Thinking of switching from iMac to MacBook Pro + Thunderbolt Display

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idyll

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I currently have a 2011 27" iMac with 2.7ghz i5 Quad Core, 8GB memory, 512 AMD 6770M video card, and a 1TB hard drive.

I'm thinking about switching to a 13" MacBook Pro Retina with a 2.4GHz i5 Dual Core, 8GB of memory, Intel Iris video card, and 256GB SSD + a 27" Thunderbolt Display, as I find myself needing a laptop more and more.

Will the 13" MacBook Pro Retina be as fast as my current iMac, or would it be wiser to keep the iMac and get a 11" or 13" MacBook Air instead?

I am hoping the MacBook Pro Retina would be faster as it's a newer processor vs the iMac's Sandy Bridge, though I understand it's quad core vs dual core, and the iMac's may be a desktop chip vs MBPr's mobile processor. I think the SSD hard drive would definitely be an improvement over the iMac's 7200 rpm 1TB drive.
 
This is a decision that is more or less up to you.

I'm in a similar position right now, but I personally would opt for two machines as opposed to one. And I would probably try to have the fastest machines I can afford in both cases. That fits my usage case however.

If you're even considering an Air, it tells me that you don't necessarily need a lot of power on the road. Doing an iMac/Air combo then might be appropriate for you as opposed to a single fast MBPr that you would then have the con of having to lug around everywhere. Still, some people don't care about the slight increase in weight of a retina.

The last major consideration of course is cost. If you have tons of cash sitting around, you could have an iMac, and MBPr, and an Air all for different purposes and trips. Different tools for different jobs. I'm going to assume that you either don't have the cash for that or you would much rather spend the cash elsewhere. Keeping your current iMac and buying an Air is probably the second most cost effective option. Selling your iMac and buying an MBPr is probably going to be similar in cost to just buying an Air (if you get $1kish for your machine, plus needing another $1k or so to buy a MBPr... and even more cash to buy display if you don't have one already).

Processor wise the iMac will be faster. If you need clock speed, there isn't much you can do there. The 13" MBPr has Iris Graphics. Not sure how that stacks up to what you have, but I'm going to guess the iMac is faster. The 750 in the 15", I dunno. Another consideration is that you can upgrade your iMac. Not hard to toss in more RAM, SSD is a bit more tricky (iMac's are annoying to disassemble, if you're not adept at that sort of thing), but still doable. You can always have a third party do it.
 
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Yeah I don't need that much power on the go honestly, but having my work computer with me would be convenient as far as retrieving files, work, etc. Conversely, if I were to lose that computer or something happened to it on the road I am out of luck. It'd be nice to have my desktop at home still to use and get work done should something happen to my portable.

Ultimately, it comes down to whether the 13" MacBook Pro is faster than my 2011 iMac. If it isn't, or is the same speed, then I'll keep the iMac and get a MacBook Air.

I don't know how important the video card is for me, as I don't game but use Photoshop all day. However, I need the UI to be snappy while the portable is driving a 27" display. Also, I wonder about pushing the portable and it running too hot, and if an iMac would be better in that case.
 
idyll said:
Yeah I don't need that much power on the go honestly, but having my work computer with me would be convenient as far as retrieving files, work, etc. Conversely, if I were to lose that computer or something happened to it on the road I am out of luck. It'd be nice to have my desktop at home still to use and get work done should something happen to my portable.

Ultimately, it comes down to whether the 13" MacBook Pro is faster than my 2011 iMac. If it isn't, or is the same speed, then I'll keep the iMac and get a MacBook Air.

I don't know how important the video card is for me, as I don't game but use Photoshop all day. However, I need the UI to be snappy while the portable is driving a 27" display. Also, I wonder about pushing the portable and it running too hot, and if an iMac would be better in that case.
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The 13" is using Iris Graphics and a slower processor. The iMac should be faster in most if not all usage cases with the only exception being heavy read/write (due to the SSD, which as I mentioned earlier you could put into your iMac).

If you use Photoshop all day though, I might just recommend moving straight to the 15". The main reason why I want a fast laptop is for using Capture One tethered while on the road and of course to do editing work. The Air will be great for light lifting, but if you work with a lot of layers, or are impatient, etc, then of course faster will always be better.


EDIT: Also here is an article showing how to optimize performance in Photoshop: http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/optimize-performance-photoshop-cs4-cs5.html
Photoshop also extensively uses the GPU. I couldn't find the list for Adobe Photoshop CC, but this article gives the list of the GPU features for CS6 and below. CC has even more stuff. http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cs6-gpu-faq.html

So it's going to come down to how much power you need on the road and how serious all this work is. An Air might be sufficient for your work needs, it might be not depending once again on how intensive your work is. Long story short both GPU and CPU speed is going to matter, as well as RAM and space/speed for caching. Photoshop stresses basically all the components of a system. Granted a lot of the GPU work doesn't come into play except for dynamically looking at previews and anything requiring rendering (which includes image rotation, and scrubbing such as zooming in and out), but all this stuff is going to affect how 'enjoyable' your work experience is.
 
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Thanks! I was really hoping the MacBook Pro retina would be faster, but if the iMac is that much better and Photoshop takes advantage of the GPU I'll stick with the iMac and get a MacBook Air to complement it.

I won't be doing much Photoshop work on the go, mostly coding if anything, email, etc. An iPad may even be sufficient but I do need FTP access and other Mac programs from time to time that the iPad doesn't have. I think in this case the 11" MacBook Air might even do it for me.
 
^^ Good choice! I love Mac laptops, but still use a desktop as my main machine. I've had an MBP 15" retina for a few years and it's really too much laptop for my needs. I was hoping for a retina Air in 2014. Since that's not gonna happen (maybe never will), I'm selling my 15" MBP for a retina 13".
 
idyll said:
Thanks! I was really hoping the MacBook Pro retina would be faster, but if the iMac is that much better and Photoshop takes advantage of the GPU I'll stick with the iMac and get a MacBook Air to complement it.

I won't be doing much Photoshop work on the go, mostly coding if anything, email, etc. An iPad may even be sufficient but I do need FTP access and other Mac programs from time to time that the iPad doesn't have. I think in this case the 11" MacBook Air might even do it for me.
Click to expand...

The 11" Air is a fantastic machine. If you're just doing coding work and e-mail, browsing, some FTP stuff, etc, it will be more than enough. Firing up PS from time to time shouldn't be a big deal either.

I would simply recommend getting at least 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, since you can't upgrade either later (well, you can with the SSD, but it's not really cost effective...). Of course in a perfect world, just max out everything, but this is assuming you have some cost constraints. It's also generally not that big a leap to get the i7 over the i5.
 
Wait for the 2014 Macbook Air. The current ones have craptastic resolution.
 
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