Should I upgrade to Macbook Pro 13"?

[scaz182]

Hi people,

I wonder if you can offer any advice?

I currently own a 17" Dell laptop which spends most of its time hooked up to a 24" monitor which makes having a large laptop quite pointless so I am now looking to buy a smaller, more portable system.

I've been looking into the Macbook Pro 13" 2.53GHz but am a little concerned as to whether I will adversely notice a reduction in performance between the Macbooks integrated 9400m and my Dells dedicated 8600m GT.

I will be mainly running Windows 7 64-bit and I don't play any games, I am however a web developer meaning I run relatively intensive software, I guess most notably Photoshop but, being 2D, I don't actually know how much GPU processing it uses? I also do a bit of video encoding but it really is very minimal.

I wonder if anybody has made a similar downgrade and whether you think a combination of a faster processor (Dell == 2.20Ghz / Macbook Pro == 2.53Ghz), an increase in FSB speed (Dell == 800Mhz / Macbook Pro == 1066Mhz) and an increase in RAM speed (Dell == DDR2 / Macbook Pro == DDR3) will make up for the move to integrated graphics?

Any thoughts or experiences would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Rich.

 

[Ace134blue]

Hi people,

I wonder if you can offer any advice?

I currently own a 17" Dell laptop which spends most of its time hooked up to a 24" monitor which makes having a large laptop quite pointless so I am now looking to buy a smaller, more portable system.

I've been looking into the Macbook Pro 13" 2.53GHz but am a little concerned as to whether I will adversely notice a reduction in performance between the Macbooks integrated 9400m and my Dells dedicated 8600m GT.

I will be mainly running Windows 7 64-bit and I don't play any games, I am however a web developer meaning I run relatively intensive software, I guess most notably Photoshop but, being 2D, I don't actually know how much GPU processing it uses? I also do a bit of video encoding but it really is very minimal.

I wonder if anybody has made a similar downgrade and whether you think a combination of a faster processor (Dell == 2.20Ghz / Macbook Pro == 2.53Ghz), an increase in FSB speed (Dell == 800Mhz / Macbook Pro == 1066Mhz) and an increase in RAM speed (Dell == DDR2 / Macbook Pro == DDR3) will make up for the move to integrated graphics?

Any thoughts or experiences would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Rich.

I think the macbook will do fine for what your doing. The 8600 is about 40% faster than the 9400,but if photoshop runs pretty fluid than you will be fine.

 

[JCP21]

I second a macbook, it would be perfect for you,

 

[Angelo95210]

Hi
MB will be fine. There is still a video card in it and even it's not powerful it will be enough for your needs.

 

[scaz182]

Okay, thanks for your advice, I'm very close to picking one up but I really need more reassurance that Photoshop will run smoothly, does anyone have a link to some benchmarks or videos comparing Photoshop performance (or performance in general) between the 9400m and 8600m GT, or know whether Photoshop actually relies on much GPU processing?

Also am I right in thinking there's an Apple keynote coming up before the end of the year? What sort of rumours have been going around for this, any word on a new Macbook Pro or a price drop?

Cheers

Rich.

 

[kate-willbury]

Okay, thanks for your advice, I'm very close to picking one up but I really need more reassurance that Photoshop will run smoothly, does anyone have a link to some benchmarks or videos comparing Photoshop performance (or performance in general) between the 9400m and 8600m GT, or know whether Photoshop actually relies on much GPU processing?

Also am I right in thinking there's an Apple keynote coming up before the end of the year? What sort of rumours have been going round for this, any word on a new Macbook Pro or a price drop?

Cheers

Rich.

only cs4 and up uses gpu assistance.

i highly doubt you will get much improvement doing web dev on a mac. long gone are the days when macs were considered the industry standard. nowadays they are pretty much the same thing (actually pcs are better since they can actually run photoshop in 64-bit). either way the gpu difference will be very minimal in terms of photoshop.

fat chance on mac price drops. why are you bothering to get a mac just to run windows 7 64-bit on it? you could easily get a cheaper laptop with superior specs to the mbp.

 

[MacKiddyWiddy]

the macbook will more then amazingly suit your needs, and whatever anyone says, it is powerful enough

 

[JCP21]

the macbook is powerful enough for you i would second that

 

[Andy348]

Okay, thanks for your advice, I'm very close to picking one up but I really need more reassurance that Photoshop will run smoothly, does anyone have a link to some benchmarks or videos comparing Photoshop performance (or performance in general) between the 9400m and 8600m GT, or know whether Photoshop actually relies on much GPU processing?

Also am I right in thinking there's an Apple keynote coming up before the end of the year? What sort of rumours have been going around for this, any word on a new Macbook Pro or a price drop?

Cheers

Rich.

November keynotes are most likely (99.9%) for desktops, it's been that way forever. However, if you've seen the Mac Discussion (above), there have been some "leaked" information about a new plastic MacBook that's thinner.

I don't think they'll come out with a new 13" MBP for a good 6 months.

 

[scaz182]

Okay, cheers for the advice, I think I'm going to go ahead and purchase the Macbook pro 2.53ghz in the week, especially as I found out I can get the educational discount through a friend.

When is the keynote? To keep some differentiation I wouldn’t imagine they'd upgrade the Macbook (plastic) to anything nearing the power of the Macbook Pro 13" would they? Surely they'd head more in the direction of Netbooks?