So it seems like my old MacBook (late 2008) has given up on living and it's time to find a replacement. I went to an Apple store and asked about the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro retina, both 13 inch screens. When I explained what I'd be using the computer for, the staff recommended the MBP. I told them, my main applications are Photoshop and Corel Painter, with a Wacom drawing tablet.
I decided to do my own research and found out the MBP 13's GPU is not really that much better than the MBA's. Furthermore, when I checked out the refurbished late 2013 retina laptops at the Apple website I found a 15 inch MBP similarly priced to the 13 inch. So now I'm wondering what to do.
As I mentioned, my old MacBook unibody (late 2008) was mostly used for Photoshop (heaps of layers and filters) and Corel Painter. It wasn't brilliant, but with its RAM memory expanded to 8GB was working Ok-ish.
I'm happy with 256 GB storage, anything larger is a plus. Same with screen real estate, 15 inches would be nice but not a must have. More interested on best bang for the buck. I'd appreciate your opinions about the following machines:
MBP 13
Refurbished 13.3-inch MacBook Pro 2.6GHz Dual-core Intel i5 with Retina Display - Apple Store (Australia)
MBP 15
Refurbished 15.4-inch MacBook Pro 2.0GHz Quad-core Intel i7 with Retina Display - Apple Store (Australia)
The MBP15's advantages are the Nvidia graphics and the quad core processor, aside from the screen.
The MBP13 has twice as much RAM, and storage.
Do you guys think the 15's quad core and better GPU would offset the 13's RAM advantage? Specially when we consider the fact that with the retina laptops you're stuck with the RAM you get when you buy the computer.
And my last question, is it worth considering the 2014 machines? Even if I'd get less RAM at a similar price?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
I decided to do my own research and found out the MBP 13's GPU is not really that much better than the MBA's. Furthermore, when I checked out the refurbished late 2013 retina laptops at the Apple website I found a 15 inch MBP similarly priced to the 13 inch. So now I'm wondering what to do.
As I mentioned, my old MacBook unibody (late 2008) was mostly used for Photoshop (heaps of layers and filters) and Corel Painter. It wasn't brilliant, but with its RAM memory expanded to 8GB was working Ok-ish.
I'm happy with 256 GB storage, anything larger is a plus. Same with screen real estate, 15 inches would be nice but not a must have. More interested on best bang for the buck. I'd appreciate your opinions about the following machines:
MBP 13
Refurbished 13.3-inch MacBook Pro 2.6GHz Dual-core Intel i5 with Retina Display - Apple Store (Australia)
MBP 15
Refurbished 15.4-inch MacBook Pro 2.0GHz Quad-core Intel i7 with Retina Display - Apple Store (Australia)
The MBP15's advantages are the Nvidia graphics and the quad core processor, aside from the screen.
The MBP13 has twice as much RAM, and storage.
Do you guys think the 15's quad core and better GPU would offset the 13's RAM advantage? Specially when we consider the fact that with the retina laptops you're stuck with the RAM you get when you buy the computer.
And my last question, is it worth considering the 2014 machines? Even if I'd get less RAM at a similar price?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers