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subjective question...do u think the 2.53mbp is worth the extra $$$ over the 2.4mbp?
- Thread starter juohmaru
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More is not always better, but in the computer world I would have say more is better!
Here was my thought process.
I didn't care much about the clock speed difference. The real value for me was in the hard drive and ram upgrade.
I configured 2 models, both with apple care:
2.4ghz with 320 hdd and 4 gb of ram (through apple its not that much more expensive than from another vender with DDR3). $2363
and the 2.53ghz standard. $2,538
Since there was a bigger education discount on the 2.53, the price difference only came to under $200, rather than $400.
Was it worth $175 for larger L2 cache, 130mhz processor speed, and double the Vram (not much of a performance difference)......maybe
Was it worth it for everything above plus the ability to walk out of the store with it and be able to get a replacement model with ease if mine was defective?
hell yes.
I didn't care much about the clock speed difference. The real value for me was in the hard drive and ram upgrade.
I configured 2 models, both with apple care:
2.4ghz with 320 hdd and 4 gb of ram (through apple its not that much more expensive than from another vender with DDR3). $2363
and the 2.53ghz standard. $2,538
Since there was a bigger education discount on the 2.53, the price difference only came to under $200, rather than $400.
Was it worth $175 for larger L2 cache, 130mhz processor speed, and double the Vram (not much of a performance difference)......maybe
Was it worth it for everything above plus the ability to walk out of the store with it and be able to get a replacement model with ease if mine was defective?
hell yes.
lol more is not always better in computer world as you pay an extremely high premium for that little higher clockspeed
The OP didn't as if it was better, the OP asked if it was worth it.
In my opinion, it really depends on your needs. The extra money from the 2.4 to 2.53 includes the extra 2gb ram, extra 256mb of Vram and larger HD.
The real world performance difference between a 2.4 and a 2.53 is almost negligible. On average it's less than a 10% difference - and that takes into account the cache size difference (3mb vs 6mb). Another thing to consider is the 2.4ghz uses the new PXXX series processor.. which draws 25W instead of 35W in the 2.53, which means a little extra battery life.
There is no distinguishable difference between the 512mb and the 256mb version of the 9600m gt.
It's been debated before here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/580718/
So is it worth it? For me it wasn't - 4gb DDR3 will be dirt cheap in a few months and the price of 2.5" HD are dropping anyways. The marginal difference in performance wasn't worth the $500 premium - but to you, it might be.
It depends if you have the money you could just upgrade the ram to 4 gigs 250GB should be enough space for any normal person
Just because its more expensive doesn't make it less better. The 2.53 has a significant advantage of having double the video ram. Hard drives and system memory are cheap, but the processor and video ram are there to stay. More is always better there. If a guy didn't want more, he could just get a 13in macbook. It is less, in every way.
im not saying more isnt better but you do pay a high premium to get that little extra power. im talking about whether its justified
the costs increases dramitacally more for a little more power. is it justifiable in most cases? probably not. but yes, the more expensive mbp come with slightlybetter components than the lower model but is it justifiable for his needs? only he knows. I will say its stupid to pay a premium for power he would never notice
an example of what im talking about. i dont know about you, but the second chip, while better, is not justifiable for my needs at that cost
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For me (in the spirit of this subjective thang), it was worth the upgrade. To get the 4 GB, the larger HDD (though I'm debating a 7200 RPM drive), the cache, and the video memory was well worth the price, as I expect this machine to last me a long time or retain its value if I sell it (likely).
Among the points already made by others, Snow Leopard may make you want more VRAM. When it offloads tasks to the GPU, it will require a certain minimum amount of RAM, and if OpenCL provides the kind of performance benefits it promises in other apps that are written to utilize it, then that VRAM will be really important in getting the most out of the GPU.
Among the points already made by others, Snow Leopard may make you want more VRAM. When it offloads tasks to the GPU, it will require a certain minimum amount of RAM, and if OpenCL provides the kind of performance benefits it promises in other apps that are written to utilize it, then that VRAM will be really important in getting the most out of the GPU.
I completely agree. If you figure that if you're planning on keeping the computer for (lets say) 3 years, that works out to $58.33 USD a year. I thought it was worth it, since you can't upgrade the processor or Vram. Then there's always the fact that you'll wonder if you should have upgraded since the op is already thinking about it
I went through that process myself almost exactly. I needed 4GB of RAM out of the gate. I also very much wanted a 320GB drive (my Macbook had a 250 already and it was getting somewhat tight).
I also was able to get the EDU discount. So a couple of hundred bucks for double the processor cache, double the VRAM (may not make a difference right now, but I have no idea if it will help or not with OpenCL, may as well be ready since I could afford it), and peace of mind about possible warranty issues was very much worth it. So I got the 2.53.
Along those same lines, I never even considered the 2.8. Too little upgrade for the price, plus it would be a custom configuration so dealing with warranty issues are slightly more complicated.
And I absolutely love this machine.
It's more than clock speed. The 2.53 gHz processor has twice the L2 cache (6 mb). That's what you're paying for.
It's my understanding that the 2.4 is a T8300 and the 2.53 is the T9400 - is that not correct?
EDIT: I see the new MBP 2.4 is the P8600, which does have the 1067 fsb. So the principal difference is twice the cache.
EDIT: I see the new MBP 2.4 is the P8600, which does have the 1067 fsb. So the principal difference is twice the cache.