Should I upgrade my MBpro ?

ragzragz
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I have a 2.33ghz 15 inch MBpro with the ATI Radeon 1600 card. I usually skip to generations before I upgrade my computer. I am wondering if I should consider upgrading to the ltest unibody 15 inch MBP with a 2.8ghz processor. I wonder if the upgrade is truly significant. Considering that snowleopard is now out, even the current hardware will become faster... I do end up using imovie and iphoto a lot and do minor edits as well.



I am confused.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,323moderator
    Nvidia have new chips to come out in Q3 and there's a quad core mobile processor from Intel coming too.



    Nvidia have the iGT209 to replace the 9400M and the GT214 to replace the 9600M GT with GGDR5 memory support.



    The quad core chip is called Clarksfield and starts at 1.6GHz.



    I personally think Apple would do well to just drop the prices if they can and skip these upgrades because the machines run fairly well already. The Intel Quad will be lower clocked and have fairly high power consumption for a laptop. The Nvidia chips could be worth waiting for as they might not have the manufacturing defects of the 9600M GT.



    As for the current models vs your one, the main upgrades are the build quality and having 2 faster GPUs. The MBP has both 9400M and a 9600M GT. If imovie and iphoto show significant improvements in performance by using them, it may well be worth the upgrade but no one has mentioned any major performance boosts yet.



    Only buy an upgrade once it's shown to make a significant difference. I'm sure more in depth reviews of Snow Leopard will be out over the weekend.



    Usually there's a back-to-school offer/upgrade mid-October or earlier but the laptops had a minor refresh not that long ago.



    Intel's Arrandale is said to be coming Q4 2009 or Q1 2010 and this is the 32nm Core i5 processors, supposed to be much more power efficient and they push integrated graphics beside the CPU. If you only upgrade every 3rd generation, I'd wait for Arrandale at the end of the year.
  • Reply 2 of 5
    backtomacbacktomac Posts: 4,579member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ragz View Post


    I have a 2.33ghz 15 inch MBpro with the ATI Radeon 1600 card. I usually skip to generations before I upgrade my computer. I am wondering if I should consider upgrading to the ltest unibody 15 inch MBP with a 2.8ghz processor. I wonder if the upgrade is truly significant. Considering that snowleopard is now out, even the current hardware will become faster... I do end up using imovie and iphoto a lot and do minor edits as well.



    I am confused.



    I have your generation of MBP but with the 2.16 ghz cpu.



    I'm going to wait for the Nehalem MBP before I consider replacing my machine. The higher clocked Penryn cpus are a bit faster but in the time I've played around with them it isn't enough of a difference to get a new machine for me. YMMV.



    I suspect that no matter what Nehalem cpu Apple chooses to use in the next MBP, it'll result in a dramatic performance increase. Nehalem portables should be here by January. I can wait. A cheaper way to get a little better performance would be to get a 7200 rpm HDD.



    Unless you could be doing more billable work with a faster machine, I'd wait.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    ragzragz Posts: 6member
    thanks for the great advice guys... Seems like I am going to wait until the next upgrade.



    Cheers
  • Reply 4 of 5
    ragzragz Posts: 6member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by backtomac View Post


    I have your generation of MBP but with the 2.16 ghz cpu.



    I'm going to wait for the Nehalem MBP before I consider replacing my machine. The higher clocked Penryn cpus are a bit faster but in the time I've played around with them it isn't enough of a difference to get a new machine for me. YMMV.



    I suspect that no matter what Nehalem cpu Apple chooses to use in the next MBP, it'll result in a dramatic performance increase. Nehalem portables should be here by January. I can wait. A cheaper way to get a little better performance would be to get a 7200 rpm HDD.



    Unless you could be doing more billable work with a faster machine, I'd wait.







    I have a quick question. Is a blu ray drive expected in the next MBP upgrade? That would be a real good reason to wait. Moreover, can one be retrofitted in lieu of the superdrive? Besides the Arrandale processor and perhaps a better battery, whats expected to change significantly in the next upgrade?



    The reason for bringing this up again is a great offer on the 2.8ghz 15inch unibody MBP.



    Cheers

    Anurag
  • Reply 5 of 5
    backtomacbacktomac Posts: 4,579member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ragz View Post


    I have a quick question. Is a blu ray drive expected in the next MBP upgrade? That would be a real good reason to wait. Moreover, can one be retrofitted in lieu of the superdrive? Besides the Arrandale processor and perhaps a better battery, whats expected to change significantly in the next upgrade?



    The reason for bringing this up again is a great offer on the 2.8ghz 15inch unibody MBP.



    Cheers

    Anurag



    Don't know if BR is expected in the next MBPs or not. There's some rumors of BR in the next iMac but I've not read much about BR on the MBP line. It would make more sense to me, to see BR appear first on Mac Pros and MBPs as those are the machines most favored by video editors on the Mac platform. Who knows?



    I doubt you'll be able to retrofit a BR player into a superdrive slot.
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