Macbook Pro 13" - i5 vs i7?

Hi,

it's definitely not worth it in terms of power and might even lower battery life, boost the RAM or SSD instead. This i7 is in fact a disguised i5 with only a +0.2 GHz boost, Intel's new marketing... It would make a difference on 4-core i5/i7 though.

Hi,

You've found the most relevant method of testing the two. You've seen the results. There are others with a bigger spread, but not by a lot. The added cost is definitely not worth it. Do get the RAM and save the money on the CPU. You'll never notice the difference.

I agree that you should save your money on the i7 and go with 16 GB of RAM.

You have not said what size SSD you are planning on getting.

I would suggest going with at least the 256 GB SSD. If you can afford it, you could go with the 512 GB.

Both the RAM and SSD are soldered onto motherboard, and are not upgradeable latter.

I have never heard anyone complain about having too much hard drive space.

Kim

If you are looking for CPU performance the Quad core i7 will geekbench about 16000+

over twice the CPU performance of the dual core CPU.

I have a dual core i5 that geekbench score 6500 and it is getting slow.

Only good for basic web surfing and office apps and light photoshop and maybe iMove.

If you plan on making videos with premier or final cut pro then I would get the base model 15-inch MBP with quad core i7 CPU at $2000. This is your best value purchase MBP.

You're welcome. 🙂