Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

offwidafairies

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 5, 2007
582
0
Melbourne, Australia
Is there really a big difference btw the 2 15" models?
How noticable is it?
I use a 15" PB for editing photos in Photoshop (hobby)
and music software Sibelius, Pro Tools (professionally)

Can anyone help me out? It seems the graphics is the major difference btw the 2 models (other than slight processor speed)

There is quite a difference in price and I'm trying to decide if it is really worth paying the extra money. I am willing to spend whatever as long as it will be worth it. Cheers
 
you will only really notice a difference when running games under windows, or heavy video editing tools (think: Motion 3, or similar). Photoshop runs great on the lower end (15.4" model). I would say a faster hard drive would make a bigger difference than anything else if youre using Audio editing tools (taking into account the slightly difference in processor speed, which, you wouldnt really notice anyways).

My recommendation: Get the cheaper one, thats the one I got, and its quite amazing.
 
I was also deciding between the two fifteens. I do a quite a bit of mobile video and sound editing with FCP and I was concerned that the 2.2 wouldn't cut it. After looking at some benchmarks, there wasn't too much of a difference so for value per dollar, the 2.2 made sense.

I would suggest the 2.2 with a 7200 rpm hard drive and with the money saved, upgrade the ram to 4 gigs. Thing works like a charm. :)
 
If you ever plan on reselling within the new 2 years, get the higher priced model. The resell value will be significantly higher.
 
what makes you say that? is the graphics only worth it for gamers and video editors?

Get the cheaper one, there is a small difference which is rarely noticeable, even for gamers. If you do get 4 gigs of ram, make sure not to get it from apple because of their ridiculously high ram prices.
 
This topic has been covered before numerous times. I'm only saying this because the other threads will give you facts, and not just opinions. Just search on it.

And buying the higher graphics options only helps the resale value because it orginally cost $500 more in the first place!

Trust me, you can buy a MBP C2D or CD 256MB VRAM for only $100 more than what the base line costs! Ebay it if you don't believe me. I should know, I just sold my old one.
 
RAM and HD is far better upgrades than extra VRAM, unless you are a gamer

I've seen some reviews. Games are boosted about 2-3fps with the bigger card. not worth the money to me

the .2ghz processor is not noticed

not worth it dude trust me
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.