Which MacBook Pro should I buy?

[yjchua95]

Remember that professionals can be professionals in fields that don't require a lot of processing power – besides, Apple's 13" Macbook Pros were never particularly powerful, and they've always been dual-core. It's just a form of marketing to upsell people from the Air by making the name sound better.

Exactly my point. PR bullcrap, basically.

Now, yes, pros can still work on limited resources, but I'm pretty sure that deep down, they're trying not to yell obscenities when faced with limited resources. Besides, limited resources do really cut down one's productivity.

 

[themumu]

Now, yes, pros can still work on limited resources, but I'm pretty sure that deep down, they're trying not to yell obscenities when faced with limited resources. Besides, limited resources do really cut down one's productivity.

The concept of "limited resources" is a fluid one. Strictly speaking, all resources are limited. The concern is only if the resources of your computer are the bottleneck of your productivity, or if the bottleneck is external and independent of your hardware and software.

I think there is a large set of industries where the computer hardware stopped being the bottleneck quite a long time ago. In my work as a software developer the biggest bottlenecks are how quickly I can research a problem (100% powers of google-fu and interpersonal networking, very little CPU stress) and how quickly I can get feedback from clients (and they won't respond to me any faster if I upgrade my internet connection).

Things like 3D rendering, audio and video production, scientific simulations - yes, those can still reap significant benefits from hardware advances. But there are not that many industries in that position at this point in time.

 

[yjchua95]

The concept of "limited resources" is a fluid one. Strictly speaking, all resources are limited. The concern is only if the resources of your computer are the bottleneck of your productivity, or if the bottleneck is external and independent of your hardware and software.

I think there is a large set of industries where the computer hardware stopped being the bottleneck quite a long time ago. In my work as a software developer the biggest bottlenecks are how quickly I can research a problem (100% powers of google-fu and interpersonal networking, very little CPU stress) and how quickly I can get feedback from clients (and they won't respond to me any faster if I upgrade my internet connection).

Things like 3D rendering, audio and video production, scientific simulations - yes, those can still reap significant benefits from hardware advances. But there are not that many industries in that position at this point in time.

The first 3 things in your last paragraph are exactly while I do, while scientific simulation is my dad's job (he's a physicist).

Video production may boom sooner than we know it, with the easy availability of 4K cameras in the not so far future. I shoot with a EOS-1Dc 4K system myself. And pretty soon, people will be making home videos with gear like that and need lots of power to make a home video.

 

[themumu]

Video production may boom sooner than we know it, with the easy availability of 4K cameras in the not so far future. I shoot with a EOS-1Dc 4K system myself. And pretty soon, people will be making home videos with gear like that and need lots of power to make a home video.

You know, I would love for it to be true, but I doubt it will be quite as large scale. The only thing that will push video production on an amateur level is the improvement of software/firmware of the cameras and network infrastructure.

If you work with this stuff professionally, perhaps you don't remember how hard it is to edit video well for a novice - simply from a mental point of view. Just like taking photos, just because you give a person top notch tools, does not mean they will produce top notch results. People have been making crappy home videos since before VHS days, and what makes the amount of such footage increase is the accessibility of shooting (i.e. everyone has a camera on their smartphone, ready to share the moment they are done recording), not the increasing CPU power.