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Worth Upgrading from 2.53GHz MBP to 2.80GHz Version

R

RetroGamer360

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 22, 2008
40
8
I purchased my 2.53GHz 15" MackBook Pro this past Sunday and really like it however being a power hungry tech geek I feel this need to return it and get the 15" MacBook Pro with the 2.80GHz processor and the discrete 9600M graphics chip.

With tax and the open box return fee it will cost me a total of $766.00 to make this upgrade and I need some input as to whether this will be worth while or a waste of money.

On the Mac side I use the MBP for web surfing, Office and photo projects which aren't too intensive so I figure I would see little to no benefit here. I also plan to install Windows 7 via Boot Camp so that I can play some games. This is where I wonder how much of a benefit I will see going with the faster processor (double the L2 cache) and 9600M.

I think I want to do the upgrade but I wanted to get input from outside my own perspective.

Thanks,

Michael
 
cluthz said:
9600M vs 9400M in terms of gaming is, ehh.. no difference?
The 9600M will double the framerates in any recent 3D game!
Click to expand...

I agree, for gaming the 9400 will be a nightmare. As for the processor, if it has double the cache then you should see a noticable difference there also. I am currently waiting to see what the September update is before I purchase my 17".
 
I have the new 2.8 and I will say, overall if you are doing minor tasks that are not resource intensive then you probably wont see any difference. If you do any gaming or resource intensive applications then the 2.8 might see a little difference especially in gaming but if you dont game a lot or the ones that you do play arent graphic intensive then the 2.53 will probably do just fine. Keep in mind, the only differences between the two systems are a .16 GHz difference in processor speed (which is hardly anything), a jump from a 3 MB to a 6 MB cache difference (which is where the slight difference would be between resource intensive applications), a jump from a single integrated graphics card (Nvidia 9400) to a integrated graphics card (Nvidia 9400) with a dedicated graphics card (Nvidia 9600 GT) which is what might help boost your gaming a bit. You just have to ask yourself, is that worth the money. :apple:
 
Gypwag said:
I agree, for gaming the 9400 will be a nightmare. As for the processor, if it has double the cache then you should see a noticable difference there also. I am currently waiting to see what the September update is before I purchase my 17".
Click to expand...

you have no idea then....


the 9400 will play many games very well....


my air plays doom 3 , crysis...you name it.

9400m is a perfectly good card.
 
I don't believe that the minor speed improvement that will be had with the upgrades that you mentioned are worth over $700. I don't think you will notice much of anything with the processor bum, and I can't comment on the video card improvements, b/c I am not a laptop gamer.

But for me the cost vs. benefit does not even come close. There are far better thinks than you can do with the money.

Now if you didn't have to pay the restocking fee......different ballgame entirely.
 
MacModMachine said:
you have no idea then....


the 9400 will play many games very well....


my air plays doom 3 , crysis...you name it.

9400m is a perfectly good card.
Click to expand...



9400m is a great card, but (depending on the game) it will not be sufficient for avid gamers. I like to run my games at a decent resolution, so the 9400 was a no go for me. Take for instance Aion Online, playing the beta on a buddies Dell M1530 with 9400M is a complete joke, whereas the 9600GT via bootcamp on my 17" unibody handles the game amazingly.

To answer the OPs initial question though, you'll notice a bigger difference spending that money on a decent SSD, instead of dumping the money on a 250~Mhz CPU jump. (Yes, the added cache would certainly be nice)
 
Thank you to all of you for your input and suggestions. I just wanted to be sure that 12 months down the road I am struggling performance wise. I do have to admit that my Alumi. iMac 2.4GHz has held up very well performance wise over the last 18 months.

One last question ... Would the difference between the 2.53 and 2.80 MBPs be similar to the performance differences between my iPhone 3GS and my wife's iPhone 3G?

Thanks,

Michael
 
Thunder82 said:
9400m is a great card, but (depending on the game) it will not be sufficient for avid gamers. I like to run my games at a decent resolution, so the 9400 was a no go for me. Take for instance Aion Online, playing the beta on a buddies Dell M1530 with 9400M is a complete joke, whereas the 9600GT via bootcamp on my 17" unibody handles the game amazingly.

To answer the OPs initial question though, you'll notice a bigger difference spending that money on a decent SSD, instead of dumping the money on a 250~Mhz CPU jump. (Yes, the added cache would certainly be nice)
Click to expand...


My girlfriend was playing AION beta recently with her new 13inch uMBP with the 9400M card.

And I can say with complete honesty that you're talking complete and utter nonsense about the card. Probably lying about 'your mate'. The card handles the game excellently, and on high settings with only 2GB of RAM.
 
RetroGamer360 said:
Thank you to all of you for your input and suggestions. I just wanted to be sure that 12 months down the road I am struggling performance wise. I do have to admit that my Alumi. iMac 2.4GHz has held up very well performance wise over the last 18 months.

One last question ... Would the difference between the 2.53 and 2.80 MBPs be similar to the performance differences between my iPhone 3GS and my wife's iPhone 3G?

Thanks,

Michael
Click to expand...

For everyday tasks, you won't notice a difference between the 2.53 and 2.8 unlike the 3GS and 3G.

But I noticed that you want to bootcamp and play games too. The discrete graphic card will give significant and noticeable performance improvements and the processor will definitely improve frame rates.

But for that kind of money to upgrade, you could get a cheap gaming PC that performs even better! But if you plan on playing while out and about... But you would have 2 computers. Also, your 2.53 will have better battery life than the 2.8.
 
for 700 you can just pick up a gaming pc.

q6600
4x2 ddr2
780i
250gig hd
600w modular psu
case
dvdrw drive
9800gtx to even a gtx280

should be about 500-700 depending on the grphx card...
 
RetroGamer360 said:
Thank you to all of you for your input and suggestions. I just wanted to be sure that 12 months down the road I am struggling performance wise. I do have to admit that my Alumi. iMac 2.4GHz has held up very well performance wise over the last 18 months.

One last question ... Would the difference between the 2.53 and 2.80 MBPs be similar to the performance differences between my iPhone 3GS and my wife's iPhone 3G?

Thanks,

Michael
Click to expand...

No, no even close processor-wise. The 3GS is way faster than the 3G, whereas the 17MHz difference in processor speed is hardly worth a tenth of what you are considering paying.

GPU-wise, it's a different story. With the 9400 vs 9600, it depends on if you really need the laptop to play games. For instance, I use my Mac for everyday stuff and even a little video/photo editing, but my old PC with a very very very good graphics card to play any games I want. If you need to game on your Mac, by all means, go for it. There's no stopping you if $$ doesn't factor in.

In my opinion, the upgrade isn't worth it. That's because:
1. $$ factors in for me
2. You can overclock your GPU in bootcamp anyways

It's totally up to you, but I hope my 2 cents helped sway you one way or another.:) Good luck whichever way you choose to go!:apple:
 
RetroGamer360 said:
I purchased my 2.53GHz 15" MackBook Pro this past Sunday and really like it however being a power hungry tech geek I feel this need to return it and get the 15" MacBook Pro with the 2.80GHz processor and the discrete 9600M graphics chip.

With tax and the open box return fee it will cost me a total of $766.00 to make this upgrade and I need some input as to whether this will be worth while or a waste of money.

On the Mac side I use the MBP for web surfing, Office and photo projects which aren't too intensive so I figure I would see little to no benefit here. I also plan to install Windows 7 via Boot Camp so that I can play some games. This is where I wonder how much of a benefit I will see going with the faster processor (double the L2 cache) and 9600M.

I think I want to do the upgrade but I wanted to get input from outside my own perspective.

Thanks,

Michael
Click to expand...

If you're going to drop >$700 I can assure you a SSD will give you more everyday bang for lesser buck. You'll see the difference immediately instead of trying to find processor intensive tasks to justify the extra dough and give you itty bitty speed boosts. Buy an Intel X25M 160 Gen 1 or 2 for under $500. The increase in speed of your computer will astound you.
 
Thank you all once again for your suggestions. I have decided to keep the 2.53GHz and purchase either a SSD or 500GB 7200RPM hard drive and use the extra money to build a gaming PC. I agree with the suggestions that I will get more bang for my buck that way. Besides ... I will avoid throwing money out of the window paying the Apple restocking fee.

Thanks,

Michael
 
You notice a dramatic improvment in Graphics performancewith the NVidia Geforce 9600M GT. THe proccessor will be .27 GHz faster and have double the Cache. You hard drive will be double 500 GB
 
Do it

Do it... I did. I was happy to pay the extra 760 because I wouldn't have to buy a new computer in a year.

Brian
 
niuniu said:
My girlfriend was playing AION beta recently with her new 13inch uMBP with the 9400M card.

And I can say with complete honesty that you're talking complete and utter nonsense about the card. Probably lying about 'your mate'. The card handles the game excellently, and on high settings with only 2GB of RAM.
Click to expand...

I appreciate your complete honesty, I really do, but I think you overlooked where I said I liked to play my games at a good resolution. I wouldn't consider your girlfriends MacBook at 1280x800 resolution "good."
 
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