rMBP vs MBP vs MBA for graphic designer

[Hexoic]

I just purchased a 15" rMBP myself and use it for a lot of graphic design work. I need my external monitor for screen real estate though. I replaced my old HP TN panel with an ASUS IPS 23". The retina screen makes this great display seem outdated lol. But it's still good.

The jump to a retina display is not as bad as people make it out to be. I thought things would look pixelated and blurred, but they don't. I designed a party flier on PS and the only difference is that the graphic looks smaller at actual size. Just zoom in like others said and you're good. Don't deprive yourself and get the retina MBP!

Thanks! Ah, but a flier presumably for print, so you'd have been working on pretty high dpi anyway, so if you have the retina-update for PS, it shouldn't have been pixely at all? Do you design graphics for web?

Remember, 'blurry' is a relative term. Things zoomed @2x are 'blurry' in that they look like what you're looking at this very moment. The text you're reading literally this second is 'blurred' in retina terms, but currently 'sharp' in your books.

I apologise for my sweeping statement about needing a monitor, but that quote you posted supported what I said - serious work requires a bigger monitor. You need screen real estate.

screen real estate is nice, but you don't need it. I know this because I've been doing everything on 13" for years and it works. It's not super-comfy, but it works just fine, especially when you're a 115 pound girl and you like to work and travel. But nothing is stopping me from getting an external display for home, seeing as these days I'm not nearly as nomadic.

Ok hold on. I'm under the impression that non-retina graphics on a retina screen don't just seem blurry by comparison to the wonder that is retina, but are objectively worse than if the same non-retina graphic was displayed on a non-retina screen. Though, it seems the extent of this "worseness" is described as everything from "nightmarish" to "barely noticeable" by different people. I think I'm going to have to find someone with a retina screen and photoshop who'll let me have a look in person.

I'm hoping that in a few years at most, this stops being an issue because web-design will be truly resolution-independent and many more people will be browsing the web on retina or retina-like displays.

get an external monitor and an ssd. you r current laptop will fly.

retina mbp is not there yet. it's just not worth it, but, anyone who owns it will refuse it.

mba is good for girls, not for graphic designer, sorry.

When you say it's not worth it, do you mean the price, or that there seem to be some display ghosting issues? I'm going to assume you didn't mean for the last part to be dripping in sexism, seeing as girl and designer are not mutually exclusive states.

My initial judgement on the MBA was right then. Some designers do use it, and I'm sure the top-spec MBA would put in a heroically valiant effort, but it's just not quite what I need.. especially since I would not be using it as a bare-bones just-to-run-photoshop-for-light-web-graphics machine which I think it'd actually do quite well, but also for my personal day to day use. It would be cruel.

If you read any of the posts in the thread, and understood the benefits of an SSD, you'd realise that her laptop won't "fly" by adding an SSD. The reason your laptop is now "flying" is because you're measuring performance solely on boot/app open speeds. You don't do any serious work on your MBP. I know that because I've got a 2009 2.8GHz C2D MBP with an SSD sitting right here (the model above yours) - sure, it boots and runs simple apps incredibly fast, but compared to my beastly iMac, it's terribly sluggish when doing any real work. It's a completely fresh install of OS X too.

The retina MBPs are "there". They're hugely successful products. The 13-inch is very feeble in my opinion, and I agree with you that it's probably on the limit of "there". The HD4000 graphics card is just an embarrassing proposition for a "pro" machine. The 15-inch models, however, are extremely powerful - even today.

What about female graphic designers (the OP)? Or are they not allowed Macs? Honestly, did you read your post before submitting it?

A MBA is not "for girls", it's for those who can afford a premium netbook/notebook and want the quality/assurance/ecosystem that Apple provides. It shouldn't be used as a professional workstation, and it's not marketed for that. It's purely an everyday laptop for Joe Bloggs to visit Facebook, write some Word documents, watch YouTube, perhaps do some very basic photo/video editing, and send some emails.

Don't fight, boys. Thanks for your observations about the SSD. I do think it would help some, but I get that there's no hardware upgrade you can do to just magically make a three year old machine perform as well as the current models.

Agree with the rMBP 13 statement. For my family, the rMBP 13 is being used almost exclusively by my wife as a glorified facebook machine. IMHO, the lack of quad core makes it too slow and barely above an 2012/2013 i7 equipped MBA in processing speed. Apple cheaped out on not providing a quad-core option despite Intel having the applicable same 35 watt TDP quad core Ivy Bridge available. My 2013 MBA loads apps quicker than my rMBP 15 courtesy of the PCIE SSD, but when number crunching starts, my rMBP 15 blows the i7 MBA out of the water.

If money is an issue, look at refurb rMBP 15, their prices are even going to drop even more when the Haswell versions come out. The Haswell rMBP 15 will not be much faster (if at all) cpu wise, and the GPU may even be a downgrade. The battery life will be the big upgrade only this year.

Just because it's being used as glorified Facebook machine doesn't mean it isn't capable of more. Admittedly I know nothing about this- but is there any chance this is similar to digital cameras- everyone's going by Megapixel and so the manufacturers are pressured to use ridiculously dense sensors to lure customers, at the expense of image quality- when what really counted was the lens. I remember a very similar debate when I was getting my 13" back in 2010- everyone was saying "bah it only has C2D, the 15" has Core i5/i7, you MUST get that, Apple cheaped out on the 13"!" and you know what, it turned out just fine.

Isn't there some more objective way of assessing this? Like, some benchmarks to measure graphics performance or something?

My god...

1.- my mbp13" is the top one of 2009. Yours is either a 15", or is not from 2009.

2.- I won't argue how fast an ssd is in this machine, BUT, I´m so sure you will agree that it must be A few galaxies faster that the OP current mechanical HDD, right?

3.- Retinas not there yet, same as first air models weren't there back them; such resolution needs lot of power, not available just yet. And don't forge the non upgradable ram. I would upgrade that macbook, and then get a mac mini, or an imac, or an air an a mini, before buying a retina. But hey, that's just me...

Cheers!!

For this month then, I'm going to wish really hard that they come out with dedicated graphics and 16GB of RAM for the 13" rMBA. I think 16 RAM wouldn't need to be upgraded for a long while, though I will very much miss the days where you could buy a mac with the smallest hard drive and ram and then easily upgrade them for half the cost. Damn you Apple.


ok, the benefits of SSD for my current one is debatable. But it sure would be an improvement for sure. If I do upgrade with an SSD, what's to stop me from enjoying the benefits (however great or small) for a while, and later keep using it by slapping it in an enclosure and using it a TimeMachine drive for whatever new machine I end up getting? I will definitely be getting one with an SSD, so it can't hurt to have an SSD backup drive to go with it, no?

The rMBP is nowhere near as bad as the MBA from 2008. For starters, the 1st gen MBA was much slower than other laptops that were available in that era due to heat and power constraints, they also had many teething issues with build quality. Otoh, the rMBP is one of the fastest and most powerful laptops when it was released. Yes, there's gaming laptops with 680MX, but they weigh 2-3x as much. A 512gb/16gb rMBP purchased last year is still very viable today. As Haswell is more of a 'sidegrade' in processing power and only a battery life upgrade, late 2013 haswell rMBP is not going to obsolete the ivy bridge models...

I also don't understand your 'needs more power' comment. Where is the rMBP 15 underpowered? Have you even used one lately? The only time it's been 'underpowered' is trying to game at native resolution. Other than that its the best MacBook I've ever had and other for weight and battery life, it destroys my 2013 MBA for everything else.

Well, the display ghosting was a rather big hiccup, and I heard something about case creak too. Maybe it wasn't so bad overall but there were several stories about people having to get 7 or 9 replacements before they got a display that didn't ghost- which makes me think that a lot of people also had a slightly problematic display but they just didn't notice. But hopefully they have that under control now.
But certainly the rMBP is a great machine, I don't doubt that.. but for me it still comes down to being able to see my work the same as everyone without a retina screen, and it seems that's something I have to test in person.

Let's hold tight and see what happens this month. Thank all of you guys so much for taking the time to help out, I got so much to think about. I apologise for my nitpicking and indecision.. I've been putting this one off for a while

 

[AXs]

You started a thread to ask for honest advice... you got it, and started disagreeing with everyone, while contradicting yourself numerously.

Don't see what your point is. I guess just buy what makes you happy. Simple.

 

[bill-p]

Ah, it's not just the screen.. it's the lightness too. My model seems downright chubby in comparison, heck it weighs the same as the 15" rMBP. Don't look at me like that, MBP, I still love you, but I have NEEDS...

You remind me again of why I decided to lose 40 lbs over 3 months of summer...

...and somehow succeeded.

So my heart is set but my mind is telling me to be loyal? wouldn't it be the other way around, with the mind being set and the heart wanting to be loyal?.. I kid you. I'd totally make sure my MBP gets a good new home...

The heart is the sentimental piece. It's the mind that thinks logical. I think you're in love with the rMBP, but your logical mind is holding you back from that relationship simply because... well, it's not that much of an upgrade from a logical standpoint. Only that the screen and the weight are the improvements.

But sometimes, it's the appearance that really counts. Especially seeing as you're a graphic designer.

oh sweet, thanks so much, that's exactly the info I needed, because I figured, mapping 1 pixel as 4 should be straightforward, why do I hear designers complaining about this and saying that they took their new rMBP's back to the store. Can my MBP drive (hijack, so to speak) the display of a friends rMBP? because then I could test exactly what this looks like on my own work. That'd be very helpful. Maybe this perceived "blurryness" is riddiculously noticeable to trained eyes, or maybe some designers were just being over-dramatic about it.

Mapping 1 pixel to 4 is straight forward. Except when the gap between those pixels is too narrow, and one pixel just sort of blends into the next.

It's not so hard to test out. Just design a non-Retina graphic, then transfer it to a Retina MacBook and zoom to 200%. You can do this with Preview.

Then you can compare the same graphic on your computer and your friend's rMBP.

I think you'll find that the Retina screen is more true and natural, but it'll be less sharp than the non-Retina screen displaying the same thing. Why? Because the non-Retina screen is actually... less accurate with its 1-to-1 pixel mapping in comparison. That's due to the bigger gap between each pixel.

I have perfect vision and the blurriness doesn't bother me, but some people just make a big deal out of it, I guess.

If you hate the blurriness so much, switching the resolution from the original 1440x900 effective desktop to 1920x1200 essentially eliminates it.

 

[Hexoic]

You started a thread to ask for honest advice... you got it, and started disagreeing with everyone, while contradicting yourself numerously.

Don't see what your point is. I guess just buy what makes you happy. Simple.

I'm sorry I don't know what you mean. I did just apologise for annoying everyone with my indecision, so I don't understand what you mean..? If my memory serves me right, the only thing I disagreed about was not needing a big screen to do design work. It's a subjective matter and it's totally fine to have a differing opinion. Where did I contradict myself..? Also, I didn't get a unanimous instruction on what to buy from this thread, in fact there is almost no purchase decision I could now make that would not go against something someone said at some point on this thread. And that's okay. There was a debate about the differences between MBA, MBP and 13" vs 15" rMBP, and the benefits (or not) of upgrading to SSD. It was super helpful. I don't understand what you expect from me, I wasn't complaining!

You remind me again of why I decided to lose 40 lbs over 3 months of summer...

...and somehow succeeded.

Hey, congrats! keep it up-- or down, I guess =)

The heart is the sentimental piece. It's the mind that thinks logical. I think you're in love with the rMBP, but your logical mind is holding you back from that relationship simply because... well, it's not that much of an upgrade from a logical standpoint. Only that the screen and the weight are the improvements.

But sometimes, it's the appearance that really counts. Especially seeing as you're a graphic designer.

hehe ok yeah, it does make sense.

Mapping 1 pixel to 4 is straight forward. Except when the gap between those pixels is too narrow, and one pixel just sort of blends into the next.

that's sorta what I meant about it not being completely straightforward.

It's not so hard to test out. Just design a non-Retina graphic, then transfer it to a Retina MacBook and zoom to 200%. You can do this with Preview.

Then you can compare the same graphic on your computer and your friend's rMBP.

..ah.. about that. he's sorta 1400km away right now, but I'm sure I can find another one. Also, damn I forgot preview actually has percentage zoom. School'd.

I think you'll find that the Retina screen is more true and natural, but it'll be less sharp than the non-Retina screen displaying the same thing. Why? Because the non-Retina screen is actually... less accurate with its 1-to-1 pixel mapping in comparison. That's due to the bigger gap between each pixel.

I have perfect vision and the blurriness doesn't bother me, but some people just make a big deal out of it, I guess.

If you hate the blurriness so much, switching the resolution from the original 1440x900 effective desktop to 1920x1200 essentially eliminates it.

Hmm I'm not sure turning up the resolution is the solution if I want to see everything like other web users though :/ But I will give it a go when I get my hands one an rMBP. Thank you so much!

in the mean time, let's cross our fingers for dedicated graphics and/or more RAM on the 13" model..

 

[Lolito]

seriously, get yourself an ssd for your current machine, it will fly. mine did. save yourself a few thousand dollars, for the moment,and get an external monitor. you will thank me later.

 

[Hexoic]

seriously, get yourself an ssd for your current machine, it will fly. mine did. save yourself a few thousand dollars, for the moment,and get an external monitor. you will thank me later.

Thanks Lolito- I think I will probably do that, for now anyway.

 

[abraxian]

People way overcredit screen estate.

Can't speak for Graphic Design (although personally I've never had a problem...) but professional photographers need nothing more than 13" and I've seen the proof!

 

[Hexoic]

People way overcredit screen estate.

Can't speak for Graphic Design (although personally I've never had a problem...) but professional photographers need nothing more than 13" and I've seen the proof!

Yup, I agree. Personally I think designing for web on a 13" screen is fine. For doing big print projects it would get a bit tedious. Equally, for web development you'd probably want to split your screen between the code and the browser preview. But in the end it depends on how much priority you put on portability.

I did some more research and found that there are in fact more designers using top-spec Air's than I thought. They say it does the job adequately, performance-wise. No good for rendering video, but certainly enough for web graphics in photoshop/illustrator.
HOWEVER, the display is just not up to it- the color accuracy isn't good enough. Which would be fine if I did most of my work with an external display.. but at the moment I don't. Damn you apple... give me the retina's specs and lightness only without the retina screen plz?

 

[DavidG328]

Damn you apple... give me the retina's specs and lightness only without the retina screen plz?

Is 1 lb. really a make or break though? Why not just get a base cMBP, and throw your own SSD and RAM in there to save a few bucks? Sure, it's an entire pound heavier, but really?

I'm in the same boat as you so this thread was pretty interesting. I am actually trying NOT to go with the rMBP, but I wonder if that's what I need. I really do need a little more screen real estate than my 13" cMBP offers, but I can fix that with a monitor I suppose.

 

[Hexoic]

Is 1 lb. really a make or break though? Why not just get a base cMBP, and throw your own SSD and RAM in there to save a few bucks? Sure, it's an entire pound heavier, but really?

I'm in the same boat as you so this thread was pretty interesting. I am actually trying NOT to go with the rMBP, but I wonder if that's what I need. I really do need a little more screen real estate than my 13" cMBP offers, but I can fix that with a monitor I suppose.

Does a pound make a difference.. well, that really depends- it's a mix up of your own strength and how much you travel and how much screen real estate you need. But yes, I really think I'd appreciate the difference.

sometime last year I put a dvd in my drive and got a sign saying something about setting the region code. Bewildered, I checked the dvd case- it WAS in my region code. and then it dawned on me- I had owned the MBP for about 2 years and had never inserted a dvd. I think I can count the times I've used the optical drive on one hand, and none of it was essential. It would irk me to have to buy a laptop with all that wasted space.

and.. yeah, "I can fix that with a monitor I suppose" applies to both the Air and the Retina MBP- that's all well and good but I want to work with the laptop solo.

urgh. And when are those september updates coming? :/

 

[andy9l]

And when are those september updates coming? :/

Million dollar question. I'm going to be irritated if there isn't anything 'special' with this update. If it is equal performance with better battery life...urgh.

I've been waiting since April time to get a new fully-spec'd 13" Haswell rMBP and an updated 27" Thunderbolt display. Not a peep about updates for either.

After another iPhone disappointment, I'm not holding my breathe.

 

[Hexoic]

Million dollar question. I'm going to be irritated if there isn't anything 'special' with this update. If it is equal performance with better battery life...urgh.

I've been waiting since April time to get a new fully-spec'd 13" Haswell rMBP and an updated 27" Thunderbolt display. Not a peep about updates for either.

After another iPhone disappointment, I'm not holding my breathe.

Isn't that what Haswell is..? slightly better performance, but better battery life? Sounds alright to me, depends where your priorities are.

you found the iphone disappointing..?

 

[andy9l]

Isn't that what Haswell is..? slightly better performance, but better battery life? Sounds alright to me, depends where your priorities are.

you found the iphone disappointing..?

Yeah, it is. But a refresh should be more than a processor change.

I want them to come up with something really impressive. It's been too long. Yes, their products are mostly second-to-none still, but there's not been anything that has inspired awe. That's why you're seeing complaints on the net, stories about Apple "not being able to innovate" in the news, tech-wise people moving to Android handsets, etc..

Yeah, I was a little disappointed. My office of designers, developers and other relatively tech-knowledgeable people were too. It's not that it's not a brilliant product - it's just that it's the same, once again. No daring changes, and unfortunately no surprises from the leaks.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still sacking my Samsung S3 on release day for an iPhone 5S...but I'll likely be getting rid of my 5S in 12 months for the 6, hoping for some change!

 

[Hexoic]

Yeah, it is. But a refresh should be more than a processor change.

I want them to come up with something really impressive. It's been too long. Yes, their products are mostly second-to-none still, but there's not been anything that has inspired awe. That's why you're seeing complaints on the net, stories about Apple "not being able to innovate" in the news, tech-wise people moving to Android handsets, etc..

Yeah, I was a little disappointed. My office of designers, developers and other relatively tech-knowledgeable people were too. It's not that it's not a brilliant product - it's just that it's the same, once again. No daring changes, and unfortunately no surprises from the leaks.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still sacking my Samsung S3 on release day for an iPhone 5S...but I'll likely be getting rid of my 5S in 12 months for the 6, hoping for some change!

Maybe it's an innovation to not just change everything for the sake of it ? If it's not broken don't fix it. Sure, I'm also thirsting and expecting to see amazing things.. stuff where I'd say "woah! That's so brilliant and obvious yet nobody thought to do it like this before!".. but I'd rather apple concentrate on doing what is right, rather than doing something that seems "new" just for the sake of it. There's just not much else to fix with the MBPs, in my opinion. The MBA could use a better display (don't care about hires, but at least make the color saturation/accuracy/display glare/etc better).. but that isn't going to be updated till.. next summer?

 

[DavidG328]

Does a pound make a difference.. well, that really depends- it's a mix up of your own strength and how much you travel and how much screen real estate you need. But yes, I really think I'd appreciate the difference.

sometime last year I put a dvd in my drive and got a sign saying something about setting the region code. Bewildered, I checked the dvd case- it WAS in my region code. and then it dawned on me- I had owned the MBP for about 2 years and had never inserted a dvd. I think I can count the times I've used the optical drive on one hand, and none of it was essential. It would irk me to have to buy a laptop with all that wasted space.

and.. yeah, "I can fix that with a monitor I suppose" applies to both the Air and the Retina MBP- that's all well and good but I want to work with the laptop solo.

urgh. And when are those september updates coming? :/

So I went and played around with a 13" rMBP yesterday, and yeah, I'll eat my words. The pound does make a difference. I'm in the portability boat and am wondering if I should get the 15" or go with the 13" retina. It's the power of the 15" that I like (geekbench scores seem to be higher on the 15" than with the base 27" iMac), but I enjoy the portability of the 13". It's scary not being able to upgrade RAM, and I'd like something that lasts 3 or 4 years.

 

[Hexoic]

So I went and played around with a 13" rMBP yesterday, and yeah, I'll eat my words. The pound does make a difference. I'm in the portability boat and am wondering if I should get the 15" or go with the 13" retina. It's the power of the 15" that I like (geekbench scores seem to be higher on the 15" than with the base 27" iMac), but I enjoy the portability of the 13". It's scary not being able to upgrade RAM, and I'd like something that lasts 3 or 4 years.

The thing I keep hearing is that unless you're video editing or gaming, the 13" will do fine. Looking at benchmarks makes the difference between the 13" and 15" versions seem huge. The instinctive reaction is "oh gosh, the 15" is so much faster.. the 13" must be slowww".. But what you're forgetting is that it's only slow by comparison.. for most people, the power of the 15" is total overkill.
In fact, even the Air does surprisingly well- it's not necessarily just for moms and bloggers.

BUT- consider this.. the 15" rMBP weighs almost the same (actually slightly less!) than my 13" MBP, and I am a wimpy girl who has been travelling with this thing for years. So, the 15" rMBP is still pretty darn portable all things considered.
But no matter how light they make the 15", it still has a certain desk/lap footprint. This is why I will be sticking with the 13" form factor.

 

[Hexoic]

bump. 13" retina with Iris graphics, 1TB SSD and 16GB RAM... here I come. They really did almost everything I wanted.. I heard the lighter and thinner rumour, but I still didn't expect it to actually happen. Better facetime camera wouldn't have hurt. Not charging €200 extra for 16 ram would've been decent. But they can get away with it.

Now I just have to decide between 2.6 and 2.8 Ghz.. and on a proper external display for doing non-retina work. :/

 

[andy9l]

bump. 13" retina with Iris graphics, 1TB SSD and 16GB RAM... here I come. They really did almost everything I wanted.. I heard the lighter and thinner rumour, but I still didn't expect it to actually happen. Better facetime camera wouldn't have hurt. Not charging €200 extra for 16 ram would've been decent. But they can get away with it.

Now I just have to decide between 2.6 and 2.8 Ghz.. and on a proper external display for doing non-retina work. :/

Sounds familiar! Although I won't be forking out for the 1TB SSD. I'm such a lightweight computer guy I'm living on my iMac with <45GB used of the internal 256GB SSD, and <200GB used of the 1TB HDD (media drive, primarily). Time Machine backups are quick, at least!

As for the 2.6 vs. 2.8 decision – it's £180 (probably €200?) for a 3-5% increase in single/multi core performance. Perhaps it's slightly more future proof, though.

Regarding an external display, I was disappointed Apple didn't update the TBDs. I've been looking at those LG 29" super widescreen displays…but I'm not convinced. I bought a Samsung phone about a year ago, suffice to say I'm now back on a 5s – I have limited faith in the quality of products from competitors, and their compatibility with Apple products.

 

[Hexoic]

Sounds familiar! Although I won't be forking out for the 1TB SSD. I'm such a lightweight computer guy I'm living on my iMac with <45GB used of the internal 256GB SSD, and <200GB used of the 1TB HDD (media drive, primarily). Time Machine backups are quick, at least!

As for the 2.6 vs. 2.8 decision – it's £180 (probably €200?) for a 3-5% increase in single/multi core performance. Perhaps it's slightly more future proof, though.

Regarding an external display, I was disappointed Apple didn't update the TBDs. I've been looking at those LG 29" super widescreen displays…but I'm not convinced. I bought a Samsung phone about a year ago, suffice to say I'm now back on a 5s – I have limited faith in the quality of products from competitors, and their compatibility with Apple products.

is it really just 3-5% though? Are there benchmarks out yet?.. :/

huh interesting, I always sorta assumed Apple's displays were a total rip off without much benefit over the competition other than a nice design that looks pretty on your desk next to your other apple things. The last display I had from apple came with the 'ol PowerMac 6400 or some such. Heck, you can get a base model iMac for like 200 bucks more, granted it is smaller but still... Maybe thunderbolt does offer some more advantage than I'm aware of.

 

[andy9l]

is it really just 3-5% though? Are there benchmarks out yet?.. :/

huh interesting, I always sorta assumed Apple's displays were a total rip off without much benefit over the competition other than a nice design that looks pretty on your desk next to your other apple things. The last display I had from apple came with the 'ol PowerMac 6400 or some such. Heck, you can get a base model iMac for like 200 bucks more, granted it is smaller but still... Maybe thunderbolt does offer some more advantage than I'm aware of.

Sorry I should have added a source there. Here you go, these are the stats I based my maths on.

2.6 single core: 2856
2.8 single core: 3000
% difference: 4.8%

2.6 multi core: 5954
2.8 multi core: 6189
% difference: 3.8%

Ha, you're probably right about the TBDs, but they do look nice, and they offer expandability of your Mac using Thunderbolt speeds. Plus, compatibility will obviously be second to none.

 

[Hexoic]

Sorry I should have added a source there. Here you go, these are the stats I based my maths on.

2.6 single core: 2856
2.8 single core: 3000
% difference: 4.8%

2.6 multi core: 5954
2.8 multi core: 6189
% difference: 3.8%

Ha, you're probably right about the TBDs, but they do look nice, and they offer expandability of your Mac using Thunderbolt speeds. Plus, compatibility will obviously be second to none.

true. But I just think the price is ridiculous. Maybe it's one of those things where you have to use it to know its value.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1658091/
they're talking about 20% differences here.. what is up with that?

 

[andy9l]

true. But I just think the price is ridiculous. Maybe it's one of those things where you have to use it to know its value.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1658091/
they're talking about 20% differences here.. what is up with that?

Nice find. I too am in the same situation as you with regards to processor choice, so I'll give this article a proper read when I get back from work tonight. Thanks for posting

 

[Hexoic]

Nice find. I too am in the same situation as you with regards to processor choice, so I'll give this article a proper read when I get back from work tonight. Thanks for posting

well, the link they've got is talking about the MBA.. but same diff? *shrug*

 

[andy9l]

well, the link they've got is talking about the MBA.. but same diff? *shrug*

Not necessarily. The difference in clock speed between the i5 and i7 on the MBA is considerably greater than the difference on the MBP. Especially when it comes to Turbo-boost.

I'd imagine this is the reason for the better performance boost with the MBA. I still believe performance boost is 3-5% in the MBP, but I may be wrong!

 

[Hexoic]

Not necessarily. The difference in clock speed between the i5 and i7 on the MBA is considerably greater than the difference on the MBP. Especially when it comes to Turbo-boost.

I'd imagine this is the reason for the better performance boost with the MBA. I still believe performance boost is 3-5% in the MBP, but I may be wrong!

hm okay.. yeah, you might be right then though. I don't know, I just sorta assumed (aka hoped) that $200 has got to make more than a 5% difference.

does this help? http://www.primatelabs.com/blog/2013/10/retina-macbook-pro-benchmarks/
sorry, I'm totally useless when it comes to figuring out what this stuff actually means in the real world.. I look at a bunch of numbers and bars and models and my eyes glaze over...