MacBook Purchasing Advice

Report · Jul 13, 2020

The time has finally come to upgrade my "Late 2012 iMac" that has somehow managed to make it this far running all of Adobe's software. I have decided to either purchase a souped-up MacBook Air, or a MacBook Pro. The thing is I am on a pretty tight budget, and while I am trying to save where I can, I definitely do not want to shoot myself in the foot a couple of years from now... point is, I want this to last me for a while and would appreciate any advice on how I should proceed.

I primarily use Photoshop and Illustrator, but occasionally use After Effects, Audition, and Premiere as well. Here are MacBooks that I am looking at, but will only list the concerns I have in terms of sustainable functionality versus cost effectiveness:

MacBook Air:

- 1.2 GHz quad-core 10th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.8 GHz

- 16 GB 3733MHz LPDDR4X memory

MacBook Pro 13":

- 2.0 GHz quad-core 10th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz

OR

- 2.3 GHz quart-core 10th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.1GHz

- 16GB 3733MHz LPDDR4X memory

OR

- 32GB 3733MHz LPDDR4X memory

I know what I'd "love" to have, but again, I'm looking for a practical approach to this. If a MacBook Pro is the approach I need to take, that is fine, but what would the i7 processor give me that a i5 processor would not?

Thank you in advance for any replies.

Report · Jul 13, 2020

Here is one major problem with BOTH of those models:

Neither one of them is available with any discrete GPU at all. And the integrated graphics in both of them are so sluggish that you might as well stick with your current system permanently even though it is already now obsolete.

So, in order to even achieve a worthwhile increase in overall content creation app performance over your current system, you will really, really need to move up all the way to a 16" MacBook Pro, which is now the only MacBook model to even offer a discrete GPU at all.

App-performance-wise, the lower-end MacBooks are at best only a sideways-grade from your current 2012 PC.

Report · Jul 13, 2020

Thank you so much for your reply; while it is disappointing, I do appreciate you letting me know.

Thanks, mate - cheers.

Report · Jul 15, 2020

And this is mainly because you would actually be switching from an older but relatively powerful CPU to a newer but lower-power and slower-clocked CPU.

And I take back some of what I stated about the integrated Intel graphics in those lower-end MacBooks. You see, although all late-2012 iMacs come with a discrete Nvidia Kepler mobile GPU which had already been recently EOL'd by Nvidia itself, most of the ones built into those iMac do not have enough discrete VRAM to even enable GPU acceleration at all - even in older versions of Premiere Pro. This will force software-only rendering.

So, in this case, the MacBook models that you're considering would be an improvement over most of the late-2012 iMac configurations. It's just that IMHO they would not be a sufficient improvement over your current iMac to justify their prices.

I had to clarify my previous response.