MacBook Pro Retina vs Macbook Pro Non-Retina

[Deep12]

hey guys so i am planning to buy a macbook pro but i cant decide between macbook pro with retina version or macbook pro without retina. The 2 options I have are. MacBook pro retina with the specs of 8gb ram i5 256gb ssd. The second option is Macbook pro without retina with specs of 8gb ram i7 128gb ssd. My main use for the laptop would be for studying purposes and will need to run high end software in the field of engineering. Any help would be appreciated

Thanks in advance

 

[nukemaster]

Depending on the i5 model and i7 model you may not even notice a difference. It all comes down to knowing if the software can use the extra threads(not cores and on laptops you can have both as just dual core systems. This varies from model to model) that an i7 can offer.

The larger SSD is a huge plus if you need the space and the higher resolution display should allow you to have more on screen at a given time IF your eyes are good and it is not too small. Remember you can always use display scaling if needed since OSX has very good display scaling when compared to the Windows side(Windows scaling suffers because of backwards compatibility. some things scale great while others get blurry.).

 

[Deep12]

Depending on the i5 model and i7 model you may not even notice a difference. It all comes down to knowing if the software can use the extra threads(not cores and on laptops you can have both as just dual core systems. This varies from model to model) that an i7 can offer.

The larger SSD is a huge plus if you need the space and the higher resolution display should allow you to have more on screen at a given time IF your eyes are good and it is not too small. Remember you can always use display scaling if needed since OSX has very good display scaling when compared to the Windows side(Windows scaling suffers because of backwards compatibility. some things scale great while others get blurry.).

Hey Thanks again. I Will be running Windows as well along with Mac, so keeping that in mind, which one would be a better choice ?

 

[nukemaster]

I have a weakness for more storage to be honest. This till leaves the retina model as what I would pick unless the cpu was a very low end i5(I do not think they use such a cpu).

Do you have links(from the apple site or store you are buying from) to the exact systems you are comparing?

 

[Deep12]

I have a weakness for more storage to be honest. This till leaves the retina model as what I would pick unless the cpu was a very low end i5(I do not think they use such a cpu).

Do you have links(from the apple site or store you are buying from) to the exact systems you are comparing?

rMBP: http/store.apple.com/ca/buy-mac/macbook-pro?product=MGX82LL/A&step=config#

MBP: http/store.apple.com/ca/buy-mac/macbook-pro?product=MD101LL/A&step=config#
Dont compare the price since I am able to get both for same price

Thanks

 

[nukemaster]

All those cpus should be more than upto the task most people will use a computer for.

Remember that the Turbo feature normally happens when you are not using both cores. programs that do use all cores will not allow turbo to push to its full speed.

The dpi scaling is about the only thing left to worry about. You can always try it on a Windows system to see how it works for you. If you do not like it or find that too many programs become blurry with it enabled, The retina display may not be something you are looking for. They pack a high resolution display into a small screen so with scaling off, things would be very small in Windows.

 

[Deep12]

hey i just saw this video https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=teuDDV_KSs4 and windows looks fine on the macbook

 

[nukemaster]

It did not say it would look bad, with no scaling it just looks smaller. Scaling may look less sharp(some programs) than one would expect.

I can assure you the internet is not designed with higher resolution in mind yet. Many websites do not seem to use the extra resolution. Scaling helps with this.

 

[Deep12]

Hey Thanks again. I understand that but mostly I'll be only using Windows if some programs are not offered on Mac and I guess I can like with less sharp quality

 

[nukemaster]

Again it is recommended to just give it a try on your current system to see how programs react(bearing in mind the smaller screen will not look as fuzzy as a large screen. it packs a real pile of pixels).

You can also turn off scaling for individual programs or games(honestly would take more video power than the system has to play many games at full resolution) in the compatibility tab under the properties for the program itself.

Web browsers can use ZOOM to make things large and text will look very sharp at that resolution. Images will depend on the quality of the image itself.

Example.
Lots of zoom and text still looks good(I have no cleartype either). The image scales ok and that is somewhat how some programs will scale with Windows DPI scaling.