Help me choose right Macbook Pro for photo/video editing.

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matthewh133

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Jun 20, 2009
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I'm tossing up between a 13 inch and 15 inch current gen macbook pro. Primary use will be photo editing and video editing. This is my job and I need to be able to accomplish both on the road with no performance issues. Software wise, I use mainly Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, Illustrator and Premier. Additional info wise, I would like to be able to connect it to my current LG 34inch monitor when I'm not on the road so I can edit on a larger screen when I have the comfort to do so.

Would I be better off performance (for my intended use) wise going for:

15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display
2.5GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz
16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
Intel Iris Pro Graphics + AMD Radeon R9 M370X with 2GB GDDR5 memory

Price: $2499

OR

13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display
2.9GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz
16GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
Intel Iris Graphics 6100

Price: $1999

To me, the layman, it looks like the 2.9 GHz processor of the 13 inch would be faster than the 2.5GHz of the 15 but the 15 inch looks to have additional graphics card power? Which is more important to me for my intended use? Also both the RAM have a different number attached to them but I'm unsure what that means. Thanks so much for any help!

Additionally, if there's a better option I'm open to hearing it. I'd prefer to stay closer to 2k than 2.5k but if it's much better I'm willing to spend the extra.
 
Solution
k1114
The 15" is better. Turbo makes it a higher speed and it's a quad core so more than double the performance. (i7-4870HQ and i5-5287U) Turbo is not just 1-2 cores, even on all 4 cores, it'll go up to 3.5ghz. The gpu is better too. The difference in ddr3l and lpddr3 is technical but the difference in performance even with the speed difference is negligible.

I'm sure you know pcs will get better specs for the price but if you want mac, then get mac. The current mbp are mid 2015 and do use older cpus, 4th and 5th gen instead of the current 6th gen. Actually in a couple months 7th will be out.
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dudeman509

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Jan 23, 2015
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15" for several reasons:

-Screen real estate
-I7 (btw, it will turbo boost when a heavy load is placed on 1-2 cores past what the i5 will).
-Graphics.

However, new Macbook Pros will be released VERY soon with what will likely be a large (for Apple) change in design. You will probably see current gens go on pretty good sales.
 
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k1114

k1114

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The 15" is better. Turbo makes it a higher speed and it's a quad core so more than double the performance. (i7-4870HQ and i5-5287U) Turbo is not just 1-2 cores, even on all 4 cores, it'll go up to 3.5ghz. The gpu is better too. The difference in ddr3l and lpddr3 is technical but the difference in performance even with the speed difference is negligible.

I'm sure you know pcs will get better specs for the price but if you want mac, then get mac. The current mbp are mid 2015 and do use older cpus, 4th and 5th gen instead of the current 6th gen. Actually in a couple months 7th will be out.
 
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matthewh133

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Really appreciate the info. I'd definitely love to wait for the new models. Unfortunately I'm about to head on a 6 month trip starting August 1 and I need to have a laptop to work on (current 2010 macbook air just can't handle video editing or even raw photo editing). Really bummed about this because I'm sure the prices will drop on what I'm about to buy in a couple months and the new ones will be out in a few. Sucks having to pay so much for outdated hardware.

I do know about PCs being better value, I made the one I'm on right now from scratch but this is all about being able to work on the road (I'm a photographer full-time and often have to provide content to the client next day).
 
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