difference in core duo and i5

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I am purchasing a new macbook pro and trying to decide if the i5 is worth the extra money. I'm an architecture student and photographer so graphics is important and I'll most likely be running some architecture programs that require some power. At the same time cost is a big factor and I'm looking into buy a refurbished mac and see a lot of core duo macbooks for sale and just want to know if it won't make too big of a difference in the machine compared to the i5 or if a better graphics card is better or what. Thanks for any help.
 

chscag

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Since most of us probably haven't used the programs you are talking about the better solution would be to find the system requirements for those software. If all you care about is speed then yes the i5s will be faster. The newer computers also have faster graphics cards and has the option for higher resolution.

The Core 2 Duos are still fast machines but it depends on how fast you want your computer to run. If it mets the minimum software requirements then it will work but probably not as fast as you want it to.
 
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Hi,

I am running a duocore Intel iMac 27" and it is plenty fast with programs like Photoshop using large high resolution photos from my Pentax digital SLR.
So far it has had no issues running any software I can load on it.
The i5 is a faster cpu, but not that much more that you should notice a difference like,, it takes a minute to do an edit of a photo on the duocore mac as compared to the i5 taking a second. Like the other person who posted here said, a lot depends on the program. If the standard processor meets the requirements of the program then things will work fine. Another issue is the amount of ram you have installed. If the program will run with 2 gig, but suggests 4 gig for optimum performance, then the 4 gig of ram is probably the most important issue.. I have found that as long as you have more machine then the minimum required for the program, you are set.
If you just have the minimum, then things will probably be slow.
 
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The Core 2 Duo is an older processor that was built for DDR2 RAM. The i-series was built for DDR3, which is the newest RAM being built into computers now. Most people wouldn't notice any difference in performance, unless you are a power user. I actually tested a MacBook Pro with a Core i7, and it still couldn't do what I have been trying to do with mine, (create a large Photoshop file with special graphics), the only processor I found that could do it was the Core 2 Duo 2.8GHz on my friend's Mac. So just think of it as being new technology to replace the old stuff.
 
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The Core 2 Duo is an older processor that was built for DDR2 RAM. The i-series was built for DDR3, which is the newest RAM being built into computers now. Most people wouldn't notice any difference in performance, unless you are a power user. I actually tested a MacBook Pro with a Core i7, and it still couldn't do what I have been trying to do with mine, (create a large Photoshop file with special graphics), the only processor I found that could do it was the Core 2 Duo 2.8GHz on my friend's Mac. So just think of it as being new technology to replace the old stuff.

Unless Photoshop is very poorly threaded, that should not have happened. I would try to come up with the cash for an i7 Macbook. It typically delivers 5-10% additional performance over a similar Core 2 machine. More than that if the program is threaded as the i7 will give 2 virtual cores in addition to the 2 actual ones.
 

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