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Trading in for a Mac Pro - advice needed

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Byron83

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 30, 2014
5
0
Hi, wondering if anyone can offer me some help.

I'm considering buying a MacBook Pro with retine display. In April 2013 I bought a Sony Vaio, which has the following spec...

2.6 dual core, I5
8 gigs ram
AMD Raedon 7550m graphics
Windows 8
256 HDD (not SSD)

Windows 8 does my nut in and the track pad on the laptop is prone to just freezing. As I've become addicted to my iPad I'm considering trying a mac.

However, even though my Sony is nearly 2 years old the current macs appear equal in spec. Have I read this correctly? Seems to me that buying one right now wouldn't actually be an update. In fact the Iris appears less powerful than my AMD. Is this correct?

My use is likely to be Blizzard games (Wow, D3, Starcraft etc.), word documents, video and photo editing. How will the mac preform with this?

Thanks for any and all advice that you can offer.

Best wishes.
 
The Intel Iris is faster than the 7550m. Specifically, in games it will be around 20% faster. Of course, you need to take into account that if you are playing games under OS X, the performance will suffer compared to windows due to graphic drivers. So in the end the performance should be comparable or slightly better than your Vaio. Of course, the Mac has a faster CPU/storage then the Vaio, and the screen quality is simply incomparable.

All in all, the Mac will perform quote well in all the tasks you describe. If your primary interest is gaming though, there are certainly better choices. The mac is a high-quality jack-of-all-trades machine — it has decent performance, very good battery life, excellent mobility and well-rounded features but it will not beat a machine that is built for a specific niche.
 
Thanks for the advice.

I'm after a general machine. I wouldn't say it's a gaming machine though I am likely to occasionally play Blizzard games on it, which could include the titles I listed below.

In terms of the Mac model, is it worth the I5 upgrades from 2.6 to 2.8? I assume that you would suggest the 16gb ram?

Thanks kindly.
 
Byron83 said:
I'm after a general machine. I wouldn't say it's a gaming machine though I am likely to occasionally play Blizzard games on it, which could include the titles I listed below.
Click to expand...

I think, if you are satisfied with the gaming performance of your Vaio, the MacBook should be sufficient for your gaming needs

Byron83 said:
In terms of the Mac model, is it worth the I5 upgrades from 2.6 to 2.8? I assume that you would suggest the 16gb ram?
Click to expand...

If you have spare money to burn, sure, you get get the upgrades. I'd prioritise the RAM over the CPU, and — neither of these upgrades are strictly necessary. You are unlikely to notice any performance difference from the CPU, and the 16Gb will only really be useful if you are multitasking with applicationa that take a lot of RAM (e.g. very high-res videos/photos, multiple virtual machines running demanding application suites).
 
8 GB of RAM is enough for most intensive uses. I have only gotten the Memory Pressure into the yellow once on my MacBook Pro with 16 GB of RAM and I was really trying to strain it.
 
People complain about Macs gaming performance, especially with the iGPU. I'd keep that in mind of gaming is part of the usage mix. I'm not a gamer so I can't say either way.
 
I have a mbpr with the nvidia card and occasionally play WOW. It runs fine.

I didn't buy the Mac for gaming, but it's nice that it can do that. What Mac will absolutely accel at is: retina display, track pad, sad performance, and os experience. I've used windows since the early 90s, and I think OS X is a much more fluid and enjoyable os to use.
 
The rmbp will ridicolously outperform your Vaio.
Try it ou for yourself and you won't believe your eyes.
 
Thank you all for your help.

My order has been placed :). You've all been great help. Thank you.
 
Basic MacBook Pro retina, 2.6 i5 8gbs, 128 ssd.
Hopefully it will be decent.
 
My first apple machine and first experience with Mac OS. A bit of a learning curb but I have high hopes.
 
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