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Which MBP to get?

S

swechris

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 12, 2011
2
0
Hello

I am about to buy a new MBP and, as many others I've seen here, am uncertain on which one to get. Either to go for the 2.0 and add additional 4Gb RAM or to go for the 2.2? I'll be getting the high res anti-glare screen add on to which ever I go for.

Amongst other things I've seen mentioning about the 2.2 supporting AES-NI and the 2.0 does not. As I'm not the most technically clued up person, I'm not sure what that entails.. does that mean greater speed of writing/finding files on the harddrive or is it to do with something else? Any information of other things that I should consider before purchasing would be greatly appreciated.

Will the better graphics card and the 1Gb dedicated memory for it make a big difference with what I'll be working on? I will be using it for graphics work, rather heavy retouching in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and 3D modelling and rendering in Cinema 4D. I'm also looking to do some video editing. Or is it mostly for gamers and 3D animators? Shoud I spend the extra money on the 2.2 or go for the 2.0 and spend money on more memory and at a later stage maybe go for an SSD?

Thanks in advance
 
Just like every other one of the 9,000 threads on this, it comes down to your needs and budget.

The higher end will render your videos slightly faster, photoshop and illustrator would benefit from extra ram more than they would the better GPU. The high end GPU is mostly beneficial for gamers... will also help improve performance with cinema 4d, but the GPU in the 2.0 is considered pretty equivalent to last years 330m and people were doing professional work on those just fine.

If you can afford it get the higher end, if not the low end will suffice for your needs. It will get everything done that you need, the high end is just going to do it a little faster... you decide if that's worth the money to you.
 
I would go for the 2.0 and get a SSD instead. You will notice a greater performance boost than with the extra 200Mhz.
 
swechris said:
Hello

Will the better graphics card and the 1Gb dedicated memory for it make a big difference with what I'll be working on? I will be using it for graphics work, rather heavy retouching in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and 3D modelling and rendering in Cinema 4D. I'm also looking to do some video editing. Or is it mostly for gamers and 3D animators? Shoud I spend the extra money on the 2.2 or go for the 2.0 and spend money on more memory and at a later stage maybe go for an SSD?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

From what I understand from the benchmarks and reviews, you'll get more bang for your buck with RAM and SSD.
 
palpatine said:
Really? My understanding is that SSD will make startups quicker, but once everything is open and you are multitasking, the RAM is generally more important. Am I wrong?
Click to expand...
depends what you are doing... if the program is constantly and heavily reading and writing to the disc the SSD will be beneficial. RAM is going to allow you to open more programs and for your programs to use more memory.
 
xxBURT0Nxx said:
depends what you are doing... if the program is constantly and heavily reading and writing to the disc the SSD will be beneficial. RAM is going to allow you to open more programs and for your programs to use more memory.
Click to expand...

Thanks! In his case (graphics work), would you recommend he prioritize RAM over SSD? It seems to me that more RAM would impact speed more than a processor or SSD upgrade.
 
palpatine said:
Thanks! In his case (graphics work), would you recommend he prioritize RAM over SSD? It seems to me that more RAM would impact speed more than a processor or SSD upgrade.
Click to expand...

well, going back to my original post....

Movie encode times will be slightly improved by the better processor

Photoshop/Illustrator benefit more from RAM than any of the differences between the two machines.

cinema 4d (from what i've read and looking at minimum specs on their site, i have personally never used the program) will benefit from the higher end graphics card.

That said, upgrading RAM is only a $90 upgrade, very minimal considering the price of the machines so I wouldn't even really worry about that.

SSD is expensive if you need a lot of space, cheaper if you can get away with a boot drive SSD and large HDD in the optibay. This is probably the biggest upgrade as far as noticeable everyday performance that anyone can make to their computer. Everything just goes so much quicker.

In conclusion, both machines are going to do what you need them to do, neither is a "slouch" and both are improvements over previous gen macbook pros (which many people have been doing professional work on without problems). If you have the money, the higher end macbook pro is going to get your tasks done slightly faster and may be more "future proof" for whatever that term is worth these days. Also remember SSD can always be added later, you are stuck with the processor/gpu that you pick until you upgrade the machine.

So it really comes down to how much money one wants to spend, both machines will work just fine, you have to decide if the slight increases in speed and time saved are worth the price difference, i don't know your budget constraints.
 
xxBURT0Nxx said:
well, going back to my original post....

Movie encode times will be slightly improved by the better processor

Photoshop/Illustrator benefit more from RAM than any of the differences between the two machines.

cinema 4d (from what i've read and looking at minimum specs on their site, i have personally never used the program) will benefit from the higher end graphics card.

That said, upgrading RAM is only a $90 upgrade, very minimal considering the price of the machines so I wouldn't even really worry about that.

SSD is expensive if you need a lot of space, cheaper if you can get away with a boot drive SSD and large HDD in the optibay. This is probably the biggest upgrade as far as noticeable everyday performance that anyone can make to their computer. Everything just goes so much quicker.

In conclusion, both machines are going to do what you need them to do, neither is a "slouch" and both are improvements over previous gen macbook pros (which many people have been doing professional work on without problems). If you have the money, the higher end macbook pro is going to get your tasks done slightly faster and may be more "future proof" for whatever that term is worth these days. Also remember SSD can always be added later, you are stuck with the processor/gpu that you pick until you upgrade the machine.

So it really comes down to how much money one wants to spend, both machines will work just fine, you have to decide if the slight increases in speed and time saved are worth the price difference, i don't know your budget constraints.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the detailed explanation!
 
xxBURT0Nxx said:
Just like every other one of the 9,000 threads on this, it comes down to your needs and budget.
Click to expand...

Yep. And I'll even add..."iif you need to ask, you don't need one."

The applications you use should determine which machine is best suited to optimize their use.
 
Big thanks!

Thank you very much for your replies, especially to xxBURTONxx for the very detailed info. I live in the UK and the upgrade of the RAM from 4 to 8Gb is £160, through Apple anyway, but maybe rather that now then upgrading them later on, paying £280 for 2x4Gb..

I'm going for the 2.2 though. So thanks again for all advice!

Cheers :)
 
swechris said:
Thank you very much for your replies, especially to xxBURTONxx for the very detailed info. I live in the UK and the upgrade of the RAM from 4 to 8Gb is £160, through Apple anyway, but maybe rather that now then upgrading them later on, paying £280 for 2x4Gb..

I'm going for the 2.2 though. So thanks again for all advice!

Cheers :)
Click to expand...

Fit some fast RAM yourself, it'll cost about £80.
 
swechris said:
Amongst other things I've seen mentioning about the 2.2 supporting AES-NI and the 2.0 does not.
Click to expand...
It is Encryption acceleration basically. It speeds up AES encrypted stuff quite a lot but most consumers would never need it. It makes a difference if you have some company notebook with lots of highly sensitive information that must be encrypted all the time. The average joe only meets AES along the SSL web security protocol and that is so little work for the CPU it doesn't really make any difference.
Like all the other extra features the 2.2 has. You'd never miss it.

I think the only reason to go for the 2.2 is the GPU that comes with it.
 
swechris said:
Thank you very much for your replies, especially to xxBURTONxx for the very detailed info. I live in the UK and the upgrade of the RAM from 4 to 8Gb is £160, through Apple anyway, but maybe rather that now then upgrading them later on, paying £280 for 2x4Gb..

I'm going for the 2.2 though. So thanks again for all advice!

Cheers :)
Click to expand...
That is a lot of money to pay to apple considering here in the US you can find 8gb of ram for US $80 which is a hell of a lot cheaper than what apple is charging you. I would have to think there are online or store retailers in the UK that charge much less than apple as well.

dusk007 said:
I think the only reason to go for the 2.2 is the GPU that comes with it.
Click to expand...

Exactly :D
 
Save the $400 and go for the 2.0. Unless you're a technophile with high-end processing needs, you'll never notice the difference.
 
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