Is paying extra for more options on a macbook pro worth it?

[Aidanlockett1]

Hey guys, I am looking into laptops for college and the one I have settled on is the macbook pro 13 inch. I am mostly just wondering if it is worth while for me to spend an extra few hundred dollars for a better cpu, ram, and or storage. I am looking at the i5 edition with 8 gigs and 256 gigs of space. Mostly will be doing school work and light gaming. (Minecraft, Tf2 and CsGo) I know it could reasonably handle those titles, but should I consider upgrading the Cpu or storage? I see those being the only two limiting factors as of now. Thanks.

[Letgomyleghoe]

i would reccomend looking at laptops besides a mac, unless you need the operating system

[Aidanlockett1]

Just now, Letgomyleghoe said:

i would reccomend looking at laptops besides a mac, unless you need the operating system

Yeah I know Mac's can be a waste of money in the hardware department... mostly here for the operating system, build quality and quality control. No hate to Windows/linux machines doe

[Letgomyleghoe]

Just now, Aidanlockett1 said:

mostly here for the operating system, build quality and quality control

same can be found on other laptops, but to answer your question its all up to you, what are you going to be doing on the laptop, do you really need the extra ram space etc? i reccomend 16gb of memory but then again ive never used a modern mac and dont know how they use memory

[Aidanlockett1]

2 minutes ago, Letgomyleghoe said:

same can be found on other laptops, but to answer your question its all up to you, what are you going to be doing on the laptop, do you really need the extra ram space etc? i reccomend 16gb of memory but then again ive never used a modern mac and dont know how they use memory

For sure, and thank you. I feel like investing in a 512 gb ssd as opposed to the 256 would be the move. As more storage never hurts and I double I will use more than 6 gb of ram at a time.

[Darkseth]

1 hour ago, Aidanlockett1 said:

Hey guys, I am looking into laptops for college and the one I have settled on is the macbook pro 13 inch. I am mostly just wondering if it is worth while for me to spend an extra few hundred dollars for a better cpu, ram, and or storage. I am looking at the i5 edition with 8 gigs and 256 gigs of space. Mostly will be doing school work and light gaming. (Minecraft, Tf2 and CsGo) I know it could reasonably handle those titles, but should I consider upgrading the Cpu or storage? I see those being the only two limiting factors as of now. Thanks.

Aside from the new Apple Silicon models from yesterday (Watch youtube, every tech youtuber did a Video), here's my Opinion on Intel Chips:

You NEVER pay more for CPU Upgrades on a Mac, unless you get more Cores.
Pay more for 1.7 Ghz Quad core instead 1.4 Ghz Quad Core (both will probably be 100-200 Mhz away during Boost)? NO

Pay more for an 8 Core instead 6 Core in a 16"? Yes, you can do that.

 

It is worth paying for 16gb Ram instead 8gb, if you think you will be doing more multitasking. You can't upgrade it, so you need to device early.

Also, 512gb instead of 256gb can be worth. But i wouldn't go above that on this model (since you can get the 10th Gen model for not much more).

 

 

However, back to the Apple Silicon model... That 8th Gen MB Pro with 2 Ports got updated. It gets up to 3~ times the CPU performance, and 5 times the GPU Performance. compared to the 1.7ghz i7 according to Apple (in "real world" tests probably less, Apple cherrypicks benchmarks like every other company), while at the same Time having alot less power consumption.

Apple claims 20 hours battery life, instead of 10 hours. So battery life doubled, while performance did also.

Oh yea, and 100 bucks cheaper.

 

If you do NOT need Windows in Bootcamp or VM, there i no reason to get the Intel model anymore.
If those Games can run native under MacOS, it's also good enough.

[Aidanlockett1]

8 hours ago, Darkseth said:

Aside from the new Apple Silicon models from yesterday (Watch youtube, every tech youtuber did a Video), here's my Opinion on Intel Chips:

You NEVER pay more for CPU Upgrades on a Mac, unless you get more Cores.
Pay more for 1.7 Ghz Quad core instead 1.4 Ghz Quad Core (both will probably be 100-200 Mhz away during Boost)? NO

Pay more for an 8 Core instead 6 Core in a 16"? Yes, you can do that.

 

It is worth paying for 16gb Ram instead 8gb, if you think you will be doing more multitasking. You can't upgrade it, so you need to device early.

Also, 512gb instead of 256gb can be worth. But i wouldn't go above that on this model (since you can get the 10th Gen model for not much more).

 

 

However, back to the Apple Silicon model... That 8th Gen MB Pro with 2 Ports got updated. It gets up to 3~ times the CPU performance, and 5 times the GPU Performance. compared to the 1.7ghz i7 according to Apple (in "real world" tests probably less, Apple cherrypicks benchmarks like every other company), while at the same Time having alot less power consumption.

Apple claims 20 hours battery life, instead of 10 hours. So battery life doubled, while performance did also.

Oh yea, and 100 bucks cheaper.

 

If you do NOT need Windows in Bootcamp or VM, there i no reason to get the Intel model anymore.
If those Games can run native under MacOS, it's also good enough.

are you referring to the 8 core apple chips that are listed under the cheapest skews? Does that mean they have better performance in native macos? I do not plan on runnning bootcamp, however 512 gbs with a higher performing cpu for less cost sounds good to me...

[Darkseth]

Well, MacOS (Big Sur) will be native.

However, Software like Adobe, Microsoft Office, Affinity Photo, and whatever you could use, will run MUCH better, if the developer optimized it for the ARM Architecture (instead of x86_64 with Intel Chips).
For Software, that isn't optimized yet, a Translater called "Rosetta 2" will be used, which will be a performance hit. However, There it wouldn't be surprising, if the new M1 Chips will be so fast compared to the last one, that they will emulate Software better, than the Intel models run them natively.

 

For some things, this already is the case, like graphic stuff (where the new Chips can hit 5-6x the Performance).

Exact Numbers are yet to be tested next week, but yea... you can pretty much expect more performance, less power consumption, more battery life, cheaper price.
Oh yea, and you can run iPad and iPhone Apps native too, which should not work on Intel Chips.

[Aidanlockett1]

3 hours ago, Darkseth said:

Well, MacOS (Big Sur) will be native.

However, Software like Adobe, Microsoft Office, Affinity Photo, and whatever you could use, will run MUCH better, if the developer optimized it for the ARM Architecture (instead of x86_64 with Intel Chips).
For Software, that isn't optimized yet, a Translater called "Rosetta 2" will be used, which will be a performance hit. However, There it wouldn't be surprising, if the new M1 Chips will be so fast compared to the last one, that they will emulate Software better, than the Intel models run them natively.

 

For some things, this already is the case, like graphic stuff (where the new Chips can hit 5-6x the Performance).

Exact Numbers are yet to be tested next week, but yea... you can pretty much expect more performance, less power consumption, more battery life, cheaper price.
Oh yea, and you can run iPad and iPhone Apps native too, which should not work on Intel Chips.

 Thanks for the info. they seem very new so its hard for me to find lots of information on them. I will only really be using basic stuff on my mac. That sounds sick, iphone apps native on macbook? Looking forward to that. Especially the increased graphics performance. Would the M1 chip out perform the i7/i5 in 13in notebook in regards to gaming? i know the integrated graphics are quite weak.

[Darkseth]

Apple said 2,9x the Performance in "Rise of the Tomb Raider" (probably native, not emulated) compared to previous Intel IGP.
But big Problem: No more Windows (no Bootcamp, no VM), and no eGPU support.

As long a Game is available for MacOS, it should run.

Also interesting, the Geekbench leak: https://www.macrumors.com/2020/11/11/m1-macbook-air-first-benchmark/

I know, it's "just" Geekbench, not the best, realistic benchmark, but on par or beats the 8-Core 16 Threads Notebook Chips from Intel AND AMD.

 

I Hope Cinebench comes soon.