Is it worth the upgrade from 2012 rMBP

[The Reasonable One]

Well let's look it this way... It's gonna age and become disposable. Unable to upgrade.

Haha, I know you can't upgrade the internals, I meant upgrade in the same way people say they upgrade to a new iPhone from an old one. But I get where you're going with that, and I wish the internals were upgradeable.
[doublepost=1465372830][/doublepost]Thanks to everyone who commented! I chickened out on the clean install, but I did reinstall the OS through the recovery partition and I'm very happy with the results. All my issues seem to have vanished so far.

 

[Skylitfly]

I'm really on the edge too. I have an early 2013 rMBP which has really been great. And it's still running basically as a brand new. I don't really know if the upgrade will be worth it and it's impossible to say until we see the new MacBook Pro.

 

[tubeexperience]

I'm really on the edge too. I have an early 2013 rMBP which has really been great. And it's still running basically as a brand new. I don't really know if the upgrade will be worth it and it's impossible to say until we see the new MacBook Pro.

Why upgrade if you are satisfied with what you've got?

 

[maflynn]

And it's still running basically as a brand new.

What will a new MBP do that your 2013 rMBP cannot? The computer is not that far behind chipset wise, and you mention yourself that its running great.

 

[617aircav]

You should upgrade only if you want the latest and greatest. Nothing will change in your use.

 

[Skylitfly]

What will a new MBP do that your 2013 rMBP cannot? The computer is not that far behind chipset wise, and you mention yourself that its running great.

Yeah I know. Thats why I said that it's impossible to say until we see the new model. There might be something that makes the upgrade worthwhile or not. Who knows.

PS. I have usually upgraded my laptop every 3-4 years or so. Thats why I was thinking upgrading.

 

[magicschoolbus]

I have a 2012 classic that I was thinking of upgrading, I just put a Samsung 850 Evo 1TB in it and its so fast for what I need, I don't think I will have to upgrade until 2018, maybe longer. I can still add an extra 8 gigs of ram.

 

[mountain]

It really depends on what you do. If you're just browsing and doing normal stuff then prob not worth it.

 

[pat500000]

Haha, I know you can't upgrade the internals, I meant upgrade in the same way people say they upgrade to a new iPhone from an old one. But I get where you're going with that, and I wish the internals were upgradeable.
[doublepost=1465372830][/doublepost]Thanks to everyone who commented! I chickened out on the clean install, but I did reinstall the OS through the recovery partition and I'm very happy with the results. All my issues seem to have vanished so far.

Lol yeah. The only thing we can upgrade is upgrading a whole new computer.

 

[throAU]

I guess the counterpoint to not bothering to upgrade is to maybe sell the 2012 while people will still buy it and why it is still close performance wise, and get a new machine with warranty.

If you wait until it is slow and crappy to use then you will get a lot less money for it.

 

[AroundTheFur922]

For me I need to replace mine. The GT 650M in my 2013 rMBP just does not cut the mustard anymore for me. It is too slow to do anything graphically intensive especially running the huge screen res. I doubt I will change to a 2016 model though if the rumours are true. It's also unlikely Apple will change much on the GPU front either. The top of the line 15 will most likely have another low to mid range card put in it.

Out of pure curiosity eviljack, what is the 650m not doing for you these days? I've not had issues with mine yet in regards to video/photo editing and some moderate After Effects.

 

[eviljack]

Out of pure curiosity eviljack, what is the 650m not doing for you these days? I've not had issues with mine yet in regards to video/photo editing and some moderate After Effects.

I use my laptop quite a bit when on the go for both work and play. Mostly 3ds Max when working on the go and some gaming when not at home, both obviously running bootcamp. The card barely meets my needs wether it's render times or fps when gaming. Most Macs aren't any better that being said. I would love for Apple to bring back the 17" with a high end GPU but that's not gonna happen. This year I'll probably be jumping back to a 17" Windows machine if thats the case. I'm thinking either a Metabox Prime X with a desktop grade GTX 980 (1080 when available) or something with a Quadro M5000M.

 

[throAU]

I use my laptop quite a bit when on the go for both work and play. Mostly 3ds Max when working on the go and some gaming when not at home, both obviously running bootcamp. The card barely meets my needs wether it's render times or fps when gaming. Most Macs aren't any better that being said. I would love for Apple to bring back the 17" with a high end GPU but that's not gonna happen. This year I'll probably be jumping back to a 17" Windows machine if thats the case. I'm thinking either a Metabox Prime X with a desktop grade GTX 980 (1080 when available) or something with a Quadro M5000M.

If you are wanting to do gaming on a notebook, wait for thunderbolt 3 external GPU enclosures.

You will not get desktop grade GPUs in a portable, ever - because even the mid-range desktop class GPU is 150-200 watts or more and that's just not within the thermal or power budget for a reasonably portable, non dedicated gaming notebook (which is basically portable from desk to desk).

If you buy a top end mobile GPU, it is still going to be garbage when compared to a proper desktop GPU of the same period.

 

[eviljack]

You will not get desktop grade GPUs in a portable, ever

For me gaming is secondary in my needs. I need a powerful card for graphics work which comes first and foremost. But you can get desktop cards in laptops as per this (Note: its not a 980M):

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-980-Notebook.150599.0.html

"The performance is also on a level with the desktop GTX 980. Due to the different cooling solutions, the long term performance may be slightly lower compared to a well cooled desktop, but Nvidia assures only small degrades in performance. Furthermore, the mobile GTX 980 supports overclocking out of the box and all laptop manufacturers plan to provide an easy to use tool to overclock the card on the fly.

The power consumption of the card is a lot higher than other mobile graphics card like the GeForce GTX 980M (100 Watt TDP). According to Nvidia, the TDP of the reference design is still 165 Watt like in the desktop version. Including overclocking headroom, the power consumption may reach up to 200 Watt. Therefore, only big laptops with efficient cooling methods can house the GeForce GTX980 for laptops."

 

[a.coward]

The slowdown you are experiencing may be caused by a full SSD. You should consider upgrading your SSD.

Transcend JetDrive 725

960GB: $500

480 $280

* You also get an enclosure that turns your old SSD into an external drive.

A cheaper alternative if you have a mid-2012 rMBP is to get an mSATA SSD and an mSATA to rMBP SSD adapter. The adapter can be had for between $10 and $20 depending on the source, and a Samsung 850 1TB mSATA SSD can be had for under $350 right now (although I got mine for under $300 about 6 months ago -- so it was a no-brainer to go this route instead of the JetDrive).

As an added benefit, you are not stuck with a semi-useless SSD if your rMBP ever dies: the mSATA can be used on other (PC) laptops or even a desktop with the proper adapter.

This upgrade breathed new life into my rMBP (with stock 250GB SSD) and I wish I had done it earlier. As for the Apple 250GB SSD, I bought a rMBP SSD to SATA adapter and stuck it in my home server.

But, to answer the OP's question, I think the 2012 rMBP is still a beast even to today's standards. The CPUs and (to a lesser extent) GPUs in the current lineup are not that much faster. The other enhancements such as battery life, WiFi and Thunderbolt 2 are nice, but fairly minor for my use. The only thing I sort of wish it had was 4k video output, and if you have only stock 8GB RAM, it may become an issue going forward. Honestly, I can't picture myself upgrading my machine for at least another two to three years.

 

[tubeexperience]

A cheaper alternative if you have a mid-2012 rMBP is to get an mSATA SSD and an mSATA to rMBP SSD adapter. The adapter can be had for between $10 and $20 depending on the source, and a Samsung 850 1TB mSATA SSD can be had for under $350 right now (although I got mine for under $300 about 6 months ago -- so it was a no-brainer to go this route instead of the JetDrive).

As an added benefit, you are not stuck with a semi-useless SSD if your rMBP ever dies: the mSATA can be used on other (PC) laptops or even a desktop with the proper adapter.

This upgrade breathed new life into my rMBP (with stock 250GB SSD) and I wish I had done it earlier. As for the Apple 250GB SSD, I bought a rMBP SSD to SATA adapter and stuck it in my home server.

But, to answer the OP's question, I think the 2012 rMBP is still a beast even to today's standards. The CPUs and (to a lesser extent) GPUs in the current lineup are not that much faster. The other enhancements such as battery life, WiFi and Thunderbolt 2 are nice, but fairly minor for my use. The only thing I sort of wish it had was 4k video output, and if you have only stock 8GB RAM, it may become an issue going forward. Honestly, I can't picture myself upgrading my machine for at least another two to three years.

Hm. How does that compares to the 1 TB SSD that OWC is selling for $400 speedwise?

 

[a.coward]

Hm. How does that compares to the 1 TB SSD that OWC is selling for $400 speedwise?

The Samsung 850 EVO is known to be a very fast SSD (one of the fastest at the time). I get about 480 MB/s write and 505MB/s read via Blackmagic, which approaches the limits of the interface. I don't have exact Blackmagic numbers for the OWC Aura, but have seen references that elude to that fact that it could be as much as half as fast as the Samsung (and possibly even slower than the stock Apple SSD). I would also not hesitate to guess that the OWC technology is older and hence not as reliable or quick as the Samsung 850. I mostly ruled out the OWC because its been out for a long time (older than both the JetDrive and Samsung 850), yet there are very few reviews for it.

I've seen more definitive results for the JetDrive 725, and the Samsung is still slightly faster.

I ended up choosing the Samsung over the JetDrive 725 due to price, reputation, and the fact that it had a "standard" interface.

Saying all that, I don't think these speed differences will make that much of a perceivable difference for everyday real-world use. When I said that it "breathed new life" to my Mac, I was mostly referring to the extra storage. Although I did notice my machine being a little snappier with the Samsung over the stock Apple SSD, it was not overwhelming by any stretch of the imagination.