Which (older) laptop should I go with?

[Hater]

Hi all,

I use my laptop daily. I use my laptop a lot. Now I have a choice, which would you choose? I purchased a late 2011 MBP with a faulty GPU, and Apple kindly returned it to me nice and fresh and fixed under extended warranty. I've otherwise been using an HP Hackintosh for the last 5 years without fault.

Both are 15" and running High Sierra.

I will put my RAM and SSD's into whichever one I will use going on into the future, so RAM/SSD spec is irrelevant.

One is running a 2.2Ghz Sandy Bridge i7 with the Intel HD3000/Radeon 6750M but the standard non-retina display with a backlit keyboard.

The other? 2.2Ghz Ivy Bridge with the Intel HD4000 and no discreet card, but has a 1080p better than non-retina but still not retina display - no backlit keyboard.

Both will do me fine, but the question is which do I sell, and which do I keep?

What's better, the better display and slightly better processor and no discreet graphics, or the discreet graphics, worse screen and slightly slower processor?

People will say get a 2015 or newer, but... I don't want one. I don't have a need for one yet, so it would be a waste of money (for me). I have a Xeon based laptop for intensive work related things.

 

[New_Mac_Smell]

Keep whichever you prefer maybe? I mean the differences kind of negate each other, if you needed something with a more powerful CPU then it's obvious, vice versa for the GPU. Nobody can really say but you, you know your workload and what you like.

 

[Macalicious2011]

What's better, the better display and slightly better processor and no discreet graphics, or the discreet graphics, worse screen and slightly slower processor?

Unless you play video game, do 3D rendering or video editing with effects, the discreet GPU is non-essential. I would keep the laptop with a better display and slightly better processor. But if you love Mac hardware then it's obvious which one you should keep.