Upgrading MacBook Pro - confused

[badwolf1]

Hi,

I have an old MacBook Pro - Retina, 13 inch mid 2014 with a 2.6 GHz processor.

I'm wanting to buy the MacBook Pro 13 inch with Touch Bar and Touch ID. However, I notice the base model only starts at a 2.3GHz processor, whereas my one above was the base model at 2.6.GHz.

Could someone please explain (yes I am a noob with this) if this is going to significantly slow down my computer speed, or if there are other features that mean the 2.3GHz with the new MBP are just as fast? Or, should I look into spending the extra $300 or so and upgrade it to 2.6GHz because I'll notice a difference?

Thanks!

 

[Costino1]

This won't be significant at all. Remember there are more cores in the newer models as well. It'll be substantially faster.

I own the 2018 15" /w Touch Bar i7 and love it. Its a beast.

 

[winmaciek]

Quite the opposite. The latest MacBook Pro 13 will be much faster. For example, it is quad core, rather than (I presume) dual core which you now have. And there’s been some progress along the way too. Also, the new one has support for a number of new stuff like HEVC or HEIC.
Not to mention the updated GPU.
Comparing clock speeds isn’t the best way to compare CPU performance over generations, to put it mildly. Like, my iPad has 2.4 GHz clock. Does it mean it’d faster than latest base MacBook Pro? No.

 

[TGM85]

Things used to be easy in the 1990s and early 2000s. A 600 MHz Pentium III was a lot faster than a 400 MHz Pentium II. Case closed,

Those times came to an end about 2009. The clock speed of computer processors (the unit in GHz) has plateaued since then, generally speaking. Most commercially available processors tend to fall somewhere in the range between 1.5 GHz and 3 GHz.

Since that time manufacturers have started increasing the number of 'cores' in a processor. You can think of a core as being a subunit within a processor. A dual core processor has 2 cores. A quad core has 4, and so on.

This means that a 2.3 GHz quad (4) core processor made in 2018 will be much faster than a 2.6 GHz dual (2) core made in 2014.

So don't worry. A 2018 MBP will be faster than a 2014 one.

 

[Painter2002]

So the ghz listed for any given CPU is PER core on that CPU. So instead of having 2 cores at 2.6 ghz, you are going to have four of them at 2.3 ghz. The combined power (and crossthreading abilities) of the four cores at 2.3ghz will be significantly higher than the dual core processor you currently have.

If you have the funds and are looking to make that jump to the newer machine, I would totally do it. I have a 2017 MBP wTB, and wish I had waited and bought the 2018 model, even though I love my current machine.

 

[Costino1]

Things used to be easy in the 1990s and early 2000s. A 600 MHz Pentium III was a lot faster than a 400 MHz Pentium II. Case closed,

Those times came to an end about 2009. The clock speed of computer processors (the unit in GHz) has plateaued since then, generally speaking. Most commercially available processors tend to fall somewhere in the range between 1.5 GHz and 3 GHz.

Since that time manufacturers have started increasing the number of 'cores' in a processor. You can think of a core as being a subunit within a processor. A dual core processor has 2 cores. A quad core has 4, and so on.

This means that a 2.3 GHz quad (4) core processor made in 2018 will be much faster than a 2.6 GHz dual (2) core made in 2014.

So don't worry. A 2018 MBP will be faster than a 2014 one.

^^^^^ What this guy said

I was trying to say this some thing but was driving. This confused me when dual cores came out. The GHz was less than a computer that came out a few years ago, but there are multiple cores.

I have a i7 15" MBP and it digests everything I toss at it. Im not a power user but played around with Logic and Final Cut Pro and it ran those programs like I was running MS-DOS or something trivial.

You'll be impressed and won't regret it

 

[leman]

In addition to what is said above, modern CPUs have dynamic clocks, so their performance is usually much higher than indicated by the base clock. The base reflects the expected clock the CPU will maintain under prolonged multi-core workflow. I know, it’s quite confusing for the end user.

So don’t worry, the new model is indeed much faster.