Need advice

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Hi,

I will be buying a new MacBook Pro this week replace my 4+ year old PB. Since I'm on a budget, I had decided to get the basic 13 inch MBP ($1099 with education discount) and upgrade the memory and hard drive myself (already got the drive). However, I went to the university computer store today and they offered me the previous 15 inch 2.4 GHz MBP with the dual graphics card (256 MB), 2GB of ram and 250GB HD that they have on clearance for $1300.

I know the new MB have a higher quality display and substantially longer battery life, but on the other hand I also know the discrete graphics card can make a difference with certain applications. So now I'm having a hard time deciding which one to get.

Aside from average every day use, I often use photoshop and illustrator (mostly figure editing for research papers), Keynote for presentations, and video conferencing with iChat. I also enjoy photography and basic video editing as a hobby. I've used final cut express in the past and would like to get Aperture in the near future.

With all that in mind, I would truly appreciate any advice.

Thanks so much
 

CrimsonRequiem


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Your Mac's Specs
MBP 2.3 Ghz 4GB RAM 860 GB SSD, iMac 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 32GB RAM, Fusion Drive 1TB
If that's all you do then you don't really need a dedicated card.
 

pigoo3

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Your Mac's Specs
2017 15" MBP, 16gig ram, 1TB SSD, OS 10.15
My vote is for the older MacBook Pro. You get a larger screen & those discrete graphics cards are nice.

Honestly (just my humble opinion), although the 13" laptops Apple sells are very very capable computers...they really are the "low end" of the laptop line-up...meant for your average consumer computer user.

When you start bumping up to the 15" & 17" laptop models...not only do you get a bigger screen...but you get more capabilities that a more demanding computer user may want.

Not everybody needs the extras or extra computing power...but look at it this way...the more computer you buy today...the longer it will be a useful computer for you. Remember with laptops, except for ram & hard drives...they are usually not very upgradable.

So buy as much computer as you can now.

Of course if you like the smaller size of the 13", and the extra $200 is hard to afford...then get the newer 13" MacBook Pro.

Hope this helps,

- Nick
 

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