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Some questions about the MBP 13"

N

Northwestern

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 13, 2011
235
0
Hi,

1. Does the 8 GB Ram and the processor in the 13" i7 2,7 GHz make a "big difference" in running games smoother compared to lower specs? Or does it depend on the graphic card? All MBPs 13" have the Intel HD Graphics 3000.

2. I have an iMac 24". Has the display of the 13" the same quality besides the screen size? Colour depth, brightness ...

Thanks in advance!
 
Northwestern said:
Does the 8 GB Ram and the processor in the 13" i7 2,7 GHz make a "big difference" in running games smoother compared to lower specs? Or does it depend on the graphic card? All MBPs 13" have the Intel HD Graphics 3000.
Click to expand...
Compared to which specs? In general, 8 GB are the right choice if you use virtual machines.


Northwestern said:
I have an iMac 24". Has the display of the 13" the same quality besides the screen size? Colour depth, brightness ...
Click to expand...

The colours are good IMO. However, the screen resolution is quite low. You'll notice that.
 
Northwestern said:
Compared to the 4 GB model, does the 8 GB model give more performance in games? Or does it depend on the graphic card?
Click to expand...

It might give a tiny bit of bonus, but negligible compare to having a good graphics card. Sadly, the 13" isn't really meant for gaming as the Intel HD 3000 is a tiny bit less powerful than GeForce 9400m.

Also, it might be worth it to buy 4gb and upgrade it yourself. For some reason, RAM prices are cheap right now. (you can get 8gb for 30 bucks)
 
The thing is that I can't deside between:
MPA 13" i7 1,8 GHz 4 Gb Ram
MBP 13" i7 2,7 GHz 8 Gb Ram

The price is the same. Questions is, what might be the better descision. I like to play some games on Steam and I like to watch movies. I don't want to pay the price for the MBP 15". I have an iMac, I can't carry with me, where I go for some month. Maybe on the weekend, I can use the iMac. But not on workdays.
 
Northwestern said:
Hi,

1. Does the 8 GB Ram and the processor in the 13" i7 2,7 GHz make a "big difference" in running games smoother compared to lower specs? Or does it depend on the graphic card? All MBPs 13" have the Intel HD Graphics 3000.
Click to expand...

It's around a 10% increase in CPU performance (or less) for $200. Take that as you will.

RAM above 4GB probably isn't important for games a MBP can play. It's also really expensive to buy RAM from Apple.

Northwestern said:
The thing is that I can't deside between:
MPA 13" i7 1,8 GHz 4 Gb Ram
MBP 13" i7 2,7 GHz 8 Gb Ram

The price is the same. Questions is, what might be the better descision. I like to play some games on Steam and I like to watch movies. I don't want to pay the price for the MBP 15". I have an iMac, I can't carry with me, where I go for some month. Maybe on the weekend, I can use the iMac. But not on workdays.
Click to expand...
They both use the same GPU and are primarily CPU-limited, so performance is relatively similar in games as long as you play the MBA at 1280x800 instead of 1440x900. Neither one is a gaming computer, but if you want some data:[Macbook Air] [Macbook Pro]
 
ITT: Poor purchasing decisions.

Do not EVER upgrade a mac off of apple.com. It's a total ripoff. Get the base model macbook pro 13 inch i5(Processor upgrade is a waste of money) and do all the upgrades yourself via newegg.com.
 
Jrv said:
ITT: Poor purchasing decisions.

Do not EVER upgrade a mac off of apple.com. It's a total ripoff. Get the base model macbook pro 13 inch i5(Processor upgrade is a waste of money) and do all the upgrades yourself via newegg.com.
Click to expand...
That's fine for RAM, but keep in mind you lose native TRIM support if you upgrade an SSD. It's possible to get TRIM support through a simple hack, but not everyone is interested in doing that.
 
The Air has the better (thin) design (imo), the better display resolution and a faster harddrive. I don't have WLAN, so I would have to buy an ethernet adapter for the MBA.

The MBP has more power: i7 2,7 GHz and up to 8 GB Ram. This speaks for the MBP and is more important for me than display resolution and hd-speed.

So it's design VS more processor and Ram power. At the moment I would fall for the MBP. The MBP design looks similar to my iMac design, which I like very much.
 
While the Airs resolution is higher, the Pro has a "better" display, with a much broader color profile. (IMHO, the Airs screens look horrid; I checked out the 11" and 13" at an Apple Store when I was in for AppleCare repairs [on multiple occasions], and I couldn't imagine using the Air's screen for more than a few minutes w/o wanting to gouge my eyes out.)
 
Northwestern said:
Hi,

1. Does the 8 GB Ram and the processor in the 13" i7 2,7 GHz make a "big difference" in running games smoother compared to lower specs? Or does it depend on the graphic card? All MBPs 13" have the Intel HD Graphics 3000.

2. I have an iMac 24". Has the display of the 13" the same quality besides the screen size? Colour depth, brightness ...

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

1. It's 100% graphics card dependent, there has been some reports of faster RAM making the 3000HD faster, but I wouldn't count on it. Don't expect to do much quality gaming on a 13" laptop with integrated graphics. Unless you do a lot of number crunching or rendering on the computer, paying extra for the i7 is money you should use elsewhere. Same goes for RAM: unless you know you're going to be running out often, I'd wait on the upgrade. It's easy to do it yourself anyway.

2. If the 24" has an IPS panel like the bigger 27" iMac, then no, if both are TN panels then the quality should be just about equal.
 
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