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rMBP 13 for work... advice needed

M

marcociccone

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 29, 2014
66
21
Hi guys,

I actually have a MBA 13" mid-2014. I found it quite good, except for the resolution of the display and the animations (are a bit laggy after I upgraded to Yosemite). Apart from this I found it an excellent machine but... I need more horsepower to handle my daily tasks at work.

During the next weeks I'll move to AU for work, and I would like to switch to a rMBP 13 but I would need some advice on which configuration should I get. SSD is ok 128GB, but I don't know which CPU/RAM configuration could suit best for me.

My average workday involve 2 browsers opened with 5-7 opened tab each, multiple excel files opened, skype, mail, calendar, html editor, an http sniffer and dropbox. I'm always connected to a 24" HD external monitor...

I was wondering if rMBP 13" GPU can handle Yosemite with an external monitor smoothly because I noticed that my MBA sometimes stutters (e.g. when scrolling App Store or Safari).

I wouldn't go for the 15" since I move a lot...

Thank you for your advices.
 
I have a late 2013 retina macbook pro 2.6 Ghz, 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz, 512GB PCIe SSD.

Under Mac OS X i play minecraft and skype. i have multiple tabs open and it only laggs if i run 2 videos on youtube in the background.

On Windows 7 the native 2560x1600 resolution is quite laggy, put it down to 1680x1050 and its good.
Under windows 7 i play games like Battlefield 3, Far Cry 3 and Watch Dogs

So for work its really gonna be enough
 
It depends how much you want to future proof. Since you can't upgrade the memory or the SSD if you're planning on keeping the rMBP for a good while (4-6 years) you might want to upgrade the RAM to 16GB and SSD to 512GB. If you're a new machine once every 1-2 years 8GB and 256GB would be sufficient.
 
MacTCE said:
It depends how much you want to future proof. Since you can't upgrade the memory or the SSD if you're planning on keeping the rMBP for a good while (4-6 years) you might want to upgrade the RAM to 16GB and SSD to 512GB. If you're a new machine once every 1-2 years 8GB and 256GB would be sufficient.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm planning to keep it for at least 4 years, so I would go for 16GB RAM for sure. I don't know about the CPU instead...

How rMBP 13 behave in handling the max resolution + an external monitor? For me, one of the most important thing is the UX experience, I want something really smooth, this is what Apple accustomed to (don't know if this sentence is correct, sorry but I'm training my english :))
 
marcociccone said:
Thanks. I'm planning to keep it for at least 4 years, so I would go for 16GB RAM for sure. I don't know about the CPU instead...

How rMBP 13 behave in handling the max resolution + an external monitor? For me, one of the most important thing is the UX experience, I want something really smooth, this is what Apple accustomed to (don't know if this sentence is correct, sorry but I'm training my english :))
Click to expand...

I had a Late 2013 13" rMBP and I would hook up two external HP 27" monitors at work without an issue. Everything was very smooth.
 
MacTCE said:
I had a Late 2013 13" rMBP and I would hook up two external HP 27" monitors at work without an issue. Everything was very smooth.
Click to expand...

Thank you. So 2014 Iris GPU should be able to run Yosemite smoothly also with an external monitor.

Going back to the configuration, which CPU do you have? I have decided for a 128GB + ram 16GB. 128GB are enough since I make an intensive use of cloud storages (corporate servers, dropbox, icloud drive and google drive mostly).

My only concern now is the CPU. I don't really know if there is a difference between i5 base CPU or i7 since they're both dual core.
 
The usage you described is really light.
I have a hard time believing that your current mba can't handle them
 
Meister said:
The usage you described is really light.
I have a hard time believing that your current mba can't handle them
Click to expand...

I've not detailed what I use inside those safari/chrome tabs or excel files:
- I almost use heavy web apps, analytics and other tools - quite heavy;
- Other website opened are genrally heavy and full of flash content;
- With excel I crunch a lot of data (talking about multiple files with multiple sheets with 50.000+ lines, with macros, v.look up, and so on).

believe it or not the experience inside the browser is not smooth as I expect expecially when i scroll over websites or use expose. And then there is the display, but this is apart from my usage.
 
marcociccone said:
I've not detailed what I use inside those safari/chrome tabs or excel files:
- I almost use heavy web apps, analytics and other tools - quite heavy;
- Other website opened are genrally heavy and full of flash content;
- With excel I crunch a lot of data (talking about multiple files with multiple sheets with 50.000+ lines, with macros, v.look up, and so on).

believe it or not the experience inside the browser is not smooth as I expect expecially when i scroll over websites or use expose. And then there is the display, but this is apart from my usage.
Click to expand...
Have you used the activity monitor and istat to analyze why it's not smooth?
Fromm my experience what you described should run smooth.
 
Meister said:
You really should. You might upgrade and encounter the same problem.
Identify where you lack performance fisrt, then decide what to do. :)
Click to expand...

I have to agree with Meister here. I would determine where your performance issue and then decide on an upgrade. Nothing would be worse than updating your machine only to encounter the same issue.
 
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