Macbook Pro 13in 2.5 or 2.9ghz?

Macworld did a pretty nice review of the 13" MBPs. You can see their benchmark differences here. For menial tasks such as Office, I don't think the difference in processing power will be noticeable. Call of Duty will likely run better with the faster processor, but it's hard to say by how much. I suspect the integrated Intel HD 4000 video processor will be more of a bottleneck than a slower processor.

Here is Macworld's review of the 2012 13" MBP

http://www.macworld.com/article/1167330/macbook_pro_15_inch_and_13_inch_non_reti na_models_occupy_the_consumer_space.html

What do you want folks to tell you? You have $300 to spare? get the 2.9.

why would you consider it a waste of money?

for $300, let's see what you're getting.....

a larger hard drive.......

more RAM......

a better and faster processor.......

is that what you would call a waste of money?

sure, right now you might not see or need the benefit of a faster processor.....but what about in a few months or even in a year when you decide to do more FCP video editing and more gaming? Better yet, what happens if you decide to start using Photoshop more?

having a faster processor might not benefit you right now, but i'm sure it will in the future.

in any event, if you decide to go with the 2.5GHz you'll be fine with it....

good luck

Well let's break it down here...

2.5GHz is an i5 with a max speed when turbo boost kicks in @ 3.1GHz

has a 3MB Level 3 Cache Memory ( think of it as RAM in your Processor )

2.9GHz is an i7 with a max speed when turbo boost kicks in at @ 3.6GHz.

has a 4MB Level 3 Cache Memory.

Would you see the speed advantage in day to day normal use? More than likey no.....

Will you notice a speed difference when using FCP for video editing? Yes but not a huge difference.....

You will however, notice the difference when having a few apps running at the same time......

yes....but best solution is go with the 2.5GHz and test it with the games you want to play. if you don't like the performance, you have a 14 day exchange/return policy.....then add the difference and go with the 2.9GHz.

you're welcome......good luck with your upcoming purchase.....

Hi all,

I have come across this thread last week and found it really helpful so thanks to everyone first! I really appreciated the advise by Bimmer 7 series to purchase the macbook pro 2012 2.5ghz first to test before changing to the 2.9ghz one if necessary. So thats exactly what i did too and i purchased and received my new macbook pro 2.5ghz this week 🙂. I generally use the laptop for everyday use to work on and write my thesis, and for researching on the internet, using my email..etc. I dont need to use it for any sort of gaming or to use photoshop (at least not anytime soon), i might use imovie in the future since it seems cool, but i dont personally do any work which involves video editing. So my first question is just to generally check that the 2.5ghz i purchased is more than good enough for research and written type of work that i will be doing? even if i need to have more than one document and file open both from my laptop and internet, the processer i have should be fast enough i think, right? as i am aware i have less than 14 days to change now.

second, i thought about buying a license for microsoft office just in case i need to switch back to Word & Excel, and also because ive always used exchange for my emails. but I have read some reviews which particularly complain from using exchange on their macbooks, so i wonder if anyone had encountered similar problems with exchange, or even Word, Excel or Powerpoint? Im also curious to know if anyone prefers to use Pages or OpenOffice instead of Word (and Apple's similar alternatives to Excel and Powerpoint) and whether the files can be easily accessed from other laptops if you're temporarily working from somewhere else (uni lab that uses PCs)?

i have probably asked too many questions in one message, but i am completely new to using macbooks so im still adjusting 🙂 i would appreciate all advice on any of these questions!

thanks.

The processor is the main part of the computer and it does the thinking for the computer, some applications like games and video editing software needs a good processor or the computer will be really slow. The higher gigahertz (ghz) the processor has the faster it is and the faster the processor the better you can play game without low fps (frames per second). Hopefully this has helped sorry if I have confused anyone or got something wrong.