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Retina MacBook Pro owners

WhiteIphone5

WhiteIphone5

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 27, 2011
1,182
2
Lima, Peru
if you could trade for a 27inch iMac would you?
is 8GB enough? do you wish you could've gone with 16GB
im between a 27 iMac i5 1TB fusion or Macbook Pro retina 15 with 16GB ram
ill be doing xcode and photoshop soon, so help me guys
 
WhiteIphone5 said:
if you could trade for a 27inch iMac would you?
is 8GB enough? do you wish you could've gone with 16GB
im between a 27 iMac i5 1TB fusion or Macbook Pro retina 15 with 16GB ram
ill be doing xcode and photoshop soon, so help me guys
Click to expand...

Would not trade my MBPr for a 27 iMac. I already have a 21 iMac. I bought my MBPr to be mobile. 8Gb of ram has been perfect so far.....
 
maxosx said:
You question or the info you seek is not clear.
Click to expand...

Between the 27 imac and retina mac 15. which one would perform better on heavy multitasking and editing would be a better way to put it.
Performance is what im looking for the most

----------
jamezr said:
Would not trade my MBPr for a 27 iMac. I already have a 21 iMac. I bought my MBPr to be mobile. 8Gb of ram has been perfect so far.....
Click to expand...

lets just say you didn't have the 21, would u do it?
 
WhiteIphone5 said:
if you could trade for a 27inch iMac would you?
Click to expand...

No. I have a top of the line desktop with a 55" LCD screen. The RMBP is a portable workstation. They serve different purposes.

is 8GB enough? do you wish you could've gone with 16GB
Click to expand...

If you're a media professional, or plan to keep the thing for more than 3 years get 16GB, otherwise get 8GB. I'm a media professional and need 16GB.


im between a 27 iMac i5 1TB fusion or Macbook Pro retina 15 with 16GB ram
ill be doing xcode and photoshop soon, so help me guys
Click to expand...

If you're doing photoshop your work will be seen mostly on laptop screens so it gives you a better reference for viewing, but there's nothing like working on a big desktop for productivity.
 
Radiating said:
No. I have a top of the line desktop with a 55" LCD screen. The RMBP is a portable workstation. They serve different purposes.



If you're a media professional, or plan to keep the thing for more than 3 years get 16GB, otherwise get 8GB. I'm a media professional and need 16GB.




If you're doing photoshop your work will be seen mostly on laptop screens so it gives you a better reference for viewing, but there's nothing like working on a big desktop for productivity.
Click to expand...
plan on keeping it for more than a year since ive never spent more than 1200 on a mac lol
 
Originally Posted by jamezr View Post
Would not trade my MBPr for a 27 iMac. I already have a 21 iMac. I bought my MBPr to be mobile. 8Gb of ram has been perfect so far.....
Quote:WhiteIphone5
lets just say you didn't have the 21, would u do it?

No...i do not consider a notebook as a desktop replacement. For me anyway.....lots of others do that but for me it doesn't work.
 
I actually went the other way. I traded my 27" iMac for a 15" rMBP. 8GB of RAM is fine for the graphic work I do, the rMBP is actually 50% faster than my top of the line 2009 iMac was.
 
The iMac is faster than the rMBP as the former is a desktop and it supports 32GB of RAM (if not more). The GPU is faster and the screen is a lot bigger. If performance matters, there is no reason to get the rMBP.

However what you're asking isn't supplementary. Would I trade a portable for a desktop? No, the iMac isn't portable.

Besides, I already have the highest configuration rMBP and I already have the only Mac desktop I would buy, the Mac Pro.
 
I would not exchange my rMBP 15 for an iMac.

I travel a lot and spend several months per year out of home.
I like to sometimes work on the couch in a more relaxed position.
It's nice to be able to take my work with me for a meeting without the need for any synchronising or to continue my work on the go.

At home I hook it up to a bigger screen and work on both screens.
I also put it on a station that brings the screen higher and I connect it to an external apple keyboard.

8Gb RAM is NOT enough for me. I am now buying the last rMBP with 16Gb and sell my "old" rMBP with only 8gb.
 
alphaod said:
The iMac is faster than the rMBP as the former is a desktop and it supports 32GB of RAM (if not more). The GPU is faster and the screen is a lot bigger. If performance matters, there is no reason to get the rMBP.
Click to expand...

Just curious, do you use it for anthing 3D?
 
I have a 21" iMac and bought a rMBP for mobility, I think ideally it would be better have both, but it depends on your needs, mine has 16Gb but I think the 8Gb would be fine for most users since the rMBP doesn't have a hard disk but a SSD which is amazingly faster than rusty HDD's so if your computer needed to use the SSD as RAM memory because it has ran out of RAM space it would be still fast.
 
WhiteIphone5 said:
if you could trade for a 27inch iMac would you?
Click to expand...
Nope, I use a laptop because mobility is a quality that is high on my list. While the iMac is a great computer and I may buy one for my kids this year it cannot replace the my laptop.
 
alphaod said:
The iMac is faster than the rMBP as the former is a desktop and it supports 32GB of RAM (if not more). The GPU is faster and the screen is a lot bigger. If performance matters, there is no reason to get the rMBP.

However what you're asking isn't supplementary. Would I trade a portable for a desktop? No, the iMac isn't portable.

Besides, I already have the highest configuration rMBP and I already have the only Mac desktop I would buy, the Mac Pro.
Click to expand...

The only thing iMac has to do with a "desktop" is that it sits on a desk.
 
WhiteIphone5 said:
if you could trade for a 27inch iMac would you?
is 8GB enough? do you wish you could've gone with 16GB
im between a 27 iMac i5 1TB fusion or Macbook Pro retina 15 with 16GB ram
ill be doing xcode and photoshop soon, so help me guys
Click to expand...

I have a 5 yo iMac that still works great--even with Leopard still installed on it so I didn't want another iMac--I wanted a laptop and I'm very happy with my rMBP. As for RAM, if I had bought from Apple I most likely would have gone ahead and added the extra 8GB RAM but I wanted the better deal for the base model on Amazon so I opted to sacrifice the extra RAM. 8GB is enough for me right now--will it still be in the future?--who can say. The extra RAM is the only upgrade I would recommend but everyone's needs are different.
 
Let me put it this way.

I had been absolutely in love with my MBA, but this rMBP is the best laptop I've ever used. It's wonderful. And yes, the RAM is fine.
 
Nope, as I prefer to build my own desktops so wouldn't buy an iMac. Plus the rMBP is my favourite computer that I have owned, so unbelievably thin for the power it packs and the screen is gorgeous.
 
WhiteIphone5 said:
lets say performance wise? portability is not an issue
Click to expand...

If that's the case, then definitely an iMac. With regards to RAM, the 27 in. iMac 's RAM is expandable, so you'd be going with 8GB of RAM to save money in any event. The iMac's 3.4GHz i7/680MX combo also blows the doors off of the price equivalent rMBP's 2.7 GHz i7/650M.

If portability is not an issue at all then there's really no reason to get the Macbook.
 
swerve147 said:
If that's the case, then definitely an iMac. With regards to RAM, the 27 in. iMac 's RAM is expandable, so you'd be going with 8GB of RAM to save money in any event. The iMac's 3.4GHz i7/680MX combo also blows the doors off of the price equivalent rMBP's 2.7 GHz i7/650M.

If portability is not an issue at all then there's really no reason to get the Macbook.
Click to expand...

The rMBP is all flash though... the Fusion drive doesn't completely replicated the speed and an all flash upgrade on the iMac is suuper expensive.
 
I am not sure if a fair comparison can even be made between the two. One is a mobile laptop and the other is a desktop that won't go anywhere. Their performance and functional design goals are widely different - I can't see a way to fairly compare them apples to apples. As several posters have said, the answer depends on what you want to do with a computer.
 
I went rMBP as a desktop replacement, but to me a laptop was always a toy -- it never had all my data on it, so I always had to go back to the main computer. The rMBP has (just) enough grunt and capacity to be a main computer, but on the 'desktop' I use my same old 30" monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
 
eezacque said:
Just curious, do you use it for anthing 3D?
Click to expand...

I don't have an iMac… I have a Mac Pro and yes I've used it for Maya (as a hobby), but I suck at it.

Or if you mean the rMBP, then no I've never tried it.

Ploki said:
The only thing iMac has to do with a "desktop" is that it sits on a desk.
Click to expand...

Well how else do you definite a desktop? :confused:

It certainly isn't portable, doesn't have a built-in battery, and hell doesn't work on my lap…
 
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