Should I get the 2015 2.5ghz with the i7 4870hq over the 2014 2.8 with the i7 4980hq

[Ucshade]

Point is I don’t want any of the latest M1 chip but am okay with the design on this previous retina model. Could the 2015 be like a downgrade to the slightly higher cpu clock of the 2014

 

[Bigwaff]

I don't think you would notice any difference between the CPU performance in real world use between the two. For me, I would pick the later year model simply because of Monterey support. Unless you plan to OCLP, then I would research specific model support.

Maybe helpful.. maybe not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

https://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-c...cBookPro087&prod2=MacBookPro094&prod3=eMac003

 

[Ucshade]

I don't think you would notice any difference between the CPU performance in real world use between the two. For me, I would pick the later year model simply because of Monterey support. Unless you plan to OCLP, then I would research specific model support.

Maybe helpful.. maybe not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

https://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-c...cBookPro087&prod2=MacBookPro094&prod3=eMac003

But the 2014 did perform better on each benchmarks, wonder if the 2015 was really an upgrade to the 2014

 

[IconDRT]

I had both and the 2014 was my favorite. Family member still rolls with 2015+Big Sur. The 2014 was the last MacBook Pro to include an nVidia GPU if I recall correctly. I also like the physical TouchPad press instead of the haptic Force Touch. The storage in the 2015 is faster (PCIe 3.0 v. PCIe 2.0 in 2014) but not super noticeable. I will dig up my benchmark results tomorrow as I have a spreadsheet somewhere that has the same tests run on 2012 through 2019 MacBook Pros I’ve owned. It’ll run Big Sur just fine (assuming you aren’t concerned about security updates since Big Sur has about a month to go before Sonoma is released and Big Sur drops off support - and Monterey only buys you one more year of support). Also runs Linux like a champ.