Which new MacBook Pro 15?

switchfromdellswitchfromdell
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
My 7 yr old PowerBook 15 G4 is about to crash. It has been great but I need to replace with new MacBook Pro 15. Which one 2.0GHz or 2.2 GHz? Is the 2.2 worth $400 more?



I will use MacBook Pro as backup/substitute to iMac 24 plus I will use mainly for photos (very few videos), financial records (MS Office), Internet browsing. I will not need larger hard drive but not sure if I need more powerful intel chip or the stronger AMD Radeon HD?



Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by switchfromdell View Post


    Is the 2.2 worth $400 more?



    Nope.



    Quote:

    I will not need larger hard drive but not sure if I need more powerful intel chip or the stronger AMD Radeon HD?



    Lowest-priced, lowest spec all the way. It's multiple times more powerful than you'd ever need already.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,326moderator
    The Radeon in the higher up one is significantly faster (about double) but you only need this level of performance for games and if you do anything using the GPU for computation. A good rule of thumb is that if you have to ask whether you need something, you probably don't.



    The entry model is still very fast and will even handle most games on medium quality.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    mjimji Posts: 25member
    I got the 2.2, but mostly because I wanted the better graphics card and a 7200 RPM hard drive, which will probably make more of a difference in speed than the extra 10% clock speed. You can get the faster hard drive in the 2.0 but it costs $100 extra, at which point the extra $300 for the other improvements doesn't look as bad... but for your purposes: definitely go with the 2.0.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    tipootipoo Posts: 1,142member
    Depends what your use for it is. The processor bump is nothing to write home about, but the AMD graphics card in the higher end one is much more powerful with four times the memory and three times the unified shader cores. For games, rendering, video work etc, I'd say its worth it, for general usage like web browsing the lower end one is fine.
  • Reply 5 of 8
    abhicabhic Posts: 1member
    This was a tough choice for me as well. I ended up doing a chunk of research to decide between the 13" and the 15". I ended up going with the 15" high end with a SSD option & 8GB RAM. Wrote up some of my notes over at http://vritti.net/2011/03/2011-15-ma...d-speed-demon/
  • Reply 6 of 8
    brucepbrucep Posts: 2,823member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post


    The Radeon in the higher up one is significantly faster (about double) but you only need this level of performance for games and if you do anything using the GPU for computation. A good rule of thumb is that if you have to ask whether you need something, you probably don't.



    The entry model is still very fast and will even handle most games on medium quality.



    BUY THE FASTEST most powerful;l and it won't go obsolete as fast .and resale is better . I did and its very fast and very hot .



    just saying





    9
  • Reply 7 of 8
    vandilvandil Posts: 187member
    Wait for the current issues with Thunderbolt MacBooks to be cleared up, certifiably.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    brucepbrucep Posts: 2,823member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by vandil View Post


    Wait for the current issues with Thunderbolt MacBooks to be cleared up, certifiably.



    what issues ???



    9
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