New MacBook Pro or wait for Skylake refresh?

hoogie

hoogie

hoogie

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Hi All,

I was all set to order a new 13" MacBook Pro this week but since then was speaking to someone who suggested waiting for the refresh to the Skylake chipset, based on the fact the new chipset is a big upgrade.

What's the general consensus re the Skylake chips and the impact on the MacBook lineup? It is a big enough update to delay buying a MacBook until next year?

Thanks
 
I would wait for the Skylake refresh which should be in October/November time. Skylake mobile chips are a much bigger leap in regards to GPU and CPU than the i7 6700k was for the desktop extremist scene.
 
As soon as October/November?

I was under the impression the updates wouldn't happen until around March 2016...

If it's October/November I can definitely wait, but March 2016 seems a long way off.
 
Where they will also bring back the real pro, a new 17" MBPro ;) ....... hopefully! *everything crossed*
 
Or in reality, Thunderbolt 3 equipped models with less ports (as TB3 is compatible with USB-C) and yet slimmer profiles still. Might see the 5K TB display to go with it as well as the bandwidth will be there.
 
I'm keen to order a MBP, not sure on 13/15 at the moment, I'm just going to buy one as they look plenty for my needs as they stand right now without the Skylake refresh and I don't really want to wait until maybe March next year.
 
I doubt you'll see real world noticeable difference with Skylake anyway, my current 2015 15 MBP is super fast with the current chip.
 
considering there 2015 model only came out out 6 months or so ago i would be very surprised if they brought out something else so soon. Your looking prob march next year.

The current range with the broadwell chips are amazing fast anyway... you dont really need anything more.
 
Apologies for the thread hijack. I need to upgrade from my 2008 17 inch MBP. I too am waiting for the Skylake refresh before I purchase.
Having said that, is Skylake really going to be that much of a game changer - if at all? What will it bring that is better than what I can get now from a Broadwell 13 rMBP?
Currently using Win10 on a Dell venue pro 11 and its a horrible experience tbh.
 
The current 15 is really quick, so a speed bump from Skylake wouldn't be noticeable I'd say unless you were doing some CPU intensive tasks e.g. processing a ton of 4k videos.

It may give slightly more battery life.
 
LiE said:
The current 15 is really quick, so a speed bump from Skylake wouldn't be noticeable I'd say unless you were doing some CPU intensive tasks e.g. processing a ton of 4k videos.

It may give slightly more battery life.
Click to expand...

No, wont be doing anything too intensive. Playing HD video might be about as intensive as it gets or maybe creating and editing the odd home video once in a blue moon. Was thinking to myself maybe the 12 inch macbook would suffice, but i dont want to buy it and find its underpowered. Just not sure on that Core M cpu
 
RMBP13 will be in for a big bump:

Intel announced a new 2 core-skylake chip with greatly enchanced GPU + EDRAM chip. This will bring a considerable increase the GPU-performance in the 13" model.

The new quadcore + edram will also increase the GPU performance of the 15" base model quite a bit. Maybe even enough so that Apple could even ditch the dGPU version until new GPU's are brought out by AMD / Nvidia, which will happen some time later.

If one doesn't care about the GPU performance, then the current Broadwell models will be just fine.
 
Abz Hussain said:
No, wont be doing anything too intensive. Playing HD video might be about as intensive as it gets or maybe creating and editing the odd home video once in a blue moon. Was thinking to myself maybe the 12 inch macbook would suffice, but i dont want to buy it and find its underpowered. Just not sure on that Core M cpu
Click to expand...

The fact that the new iPhone 6s benches as much as the Macbook I'd be questioning it's power. Get a MBP, it's a solid package that won't leave you wanting for more.
 
dlite said:
RMBP13 will be in for a big bump:

Intel announced a new 2 core-skylake chip with greatly enchanced GPU + EDRAM chip. This will bring a considerable increase the GPU-performance in the 13" model.

The new quadcore + edram will also increase the GPU performance of the 15" base model quite a bit. Maybe even enough so that Apple could even ditch the dGPU version until new GPU's are brought out by AMD / Nvidia, which will happen some time later.

If one doesn't care about the GPU performance, then the current Broadwell models will be just fine.
Click to expand...

Right looks like a broadwell based rMBP might be sufficient then. My 2008 core 2 duo, 17 inch MBP still does all i need to do, even better with an SSD replacing the hard drive. Playing HD video gets it a little too warm for my liking but other than that it suffices. Only thing is i need the portability, and with that great big lump of ally its no longer a viable option.
 
Abz Hussain said:
No, wont be doing anything too intensive. Playing HD video might be about as intensive as it gets or maybe creating and editing the odd home video once in a blue moon. Was thinking to myself maybe the 12 inch macbook would suffice, but i dont want to buy it and find its underpowered. Just not sure on that Core M cpu
Click to expand...

You can see the performance of the unit here if you want.

I have a 2015 15" rMBP and the Macbook as a travel/meeting device. The performance of the two is worlds apart.

Excuse the unlisted/crappy/quickly put together YouTube vid for a mate, but you'll see what I mean if you .
 
Last edited:
MacRS4 said:
You can see the performance of the unit here if you want.

I have a 2015 15" rMBP and the Macbook as a travel/meeting device. The performance of the two is worlds apart.

Excuse the unlisted/crappy/quickly put together YouTube vid for a mate, but you'll see what I mean if you .
Click to expand...

That was very useful, thank you. Initial thoughts are it it seems to be capable enough for i need to do, even taking into account the screen recording. Still, think i will opt for the retina 13.
thanks once again
 
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