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WTH is the difference between i7 2,6Ghz vs i7 2,9Ghz?

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bdcstr

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 28, 2016
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Hello guys,

I was wondering who could explain me what is the difference between the i7 2,6Ghz and i7 2,9Ghz on the rMBP?

I mean.. Will I really feel the difference? A friend of mine told me: "take the highest processor, this is the only thing you can't upgrade". I fully agree, but 380€ more, for 0,3Ghz.. Is it really necessary? Or should I go on citytrip with my gf?

Thanks for explaining me :)

Best regards!
 
bdcstr said:
Hello guys,

I was wondering who could explain me what is the difference between the i7 2,6Ghz and i7 2,9Ghz on the rMBP?

I mean.. Will I really feel the difference? A friend of mine told me: "take the highest processor, this is the only thing you can't upgrade". I fully agree, but 380€ more, for 0,3Ghz.. Is it really necessary? Or should I go on citytrip with my gf?

Thanks for explaining me :)

Best regards!
Click to expand...

I have a similarr question regarding the RMBP 13": what is the difference between the i5 2.9 and the i7 3.3?

Just speed or there are any architectural changes?
 
Ive been thinking a good compromise would be to get the 2.7, you gain a bit more speed but more importantly get 512gb instead of 256, and also get a slight graphics upgrade too for near enough the same price as buying the 2.6 and maxing the processor.
 
It's all about future proofing. You won't feel the difference until you're using apps that require that power. In the future if you start to use more intensive apps, then you'll be thankful you had that processing speed.

borgusio said:
I have a similarr question regarding the RMBP 13": what is the difference between the i5 2.9 and the i7 3.3?

Just speed or there are any architectural changes?
Click to expand...

Once you use apps that require a lot of power, you'll definitely notice the i7 is a lot better equipped at handling those apps.

Let's compare cars, one has a V6 and one has a 4 cylinder. If you don't take advantage of the power of the V6, then it's not going to be useful. But if you do take advantage of it, then it's a huge difference.
 
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bdcstr said:
Hello guys,

I was wondering who could explain me what is the difference between the i7 2,6Ghz and i7 2,9Ghz on the rMBP?

I mean.. Will I really feel the difference? A friend of mine told me: "take the highest processor, this is the only thing you can't upgrade". I fully agree, but 380€ more, for 0,3Ghz.. Is it really necessary? Or should I go on citytrip with my gf?

Thanks for explaining me :)

Best regards!
Click to expand...

Your friend is wrong. You can't upgrade the RAM or hard disk either!

About the GHz - this is one of those things where if you have to ask you don't need it. On my MBP (couple of years old now) I went for the GHz upgrade because I often run statistics that can take hours. In that case it makes a some modest difference. If all you will do is internet, microsoft office type stuff you deffo don't need it. I might make some difference to gaming, but I don't game on my laptop so I don't really know. GPU probably more important for gaming
 
ag29 said:
Let's compare cars, one has a V6 and one has a 4 cylinder. If you don't take advantage of the power of the V6, then it's not going to be useful. But if you do take advantage of it, then it's a huge difference.
Click to expand...

This does not answer my question.

Is the i7 based on a different architecture than the i5 or it is just a speed bump?
 
borgusio said:
This does not answer my question.

Is the i7 based on a different architecture than the i5 or it is just a speed bump?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I fully understand your question but I'll try to explain it in a way that makes more sense. For the most part, it's a big speed bump when you need it. There's no major architecture changes aside from more cache memory and hyper threading.

In certain tasks that the i5 will struggle in, the i7 will be able to glide through. When you have many apps open or you're using an app that is resource intensive, the i7 will be a big speed bump over the i5.

For basic things like web browsing, listening to music, having one or two apps running at a time, you will not notice any difference whatsoever.
 
Last edited:
bdcstr said:
Hello guys,

I was wondering who could explain me what is the difference between the i7 2,6Ghz and i7 2,9Ghz on the rMBP?

I mean.. Will I really feel the difference? A friend of mine told me: "take the highest processor, this is the only thing you can't upgrade". I fully agree, but 380€ more, for 0,3Ghz.. Is it really necessary? Or should I go on citytrip with my gf?
Click to expand...

Please tell us which apps you use? Safari, Mail and Office? No practical difference at all. Video editing, Photoshop, 3D rendering with heavy CPU usage? Then you might see a (like up to 12%) speed difference. Not a big one. But actually that depends on the Turbo Boost speed aswell. Which actual CPU/MacBook modes are you referring to?
 
The Mercurian said:
Your friend is wrong. You can't upgrade the RAM or hard disk either!

About the GHz - this is one of those things where if you have to ask you don't need it. On my MBP (couple of years old now) I went for the GHz upgrade because I often run statistics that can take hours. In that case it makes a some modest difference. If all you will do is internet, microsoft office type stuff you deffo don't need it. I might make some difference to gaming, but I don't game on my laptop so I don't really know. GPU probably more important for gaming
Click to expand...

I was told it was possible to buy SSD/RAM on http://www.crucial.com/ to upgrade your MacBook(Pro). Isn't that correct?

I'm planning to use CDH/Sqoop/Hive/etc on my rMBP for data processing/analysis (and probably get back to iOS programming). Should I understand 2,9GHz would be better?
[doublepost=1477647049][/doublepost]
Paapaa said:
Please tell us which apps you use? Safari, Mail and Office? No practical difference at all. Video editing, Photoshop, 3D rendering with heavy CPU usage? Then you might see a (like up to 12%) speed difference. Not a big one. But actually that depends on the Turbo Boost speed aswell. Which actual CPU/MacBook modes are you referring to?
Click to expand...

Please see reply above for the usage :)

I'm talking about the rMBP i7 quad-core.
 
bdcstr said:
I was told it was possible to buy SSD/RAM on http://www.crucial.com/ to upgrade your MacBook(Pro). Isn't that correct?

I'm planning to use CDH/Sqoop/Hive/etc on my rMBP for data processing/analysis (and probably get back to iOS programming). Should I understand 2,9GHz would be better?
Click to expand...

That was true in the older models when they still had optical disk drives but has not held true for the last few years. They are so thin now that Apple doens't allow you to open them up without invalidating your warranty so that is the end of user upgrades - you need to buy it with the spec you are happy to be stuck with.

I'm sorry I don't know those programs (?big data type stuff ?). If you are doing heavy stuff then yeah the upgrade might make some difference. But probably not a huge amount. Clock speed is about 12% more so if you think about that in a very crude way a 12hr job with constant processing task would take 11hrs. Is that worth the upgrade price to you ? (very crude analogy - there are some other differences such as extra cache that makes a difference in certain tasks)
 
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.3ghz it's that simple there is no difference other than that the they are just chips that did a bit better during manufacture and run quicker they aren't even manufactured on a different line.
 
The Mercurian said:
That was true in the older models when they still had optical disk drives but has not held true for the last few years. They are so thin now that Apple doens't allow you to open them up without invalidating your warranty so that is the end of user upgrades - you need to buy it with the spec you are happy to be stuck with.

I'm sorry I don't know those programs (?big data type stuff ?). If you are doing heavy stuff then yeah the upgrade might make some difference. But probably not a huge amount. Clock speed is about 12% more so if you think about that in a very crude way a 12hr job with constant processing task would take 11hrs. Is that worth the upgrade price to you ? (very crude analogy - there are some other differences such as extra cache that makes a difference in certain tasks)
Click to expand...

Warranty aside, is it physically possible to upgrade/replace the RAM on new MBP?
Can't find any info on that;
 
ag29 said:
It's all about future proofing. You won't feel the difference until you're using apps that require that power. In the future if you start to use more intensive apps, then you'll be thankful you had that processing speed.



Once you use apps that require a lot of power, you'll definitely notice the i7 is a lot better equipped at handling those apps.

Let's compare cars, one has a V6 and one has a 4 cylinder. If you don't take advantage of the power of the V6, then it's not going to be useful. But if you do take advantage of it, then it's a huge difference.
Click to expand...

Umm, not quite true. You're making an assumption that the software and developer wrote the code to take advantage of the chips full potential (e.g., multi-threading versus single-threading). I sincerely doubt you will see a noticeable difference unless you're doing some serious hard-core number crunching that uses the chip, bus, memory, etc.

If you're watching movies or a casual user, save the cash and treat yourself to something with the money saved.
 
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SSD's are upgradable (but expensive), I think it's OWC who has them. Accessing it is pretty easy too.

RAM is not upgradable.

Obviously no one knows about the new ones yet, but most likely - don't expect to be able to do any modifications.
 
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ag29 said:
It's all about future proofing. You won't feel the difference until you're using apps that require that power. In the future if you start to use more intensive apps, then you'll be thankful you had that processing speed.



Once you use apps that require a lot of power, you'll definitely notice the i7 is a lot better equipped at handling those apps.

Let's compare cars, one has a V6 and one has a 4 cylinder. If you don't take advantage of the power of the V6, then it's not going to be useful. But if you do take advantage of it, then it's a huge difference.
Click to expand...

your car engine analogy doesn't really work when comparing i5 vs i7, it is not the same order of magnitude.
 
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