MBP Mid 2014 vs MBP Mid 2015

[digibat]

Hi,
I am confused between the two 15' models. I am getting them at the same price ($1799). Mid 2015 has a slightly larger battery and force touch trackpad. Mid 2014 has faster processor, twice the storage, NVIDIA graphics card but no force touch. I was thinking of going with Mid 2014 as I am getting it for the same price with much better configuration. What do you guys think? I will be missing out on ForceTouch trackpad though ..

Mid 2015

Mid 2014

Thank You.

 

[T5BRICK]

The 2014 model is a better deal, I'd go with it. I do have to say that I really like the force touch trackpad on my early 2015 13" rMBP, but I wouldn't take it at the expense of storage, upgraded GPU and CPU.

 

[treekram]

The 2015 MBP models have a 4-lane PCIE SSD, the 2014 models have 2-lane. As you can probably guess, it's quite a bit faster, maybe not twice as much, depending on what test you're running. Now, as it is, the 2014 models have a fast SSD and unless you have a disk-intensive application which can actually take advantage of the speed, the speed of the 2014 models are probably sufficient for most people. Would more people notice the faster SSD or the faster processor? The speed difference in the processor is roughly 10%, the SSD is almost twice as fast but if you're talking one-half second vs. one-quarter second?

Apple has not had the best of luck recently with discrete GPU's, which the 2014 model has. Maybe the issues are now resolved, never to appear again - who knows?

Despite the lack of the discrete GPU, the 2015 model can officially support two external displays at 3840 x 2160. The 2014 model is 2560 x 1600. Now you may say you may not have a need for this, but there's a thread recently where the OP wanted to know if he/she use the 2012 rMBP could drive two external displays, one at 3440 x 1440 and one at 1920 x 1080. The reaction the OP gave when he/she found out that it wasn't officially supported was "Yikes". At the time that OP's computer was acquired, that OP probably did not envision wanting such a configuration (not that there was an Apple at that time that could do it).

 

[digibat]

The 2015 MBP models have a 4-lane PCIE SSD, the 2014 models have 2-lane. As you can probably guess, it's quite a bit faster, maybe not twice as much, depending on what test you're running. Now, as it is, the 2014 models have a fast SSD and unless you have a disk-intensive application which can actually take advantage of the speed, the speed of the 2014 models are probably sufficient for most people. Would more people notice the faster SSD or the faster processor? The speed difference in the processor is roughly 10%, the SSD is almost twice as fast but if you're talking one-half second vs. one-quarter second?

Apple has not had the best of luck recently with discrete GPU's, which the 2014 model has. Maybe the issues are now resolved, never to appear again - who knows?

Despite the lack of the discrete GPU, the 2015 model can officially support two external displays at 3840 x 2160. The 2014 model is 2560 x 1600. Now you may say you may not have a need for this, but there's a thread recently where the OP wanted to know if he/she use the 2012 rMBP could drive two external displays, one at 3440 x 1440 and one at 1920 x 1080. The reaction the OP gave when he/she found out that it wasn't officially supported was "Yikes". At the time that OP's computer was acquired, that OP probably did not envision wanting such a configuration (not that there was an Apple at that time that could do it).

Thanks a lot for the information. Will the 2014 model support 2 external displays at 1080p ? I have two external monitors that I want to hook it up to for my work.

 

[digibat]

The 2014 model is a better deal, I'd go with it. I do have to say that I really like the force touch trackpad on my early 2015 13" rMBP, but I wouldn't take it at the expense of storage, upgraded GPU and CPU.

Thanks for the response.

 

[treekram]

Thanks a lot for the information. Will the 2014 model support 2 external displays at 1080p ? I have two external monitors that I want to hook it up to for my work.

2 external displays at 1920 x 1080 would be supported by either the 2014 or 2015. For that resolution, the more relevant question is how do you hook them up. You'd have to make sure you get the right cable to fit your monitor. I think (am not up on the current market) most 1920 x 1080 monitors have HDMI but not Thunderbolt or DisplayPort connectors. The Thunderbolt port on either 2014 or 2015 MBP is mini DisplayPort compatible. If you have two HDMI monitors, you'd need one HDMI-to-HDMI cable since the MBP has only one HDMI port and then a Thunderbolt-to-HDMI or Mini DisplayPort-HDMI cable. If you don't already have both displays, consider buying one with 2560 x 1440 resolution - a lot of those have DisplayPort ports and they have 82% more pixels. In any case, do the research on what connectors you have on the external displays and what type of cable/adapter you'll need to hook it up to your computer.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Thanks a lot for the information. Will the 2014 model support 2 external displays at 1080p ? I have two external monitors that I want to hook it up to for my work.

Yes of course all apples computers have been able to do this for a number of years.

 

[maflynn]

The 2014 model is a better deal, I'd go with it. I do have to say that I really like the force touch trackpad on my early 2015 13" rMBP, but I wouldn't take it at the expense of storage, upgraded GPU and CPU.

From my reading, I think the performance between the two models isn't that great, though disk i/o is superior on the 2015 model as you noted. Personally, I also like the 2014 model better then the 2015, but that's just me

 

[savagewatts]

The 2014 is much better. Just buy the new Magic Trackpad to add force touch. That's what I did.

 

[cerberusss]

Although the 2015 model has better disk throughput, it only has a 256 GB SSD. Typically, there's a big increase in performance from 256 to 512 GB. I don't think that 2015 model with its 256 GB SSD can get the optimum performance.

I would lean towards the 2014 model.

 

[treekram]

Although the 2015 model has better disk throughput, it only has a 256 GB SSD. Typically, there's a big increase in performance from 256 to 512 GB. I don't think that 2015 model with its 256 GB SSD can get the optimum performance.

I would lean towards the 2014 model.

The 256GB SSD in the 2015 model will smoke the 512GB SSD in the 2014 model. The reason for that is explained in my post #3 above.