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soulred12

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 15, 2011
32
0
Just wondering if anyone can give me some insights into any differences in performance between the following two computers. Much as I like the idea of getting the new retina model, there's a huge price difference and while the retina display is attractive, its absence isn't a deal breaker for me.

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New (NON-RETINA) 13" MBP Base Model
2.5GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 Processor w/ Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz
Intel HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 512MB of GDDR5 memory
8GB Ram
256 GB Crucial Brand SSD (I will be buying it myself and swapping it in)
Total: ~$1600 (less if I can sell off the 5200 RPM HDD that comes with the computer)

--- vs. ---

New (RETINA) 15" MBP Base Model
2.3GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7 Processor w/ Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz
Intel HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory and automatic graphics switching
8GB Ram
256 GB SSD
Total: ~$2300

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That $700+ is a big deal to me, so I wanted to know if the performance difference would be all that big/noticeable. I do game a bit, but not really that heavily.

Which of the above two setups would you recommend? I mainly do normal stuff like email/internet/music, document processing, developing apps with Xcode, GarageBand (including recording) and some movie editing with iMovie.

Thanks.
 
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