Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I figured he was doing it to get 'niceness points' with my Mom. :p

No, they won't outpace the Sandy Bridge processors. I only use a few games, OnLive, Photoshop Essentials 10, Mail.app, Safari, Chrome, Spotify, etc.

Just out of curiosity, could the 13 inch MBP run Final Cut Pro X?

Yes, the 13"MBP base is a Core i5 2.4 Ghz with 4GB ram. FCX requires only a Core 2 Duo processor with an Open CL GPU. The 13" far exceeds the system requirements.
 
Coming from an 15" Early 2008 2.4Ghz Penryn MBP to a Late 2011 2.4 i7 SandyBridge I can assure you the difference in performance is staggering, the new MBP out performs the 2008 machine by several magnitudes; buy now you won't be disappointed.

If Apple produce a MBP in 2012 with a major redesign it may be wise to wait until they iron everything out for the first 6 - 12 months. Personally I would go with the 15" truly a desktop replacement :apple:

Well, but this is going to a MBP 13, which only has a dual-core Sandy Bridge.

You went from a Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz to a quad-core Core i7 2.4GHz, which can Turbo Boost to 3.5GHz, so of course the difference is noticeable! It practically doubled your CPU count and ran at even faster speed.

If it's to a 15" 2011, then yes, I would agree that there is a noticeable difference.

The dual-core i5 2.4GHz in the MBP 13 only Turbo Boost to 3GHz, so it's not that much faster than a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo. Or at least not as much as when you compare the same C2D to that quad-core i7.

Benchmarks say you're pretty wrong. Especially when it comes to graphics.

No, benchmark proves my point. i7 3770 is at most a 25% over i7 2600 but only in Excel. It's on average a 10% improvement. But the difference in architecture would translate to a $200 - $300 difference in price... when it's finally on Macbooks. Personally, I think a 10% improvement in processing performance is not worth the investment if it's practically the same machine that I can get job done on.

Also graphics comparison is good and all, but it's against an Intel HD 2000 as pointed out. The MBP 13 currently has an Intel HD 3000, which is more or less also 50% faster than the Intel HD 2000 depending on the situation. Not to say HD 4000 is slower, but I don't think it's that significant a jump (not 50% at least).
 
Final Purchase Decision

I need to make my final decision on if I want to get my MacBook Pro 15" now, or wait until the refresh. I guess I can get by on Windows until the refresh. Based on the speculated improvements in graphics, and Ivy Bridge, would waiting until April seem logical?
 
I need to make my final decision on if I want to get my MacBook Pro 15" now, or wait until the refresh. I guess I can get by on Windows until the refresh. Based on the speculated improvements in graphics, and Ivy Bridge, would waiting until April seem logical?

Did you check the Buyer's Guide? I always look at this before I purchase any Apple hardware. Right now, it's neutral which to me basically means buy if you absolutely have to. Otherwise, just wait. I would wait unless there is some dire need for it to me have it sooner than later.

https://buyersguide.macrumors.com//
 
I checked it last week, and it was green!

Ah okay. Around this time of the year, you never really know what's going on with Apple. They are a fickle company. I bought mine on May even though I was really wanting to get it on February. The updated specs and hardware was definitely worth it. Just saying that Apple will most likely change the specs of the MBP. If it's been more 3/4 of a year since it's release I don't think it's a good idea to buy, unless you have no desire to keep up with current technology. Apple almost updates every year with updated hardware and specs. I think that's worth waiting for, especially if it's nearing the previous release date.
 
do you need a new computer? do u mind holdig ff till aprilish to see what happens?

its your call not ours
 
I ordered my MPB when it was Green on the buyers guide (1 week ago). The MBP was just updated over two months ago, I needed a new computer so I purchased it. I will be extremely happy with it for 3 or more years. If a new one does come out in 5 or more months, in less then a year after that, it will be updated again. You can never catch up, I say if you need one just buy it. You will love it.
 
If I wasn't in a hurry I would wait just for getting USB 3.0.
Such an expensive new Notebook without USB 3.0 is just ridiculous. Thunderbolt and FW800 just don't make up for it both are way to expensive for Flashdrives and other external storage and FW800 not even fast enough for modern HDDs. USB is cheap and fast and I would wait and if it is just for that.

Although the clock speed increases of the planned Ivy Bridge is quite meagre, 22nm TG should save quite a bit of power and translate to better battery life and cooler notebooks. 50-60% more GPU speed isn't too bad either.

4k Ultra HD resolution is nice too. Imagine the screens you can attach to such a notebook. That is 4 times 1080p resolution.
 
UPDATE!!!!!

I thank all of you for the advice on the 13 inch. I did A LOT of heavy thinking, and agreed with some other people I need to get a 15''. I'm getting the base model 15" with the 512MB video card. I'm 75% sure I'm wanting to wait until April. I might have to anyway. Remember how I said my Mom wanted to pay the extra money for me to get a 15"? I might have to wait until she gets her tax return. So, I guess if I Have to wait until around April for her to get her tax refund, it'd be logical to wait for the new models?
 
UPDATE!!!!!

I thank all of you for the advice on the 13 inch. I did A LOT of heavy thinking, and agreed with some other people I need to get a 15''. I'm getting the base model 15" with the 512MB video card. I'm 75% sure I'm wanting to wait until April. I might have to anyway. Remember how I said my Mom wanted to pay the extra money for me to get a 15"? I might have to wait until she gets her tax return. So, I guess if I Have to wait until around April for her to get her tax refund, it'd be logical to wait for the new models?
Yeah, 13 weeks Sunday until April 8th. Not long to go now.

I wonder if they will make the MBPs thinner.
 
I wonder if they will make the MBPs thinner.

I've been wondering that myself. I think it'd be nice to have a thin 'prosumer' MacBook, but I wouldn't like having to take my Samsung External DVD drive with me, if I needed to use a disc. It'd still be really slick having a really thin notebook with almost the same amount of power as an iMac.
 
Ivy Bridge is a die shrink, not an architectural update and even then, the TDPs on the mobile line aren't an improvement. Ivy Bridge also brings USB 3.0 as standard to the Intel controller but I wouldn't be surprised if Apple left it out.

Look at the leaked specifications, see anything you like? If not, buy not.
 
Ivy Bridge is a die shrink, not an architectural update and even then, the TDPs on the mobile line aren't an improvement. Ivy Bridge also brings USB 3.0 as standard to the Intel controller but I wouldn't be surprised if Apple left it out.

Look at the leaked specifications, see anything you like? If not, buy not.

They better not leave out USB 3.
 
They won't if the Ivy Bridge chipset is in it means there are USB 3.0 controllers. They could still only wire the USB 2.0 but there would be absolutely no excuse to do that. Peopel would go crazy.
There was an excuse in this generation as USB 3.0 required an extra chip which needs space on an already cramped logic board that they wanted to put the really big Thunderbolt chip on already.
Also they know that Thunderbolt is no replacement for USB it is something different, something that might be useful at times but nothing beats the cheapness of USB and that matters more than anything else for most peripherals like printer, cameras, harddrives, flashdrives.
A Flashdrive with Thunderbolt would mean that the controller would probably make up more than 95% of the entire production cost of that thing. Also the current small Thundebolt controller is as big as some Flashdrives in whole.

USB 3.0 will show 100%.
 
I've been wondering that myself. I think it'd be nice to have a thin 'prosumer' MacBook, but I wouldn't like having to take my Samsung External DVD drive with me, if I needed to use a disc. It'd still be really slick having a really thin notebook with almost the same amount of power as an iMac.
Yeah I know what you mean.

I'm going to buy a Mac Mini to enjoy and use for the time being while I wait for the Ivy Bridge MBPs. So I'll be a Mac user soon, yay :)

That way I've got a MBP to use when I need the portability along with my iPhone/iPad/iPod touch and my Mac Mini when I'm at the desk.

Thanks
 
Here's the thing. If you dont' really need it yet - wait.

Also - if you see that the improvements aren't huge IMPROVEMENTS for you, or they change the design and you decide you still want a optical drive (if they remove it) /prefer the current one etc etc, the current models (which are indeed awesome) will drop in price a few hundred bucks in the refurb store.

SOOOOO you either wait and get a brand new model, or, you can still decide to go and get this model and SAVE a bunch of cash for your mom, and her BF and yourself, and maybe get some accessories, extra ram or an extra external drive or various things. Either way waiting is a win.

Bottom line, if you don't need it, wait, and save up some of your own cash too during that time, and feel better about your purchase cause you will have earned more of it too!
 
On almost every thread I recommended buying now since Ivy Bridge is not a stellar improvement over current MBP. It will be a more significant one of the MacBook Airs. But since it will basically be just 2 months, I'd wait if I were you.

Maybe not on the performance side of things, but I bet in terms of power consumption Ivy Bridge will be pretty remarkable.

----------

I hope not but Steve Jobs has vocally expressed his lack of enthusiasm for it. I won't be surprised if it ended up like Bluray

If theres good that will come from Job's death it will be the adoption of BluRay by Apple.
 
Maybe not on the performance side of things, but I bet in terms of power consumption Ivy Bridge will be pretty remarkable.

----------



If theres good that will come from Job's death it will be the adoption of BluRay by Apple.
Yeah I wish we'd get blu-ray. But I'd rather have 20 hour battery life or something XD. That would be awesome. Both would be awesome though.
 
Maybe not on the performance side of things, but I bet in terms of power consumption Ivy Bridge will be pretty remarkable.

----------



If theres good that will come from Job's death it will be the adoption of BluRay by Apple.

From what I've read on Anandtech Ivy Bridge isn't going to deliver the power and performance improvements that I think a lot of people were unrealistically waiting for (ie 12 hour battery life etc.). The quads that will be used in the MBPs still have a TDP of 45W just like the current QM CPUs and while clock-for-clock are faster, they are not that much faster. From what I understand this means that they aren't going to run much cooler than the current MBPs. The Sandy Bridge CPUs were a huge leap but I honestly don't expect a really great leap like SB until even after Haswell.

As a side note for the new Radeon GPUs, the 7000M series will be rebadged 6000M parts so I don't think that we'll see the new 28nm. I expect a 7770M which is really the same as the 6770M in the current model.

I decided to go ahead and get a late 2011 17" MBP because a) the improvements, with the exception of USB 3.0, don't seem worth the wait since my computer was on its last legs and b) I'm afraid that the ODD will get axed with this next update and would rather have a SuperDrive.
 
Maybe not on the performance side of things, but I bet in terms of power consumption Ivy Bridge will be pretty remarkable.

----------



If theres good that will come from Job's death it will be the adoption of BluRay by Apple.

Drop it. It'll never happen. The ODD is coming out of the professional notebook and becoming an external option. As much as I hope they'll do an external Blu-Ray, it's unlikely.


The advantages of having an ODD built in are dwindling. Why opt for a design that includes an aging technology (optical disks in general, not Blu Ray in particular) forcing no less than one inch thickness and taking up a substantial amount of space when you could have things like this, in 2012:

MacBook Air-like thinness and solidity
DOUBLED battery life, or
Higher TDP CPUs and GPUs because of gained space and battery capacities, which ultimately means we're more quickly on our way to more power and more innovation.



....or we can stick with the internal optical drive and have the same old notebook over and over again for five more years.
 
Drop it. It'll never happen. The ODD is coming out of the professional notebook and becoming an external option. As much as I hope they'll do an external Blu-Ray, it's unlikely.

....or we can stick with the internal optical drive and have the same old notebook over and over again for five more years.

With BluRay we could see incredible advantage for a lot of people who need to transfer data, watch movies or burn movies.
While most people are slowly losing benefit in the optical drive, I have to say I use mine all the time, and so will anybody who is doing graphics/video work. Of course, if they doubled the battery life or gave me some great other feature i could live with having an external superdrive.
 
FThe quads that will be used in the MBPs still have a TDP of 45W just like the current QM CPUs and while clock-for-clock are faster, they are not that much faster.
TDP doesn't mean much. When Intel introduced the first batch of the 45nm refresh Penryn they had the exact same TDP classes although test showed them to suck only 2/3 the power of the 65nm generation.
The same TDP calsses means little. It is still odd though that there is such a little clockspeed increase and still the same TDP classes when Intel promised 22nm TG to be like a two node step. If it was more clock speed or lower TDP classes should have been even in the first batch.
Nobody really knows until tests show up.
They might just play it safe as AMD is not threatening them and 22nm is rumored to have some problems much like 40nm at TSMC had. Haswell also looks better in comparison if they make IvyBridge look worse than it is on paper. Chances are they will release lower TDP chips a few months after the launch much like as it was with the 25W Penryn.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.