Please help me read the future, what will the next giant technological leap be?

[CultHero]

I am struggling along on a 2006 iMac that has been a wonderful machine, but is getting awfully slow and prone to beach balling. It is time to update and I was planning on waiting until Haswell came out but from everything I have read it is just going to be a processor speed bump that for what I do (basic office use, minor video processing etc) I will not need or appreciate.

I know everyone says to wait if you can and buy now if you have to, but I honestly am looking at the recent spec changes to the rMBP and wondering if it would be just what I need.

I am concerned about the disk space, coming from a 2.0 tb iMac, but even a bump to 1 tb wouldn't make that much of a difference to me with.

I guess my overreaching question is are we going to see a technological leap with the next gen Macbook? Did that leap occur with retina and now we are just going to see refinements?

I love my iMac and will be stoked if I see 5 years out of the Macbook.

 

[Stetrain]

I think that depends on which model you are looking at.

The biggest gains with Haswell are supposed to be in the integrated graphics chip.

The 15" RMBP already has a second dedicated graphics chip for heavier loads, so the integrated graphics aren't so important. The 13" however relies solely on those integrated graphics.

 

[CultHero]

I will be looking at a fully loaded rMBP in 15 inch. Great info about the integrated graphics chip. I didn't know that. Thank you! This is the stuff I am looking for!

 

[Stetrain]

I will be looking at a fully loaded rMBP in 15 inch. Great info about the integrated graphics chip. I didn't know that. Thank you! This is the stuff I am looking for!

In that case I don't think there will be a huge 'generational' leap for the Haswell models.

- A bit faster CPU speed (~10%)

- A bit better performance of the integrated graphics (which might save some battery by not needing to power up the dedicated graphics as much?)

- Maybe some different choices/pricing on RAM and SSD options

I wouldn't expect any more than that.