2012 Macbook Pro 13" i7 review

I used this forum extensively to decide between the MBA, MBP and the i5-i7 delimina. Well after much messing around i bought the MBP 13- 2012 8gb 750gb HDD i7 model last night. I figure I do a quick update and help otehrs out if needed for reviews or test. I sold my 2010 mini and I still have my 13" 2009 MBP C2D 2.26 laptop as well that I am upgrading from. I will sell that as soon as I have everything cleaned up and transfered then I will be selling my 09 soon for around $500-600.

What I need: I was happy with my 2009 MBP for the most part. I like the portability when needed but I used my ipad for that mostly now. Even for photography with my DSLR I will travel and wait till I get home normally. So the 2009 stayed plugged in a lot. I debated the imac/mini deliminea but I know I still use the laptop around the house (bed couch desk) and I have a brand new apple keyboard mouse and awesome 24" asus PA248 monitor that looks better then the 21" imac and I the 27" and 2 monitors was overkill in my budget and wouldnt have the need for 2 screens really. (be nice but) I know the laptops are great are portable are simple and clean on a desktop and have great resale.

My biggest concern was the graphics. I was happy with the 09 but I noticed in office/web apps the refreshes were getting slower, and some light gaming was still ok but lower settings and the some choppyness I got use too. (Mac store ios style apps were fine but oil rush or total war played 100% ok but were fluid.) I switched back to old PC dual core with aamd 4750 and that thing for 3 years and it rocked some games still comapred to the c2d. the imac deliminea came back looking at geekbench. I knew the imac would be faster then my old pc for gaming but I wasnt gaming a lot to justify a new imac or retina or 15" macbook just for the 10% of the time I might casual game for a hour.

So would the macbook pro 13" like my old one still do the job but have improved casual gaming and be noticably faster for the multiple apps I run (itunes, music rips, some light 3d modeling in fusion for 3d prinitng) Well I determined the MBA would be a little too small and the HDD space was an issue and the portable drive on a MBA didnt make sense to me and the ULC cpu suffer comapred to the M in the MBP so the MBP would do.

So after benchmarks on my old c2d, my pc, my work dell with a i5-2510 and hd3000 I realized the new pro woul be faster in almost all office/web apps and should do graphics well. I was concerend is the i5-i7 of the MBP needed? for $300 I got a biiger HHD ram and the processor and I figure ot have that edge in light gaming and heavy photoshop the i7 runs full time almost at the turbo mode of the i5 (2.9 vs 3.1) and 3.6 in boost mode and it hyperthreads more in boost mode i was told 4 cores vs 2 cores and for video it has 2 lanes vs 1 lane for the vram or gpu portion.

Regardless I bought it and fired it up and used airdrop to exchange some files and resintalled most apps through steam and mac store and I was good to go.

HDD: I defintely see that the hdd is about the same speed and although I only get 1-2 bounces it wsnt too much faster then the c2d in that regard. Once web page or app opedn the screen refresh was instant though comapred to c2d.

Downloads also seem faster across my wifi and unzip and opening DMG files was almost instant even for large 4gb apps. Night and day

Graphics: The card pushes my monitor much faster and sharper then the c2d it seems. Web and video all look great but c2d did as well. Games wereHUGE improvement. I mean I pretty much hit max and at full 1900x1200 res ran and most things were fluid. little back down but here ar emy observations.

This is all htrough my external monitor, closed clam shell

1: c2d

Geekbench around 3200 32 bit

Novabench: around 350 (110 for cpu and 24 for video)

on steam:

Sanctum played fine but I ran at 1280x720 with med settings. I tried high an dit worked but once action start I know it would bog.

Total war ROme played fine actually at 1280 too med-low fluid.

Oil Rush- Played good at med settings at 1280 but little studder didnt seem to matter being at low either studder still there but playable

diablo 3 played at low settings but jerky ok for casual but lots on screen would be PITA

Inventor FUsion: It worked but jittery managable but big models I would say no.

1:i7 MBP

Geekbench was 7800 at 32bit

Novabench was 770 (400 for cpu and 39 for video)

Sanctum 1900x1200 high settings full fluid no problems but textures clipped. a little must be game drivers

Total war Rome1900 as well high no issues at all with AA on but still i think the drivers of the video card dont allow the full effects of a dedicated GPU it seems some details not apparent like smoke etc as well as it should (gras was there) Totally playable and load times were non issue

I am waiting to get EMpire Total war up and going

Empire at War Star Wars-1900x1200 max details AA on but turn bllom off it coaused some tearing and it looked really good and playable for sure, I am sure AA off a notch down might be needed if many units poped up. I dindt see it but it felt that way

Oil Rush-Max detaisl, no AA 1900x1200 no problem looked like a different game compared to c2d.

Inventor Fusion: Golden fast and smooth no problems

I am going to play around with a few more games. I like to get empire up and running and I installed bootcamp and I liek to see endless space going, and roadrace for free from steam as good test. I will try COD and BF

COnclusion: the i7 rocks and for casual gaming and probably then some the hd 4000 is no problem. it will play older games maxed out and new games med-hi and playable for casual or harder core gamers. For serious FPS it is playbable still probably but low-med to keep the FPS up I imagine.

the new OSx is great too. Nice tweaks that are noticable over Lion. And after being in boot camp for an hour I am so glad I dindt go back to a PC. Reboots, hang ups, driver ****. Ugh I feel like walking on egg shells in pc mode especially when gaming since it taxes the system more. The mac is so stable I am going to try to just play Mac enabled games or use my xbox. FOr most part my mac is for photo,email,web,3d cad movie stremaing

VS the i5 MBP I dont know but like I said before the i7 helps out a lot I suspect on the game side and fusion side otherwise wouldnt notice it.

One thing I will upgrade though is to the SSD I am thinking keep the HDD as is and run a 128-200gb SSD for the OSX. Any hiccups or bounces and even gaming will probably all improve. Then this machine really would be a screamer.

Unless you need serious cad/fps gaming the imac or dedicated 15" serious are better. Otherwise the 13" are great upgradabale and still portable but offer a desktop piece too (run cooler then MBA and not as loud fans etc and the CPU is better for gaming)

if protbility is a must and you can get buy with the limited HDD space and gaming is causal a MBA would be fine too. I do photos and I already know my new mac clean setup and just no games installed and few pictures already was at 100gb no bootcamp. If I did travel and I would like at least 40gb of picture swap space to unload my DSLR on too. So I would be at 200-250gb at 100% capacity which means a 400gb SDD or more. And if I have ot carry a portable for that I might as well get the MBP. I hate accesories and cables when traveling

Hope that helps. If you have any game request or benchmarks you want me to run let me know.