Non-Retina i7 4GB RAM vs i5 8GB RAM

[milovanstevan]

Hey there, I've recently decided to move to Apple products and I have a small dilemma. I was looking to buy a non-retina MacBook Pro since I do not have a lot of cash available. Most Macs I saw that fit my budget had either i7 with 4GB of RAM or i5 with 8GB of RAM. I used a laptop that had an i7 with 4GB of RAM and from my experience it wasn't so bad. I thought about upgrading an i7 with more RAM but I want a good machine ASAP since I am a graphic designer that works on the go mostly, plus the cash amount I currently have (buying a decent looking laptop with good battery will use all of my money). I use programs like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign and such, but I was planning to use the Sketch app as well. What do you guys think I should buy?

 

[ekuLoN]

Pick i7 and upgrade the ram because it's non-retina. Aahh god old days

 

[MadDane]

Exactly what ekuLoN said. Assuming everything else is the same (or close to) I would take the i7 and upgrade the RAM. You can upgrade it easily with up to 16GB.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Hey there, I've recently decided to move to Apple products and I have a small dilemma. I was looking to buy a non-retina MacBook Pro since I do not have a lot of cash available. Most Macs I saw that fit my budget had either i7 with 4GB of RAM or i5 with 8GB of RAM. I used a laptop that had an i7 with 4GB of RAM and from my experience it wasn't so bad. I thought about upgrading an i7 with more RAM but I want a good machine ASAP since I am a graphic designer that works on the go mostly, plus the cash amount I currently have (buying a decent looking laptop with good battery will use all of my money). I use programs like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign and such, but I was planning to use the Sketch app as well. What do you guys think I should buy?

I think if you are going apple then the i7 in the 13 inch is little different from the i5 in the 13 inch both dual core hyperthreaded CPU's you'll notice RAM much more for Adobe than minor speed boost and an extra meg of cache.

 

[leman]

Get the cheaper one and install the extra RAM yourself, as others have said. It won't be a good machine, but it will maximise the utility for the money. Frankly, does this have to be a Mac? If your primary concern is performance on budget, you can get a better Windows computer for the same price.

 

[milovanstevan]

Get the cheaper one and install the extra RAM yourself, as others have said. It won't be a good machine, but it will maximise the utility for the money. Frankly, does this have to be a Mac? If your primary concern is performance on budget, you can get a better Windows computer for the same price.

I do wish to switch Photoshop with Sketch for Web Design and that cannot be done unless you have an Apple machine, also I have tried plenty of Windows laptops from various manufacturers such as DELL, HP, Acer, but they were very chunky or the build quality lacked, and from what I've heard and experienced myself recent Windows updated has some problems with the Adobe compatibility, making a MacBook better optimized.
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I think if you are going apple then the i7 in the 13 inch is little different from the i5 in the 13 inch both dual core hyperthreaded CPU's you'll notice RAM much more for Adobe than minor speed boost and an extra meg of cache.

I thought about that option as well, a friend of mine has i5 with 12GB ram and he advised me that the processor can be a big deal nowadays, I haven't really tested it myself tho

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I do wish to switch Photoshop with Sketch for Web Design and that cannot be done unless you have an Apple machine, also I have tried plenty of Windows laptops from various manufacturers such as DELL, HP, Acer, but they were very chunky or the build quality lacked, and from what I've heard and experienced myself recent Windows updated has some problems with the Adobe compatibility, making a MacBook better optimized.
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I thought about that option as well, a friend of mine has i5 with 12GB ram and he advised me that the processor can be a big deal nowadays, I haven't really tested it myself tho

Well as you still haven't told us which year you are looking at I am assuming 2012 with USB 3. The differences between the i5 and i7 on that year is about 3-4% you'll probably never notice unless you constantly max it out in which case a 15 inch would be a better option anyway. Whatever you do don't buy one new as they are 5 years old and can be picked up fairly cheap second hand often with SSd and upgraded RAM already installed.

 

[milovanstevan]

Well as you still haven't told us which year you are looking at I am assuming 2012 with USB 3. The differences between the i5 and i7 on that year is about 3-4% you'll probably never notice unless you constantly max it out in which case a 15 inch would be a better option anyway. Whatever you do don't buy one new as they are 5 years old and can be picked up fairly cheap second hand often with SSd and upgraded RAM already installed.

I saw plenty of models from early 2011 to mid 2012. As for the screen, I am not a picky person since I can connect it to a monitor if I need to.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I saw plenty of models from early 2011 to mid 2012. As for the screen, I am not a picky person since I can connect it to a monitor if I need to.

The reason I mentioned the 15 inch is because they come with a quad core processor which can be useful for video editing games and other multithreaded apps, if you are always maxxing out a dual core machine then a quad core machine is the answer not a slightly faster dual core. Definitely try for the 2012 if going for the 13 inch it was only discontinued by apple a year ago and should be supported for some while yet software wise its also USB 3 which is a real bonus. It can also take two hard drives making storage options huge and it will take up to 16gb of RAM too.

 

[Matthew9559]

If you're comfortable upgrading the ram, go for the i7. Otherwise definitely get the i5/8 GB.