IRIS pro graphics are pretty good for an integrated solution with performance similar to most mid level mobile dGPU's (and they are far less likely to fail and brick your mac).

Problems with crashing microsoft office apps was tied to El Capitan I think they released an update that may well help there.