MacBook Pro - Processor clock speed drop?

rbrandishrbrandish
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014

I've been getting ready to buy a new MacBook Pro and have been looking at the last version for a while now in anticipation for the new ones. I noticed that in the last generation, the base clock speed was 2.3 GHz and in the new ones it's 2.0 GHz. Does the amount of work done in each clock cycle of the new processors just enough to make up for the clock speed drop? Maybe even make them better? Or is there actually a loss of processor power in the new generation (on the base level)?

 

And as a bit of an aside, I would appreciate any advice on any addons to the new computer. I'm planning on a 15 MacBook Pro (Retina). I'm someone who meticulously closes/quits programs I'm not currently using. However, I'm likely to be usually running 3 (sort of heavy) programs concurrently: Xcode, Eclipse, and Chrome. Since these will almost always be the only programs I have running, I'm thinking an increase of processor might be more useful over the increase in RAM (especially given the price). Would upgrading to from 2.0 GHz to 2.3 GHz really show any improvement? Or should I just leave the computer with the base components? This is my first Mac ever by the way.

 

Thanks!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    Haswell over Ivy Bridge is far more important than 2.3GHz over 2.0.

     

    Even a 2.0GHz Haswell runs thousands of circles around a 3.5GHz Pentium 4, for example.

  • Reply 2 of 3
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,443moderator
    rbrandish wrote: »
    I've been getting ready to buy a new MacBook Pro and have been looking at the last version for a while now in anticipation for the new ones. I noticed that in the last generation, the base clock speed was 2.3 GHz and in the new ones it's 2.0 GHz. Does the amount of work done in each clock cycle of the new processors just enough to make up for the clock speed drop? Maybe even make them better? Or is there actually a loss of processor power in the new generation (on the base level)?

    There are benchmarks for each here:

    http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i7-4750HQ-Notebook-Processor.93494.0.html - new one
    http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i7-3615QM-Notebook-Processor.73453.0.html - old one

    The new one at 2GHz is faster than the old one at 2.3GHz. The $100 upgrade to the i7-4850HQ should be 15% faster but it may not scale exactly with clock speed. It's not a speedup you'd notice in real-world scenarios very easily.
    rbrandish wrote: »
    should I just leave the computer with the base components? This is my first Mac ever by the way.

    Generally it's best to leave the models with no upgrades. Apple charges a lot for upgrades and that extra value tends to lower more quickly when it comes to resale.

    8GB RAM should be ok for what you're doing and if 256GB SSD is enough for the data you have, leave it at that. The SSD isn't sealed in but is a custom design so any upgrades in future would be via 3rd party sellers selling parts or the Apple Store might offer it as a service.
  • Reply 3 of 3
    jdfergasonjdfergason Posts: 10member

    Personally I would go with as much RAM as possible.  Especially with that list of apps, all of them are extremely RAM hungry.  Xcode alone can consume 1GB RAM without thinking and easily push north of 2GB.  And depending on the number of tabs you have in chrome it can get up there too.  Don't get me started on the hog that Eclipse is!

     

    Just my 2 cents though.

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