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rmbp 13" i7 upgrade?

T

tomtakesphotos

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 19, 2013
28
0
Hey, I am looking to get a 13" retina mbp. I've been considering the late 2012 but upgrading it to the 2.9ghz i7 processor. I'm happy with 128gb SSD as most of my stuff is always on an external drive.

I'll be using it for Lightroom and Photoshop mainly. Nothing too intensive but the occassional batch processing of actions in PS. Now and again I'd like to be able to do a bit of casual World of Warcraft too, but I'm not too fussed about turning down the resolution and graphics to get an acceptable framerate.

Can anyone advise me whether I'd really notice the difference between the 2.5ghz i5 and the 2.9ghz i7 for this kind of use? This being probably the most expensive thing I've ever bought - I want to get it right.
 
tomtakesphotos said:
Thanks for the reply. However it doesn't seem to be an option to upgrade to 16gb of RAM through the online store. Is there another way?
Click to expand...

The only way to get a 13" rMBP with 16 GB of RAM is to wait for the next gen product, when Apple will hopefully put in the BTO option for the 13". Can you wait?
 
B... said:
The only way to get a 13" rMBP with 16 GB of RAM is to wait for the next gen product, when Apple will hopefully put in the BTO option for the 13". Can you wait?
Click to expand...

I can wait, but I'd rather not because I'm impatient. I'm currently using a windows laptop, I used geekbench on it and got a score of around 2200. It takes over a minute to load a full resolution photograph (RAW) in lightroom and it makes me want to defenestrate it quite often!

So I'm quite set on the current range but am just unsure on this processor upgrade. Thanks for replying though :)
 
tomtakesphotos said:
I can wait, but I'd rather not because I'm impatient. I'm currently using a windows laptop, I used geekbench on it and got a score of around 2200. It takes over a minute to load a full resolution photograph (RAW) in lightroom and it makes me want to defenestrate it quite often!

So I'm quite set on the current range but am just unsure on this processor upgrade. Thanks for replying though :)
Click to expand...

The i7 would be a great addition but coming from a 2200 this machine (around 7200 for the i5, 8200 for the i7) would be a powerhouse. If you have the money, there is no reason not to unless you want the money to be put toward a case or a camera lens or something. I think the i5 should be fine.
 
I have the 13" Retina with the i7. Having a hyper-threaded dual core proc makes you feel like you're a cool kid with a quad core cpu. Sort of. :)
 
chrise2 said:
I have the 13" Retina with the i7. Having a hyper-threaded dual core proc makes you feel like you're a cool kid with a quad core cpu. Sort of. :)
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Hahahaha! It'll be nice to be a cool kid for once ;)

Does the i5 not do hyperthreading? Is that the main difference?
 
WhiteIphone5 said:
Only i7
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Actually that's not true. The mobile versions of the i5 such as the ones found in MacBook Pro's feature hyper threading. They have two cores (physical processors) and 4 logical cores (threads) due to hyper threading.

The i7's found in MacBook Pro 15"'s are quad-core and feature 8 logical cores due to hyper threading.

However, the i7's in the MacBook Pro 13"'s/Airs remain dual core with 4 logical cores due to hyper threading. In my opinion, it's not really worth the upgrade as you're not gaining any cores, you're not gaining hyper threading (as you already have it with the i5) and the speed boost is pretty negligible.

Desktop versions of the i5 do not feature hyper threading - they are quad core processors with 4 addressable threads.

See here: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processor-comparison/compare-intel-processors.html

This is a very common misconception amongst mobile i5's and I hope now you understand a little better!
 
Last edited:
jNSK said:
Actually that's not true. The mobile versions of the i5 such as the ones found in MacBook Pro's feature hyper threading. They have two cores (physical processors) and 4 logical cores (threads) due to hyper threading.

The i7's found in MacBook Pro 15"'s are quad-core and feature 8 logical cores due to hyper threading.

However, the i7's in the MacBook Pro 13"'s/Airs remain dual core with 4 logical cores due to hyper threading. In my opinion, it's not really worth the upgrade as you're not gaining any cores, you're not gaining hyper threading (as you already have it with the i5) and the speed boost is pretty negligible.

Desktop versions of the i5 do not feature hyper threading - they are quad core processors with 4 addressable threads.

See here: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processor-comparison/compare-intel-processors.html

This is a very common misconception amongst mobile i5's and I hope now you understand a little better!
Click to expand...


Ahhhh gotcha
 
in terms of a percentage, how much faster is the i7 compare to the i5 on the 13" Retina on a full usage and low usage (just browsing)
 
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