Sanity check: Swap Mid-2012 MBP for new 2015 rMBP? Main use: Lightroom

[schneenagels]

Guys, I seek out your advice.

My 15" MBP (Mid 2012, 4x 2,7Ghz i7, 8 Gig RAM) is getting rusty and started to randomly just die down, when I lift it the wrong way.

Now I do have the spare money to throw it at a new rMBP 13" with max Stats (i7, 16 Gig, 1TB), but like to spend wisely.

My main use of the laptop is: Lightroom editing (with external display, hobby), connecting it to my TV for movies, heavy Excel-spreadsheet (Work) and I travel A LOT with it. In most scenarios where I need screen-real-estate, I have an external monitor available, on the road I assume I will appreciate the compact size/weight more than an 15" screen.

What would you do? The Geekbenchperformance of both are almost identical single core and about 50% WORSE (4-core vs. 2-core) for the new 13" in comparison to my old rusty machine. Does that make a real life difference in image editing?

I seek your sanity check.

Thanks a lot mates!

 

[cjmillsnun]

Guys, I seek out your advice.

My 15" MBP (Mid 2012, 4x 2,7Ghz i7, 8 Gig RAM) is getting rusty and started to randomly just die down, when I lift it the wrong way.

Now I do have the spare money to throw it at a new rMBP 13" with max Stats (i7, 16 Gig, 1TB), but like to spend wisely.

My main use of the laptop is: Lightroom editing (with external display, hobby), connecting it to my TV for movies, heavy Excel-spreadsheet (Work) and I travel A LOT with it. In most scenarios where I need screen-real-estate, I have an external monitor available, on the road I assume I will appreciate the compact size/weight more than an 15" screen.

What would you do? The Geekbenchperformance of both are almost identical single core and about 50% WORSE (4-core vs. 2-core) for the new 13" in comparison to my old rusty machine. Does that make a real life difference in image editing?

I seek your sanity check.

Thanks a lot mates!

Does your current MBP have a spinning disk or an SSD?

If it is a spinning disk, then an upgrade to an SSD may be your best bet.

 

[schneenagels]

Does your current MBP have a spinning disk or an SSD?

If it is a spinning disk, then an upgrade to an SSD may be your best bet.

It has a 500 Gig SSD from the aftermarket. New rMBP would be 1TB SSD. You can't ever have enough storage now, can you?

 

[yjchua95]

Guys, I seek out your advice.

My 15" MBP (Mid 2012, 4x 2,7Ghz i7, 8 Gig RAM) is getting rusty and started to randomly just die down, when I lift it the wrong way.

Now I do have the spare money to throw it at a new rMBP 13" with max Stats (i7, 16 Gig, 1TB), but like to spend wisely.

My main use of the laptop is: Lightroom editing (with external display, hobby), connecting it to my TV for movies, heavy Excel-spreadsheet (Work) and I travel A LOT with it. In most scenarios where I need screen-real-estate, I have an external monitor available, on the road I assume I will appreciate the compact size/weight more than an 15" screen.

What would you do? The Geekbenchperformance of both are almost identical single core and about 50% WORSE (4-core vs. 2-core) for the new 13" in comparison to my old rusty machine. Does that make a real life difference in image editing?

I seek your sanity check.

Thanks a lot mates!

It's a 2012 15" non-retina MBP, isn't it?

If you're uncertain about how well the rMBP performs, read this:http://bgr.com/2013/11/18/apple-13-inch-retina-macbook-pro-review-late-2013/

The rMBP 13" reviewed here is a late-2013 13" rMBP with 2.4GHz i5. 4GB RAM (yes, 4GB, not 8GB) and a 128GB SSD, yet it performs amazingly well considering its low specs.

 

[maflynn]

Guys, I seek out your advice.

My 15" MBP (Mid 2012, 4x 2,7Ghz i7, 8 Gig RAM) is getting rusty and started to randomly just die down, when I lift it the wrong way.

Sounds like there may be a hardware issue if lifting it up, causes something to happen.

Now I do have the spare money to throw it at a new rMBP 13" with max Stats (i7, 16 Gig, 1TB), but like to spend wisely.

I think you'll notice a speed difference, in so far that the 13" MBP has less cores and an iGPU. Plus I think you'll see a major difference in the screen real estate. You need to be sure that running lightroom on the smaller display is something that you can do and feel comfortable.

 

[schneenagels]

It's a 2012 15" non-retina MBP, isn't it?

If you're uncertain about how well the rMBP performs, read this:http://bgr.com/2013/11/18/apple-13-inch-retina-macbook-pro-review-late-2013/

The rMBP 13" reviewed here is a late-2013 13" rMBP with 2.4GHz i5. 4GB RAM (yes, 4GB, not 8GB) and a 128GB SSD, yet it performs amazingly well considering its low specs.

Yes, mine is non-retina. Thanks for the review, it helped me a lot, as his use case is very similar to mine. Pushed me into "buying"-direction (actually, I already bought it, I am just trying to decide, on whether to accept the parcel or refuse it and have it sent back).

Sounds like there may be a hardware issue if lifting it up, causes something to happen.

I think you'll notice a speed difference, in so far that the 13" MBP has less cores and an iGPU. Plus I think you'll see a major difference in the screen real estate. You need to be sure that running lightroom on the smaller display is something that you can do and feel comfortable.

Indeed. So one option is to have someone fix the hardware defect and keep the rusty one until (whenever that may be, Intel hasn't got the best track-record of keeping releases dates) the next rMBP-update arrives..

This strategy may actually lead to a performance increase. You suggest that the lack of dedicated graphics and 2 vs. 4 cores in new 13" rMBP will be an issue? I do not use the Laptop for gaming, mind you.

Which applications do REALLY benefit from the two additional cores? Or the other way round: Which applications will suffer from the move from 4 to 2 cores?

Thanks!

 

[dammerl]

Which applications do REALLY benefit from the two additional cores?

I have a 4-core Mac Mini and the only things where I really notice the additional cores are

• Video transcoding (with HandBrake for example)
• File compression (including image compression, e.g. with ImageOptim)

I can give 2 cores to Vmware Fusion; but I’m not sure if it really benefits much from that.

Anyway, if you do lots of video transcoding you’re better off delegating this to a second, cheap (or older) machine that can run these jobs day and night, without hampering your work on the main machine.

 

[Meister]

Now I do have the spare money to throw it at a new rMBP 13" with max Stats (i7, 16 Gig, 1TB), but like to spend wisely.
I seek your sanity check.

A bit overspeced, don't you think?
If you want to spend $$$ like that, just go with the maxed 15".

 

[geoelectric]

Sanity check: Swap Mid-2012 MBP for new 2015 rMBP? Main use: Lightroom

It has a 500 Gig SSD from the aftermarket. New rMBP would be 1TB SSD. You can't ever have enough storage now, can you?

At $500 for the upgrade to 1 TB, yes, you can. Get a fast external drive instead for media. For non-media, you won't fill close to half that drive.

 

[z31fanatic]

A bit overspeced, don't you think?
If you want to spend $$$ like that, just go with the maxed 15".

Agree with you. The i7 on the 13 is only a dual core. If he is willing to spend that much, he should just get the 15 with the better processor.

 

[schneenagels]

Agree with you. The i7 on the 13 is only a dual core. If he is willing to spend that much, he should just get the 15 with the better processor.

But THE main reason for me to jump at the 13" series is precisely that I travel a lot with it. The 15" I have is too heavy for me. But a Air has not enough power, I presume.

Regarding the 500 for the TB upgrade: That i out of discussion for me. My 500 Gig I have tam are constantly 90%+ filled.