2018 15", 13" or MBA?

[nomby]

Good day all,



I am currently shopping for a new Mac.



Here’s my desired specs;



15” 2018 560X i9/32GB/1TB - cost SGD55xx



As the wife lately seeing me doing lots of upgrade on my gear, gotten the XR and Series 4 all together, she questioned the need of such expensive machine. I choose to look into other options;



13” 2018 2.7GHZ i7/16GB/1TB - cost SGD41xx



MBA 2018 16GB/1.5TB - cost SGD38xx



My work involves a lot of coding and compilation, UI/UX Design with Sketch 3, photography work with Capture One Pro, development testing with VM (single instance), irregular 4K video editing.



With the 15” I have no doubt that I can everything above without worrying the performance but with the 13” I feel a little insecure with the 16GB I have as my current machine is a Thinkpad with 32GB memory running Fedora 29, an upgrade from 13” maxed out rMBP.



I have yet to read much on the 2018 MBA performance on development, Sketch 3 usage.



90% of the time the laptop will be plugged to either a 25” Ultrawide or 34” Ultrawide.



With the 13” and MBA route, I can have extra cash at the later date to include a eGPU or getting a Mac Mini with custom installed 64GB memory for more intensive work.



What are your thoughts? Would love to hear more feedback on my dilemma!

 

[spyguy10709]

Looks like your workload is pretty intensive. IMO I'd look towards the 6 core capability of all 15" Macbook pro. The newly announced vega refresh means current models might go on sale or.. hold off a few weeks.

I'd probably skip the i9, get the Base i7 and save $500 USD. There's at best a 7% performance delta between the base i7 and the i9, and that gap closes with thermal throttling. I'd still spec it with 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD, as those are locked in and can never be upgraded down the line.

The performance difference is HUGE over the other machines you mentioned. Whatever you do - don't buy the Macbook air without a return period. the 7.5w chip was made for Facebook browsing, not juggling VMs and actual work.

Real black swan here, but have you considered a refurbished Macbook pro from Apple? They're a great deal and are really like a new machine.

 

[maflynn]

What are you running now? Is there anyway to defer the purchase? Happy wife = happy life

The 15" is probably going to the best option, and the MBA with the U based processor is going to be the worst. The MBA is not meant for heavy lifting.

 

[nomby]

What are you running now? Is there anyway to defer the purchase? Happy wife = happy life

The 15" is probably going to the best option, and the MBA with the U based processor is going to be the worst. The MBA is not meant for heavy lifting.

Currently I am working on a Macbook 12" with 8GB/512GB, a temporary setup till I secure the MBP. Did persuade the wife regarding my needs, so this thread should be sufficient to get approval on the buying

Looks like your workload is pretty intensive. IMO I'd look towards the 6 core capability of all 15" Macbook pro. The newly announced vega refresh means current models might go on sale or.. hold off a few weeks.

I'd probably skip the i9, get the Base i7 and save $500 USD. There's at best a 7% performance delta between the base i7 and the i9, and that gap closes with thermal throttling. I'd still spec it with 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD, as those are locked in and can never be upgraded down the line.

The performance difference is HUGE over the other machines you mentioned. Whatever you do - don't buy the Macbook air without a return period. the 7.5w chip was made for Facebook browsing, not juggling VMs and actual work.

Real black swan here, but have you considered a refurbished Macbook pro from Apple? They're a great deal and are really like a new machine.

Appreciate the reply! Seems not worth to pay that much for a marginal boost in i9. Would definitely use that amount for VGA GPU upgrade.

Seems like I am pretty confident to stay with my configuration with base i7 and Vega 20 (hopefully). Indeed is not worth to go after the idea of getting the MBA 2018 + Mac Mini combo as the costing ended up more than my budget

 

[spyguy10709]

Currently I am working on a Macbook 12" with 8GB/512GB, a temporary setup till I secure the MBP. Did persuade the wife regarding my needs, so this thread should be sufficient to get approval on the buying



Appreciate the reply! Seems not worth to pay that much for a marginal boost in i9. Would definitely use that amount for VGA GPU upgrade.

Seems like I am pretty confident to stay with my configuration with base i7 and Vega 20 (hopefully). Indeed is not worth to go after the idea of getting the MBA 2018 + Mac Mini combo as the costing ended up more than my budget

Not to mention the i7 MBP15 will have more grunt than almost every Mac Mini and falls within 5% of the top line for CPU, and even the old RX 560 pros would serve the Minis iGPU as breakfast on a platter. There's no PC product with a Vega 20 yet but... Based on scaling from the Vega 56 it should be somewhere between a desktop 1060 and 1070, beating a RX 580. I'm excited and wish I had your budget to upgrade right now!

 

[nomby]

Not to mention the i7 MBP15 will have more grunt than almost every Mac Mini and falls within 5% of the top line for CPU, and even the old RX 560 pros would serve the Minis iGPU as breakfast on a platter. There's no PC product with a Vega 20 yet but... Based on scaling from the Vega 56 it should be somewhere between a desktop 1060 and 1070, beating a RX 580. I'm excited and wish I had your budget to upgrade right now!

After thorough consideration and more budget optimisation, it seems that I can't ride on the Vega 20 option that will be coming in late November due to the instalment plan with my card is actually a promotion which is ending this Friday.

Also I have trimmed the processor option as well as storage and here's the new option;

2.2GHz 6-core 8th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.1GHz
Retina display with True Tone
Touch Bar and Touch ID
Radeon Pro 560X with 4GB of GDDR5 memory
32GB 2400MHz DDR4 memory
512GB SSD storage
Four Thunderbolt 3 ports
Backlit Keyboard - US English
Accessory Kit

Between the 2.2 and 2.6, difference isn't much hence I would use the savings to get the Razer Core X with RX 580 8GB. I have 2 already in use Samsung T5 SSD so 1TB seems to be a bit overkill as I frequently offload my footages or large files to either of the external SSD.

Order placed and looking forward to next Thursday or Friday for the delivery! Truly appreciate all the response I have gotten here to help out my decisions! Much love!