Upgrading from 2013 high end MacBook pro - help!

[jessejesse]

Hi folks,

I'm the owner of a 11,3 MacBook Pro.

MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.6 15" Late 2013 (DG) Specs (Retina Late 2013 15", ME874LL/A, MacBookPro11,3, A1398, 2745): EveryMac.com

Technical specifications for the MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.6 15" Late 2013 (DG). Dates sold, processor type, memory info, hard drive details, price and more.

everymac.com

This thing rocks. I bought it when it was about a year and a half old, for $1300, which was an amazing deal. I took a chance buying used from a soccer mom on Amazon (learned that through conversation!) and it paid for itself many times. The battery is getting tired (I'm sure I can replace it on my own), it gets hot quite often and I'm just thinking about upgrading.

I have an opportunity to buy a 13,3 MacBook Pro for $1200

MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.7 15" Touch/Late 2016 Specs (Late 2016 15" (Touch Bar), MLH42LL/A*, MacBookPro13,3, A1707, 3072): EveryMac.com

Technical specifications for the MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.7 15" Touch/Late 2016. Dates sold, processor type, memory info, hard drive details, price and more.

everymac.com

The CPU seems like it would be a later change and geekbench scores tend to not be wildly different. Same mount of memory (not sure if it's faster memory) and the 455 seems like a big improvement over the 750m. I game - nothing hardcore, but I'm on steam in my free time - though nothing high performance.

I feel like it should be significantly more than $1200, but maybe I'm missing something. It's not a huge upgrade, but I feel like some updates are going to start missing features for my 2013 laptop. Is this a worthwhile upgrade? I have no interested in paying 2500 for a new one!

 

[Nbd1790]

Seems to be like a good deal / upgrade from your current machine. The only thing I'm a little hesitant about is the keyboard. The 2016 models were the first ones to be notorious for their keyboard failures. The graphic card will certainly be an improvement as well as the hard drive read / write speed. So overall, a good upgrade. Just make sure you're buying it from a trusted reseller. Given that its 2019, odds are any AppleCare services have expired, but the keyboard itself should be covered for at least another 2 years or so. Good luck!

 

[DmPsTrFyR]

I would definitely say upgrade, as Nbd1790 said the keyboard is covered under the special warranty.

 

[jessejesse]

Seems to be like a good deal / upgrade from your current machine. The only thing I'm a little hesitant about is the keyboard. The 2016 models were the first ones to be notorious for their keyboard failures. The graphic card will certainly be an improvement as well as the hard drive read / write speed. So overall, a good upgrade. Just make sure you're buying it from a trusted reseller. Given that its 2019, odds are any AppleCare services have expired, but the keyboard itself should be covered for at least another 2 years or so. Good luck!

The more I looked into it, it just doesn't look like an upgrade. The processor is actually slower - despite the 3 year difference. It's really just the GPU. My HD is SSD.

 

[agw35th]

	Old	New
Processor speed	quad-core 2.6 GHz (Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz)	quad-core 2.7 GHz (Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz)
Memory	16GB DDR3L	16GB LPDDR3
Memory bandwidth	1600 MHz	2133 MHz
L3 cache	6 MB	8 MB
GPU	GeForce GT 750M with 2GB of GDDR5	Radeon Pro 455 with 2GB of GDDR5
External display capacity	Up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on up to two external displays, both at millions of colors	Up to two displays with 5120-by-2880 (or 4 at 4096-by-2304) resolution at 60Hz at over a billion colors
Ports	2x T2/mini-DP, 2x USB3(A), HDMI, SDXC-card	4x T3/USB-C-3.1G2

They both seem to have PCI-e SSDs; unclear whether there's been a performance bump in the intervening years. (It was surprisingly difficult to find meaningful specs.)

The one knockout performance difference is in the display-driving capacity. The increased memory bandwidth is also significant for serious data-intensive computing tasks that take the bulk of the processing out of cache. My guess is that if you are going to be working a lot with video you'll notice a real improvement. Otherwise as others have said this seems to be a not-so-great upgrade in your particular case. Depending on your other hardware you might really appreciate another year or two with the variety of ports that the older systems had.

One warning: the *Early 2013* Macbook Pros are already on the "Vintage" list: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624 so you are only one step away from that. But Catalina/10.15 is supported.

 

[jessejesse]

	Old	New
Processor speed	quad-core 2.6 GHz (Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz)	quad-core 2.7 GHz (Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz)
Memory	16GB DDR3L	16GB LPDDR3
Memory bandwidth	1600 MHz	2133 MHz
L3 cache	6 MB	8 MB
GPU	GeForce GT 750M with 2GB of GDDR5	Radeon Pro 455 with 2GB of GDDR5
External display capacity	Up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on up to two external displays, both at millions of colors	Up to two displays with 5120-by-2880 (or 4 at 4096-by-2304) resolution at 60Hz at over a billion colors
Ports	2x T2/mini-DP, 2x USB3(A), HDMI, SDXC-card	4x T3/USB-C-3.1G2

They both seem to have PCI-e SSDs; unclear whether there's been a performance bump in the intervening years. (It was surprisingly difficult to find meaningful specs.)


The one knockout performance difference is in the display-driving capacity. The increased memory bandwidth is also significant for serious data-intensive computing tasks that take the bulk of the processing out of cache. My guess is that if you are going to be working a lot with video you'll notice a real improvement. Otherwise as others have said this seems to be a not-so-great upgrade in your particular case. Depending on your other hardware you might really appreciate another year or two with the variety of ports that the older systems had.

One warning: the *Early 2013* Macbook Pros are already on the "Vintage" list: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624 so you are only one step away from that. But Catalina/10.15 is supported.

Thanks for the super thoughtful reply. I doubt I'd ever use an additional display - I've never done that. The GPU is a huge difference. I'm mostly curious about how intensive the GPU is compared to mine - mine drains battery and turns my laptop into an oven. That vintage part is wild. I'm toying between this lateral move or buying a smaller, low end MacBook and just using a service like Shadow when I want to game. It works phenomenally well.

 

[jessejesse]

I delayed long enough that it sold to someone else. Great deal for someone!

 

[Gator1pk]

You should checkout the refurbished Macbook Pros at Apple. You can save some money. They look brand new, have the same Apple warranty as the new models and can get AppleCare as well. Only difference, they come in a plain box (not the pretty retail box) and mail directly from Apple. The inventory does change, so if you find something you like, go for it, or wait until something you want appears. I got my mid-2012 retina 15” and iPad Air 2 this way and both have been perfect. I’ll be upgrading within the year, I’m just waiting on the new keyboard design, as I’m in no rush but Catalina will be my last update OS.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...gh-end-macbook-pro-help.2204467/post-27853418