I'm currently testing two 16 inch models. The first is an i7 6 core with 512gb of storage and a 4GB AMD Radeon Pro 5300M. The other is a 2.3gh i9/1TB/8GB Radeon Pro 5500M.
The main reason for upgrading the second model is the 1TB hard driver, since I'll probably be running bootcamp and I know a 512gb drive with two partitions can get full really fast. If you've played around with spec'ing the 16 inch you'll know that the higher end model is a better value proposition once you start upgrading things. It starts with 1TB, starts with the i9, and it's only $100 bucks to upgrade to an 8GB 5500M, from the 4GB 5300M that it starts with.
Last night I was on a very long zoom call on the higher end model and the fans started spinning extremely loud. It wasn't plugged into an external monitor. I downloaded Turbo Boost Switcher, which seemed to help. But it made me think... why do I even have an 8 cores, and will it actually give me issues with heat/battery life in the long run? I upgrade to the 8GB graphics cards... for no reason really other than it was only $100. I do light video editing but we are talking about shaving a few seconds off vs. minutes on larger projects that some of you are dealing with. I figured the processor might help since I'm running a lot of programs at once, a ton of chrome tabs with numerous extensions (don't ask, for work).
Both models have 32gb ram, which was the most important spec for me. In theory I could have upgraded to 64gb, but that felt like overkill. The way I viewed upgrades beyond 32GB memory were in line with what was advantageous using the pricing scheme between base and higher end model. If you take the base model (with 32gb of ram), and upgrade to a 1TB hard drive, it's only a few hundred less than the the higher end model which already comes with that, plus an i9 8 core, and you can get an 8gb graphics card for just $100 bucks more.
I guess what I'm asking here is... am I literally burning the extra cash given my usage? It made sense at the time financially. Is there any downside to the upgrades to i9/8GB 5500M? I've been having battery issues on both models, so have the dGPU manually switched off when unplugged. And now it looks like I'll be running Turbo Switch as well. I suppose I could just take all that money and upgrade a base model to 64GB of ram and a 1TB HD (slightly more than the more expensive model I have).
The main reason for upgrading the second model is the 1TB hard driver, since I'll probably be running bootcamp and I know a 512gb drive with two partitions can get full really fast. If you've played around with spec'ing the 16 inch you'll know that the higher end model is a better value proposition once you start upgrading things. It starts with 1TB, starts with the i9, and it's only $100 bucks to upgrade to an 8GB 5500M, from the 4GB 5300M that it starts with.
Last night I was on a very long zoom call on the higher end model and the fans started spinning extremely loud. It wasn't plugged into an external monitor. I downloaded Turbo Boost Switcher, which seemed to help. But it made me think... why do I even have an 8 cores, and will it actually give me issues with heat/battery life in the long run? I upgrade to the 8GB graphics cards... for no reason really other than it was only $100. I do light video editing but we are talking about shaving a few seconds off vs. minutes on larger projects that some of you are dealing with. I figured the processor might help since I'm running a lot of programs at once, a ton of chrome tabs with numerous extensions (don't ask, for work).
Both models have 32gb ram, which was the most important spec for me. In theory I could have upgraded to 64gb, but that felt like overkill. The way I viewed upgrades beyond 32GB memory were in line with what was advantageous using the pricing scheme between base and higher end model. If you take the base model (with 32gb of ram), and upgrade to a 1TB hard drive, it's only a few hundred less than the the higher end model which already comes with that, plus an i9 8 core, and you can get an 8gb graphics card for just $100 bucks more.
I guess what I'm asking here is... am I literally burning the extra cash given my usage? It made sense at the time financially. Is there any downside to the upgrades to i9/8GB 5500M? I've been having battery issues on both models, so have the dGPU manually switched off when unplugged. And now it looks like I'll be running Turbo Switch as well. I suppose I could just take all that money and upgrade a base model to 64GB of ram and a 1TB HD (slightly more than the more expensive model I have).