Macbook Pro owners both Retina and non - your opinions please! Also Cloud storage questions

Normally... mobile i5s don't come with hyperthreading... that's usually left to the i7s... but... typically Apple are unique, so all of the processors come with it. Like Broken Hope mentioned, the differences between the base i5 and top i7 are so tiny, you would be hard pressed to notice the difference if you had the machines side by side. The difference will show in benchmarks... but even working with large RAW files on two machines side-by-side... the difference will be hard to distinguish.

The 13 has on offer:

2.7 GHz (i5-5257U) dual-core Intel Core i5 Broadwell processor with 3 MB shared L3 cache (13")
Optional 2.9 GHz (i5-5287U) dual-core Intel Core i5 Broadwell with 3 MB shared L3 cache
Optional 3.1 GHz (i7-5557U) dual-core Intel Core i7 Broadwell with 4 MB shared L3 cache

You can go to somewhere like cpuboss.com to compare them... this link is the top i7 vs the base i5 - http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-5557U-vs-Intel-Core-i5-5257U

As you can see, the difference is very small.

The 15" however comes with these options:
2.2 GHz (i7-4770HQ) quad-core Intel Core i7 Haswell with 6 MB on-chip L3 and 128 MB L4 cache (Crystalwell) (15")
Optional 2.5 GHz (i7-4870HQ) with 6 MB on-chip L3 cache and 128 MB L4 cache (Crystalwell)
Optional 2.8 GHz (i7-4980HQ) with 6 MB on-chip L3 cache and 128 MB L4 cache (Crystalwell)

Take the cheapest cpu from both models and compare them here - http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-4770HQ-vs-Intel-Core-i5-5257U

Quite a big jump in performance.



Have a feel of both of them, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the 15". The 13 is 1.58kg and the 15 is 2.04kg.

My wife was dead-set on the lightness of the 13, but after I got a 15... she changed her mind. Not trying to push you or anything... just have found the extra screen real estate to be very useful & think you might too... when the weight difference is rather small, but the performance and usability is a reasonable jump.

The price difference isn't massive when you compare as close to like-for-like models as you can.

Take the 13" with 256GB SSD & upgrade it to 16GB RAM... 1359
base 15" comes with those same things + quad core upgrade + bigger screen included for 1599

(unless you know how to get the education discounts ;) )
 
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Alright I'm in the store now. Haven't been allowed to install LR & PS so I'm stuck with the standard store apple software. I've pretty much opened every single app possible, left them doing tasks/repeat tasks, brought a memory card with a few hundred raws and edited/exported and tried to put it through its paces, so far all good. A few slow ups but then again it's running 30 odd simultaneous apps...

It's the 13" model, 2.7ghz and 8gb ram. Currently only 10% of the CPU is idling so it couldn't handle much more than this.

It's been interesting, one thing for sure...stone the crows these little things are quick. The 15" I tried is lovely, but too big for traveling for me.
 
Decided on a spec I think:

RMBP
13"
2.9ghz cpu
16GB Ram
128gb storage + a transcend jet drive lite 256gb giving me 384gb in total. I'll also pickup a small thunderbolt drive somewhere along the way for backups.

Also buying brand new now...just waiting for my iMac to sell to fund it :)
 
The 2.9 CPU is NOT worth even an 80 quid upgrade... I assure you.

Better to spend it towards upping the internal drive to 256GB.

I know you can manage it... but personally... I wouldn't want less than a 512GB boot drive... although 256gb is more manageable :p
 
yeah just dump all the money in to a bigger ssd, the cpu upgrades are fairly minimal when you think it's thermal limited and also reduces battery life as well.
 
Upgrading the SSD to at least 256GB will gain you more than the CPU upgrade, the 128GB SSD has much slower write speeds, almost half.

My 256GB SSD gets like 1300MB/s reads and writes, the 128GB drive only gets around 600MB/s writes.
 
Broken Hope said:
Upgrading the SSD to at least 256GB will gain you more than the CPU upgrade, the 128GB SSD has much slower write speeds, almost half.

My 256GB SSD gets like 1300MB/s reads and writes, the 128GB drive only gets around 600MB/s writes.
Click to expand...

Ah wow, a huge difference, right 256gb it is then :)
 
I have a late 2013 13" Retina Macbook Pro i5/256Gb/8Gb. This is my travel/demo buddy, and is a brilliant machine.

For the 'grunt' work I have a 2015 15" i7 Quad/16Gb RAM.

For general stuff, think photos, light video editing, office stuff...I can't readily tell the difference much really, other than the screen estate. The 13" is a bit easier to carry, but not an awful amount easier in reality.

Where the performance really starts to show itself is in scale - video rendering bigger video dumps, converting, driving Virtual Machines. The i7/Quad starts to shine in that scenario. Scales so much more better to load.

Screen estate is a reasonable point - at the standard retina resolution the 13" can feel a bit cramped? If your eyes are pretty good you can up the space though? I do that - I find it perfectly reasonable and readable however some colleagues find it hard work.

Whichever you get you'll get a corking machine.

As a side note, the drive performance in the new 2015 units is simply astonishing!

ThatDrive.jpg
 
Also, I have one of those Transcend units. Handy for dumping stuff on, but don't expect it to feel quick, it absolutely doesn't.
 
Didn't realise the 128 drive was quite so speed limited (although it's still not slow)... so yeah, defo the SSD upgrade... you will be more likely to notice that difference than the CPU difference... even if it's "only £80"... it's £80 that could buy you an extra (sl)Easyjet return trip instead ;)
 
Wow, didn't realise A) the speed limitation B) just HOW fast these RMBP's are...jeeeez.

256gb it is then :D

Not worried about the jet lite drive being super quick. Just somewhere to keep my documents and bits will do :)
 
bloodiedathame said:
That speed is excellent, I'm assuming it's a soldered solid state job (like the PCIE in the nMP)?
Click to expand...

Yep, the chips are soldered directly on, same with the RAM...hence you REALLY need to be sure of your spec before ordering as you can't upgrade it afterward :p

Hence the reason for this thread...hence the reason I'm being picky and asking so many bloody questions :D

Still...all things being well, ordering in the next week or so :D
 
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crinkleshoes said:
It's basically a Samsung SM951 in the newest machines... cracking drive :D
Click to expand...

After seeing those figures it would explain why the machine was effectively saying "bitch please, come at me bro, gimme some more" when I was doing my testing in the shop :D
 
Got my RMBP this week, and its delicious :)

13"
2.7 CPU
16GB ram
256gb storage

I knew the screen would be good but after using it for a couple of hours I looked at my girlfriends laptop and found myself squinting!

This thing is also mind blowingly quick! It's absolutely perfect for what I was after :D thank you all!
 
13.3" MBP
Mid 2014
2.6 i5
256GB
8GB Ram

I use it for work, so will often have multiple browsers open, multiple virtual machines, IDEs. Handles it well, the only thing i'd upgrade if I had the choice again would be the RAM.

Edit, just seen your latest post, nice, enjoy :)
 
I bought an RMBP in March this year. I literally ticked every box in the options list and it hasn't failed to impress me.

I use it a lot with GoPro editing (GoPro Studio, Adobe PP, Photoshop, Lightroom, Audition, Traktor, the list goes on) and it is incredibly quick at doing what it needs to do.

My mate just bought a 4Gb DDR3 gfx card for his Windows 7 machine and the MPB renders GoPro videos in probably half the time is i7 desktop does.

I'm PC agnostic by the way.
 
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