Purchasing New MacBook Pro

Question

Hi, I am looking at buying a 15" MacBook pro for school and I'm not sure which one I should go with. I'm stuck between the one with the i7 and the one down from that with the i5 and the 500 GB HD. I will be playing some games on it, but nothing too intense, and I am currently using one of the earlier intel iMacs so both will be faster than what I've got right now.
Can anyone tell me if it is worth spending the extra money for the i7 and faster graphics card? Any pros or cons are greatly appreciated (ie battery life, performance gap between both processors etc.). Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

I contemplated the same thing and after reading benchmark after benchmark and every review I could Google it basically boiled down to this:
- Between the Core i5 2.40 and 2.53 the difference is so minimal it was recommended by many blogs and reviewers to get the 2.40 and get the 500GB HDD upgrade. You still come out $125-150 ahead.
- Benchmark-wise, there is a considerable performance increase between the Core i5's and the Core i7, but supposedly that increase is only noticeable if you do intensive work like video editing, modeling, photoshop, etc. Here is an excerpt from a review at Anandtech.com which has some good benchmarks too ( http://www.anandtech.com/show/3659/apples-15inch-core-i5-macbook-pro-the-one-to- get/3 )-
*"Core i7 vs. Core i5 Performance Summary*
*The two Core i5 models Apple offers ship with a 2.40GHz or 2.53GHz processor, both with a 3MB L3 cache. The $2199 15-inch MacBook Pro comes with a 2.66GHz Core i7, with a full 4MB L3 cache. Compared to the entry level model that's an 11% increase in clock speed and a 33% increase in L3 cache.*
*While I don't believe there's much reason to go for the 2.53GHz over the 2.40GHz model (L3 cache size remains the same, clock speed goes up by a small amount), the Core i7 is actually pretty decent. For a 22% increase in total system cost you end up with 11 - 15% better performance in CPU bound applications. It actually even feels snappier in general use as well.*
*I'd still suggest opting for an SSD before considering any CPU upgrades, but if you're looking to keep your new MacBook Pro for a while the Core i7 is worth it."*
The GPU's are essentially the same, so gaming in OSX won't differ much across all three models. It's gaming in Windows using Boot Camp that the i7 model with double the VRAM and a faster CPU with more cache starts to make a difference- so I read. I'm guessing it's the greater variety and more demanding games in windows than in OSX. But then of course there is the argument towards "future-proofing", e.g. get the fastest model available and you'll be less prone to early obsolescence. Games will always get more demanding on hardware, especially in Windows.
I ended up basing my decision on the fact that I wanted the high rez matte screen which only comes with the Core i7. I highly recommend it. The ONLY 'con' I can see is the price, but even here we're talking $200-400- the difference between the i5 2.53, Core 17 and i7 with high rez- really not thaat much when your initial buy in is $2000+.
Hope this helps. I'm loving my i7... zero buyers remorse.
Cheers