Real Life Speed Difference

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I have a need for speed but want a REAL difference.

Is there really that big of a performance difference between the 13" MBP with the 2.7 Ghz I7 processor, 8 Gb ram and the 15" MBP with the 2.2 Ghz Quad core I7 processor with the 7200 rpm 500 Gb drive and 1 Gb Radeon 6750 Graphics?

Is there a performance rating somewhere that I can refer to? What do you experts in the field see? I know there is a significant difference in the price but is the difference really worth it? My guess is that in graphics intensive applications the difference would be real. But would the difference show up in everyday computing with say lots of multitasking? Would there be a real difference in the "seat of the pants horsepower" if you will?

I am contemplating purchasing a notebook for my wife but I may give her mine and possibly look at the speedier model for me.

Regards,

Pat
 
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On a theoretical level, if you also have the 8GB of RAM in the 15inch, then yes you will see improvements. Also with moving up to the 15inch you are getting the quad core i7 which effectively is doubling your processing power, provided the programs/OS is programmed to take advantage of it. I would have to assume, though perhaps incorrectly, that the Apple apps in Lion will actually be able to take advantage of most of these upgrades.

Realistically, I'd suggest taking a look at youtube and seeing what others have posted. if you are just doing Web,email,itunes, maybe movies, using iPhoto, etc. Then you probably don't need to pay the premium. Depends on the extent of multitasking/what you plan to use it for.
 

robduckyworth


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the 13" is a dual core, while the 15 is a quad (i believe). youll see massive increases in performance for multithreaded apps.
 
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the 13" is a dual core, while the 15 is a quad (i believe). youll see massive increases in performance for multithreaded apps.

Right, and I would assume that most native OSX apps are multithreaded? (thinking safari, iLife, iWorks, etc.)
 
C

chas_m

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Yes, but really it comes down to *what do YOU do with the machine.*

For example, I mostly write for a living. I barely need a computer at all to do this, and the difference between a quad-i7 and a G3 is hardly noticeable -- in word processing. :)

Now for some of the other things I do -- like podcasting -- more processing power is definitely noticeable. But really nothing I do on a regular basis "pushes" the processor of even this 2007 Core2Duo Blackbook I have, so I haven't been in a rush to upgrade too much (though I do hope to get a new MacBook Pro later this year).
 

robduckyworth


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Right, and I would assume that most native OSX apps are multithreaded? (thinking safari, iLife, iWorks, etc.)

those apps arent exactly strenuous on the CPU, but it will be a little bit zippier to process tasks.

stuff that you really see a difference in is games, video encoding/rendering, DSP processing, etc.

Garageband and iMovie would see good performance increases from the more powerful CPU.
 
OP
PatM
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Yea, I hear what everyone is saying. I have that disease where you want to have all the horsepower you can have, even though you don't use it often, but you want it just in case it's needed! I know it's a bad disease and it's cost me a fortune over my life.

Thanks
 
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IMO an SSD would give you the most noticeable speed increase.
 

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