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Which do you think I should buy?

T

thtguyjosh

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 29, 2013
2
0
Hi there! so I am in the market for a new macbook pro and find myself confused. I waited for the new 2013 line to have the newest possible but find that they are less powerful by far but more expensive. Is there something I'm missing?

right now im eyeing the 2012 even though it doesnt have retina display which ,though beautiful, comes on a less powerful computer

2.9GHz Dual-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
4GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM — 2x2GB
500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
for $1134
vs

2.8GHz Dual-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz
4GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
128GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
for $1469
the retina is 300 dollars more for less power than the 2012. That said is there something I dont know about haswell processors that makes them more powerful or faster with less gHz? I would be using the macbook for photo and video editing as well as 3d animation.

any advice? is the new lineup better than the 2012 version despite having seemingly lesser specs?
thanks in advance.

EDIT: Additionally, I am not worried about RAM because I would buy less expensive third party RAM so ignore that the models are lacking in that respect.
 
Last edited:
thtguyjosh said:
Hi there! so I am in the market for a new macbook pro and find myself confused. I waited for the new 2013 line to have the newest possible but find that they are less powerful by far but more expensive. Is there something I'm missing?

right now im eyeing the 2012 even though it doesnt have retina display which ,though beautiful, comes on a less powerful computer

2.9GHz Dual-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
4GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM — 2x2GB
500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
for $1134
vs

2.8GHz Dual-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz
4GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
128GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
for $1469
the retina is 300 dollars more for less power than the 2012. That said is there something I dont know about haswell processors that makes them more powerful or faster with less gHz? I would be using the macbook for photo and video editing as well as 3d animation.

any advice? is the new lineup better than the 2012 version despite having seemingly lesser specs?
thanks in advance.

EDIT: Additionally, I am not worried about RAM because I would buy less expensive third party RAM so ignore that the models are lacking in that respect.
Click to expand...

I would go for the second option.
 
Have you looked at an i5 based system? The i7 is slightly faster, but unless you need hyper threading, I don't see the need. You could get the rMBP with 8G and 256 GB disk for $1499. For me, the additional memory and storage is more important than a slight performance increase. Also the Haswell units have a faster graphics processor.
 
thanks for responding!

well i suppose the core of my question is, would there be a significant loss of performance in buying the i5 rMBP over the 2012 MBP. I have a minimal understanding of processors but from a layman point of view it seems like id be paying more for a less powerful computer with the gorgeous screen. I wouldnt do anything particularly hardcore on the laptop as i have my desktop as well but photo and video editing would happen. I essentially want to get the best for my money. Any further thoughts?
 
The retina you show will outperform the non-retina simply because of the SSD. However, both machines are pretty underpowered in both memory and storage. My opinion, don't buy a mac that doesn't have at least 8GB of RAM - the reason I say this is inevitably, you will end up with a lot of media (pictures, movies etc). Second, do not even consider a regular hard drive anymore, the cost/performance tradeoff is a no brainer. Think about those two things, not the processor.
 
thtguyjosh said:
well i suppose the core of my question is, would there be a significant loss of performance in buying the i5 rMBP over the 2012 MBP. I have a minimal understanding of processors but from a layman point of view it seems like id be paying more for a less powerful computer with the gorgeous screen. I wouldnt do anything particularly hardcore on the laptop as i have my desktop as well but photo and video editing would happen. I essentially want to get the best for my money. Any further thoughts?
Click to expand...

The newer MBPs have similar-better CPU, better graphics and superior battery life. Not to mention the great screen and slimmer, lighter form-factor.

On the downside, pretty well everything is locked down, including the RAM; what you buy is what you get for the life of the machine.

I bought the 2.5 base MBP last year and it serves me well. Swapped out the optical disk drive and now have a dual SSD setup and 16GB RAM. I run off a separate (larger) monitor at work so the screen is irrelevant. The only bugger is that it's a bit of a brick.
 
Get the retina version. It has a Haswell processor, better battery life, and an SSD that will turn your laptop into something much faster than any laptop with a HDD, at least for daily tasks.
 
mac8867 said:
My opinion, don't buy a mac that doesn't have at least 8GB of RAM - the reason I say this is inevitably, you will end up with a lot of media (pictures, movies etc).
Click to expand...

How does having 8GB of RAM relate to OP potentially storing a large amount of files the computer?

At this point OP, everyone is attempting to move from traditional HDDs, and with good reason too; they're not nearly as fast as SSDs, especially PCI based SSDs. So I would recommend buying a machine that has one. For your uses, the CPU and RAM would be most important. However, I'm not sure how intensive your daily activity is, but I don't think you would need the i7. I recommend an i5 with 8GB of RAM (you can't upgrade the retina model), perhaps 256GB of storage since its best to do large storage on an external HDD.

The $1499 Haswell would be fine for your uses, in my opinion.
 
Let's compare the i5-3210M in the 2012 non-retina 13" MBP and the i5-4258U in the base 13" retina.

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/17...U_vs_Intel_Core_i7_Mobile_i7-3520M_(BGA).html

Turns out the non-retina model performs better, but at a higher power, when comparing the base i5s.

Now, compare the i7s. Non retina: i7-3520M. Retina: i7-4558U

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/17...M_(BGA)_vs_Intel_Core_i7_Mobile_i7-4558U.html

Non-retina wins again, but at the expense of energy.

Get an SSD.

PS if you run VMs all the time, you're going to need 8GB of RAM. Same applies if you work with multiple large PSD files simultaneously.
 
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