Which MacBook Pro 16" configuration ?

[Losspost]

Hi
I am considering selling my current Desktop PC and using a MacBook Pro as a new Desktop Setup. 
I am a student who does a lot in Onenote and sometimes some Python, Matlab and Autocad or similar.
I like to play a few games in my free time, but it doesn't need to be AAA titles with max settings.

 

The big question is which configuration I should use?

 

Should I go for the I7 or I9 ?
Is 16gb ram enough or 32gb better?
The Radeon Pro 5300m, Radeon Pro 5500m 4gb or Radeon Pro 5500m 8gb?

 

What would you suggest? Any other tips what a good USB C dock for the mac is?
Greetings Losspost

[Its_MrMa]

macbooks aren't great for gaming, if you don't do any heavy workload 16gb and the i7 will be fine. the 5500m 4gb is enough

[Applefreak]

How bad is your pc that a macbook would be better? What games would you like to play and do you really need a laptop?

Honestly, gaming on os x is still bad so you would have to install windows but that comes with a lot of bugs and instabilities.

[Mad153]

7 minutes ago, Losspost said:

Hi
I am considering selling my current Desktop PC and using a MacBook Pro as a new Desktop Setup

Welcome to the forum! The PCMR member in me is sad though.

7 minutes ago, Losspost said:

Should I go for the I7 or I9 ?
Is 16gb ram enough or 32gb better?
The Radeon Pro 5300m, Radeon Pro 5500m 4gb or Radeon Pro 5500m 8gb?

The i9 would be better but i7 is fine for your uses, assuming apple fixes their thermal throttling issues. How budget constrained are you? 16 GB is considered good enough, but 32GB will definitely leave some room.

 

No idea about those GPU s unfortunately

[Losspost]

2 minutes ago, Its_MrMa said:

macbooks aren't great for gaming, if you don't do any heavy workload 16gb and the i7 will be fine. the 5500m 4gb is enough

Yeah . I only want that i can run a few games. But as I said I doesnt need to play AAA titles.

My PC isnt that bad. The hardware is propably faster. 

I used an Imac bevor but switched back to Windows because I was playing a lot of games.

In the last years i play less and less.

Furhtermore I am planing on doing my master in another country where I couldnt take my gaming PC anways

[Praesi]

Bad choice.

Get a decent Laptop isntead.

[Mad153]

2 minutes ago, Praesi said:

Bad choice.

Get a decent Laptop isntead.

I'm not a Mac fan myself but this is quite the blanket statement!

 

Isntead is a new one

[Praesi]

2 minutes ago, Mad153 said:

I'm not a Mac fan myself but this is quite the blanket statement!

 

Isntead is a new one

Obviously a typo, Superbrain.

 

And MacBooks are overpriced Junk. Designed to fail.

[Applefreak]

4 minutes ago, Losspost said:

Yeah . I only want that i can run a few games. But as I said I doesnt need to play AAA titles.

My PC isnt that bad. The hardware is propably faster. 

I used an Imac bevor but switched back to Windows because I was playing a lot of games.

In the last years i play less and less.

Furhtermore I am planing on doing my master in another country where I couldnt take my gaming PC anways

Can you tell us what games you want to play, the choice of the right graphics card is really important. Have you considered other brands of laptops as well. Macbooks are notoriously overpriced and somewhat unreliable when travelling. I had several in the office years ago because they were on sale at the time, 1 still lives the other 3 broke on daily commutes from moisture in the air and one even lost some screws in the bottom for some reason.

[Mateyyy]

For what you're trying to do, the 6-core i7 and 16GB of RAM sound like enough.

That being said, if you intend to use this as a desktop and also want to game on it, I'd much rather suggest you stick to an actual desktop PC. Most games will not work in macOS, and Windows through Bootcamp, while it does technically work, isn't a particularly great experience, or at least it hasn't been for me personally.

[Mad153]

@Losspost what is your budget if you don't mind me asking? There are many good thin and light windows laptops that will outperform the Mac while being cheaper.

 

Also what country are you in? I've just looked and an XPS with a much better GPU is about £700 cheaper.

[Losspost]

Well, my main point of buying a Mac is because I prefer macOS. As all other laptops don't have that ... well, they are no option for me. 
And In terms of reliability. While I had my Imac(2012) I never had to reset it because of some problems with the OS. While with my Windows PC I had to do it regularly because of some problems.

And I am not playing that much anymore. Maybe some Kerbal Space Simulator or Civ 6.

And by buying a mac I indirectly force my self to play less anways, which is one of the reasons aswell. 

[Losspost]

Yeah I was thinking a lot about it. Maybe it would be better to just get an MacBook Air/13" base modell and keep my main computer

[Commodus]

1 hour ago, Losspost said:

Yeah I was thinking a lot about it. Maybe it would be better to just get an MacBook Air/13" base modell and keep my main computer

Might not be a bad idea unless you don't like the thought of lugging your PC to that other country.

 

With that said, I would really look at getting the Air with the quad-core chip... it'll be considerably more futureproof.  Ideally 16GB of RAM as well, but that CPU could make the most difference.

 

If you do get a 16-inch MacBook Pro, here's my advice:

 

- Stick with the i7 unless you're doing heavy-duty work.

- Get as much RAM as you can afford; 16GB is fine, but 32GB will last longer.

- Don't worry about the GPU if you aren't planning to play intensive games.

[Losspost]

2 minutes ago, Commodus said:

Might not be a bad idea unless you don't like the thought of lugging your PC to that other country.

 

With that said, I would really look at getting the Air with the quad-core chip... it'll be considerably more futureproof.  Ideally 16GB of RAM as well, but that CPU could make the most difference.

 

If you do get a 16-inch MacBook Pro, here's my advice:

 

- Stick with the i7 unless you're doing heavy-duty work.

- Get as much RAM as you can afford; 16GB is fine, but 32GB will last longer.

- Don't worry about the GPU if you aren't planning to play intensive games.

You think the air is better? I thougth the MacPro 13 has some nice features like the touchbar but is it worth it ? Which Macbook air would you recommend?

[Darkseth]

Air is fine for basic tasts. Office, Documents, Streaming (Netflix, Music streaming, youtube, etc. Even 4k), Chatting (Discord, team colab apps etc), To-do-Apps/Calendar, Taking Notes, browsing the Web etc. Or even some heavy multitasking.
Anything more than that: Macbook Pro, even the 8th Gen Intel model. Much better Cooling = better Performance.

 

Just stating: My Macbook Air 2018 with a Dual Core jumps to 99-100°C just from having a Browser Game running (i tried "Doge Clicker 2", an idle clicker. Not even playing it, just loading it up and doing nothing.

 

Needing some serious Work? Macbook Pro 16" is quite a good deal tho. Even the Base model is perfectly fine - even overpowered for literaly Anything a Student would do.

More Specs than Base model --> If you use it for working/earning Money. Because time is Money.

 

But i'm pretty sure, no matter your course, probably every 500-600€ Windows Notebook would be more than capable of doing anything a student would need. So any Macbook Pro should be fine.

 

But Consider: 16" weights 2,0 kg. You don't really want to carry that around as a student. And it takes alot of space away.

 

I can't tell you which way is the best for you. But at least know: You do have more than 1 Option, and make it work ^^ you just need to know what exactly you need, and how you want to work with it.

[Donut417]

14 hours ago, Losspost said:

I like to play a few games in my free time, but it doesn't need to be AAA titles with max settings.

 

Recently picked up a Macbook Pro 13". I can tell you that more of my Steam Library works in Ubuntu Linux than in MacOS. Also the newest verson of MacOS does not support 32 bit software. For example Terreria doesnt work in MacOS due to this. So your milage will vary greatly here. 

[Commodus]

7 hours ago, Losspost said:

You think the air is better? I thougth the MacPro 13 has some nice features like the touchbar but is it worth it ? Which Macbook air would you recommend?

In your case, the Air would make sense if it was your secondary machine and you didn't intend to do anything particularly heavy with it.  You'd want it with the quad 1.1GHz Core i5 (the i7 won't really deliver enough extra performance to justify the price) and, if you can swing it, 16GB of RAM.

 

You'd get the 13-inch MacBook Pro if you intend to do more substantial work but still want something reasonably portable.  I wouldn't look at the Touch Bar as a factor -- really, it's the processor, memory and storage options that matter.  I'd get the 2GHz model to get the largest performance jump over the Air, but you wouldn't have to splurge beyond its stock configuration.

 

The 16-inch MacBook Pro, as you suggested from the start, would be the system to get if you intend to replace your desktop (or at least, replicate as much of its power as possible).