Usual question about which Mac...help appreciated

[davehutch]

Hopefully a straightforward question, but you never know do you!

OK, I have an early 2009 17" MBP 2.93GHz C2D and the most taxing thing I do on it is to run Lightroom CC to develop my Fuji RAW files.
It's slow for this purpose and also struggles to maintain a synchronised Airplay stream to two devices at once.
It's the processor as the 8GB Ram is never taxed.
For other stuff it's absolutely fine.
I don't video edit but do play back 1080p at 60fps from my cameras...which is also stuttery

My choice is a fully loaded 13" with a Dell 4K monitor, which I would probably take away more with me for weekends and holidays...or a fully loaded 15" on its own, which is only 500g more but obviously not quite as portable.
Portability is not a deal breaker, but how it performs in 3-5 years time most definitely is!

I can wait for a June or even an October upgrade for the 15"

What would you do?

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I would

Hopefully a straightforward question, but you never know do you!

OK, I have an early 2009 17" MBP 2.93GHz C2D and the most taxing thing I do on it is to run Lightroom CC to develop my Fuji RAW files.
It's slow for this purpose and also struggles to maintain a synchronised Airplay stream to two devices at once.
It's the processor as the 8GB Ram is never taxed.
For other stuff it's absolutely fine.
I don't video edit but do play back 1080p at 60fps from my cameras...which is also stuttery

My choice is a fully loaded 13" with a Dell 4K monitor, which I would probably take away more with me for weekends and holidays...or a fully loaded 15" on its own, which is only 500g more but obviously not quite as portable.
Portability is not a deal breaker, but how it performs in 3-5 years time most definitely is!

I can wait for a June or even an October upgrade for the 15"

What would you do?

Get a base 15 inch, (the quadcore will be the most important for rendering speeds in lightroom) and a good 1440p or 1600p monitor (the obsession with 4K is baffling there is very little content and very few people have the bandwidth to stream it yet and there is no physical version of it).

In 3-5 years it'll be an older laptop and it won't run the latest and greatest software at the highest levels that is just progress, especially with more and more software leveraging better and better graphics cards as time goes by...

Future proofing is a myth buy what you need when you need it and look to upgrade when you can if performance is your target.

 

[maflynn]

The 15" has a better GPU, and is quad core, so LR CC will really be able to spread its wings under the configuration, i.e., it will be much faster. I think overall this is your best bet, especially since you want the computer to last > 3 years.

When will apple release the updated 15 MBPs? That's anyone's guess but of course they're waiting for Intel, so once the quad core Broadwell chips are available we'll be waiting to see what apple does.

 

[davehutch]

Get a base 15 inch, (the quadcore will be the most important for rendering speeds in lightroom) and a good 1440p or 1600p monitor (the obsession with 4K is baffling there is very little content and very few people have the bandwidth to stream it yet and there is no physical version of it).

In 3-5 years it'll be an older laptop and it won't run the latest and greatest software at the highest levels that is just progress, especially with more and more software leveraging better and better graphics cards as time goes by...

Future proofing is a myth buy what you need when you need it and look to upgrade when you can if performance is your target.

Thanks for this.
The reasoning behind the 4K is so that I can have "Retina" display on a larger monitor. I'm not fussed about 4K video content

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The 15" has a better GPU, and is quad core, so LR CC will really be able to spread its wings under the configuration, i.e., it will be much faster. I think overall this is your best bet, especially since you want the computer to last > 3 years.

When will apple release the updated 15 MBPs? That's anyone's guess but of course they're waiting for Intel, so once the quad core Broadwell chips are available we'll be waiting to see what apple does.

I'm tending to agree to be honest. I'll at least wait until June and then see how it goes.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Well

Thanks for this.
The reasoning behind the 4K is so that I can have "Retina" display on a larger monitor. I'm not fussed about 4K video content

If you don't use 4K I'd go with a 1440p screen they are pretty damn good at a sensible distance from the screen, they also tend to be cheaper and better quality for colour and brightness currently. Have a look at some in store if you can...

Pixel density is not the only measure of a good screen thats for sure.

 

[davehutch]

If you don't use 4K I'd go with a 1440p screen they are pretty damn good at a sensible distance from the screen, they also tend to be cheaper and better quality for colour and brightness currently. Have a look at some in store if you can...

Pixel density is not the only measure of a good screen thats for sure.

Agreed.