Will skylake be much of a processor upgrade?

[nicovh]

Doesn't Skylake include USB3.1 ?

A significant speed jump over USB3 ?

Skylake will enable the use of USB-C ports that also support Thunderbolt 3. That in itself is a reason to wait. It will bring alot of great features in the future. Companies during CES showcased many usb-c compatible screens, hubs, docks etc. so we know the industry is already adopting USB-C/Thunderbolt in its infancy.
And due to Thunderbolt 3 you can connect practicly anything to the port (if compatible).

But a message to the OP, if you do not do a lot of gpu/cpu intensive work (video editing, programming, 3D modelling etc etc.), then just get the current model. Its fast, reliable and a great machine. Performance improvements will be minimal and unnoticable if you dont run heavy programs.

I can only think of 2 reasons why you should wait for Skylake if you don't max out your cpu and/or gpu

1.
Connectivity. The implementation of USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 will bring a lot of new products and features and there will be a massive switch to the port. So having the newer model will offer you modern connectivity throughout the coming years.

2.
Battery life. Skylake will support DDR4 RAM and it will have the integrated Iris Pro 580. Both of these elements will be faster than it's previous versions and it is more energy efficient. Hello longer battery life
(albeit 1 hour or so longer)

Hope this helped

 

[CE3]

Does this mean the processor will be 50% faster for the 15"?

After reading this thread, I'm still torn on waiting or not. I really don't care for games or a graphical performance increase..everything I use is still USB 3 and hdmi. I'm looking to primarily just use this for audio recording.

At this point, unless you absolutely need to upgrade now, you might as well wait and see what they have to offer in a few months. If it's not a big performance boost, there will be more 2015 MacBook deals for you to choose from.

 

[T5BRICK]

Does this mean the processor will be 50% faster for the 15"?

No, it'll be a few percentage points faster. I think the extra execution units that were mentioned are part of the iGPU.

After reading this thread, I'm still torn on waiting or not. I really don't care for games or a graphical performance increase..everything I use is still USB 3 and hdmi. I'm looking to primarily just use this for audio recording.

The current model will do what you need. If you want to wait, the 2015 models will go down in price when the 2016 models are released.

 

[leman]

Does this mean the processor will be 50% faster for the 15"?

No, only the GPU

After reading this thread, I'm still torn on waiting or not. I really don't care for games or a graphical performance increase..everything I use is still USB 3 and hdmi. I'm looking to primarily just use this for audio recording.

If you only do recording and no real-time processing of the audio signal, there is probably not much reason for you to upgrade. The main reason I can think of would be the faster storage, but the current-gen SSDs are probably already fast enough for most uses.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I think that a 50% increase in execution units qualifies as 'a lot of love'

Which is nice but they could have doubled the eDRAM cache as well!!!