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MacBook Pro Snappiness Comparison?

S

screensaver400

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 28, 2005
862
52
The biggest reason I always crave a faster machine is for snappiness. I want programs to open faster, the system to boot faster, webpages to render faster, etc.

I care less if it takes 30 seconds or 35 seconds to encode a song in iTunes.

I currently own a 12" Rev. D PowerBook, and it's not as snappy as I'd like. Is the MacBook Pro substantially snappier, or is the improvement mostly in things like iTunes and iMovie?

Also, is there a snappiness difference between the 1.83ghz and 2ghz models?
 
screensaver400 said:
The biggest reason I always crave a faster machine is for snappiness. I want programs to open faster, the system to boot faster, webpages to render faster, etc.

I care less if it takes 30 seconds or 35 seconds to encode a song in iTunes.

I currently own a 12" Rev. D PowerBook, and it's not as snappy as I'd like. Is the MacBook Pro substantially snappier, or is the improvement mostly in things like iTunes and iMovie?

Also, is there a snappiness difference between the 1.83ghz and 2ghz models?
Click to expand...

I can't speak to a difference in snappiness, but I can say one thing that will probably help: there isn't as much bouncing going on at the bottom of the screen.
 
Heck, it is snappier than the 1.8ghz rev A Powermac G5s in the computer lab I administrate. Everything is snappier except photoshop and other Adobe apps.
 
screensaver400 said:
The biggest reason I always crave a faster machine is for snappiness. I want programs to open faster, the system to boot faster, webpages to render faster, etc.

I care less if it takes 30 seconds or 35 seconds to encode a song in iTunes.
Click to expand...
So basically you're saying you don't care how fast a machine is in things that actually save you time... just as long as menus pop up as soon as you click them??

You want programs to open faster? Don't quit them. Just close the window. Or hide them(Command-H). When you click, they'll appear almost instantaneously.

You want the system to boot faster? Why even restart your computer? The only time I even restart my machines is for OS updates.

Webpages to render faster? Ok fine, I'll give you that one. Everybody wants that.

You just sound like a windows user whose only judge of how fast a computer is how fast the cards fall down when you win solitaire.
 
no, i see where he/she is coming from. Most of
what the average user does is surf the web,
use chat clients, maybe do some word processing.
Webpage rendering is important! My attention span
has gotten to the point that I hate it when pages
load slower than they should be on the T1 line
I am on! Snappy is better than speed for users
who aren't using pro apps all the time.
 
1dterbeest said:
no, i see where he/she is coming from. Most of
what the average user does is surf the web,
use chat clients, maybe do some word processing.
Webpage rendering is important! My attention span
has gotten to the point that I hate it when pages
load slower than they should be on the T1 line
I am on! Snappy is better than speed for users
who aren't using pro apps all the time.
Click to expand...

So does that mean webpage rendering isn't faster on a MBP? I see you have one from your sig.
 
1dterbeest said:
no, i see where he/she is coming from. Most of
what the average user does is surf the web,
use chat clients, maybe do some word processing.
Webpage rendering is important! My attention span
has gotten to the point that I hate it when pages
load slower than they should be on the T1 line
I am on! Snappy is better than speed for users
who aren't using pro apps all the time.
Click to expand...
Like I said, I understand about webpage loading speed... to a certain extent. I'm just saying waiting a second or half a second or less for pages to render is really not a big deal. I mean, if you had instantaneous page rendering, how much time would it save you in a day? Five minutes? Maybe ten (that would mean you visit 600 webpages in a day if it took 1 second to render on a slower machine)?

Its fine if thats just something you like.... the whole 'snappiness' thing. I just get annoyed when people act that thats a more important time-saving, productivity increasing than more important things, like not having to restart, not having to do routine maintenance, etc...

'Snappiness' (what a stupid word anyways) is overrated.
 
It seemed overall very snappy when I was playing around with expose' and finder and such on the display model they had at Frye's electronics.
 
Heb1228 said:
You just sound like a windows user whose only judge of how fast a computer is how fast the cards fall down when you win solitaire.
Click to expand...

No, its not that. I just don't do enough Photoshop or Final Cut to warrant being really concerned with how fast those work. What I want is a machine that feels faster in everyday tasks

Its like driving a car, to me. I'd rather have a sports car that accelerates and drives fast than a 18-wheeler that can transport a lot of goods fast, but feels slow.

To me, Photoshop and Final Cut are tasks that require an 18-wheeler. Everyday use needs a sports car.
 
screensaver400 said:
No, its not that. I just don't do enough Photoshop or Final Cut to warrant being really concerned with how fast those work. What I want is a machine that feels faster in everyday tasks

Its like driving a car, to me. I'd rather have a sports car that accelerates and drives fast than a 18-wheeler that can transport a lot of goods fast, but feels slow.

To me, Photoshop and Final Cut are tasks that require an 18-wheeler. Everyday use needs a sports car.
Click to expand...
Your analogy is a little off. Snappiness is more of a 0-60 kind of measure. Overall speed is a more like top speed. Some people prefer a car that does 0-60 really fast but tops out at 100 mph, other prefer a car that does 0-60 in a respectable time, but not the fastest, but tops out at 150mph. The faster car wins the race. the snappier car wins the off the line competition.

Edit: from what I hear, the MBP wins both competitions
 
kgarner said:
Your analogy is a little off. Snappiness is more of a 0-60 kind of measure. Overall speed is a more like top speed. Some people prefer a car that does 0-60 really fast but tops out at 100 mph, other prefer a car that does 0-60 in a respectable time, but not the fastest, but tops out at 150mph. The faster car wins the race. the snappier car wins the off the line competition.
Click to expand...

Fair 'nuff. I was half asleep when I wrote that. :p
 
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