Retina iMac or 2013 Retina MBP 15"

[dannyar]

Im in a bit of a conundrum. Placed my order for a baseline retina iMac with government discount for $2459 shipped. I could get a higher end 2013 15" Rmbp http://store.apple.com/us/product/FE294LL/A/refurbished-154-inch-macbook-pro-23ghz-quad-core-intel-i7-with-retina-display for only $2039 plus tax. Has a faster core i7 alone with 16gb ram and a 512ssd. Wouldn't this be a better computer for the price if screen size really isn't an issue? Aren't the screens as far as quality roughly the same?

 

[tillsbury]

Yes, the screens are very similar in quality, although not in size!

 

[dannyar]

But it is indeed a better computer spec wise for the money correct?

 

[theSeb]

Im in a bit of a conundrum. Placed my order for a baseline retina iMac with government discount for $2459 shipped. I could get a higher end 2013 15" Rmbp http://store.apple.com/us/product/FE294LL/A/refurbished-154-inch-macbook-pro-23ghz-quad-core-intel-i7-with-retina-display for only $2039 plus tax. Has a faster core i7 alone with 16gb ram and a 512ssd. Wouldn't this be a better computer for the price if screen size really isn't an issue? Aren't the screens as far as quality roughly the same?

Geekbench 3 64 bit scores - single and multi core

Macbook Pro i7 2.3 GHz - i7 4850HQ - 3128 ; 12172

base riMac i5 3.5 GHz - i5-4690K 4133:13334

The base riMac with the i5 CPU is faster than the rMBP you have in mind. It's not a massive difference that you would normally notice though.

At the end of the day you have to decide whether you want a desktop or a notebook, but that refurbished rMBP is a good deal financially.

 

[dannyar]

Geekbench 3 64 bit scores - single and multi core

Macbook Pro i7 2.3 GHz - i7 4850HQ - 3128 ; 12172

base riMac i5 3.5 GHz - i5-4690K 4133:13334

The base riMac with the i5 CPU is faster than the rMBP you have in mind. It's not a massive difference that you would normally notice though.

At the end of the day you have to decide whether you want a desktop or a notebook, but that refurbished rMBP is a good deal financially.

Im generally just looking for the better computer value overall . I plan on attaching the MBP to an external monitor while at home so having double the ram and double the SSD storage for almost $300 less seems like a pretty great deal. I could also buy a 4k monitor down the road when prices go down and then id get the best of both worlds in a portable and a 4k setup at home. What would you do?

 

[theSeb]

Im generally just looking for the better computer value overall . I plan on attaching the MBP to an external monitor while at home so having double the ram and double the SSD storage for almost $300 less seems like a pretty great deal. I could also buy a 4k monitor down the road when prices go down and then id get the best of both worlds in a portable and a 4k setup at home. What would you do?

The 16 GBs RAM and the flash drive will make the rMBP fly and will make the iMac seem slower in general day to day stuff, so I would go for the rMBP, because I would not buy the base model riMac.

The riMac's fusion drive and the base GPU is not good enough, in my opinion.

 

[dannyar]

The 16 GBs RAM and the flash drive will make the rMBP fly and will make the iMac seem slower in general day to day stuff, so I would go for the rMBP, because I would not buy the base model riMac. The fusion drive and the base GPU is not good enough, in my opinion.

Thanks for the help bud, really helped sway my decision. How is the gt750m compared to the base model riMac gpu?

 

[theSeb]

Thanks for the help bud, really helped sway my decision. How is the gt750m compared to the base model riMac gpu?

I actually have no idea, because we haven't had any decent benchmarks on the R9 M290x in the base riMac, but considering what architecture it is based on and the few results floating around, the R9 M290X is definitely faster than the 750M.

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-M290X-vs-GeForce-GT-750M#performance

Bear in mind though that we don't know if the R9 M290X is over clocked, or underclocked, in the riMac, so the figures above might not be applicable.