Replacing 2016 13” MBP TB

[artnoi]

Hi everyone. I may be new to macrumours, but I have been a very loyal Mac user since my first Apple computer (2008). Currently I own 2016 MBP with touch bar (dual-core 2.9GHz i5 6267u) since its launch and I have to say it has been working great and swiftly for student’s tasks (multi-tab browsing, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.)

But what I disliked about it is poor graphic performance, volatile wireless connection, poor heat and power management, etc. I didn’t even mention VMs, light gaming, inability to run Linux (properly), and video editing which I often do on my 2013 iMac (h.264).

I’d like to know whether upgrading to 2018 13” MBPTB (base model with 4 cores) will be worth the upgrade? (About $1000 if I chose to join Apple’s trade-in program which will refund my 2016 Pro for $835)

Will upgraded power consumption and multi-task performance on 8-th gen quad-core Intel chips deliver noticable performance upgrade in everyday use with macOS? And those newer features, like 10-bit HEVC, are they really usedul for now or in 2-3 years?

Or how promising the T2’s value is?

I know that most of my tasks I mentioned aren’t really graphic-related, so getting eGPU won’t help much, but it may enable me to play some Mac games (I dont know if Mac games which tend to be older titles will support eGPU) and render videos more speedily.

I’d like to know you guy’s opinions!

 

[artnoi]

Thank you for no response, anyway, I have just bought a 2018 13" TB model just today and am now in the process of 'migration', so I guess this thread is no longer relevant.

 

[jesrakk]

Hi,

I am new in this forum but what have been your thoughts of upgrading to 2018 MBP.
I have now 2017 15" TB model and I got an offer for the same computer as you got (2016 13" TB with 512gb).

I am a student as well so I use mostly my computer to run Microsoft office etc. But for the summer I have though to start video editing. So my question: Is 2016 13" capable for editing with FinalCut or Premiere?

 

[artnoi]

Hi,

I am new in this forum but what have been your thoughts of upgrading to 2018 MBP.
I have now 2017 15" TB model and I got an offer for the same computer as you got (2016 13" TB with 512gb).

I am a student as well so I use mostly my computer to run Microsoft office etc. But for the summer I have though to start video editing. So my question: Is 2016 13" capable for editing with FinalCut or Premiere?

I'm using both and the difference is quite noticeable so to speak, especially when you do multi-tasking. Even though these have the same memory (8GB 2133MHz), multi-threaded workloads are just much faster, and I noticed huge improvement in CPU usage. I'd say what the 2018 gives me is extra headroom, so now I can watch HD movies while doing my student work very fluidly (opening tabs in Safari which include YouTube tutorial videos, Microsoft office trio, Sonarworks True-Fi systemwide parametric EQ in the background, all simultaneously) and apps rarely freezes, like never.

Also, I use USB bus-powered audio DAC which is very sensitive to digital glitches in case the computer freezes, and on my 2018 MBP I have not experienced any audible glitches (like pop! etc) during heavy load, while it is always recurring in 2016 MBP, I guess that's how the extra cores save your apps from crashing during heavy system loads.

I'm have not yet needed to edit video with those software (I'm cheap so I only use highly optimized iMovie to edit iPhone 1080p videos which was running glitch-free on 2016 MBP), but I think they should do fine as long as the footage ain't 4K and you store the footage on your SSD. Rendering time however can be improved by proper cooling. I think the 13" machines do like two-digit percent improvement on rendering time with proper cooling, like putting it into the fridge lol.

But but but, I would however recommend you do not buy the 2016 machine for future video editing, since the 6th gen Intel is not very good for HEVC which will soon dominate.