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i7 processor benefit for web based applications?

im considering upgrading to a new MacBook Pro. I use my current MacBook primarily to run web based applications such as Netsuite using Safari. I also have two external displays. My current MBP is a 2009 model with 8 GB of ram and struggles to keep up. Will I see a real benefit from i7 on a new MBP or should I just upgrade the ram to 16 GB?

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2009), OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Feb 13, 2016 10:19 AM

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3 replies

Feb 13, 2016 2:58 PM in response to BW123456

Hi BW123456,


Running Web Applications would consume more memory than CPU. Also, unless you're caching a ton of data on your local machine from these Web Apps, then hard drives shouldn't be too big of a factor. Since you are connecting to the Web Apps via the Internet, then increasing throughput speed would be of great interest. Having multiple monitors connected to your laptop would stress the CPU if you have a CPU with integrated graphics. Upgrading to a laptop with a dedicated GPU would be of great interest.


Here is my take on increasing the speed of your laptop and which one would be on interest to you. Let's think about data flow and how a laptop behaves when you are working.


1. The Network Interface Card (NIC) is responsible for data coming in and out of your laptop. If your NIC throughput speed is developed only to use 100Mbps then you will only be able to get about 65-80% of that throughput (because of packet overhead), which is only 60-80Mbps. This can slow down your work if you depend heavily on the Internet.
**In this case I would suggest getting a laptop with a NIC that is 802.11ac compliant, which provides you 1000Mbps (or 1Gbps). Trust me, you'll notice the difference with throughput speed.


2. Processing speed is how your processor calculates all of the tasks you do on your laptop. The more threads, the better, and the faster. Typical Intel processors are hyper-threaded enabled. This means that if you get an i7 quad core processor, then you actually get 4 physical cores and 4 logical cores. Therefore, you get 8 total cores, or threads, that work together to speed things up.
**I would always recommend getting an i7 quad core processor if you plan on being productive and working off your laptop.


3. RAM provides your laptop with temporary caching of the tasks you've done and the tasks that have already been processed by your processor. Depending on how much work you are doing, how many applications you are running, and how much data you are working with, then I would suggest a higher amount of RAM.
**Most applications, today, are optimized using higher amounts of RAM as a minimum requirement. People that are doing productive work, accessing a lot applications, having a ton of web browsers tabs open, and continuously opening and closing apps, then I always recommend going for higher amounts of RAM. Would you ever use 16GB of RAM? Probably not. Would you ever use beyond 8GB of RAM? Absolutely. Go with the 16GB.5.


5. Hard Drive speed is important for everything you do on your laptop. A hard drive's task is to read and write. Read data. Write data. When you open an application, it reads the data. When you are storing data for your application, then you are writing. Very important factor.
**I HIGHLY recommend going for a Solid State Drive (SSD) for purposes of speeding up everything you do. Also, SSD's have no moving parts, which can increase the overall life of the drive. Also, the new PCIe SSD's that come in the NEW Macbook Pros are the fastest and latest on the market. Imagine getting ~1000Mbps disk throughput! Stupid FAST!


6. Dedicated Graphical Processing Unit (GPU). If you plan on using multiple displays for your work, then get a laptop with a dedicated GPU! Why? Because GPUs process and render SOOO much faster than a processor. After all, that's why it's called a dedicated GPU.


PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Now that we understand our components, let's put the bigger picture together! The fun stuff!


Imagine that you buy a laptop with a 100Mbps NIC, i7 Quad-Core Processor, 8GB RAM, and a 5400 RPM Hard Drive. Yes, you have good processing. Yes, you have good RAM. But your investment is poor because the other components are going to slow you down, but the company you bought the laptop from has you thinking otherwise.


1. You download a file that's 10GB in size.

2. That data comes through your NIC at ONLY 60-70Mbps at MAX, but more realistically more like 10-20Mbps
3. Your processor is so fast in what it can do that it offloads the data to RAM.
4. The RAM Caches the data so it can be written to a folder on your hard drive at only a MAX of 5400 RPM or possibly 20MBps


Sound good? Definitely NOT. And here's why!


It takes you 4 hours to download a 10GB file. But your machine has the fastest processor and high amounts of RAM! Why is this happening.


HERE'S WHY

If your Hard Drive can only write at 10Mbps, but you download data at 20Mbps, then your bottleneck is the Hard Drive. It's taking a long time to write the data to disk and can't handle the fast offloading.


If you have a fast SSD, but a 100Mbps NIC, then your bottleneck is going to be the NIC. Your SSD will write faster than the data the NIC can stream into your machine.


If you have a fast SSD, a 1Gbps NIC, an i3 processor, and 4 GB of RAM, then your processor and RAM will be the bottlenecks.


And these scenarios can go on and on until you have the perfect combination of hardware.


CONCLUSION AND POINT

Get a laptop that has the perfect combination of hardware and will all work together seamlessly without presenting any bottlenecks.

If you have the new mid2015 rMBP 15" with the quad-core i7 2.8GHz overclocked processor with 16GB of RAM, a 1TB PCIe SSD, a dedicated GPU with 2GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1Gbps (1000Mbps) Network Interface Card (NIC), then you will have NO bottlenecks!


This would be the perfect scenario where you have all of the best hardware working together to make all of your tasks quick and efficient. It's really a saying of "You get what you pay for".


Don't skimp out on pricing out the right machine that is going to make sense given your situation. If you can afford it, then get it. You'll be more productive and not have to worry about the headaches of bottlenecks (unless they are external bottlenecks--like Internet is offline). I've gotten the above mentioned rMBP and couldn't be happier. But I also look at all given variables when scoping out a new machine.


It's been 4 years since my last laptop. At $2,800 this would be $58 per month over a period of 4 years. This is a cheap price to pay to get the best laptop with the best hardware that will make me work faster and efficient, without experiencing any bottlenecks, over the next 4 years to come.


Hope this helps.


Thanks,
Mark

i7 processor benefit for web based applications?

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