Upgrading my 2015 15" Macbook Pro

I've always used MacBooks, but presumably I'd get more performance from the iMac, a better screen and more sensible ports (albeit round the back which is a PITA).

I would expect identical performance to that of a similar spec'd macbook, except where the Macbook had thermal throttling issues - the iMac is just a laptop built into a big screen.
 
Yes, also dealing with a daughter trying to get a new phone. But it is the current model. As mentioned by some folks above I would be very wary of getting the first generation ARM version.

TBH I'd say the next 18 months is a bad time to buy apple computers - you'll either get obsolete tech or possibly buggy new tech. In your situation I'd rather buy something a couple of years old & well spec'd for £1000 and wait 3 years than buy new right now.
 
I'm pretty set on an iPad and may keep my MacBook a little longer before upgrading it. Just not sure whether to go for a second hand iPad 11" 1st gen, iPad 11" 2nd gen or the new iPad Air which has just been announced....
 
I'm in a vaguely similar position to the OP with a 2014 15" MacBook Pro (16GB, 512GB SSD). The main differences are, I've got the "staingate" problem of a hazed area about 1" wide all around the edges of the screen, plus some bubbles in the middle of the screen, and I'm getting an increasing number of weird network issues and kernel panics (having to restart more often than once per week!). EDIT So I'm gonna have to upgrade sooner rather than later, I think.

I igure my options are upgrading to a 16" 2020 MBP with 1TB SSD (£2799 at Apple), or... a Retina iMac 21.5" with the i7, 16GB, 1TB SSD at £2199 plus an iPad with 128GB for £429 for portability (all Apple prices, probably cheaper elsewhere).

I've always used MacBooks, but presumably I'd get more performance from the iMac, a better screen and more sensible ports (albeit round the back which is a PITA). The question is, how would working off an iPad when away from home work out?

I'm a dedicated Aperture user, but trying to wean myself off onto Capture One Pro; it doesn't look like there's an iPad version (Capture One Pilot looks like a different thing). I guess for new photos there would be Photos, which I don't like, then import into C1P later. For all the usual social/email stuff that happens while you're away an iPad would be more convenient than a 16" MBP (and less expensive if lost or stolen too).

Does this seem like a good alternative?

I actually use Capture One as my main editing software, along with Affinity, however looking at demonstrations of Lightroom Mobile Syncing with Lightroom Classic - I'm starting to wonder if using Lightroom would be the best option when owning both an iPad and a Mac. I don't know that I could jump ship after feeling so comfortable and happy with Capture One. Failing that the only thing I would consider doing on the iPad would be culling using the built in Files app and just use the iPad mainly for emails, social media and communication on the move. The other attractive use would be to showcase my portfolio to potential clients. Handing them an iPad is more convenient that handing them a laptop
 
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TBH I'd say the next 18 months is a bad time to buy apple computers - you'll either get obsolete tech or possibly buggy new tech. In your situation I'd rather buy something a couple of years old & well spec'd for £1000 and wait 3 years than buy new right now.

This. Buy current one and Apple will leave it behind sooner than you may wish. On the positive side you can still load windows on it and live that way. In that case compare the specs with HP X360 and Asus Pro duo before making that decision.
Buy first ARM and you may be also left behind quite quickly as the tech will evolve too quickly for the first 1-2 generations. This time there is no more windows escape and probably no ARM linux either, as it is non-standard CPU.

The way I see it is leave it for a few years and buy top spec Windows one or keep you old one for next 3 years.
 
TBH I'd say the next 18 months is a bad time to buy apple computers - you'll either get obsolete tech or possibly buggy new tech. In your situation I'd rather buy something a couple of years old & well spec'd for £1000 and wait 3 years than buy new right now.
Doesn't a "couple of years old" MacBook get you right into dodgy keyboard territory?
 
Doesn't a "couple of years old" MacBook get you right into dodgy keyboard territory?

Many of us use it in dock mode with proper external keyboard. It totally wouldn't matter in that case and I'm sure they were fine for light occasional use. In contrast some folk write novels and thesis on them.
 
Doesn't a "couple of years old" MacBook get you right into dodgy keyboard territory?

I'd do what LLP suggested: mouse, keyboard & screen. The issue was particles getting into the keyboard mechanism, so if you can manage to keep the dirt out it may continue to work a little longer. :p

Yes, I'd forgotten about that aspect of Apple development.
 
Really interesting discussion. I'm just going on a similar journey, from my early 2015, 13" i5 2.7ghz with 8gb RAM which was increasingly annoying me with things like the load time between images in capture one (2-4 seconds for each image to load on a big set was infuriating) and the processing time for macro focus stacking in heliconfocus. I saw a good price for a month old 13" 2020 MBP top (non custom) spec of i5 2.0ghz, 16gb RAM and 1tb which convinced me to take the leap. I'm relatively tech savvy though not a hardware nut, but figured five years on and top spec (vs my mid/entry range from before) should alleviate all my frustrations today and for a few years into the future.

I have to say I'm disappointed. Focus stacking is certainly much quicker, but the capture one image load still has a noticeable delay. It's noticeably less, but still there. From a quick chat on reddit someone suggested that for the load times I need to step up to a 15" or 16" with dedicated graphics card. As I said, I'm not a hardware nut but can imagine that makes sense. I would rather not move up to a larger size (I've used 13" MacBooks and MBPs since 2006 and always appreciated the compact size, without finding the real estate to small for editing), but if that's necessary then I'm looking into it.

My question now is which 15" or 16" MBP to go for? Would a 15" from 2016 with the top graphics card of that generation (Radeon 560 4gb) give me the imperceivable image load times in C1 that I desire? The thoughts above regarding the impending switch to apple chips makes me think maybe an older 15" is a better choice to see me through the next few years?

(Hopefully this fits as a continuation of the OP, but let me know if I should start a new thread)
 
Really interesting discussion. I'm just going on a similar journey, from my early 2015, 13" i5 2.7ghz with 8gb RAM which was increasingly annoying me with things like the load time between images in capture one (2-4 seconds for each image to load on a big set was infuriating) and the processing time for macro focus stacking in heliconfocus. I saw a good price for a month old 13" 2020 MBP top (non custom) spec of i5 2.0ghz, 16gb RAM and 1tb which convinced me to take the leap. I'm relatively tech savvy though not a hardware nut, but figured five years on and top spec (vs my mid/entry range from before) should alleviate all my frustrations today and for a few years into the future.

I have to say I'm disappointed. Focus stacking is certainly much quicker, but the capture one image load still has a noticeable delay. It's noticeably less, but still there. From a quick chat on reddit someone suggested that for the load times I need to step up to a 15" or 16" with dedicated graphics card. As I said, I'm not a hardware nut but can imagine that makes sense. I would rather not move up to a larger size (I've used 13" MacBooks and MBPs since 2006 and always appreciated the compact size, without finding the real estate to small for editing), but if that's necessary then I'm looking into it.

My question now is which 15" or 16" MBP to go for? Would a 15" from 2016 with the top graphics card of that generation (Radeon 560 4gb) give me the imperceivable image load times in C1 that I desire? The thoughts above regarding the impending switch to apple chips makes me think maybe an older 15" is a better choice to see me through the next few years?

(Hopefully this fits as a continuation of the OP, but let me know if I should start a new thread)
It does, and I appreciate your findings with the 2020 MacBook Pro 13“ with the 2.0Ghz Processor. I was actually contemplating this model as a replacement to my 2015“ 2.5Ghz 15“. I hear you might ask why I’d want to swap for something slower, however the new 13” seems to score better on Geekbench, and has the more modern chip, and DDR4 RAM and faster SSD. I’m surprised to hear your not happy with the performance on Capture One. I too find a delay in loading full resolution RAWs from my Z6 on my MacBook Pro 15“ 2015 - enough to considerably slow me down when processing large numbers of pictures.

Perhaps you could record a video of your experience as I’m interested in the speed in comparison to mine.

I’ve taken a plunge and purchased an iPad Pro 2018 and have to say I‘m impressed with how Apple and replicated the Mac experience into such a compact and light product. There are restrictions on what you can do with it, and file transfer has been problematic from my XQD so I have settled with using it for browsing, email, admin, accounts and showcasing my Portfolio. After your feedback I’m considering a desktop and to save my processing until I’m at home
 
It does, and I appreciate your findings with the 2020 MacBook Pro 13“ with the 2.0Ghz Processor. I was actually contemplating this model as a replacement to my 2015“ 2.5Ghz 15“. I hear you might ask why I’d want to swap for something slower, however the new 13” seems to score better on Geekbench, and has the more modern chip, and DDR4 RAM and faster SSD. I’m surprised to hear your not happy with the performance on Capture One. I too find a delay in loading full resolution RAWs from my Z6 on my MacBook Pro 15“ 2015 - enough to considerably slow me down when processing large numbers of pictures.

Perhaps you could record a video of your experience as I’m interested in the speed in comparison to mine.

I’ve taken a plunge and purchased an iPad Pro 2018 and have to say I‘m impressed with how Apple and replicated the Mac experience into such a compact and light product. There are restrictions on what you can do with it, and file transfer has been problematic from my XQD so I have settled with using it for browsing, email, admin, accounts and showcasing my Portfolio. After your feedback I’m considering a desktop and to save my processing until I’m at home
I've just done a rough and ready screen capture. It's me browsing images then also a quick leap to focus stacking in case anyone is interested in that performance. I probably am expecting too much but I really was expecting the images to just load straight away.

HD version is still processing but SD version ready (though dreadful quality, you can see the spinning loading wheel in capture one between images and speed of helicon focus stacking):
View: https://youtu.be/knKhwkdFXmw
 
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I've just done a rough and ready screen capture. It's me browsing images then also a quick leap to focus stacking in case anyone is interested in that performance. I probably am expecting too much but I really was expecting the images to just load straight away.

HD version is still processing but SD version ready (though dreadful quality, you can see the spinning loading wheel in capture one between images and speed of helicon focus stacking):
View: https://youtu.be/knKhwkdFXmw

Thanks for uploading your video. I must to the same when I get back home tonight so you can see the difference. I think yours is snappier - although I can see that after flicking through 3 or 4 images in quick succession it seems to get stuck for you while it ‘catches up’. It’s hard to see on your video due to resolution, but on my MacBook it does first render the image in low resolution before resolving to full resolution which can take a couple of seconds. I’m not sure if by changing settings so I can have it generate previews in full resolution when I’m importing. Do you have this set to do that? I’ll need to check my Settings when I get in - as I wouldn’t mind leaving my mac for longer on import in order to be able to work quicker once the Previews are done.

It is hard to asses whether helicon is slow as I haven’t used it before. I guess the only way to find out would be to time it and repeat on another machine to see if it’s quicker / slower.
 
Thanks for uploading your video. I must to the same when I get back home tonight so you can see the difference. I think yours is snappier - although I can see that after flicking through 3 or 4 images in quick succession it seems to get stuck for you while it ‘catches up’. It’s hard to see on your video due to resolution, but on my MacBook it does first render the image in low resolution before resolving to full resolution which can take a couple of seconds. I’m not sure if by changing settings so I can have it generate previews in full resolution when I’m importing. Do you have this set to do that? I’ll need to check my Settings when I get in - as I wouldn’t mind leaving my mac for longer on import in order to be able to work quicker once the Previews are done.

It is hard to asses whether helicon is slow as I haven’t used it before. I guess the only way to find out would be to time it and repeat on another machine to see if it’s quicker / slower.
The HD version has processed now so you can see it better. I have C1 set to create previews at 1680 which matches the screen settings I use, and so provided the images are loading so I can see the whole image on screen (not zoomed in at all) then the preview should be sufficient. Good question though, I'll try setting it to maximum (5120) and see if that helps. It's taking 22 minutes to reprocess the 421 images in my wasps album I created that video on so not sure I'll want to do it on my whole library, but a good test nonetheless.

Update: Setting preview image size to maximum makes things worse, presumably because it's trying to load the full image size then reduce it to fit on the screen. I guess you need a preview size which is identical to the size you want to load on screen. Will have a play
 
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The HD version has processed now so you can see it better. I have C1 set to create previews at 1680 which matches the screen settings I use, and so provided the images are loading so I can see the whole image on screen (not zoomed in at all) then the preview should be sufficient. Good question though, I'll try setting it to maximum (5120) and see if that helps. It's taking 22 minutes to reprocess the 421 images in my wasps album I created that video on so not sure I'll want to do it on my whole library, but a good test nonetheless.

Update: Setting preview image size to maximum makes things worse, presumably because it's trying to load the full image size then reduce it to fit on the screen. I guess you need a preview size which is identical to the size you want to load on screen. Will have a play

Here's my video


Not sure if it's faster or slower - but it does sometimes get stuck!! Also performance is reduced if you are viewing zoomed in whilst cycling through the images. I was running my Mac on battery power - fans were going quite fast, whether once you get the internals heated up, things get any slower I'm not sure.

The other thing to mention - I have been shooting uncompressed RAWs - with the understanding that it takes time to process compressed RAWs - whether that's true or not I'm not sure.

I'll need to see if I can find an application which monitors resources to see if my MacBooks resources are maxed out. I wouldn't say my Laptop is as laggy as I remember!! Perhaps it's good enough but there has been time where I've been quite frustrated with the delays when moving the sliders!!
 
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Here's my video


Not sure if it's faster or slower - but it does sometimes get stuck!!
It's certainly a lot snapper than my 2015 13".

On the latest mbp models, I bought the 2019 16" 8 core i9, 16gb ram, 1tb, Amd Radeon Pro 5500M graphics with GDDR6 memory (MVVM2B/A) from Amazon to put through its paces. Only things I did were download captureone and copy over the same library and do a side by side comparison with the top spec 2020 13".

Firstly the 16" screen seems brighter, and it is a lovely screen size. After 15 years on 13" I was surprised how still relatively compact it is, fitting into my peak design every day 20ltr perfectly.

Performance wise though, it was if anything a tad slower than the 13". The dedicated graphics card is obviously an improvement, but the larger screen means it's presumably got more to load. Side by side was difficult given the different sizes, but I decided to set both up as I would use them - maximum resolution possible (display settings set to scaled and then selecting the farthest option to the right, labelled "More Space"). I then screen grabbed the area of captureone showing a landscape image to decide on preview image size - this was 1440 on the 16" and 1024 on 13", and opened up my wasp album and browsed in parrallel, advancing through the images at exactly the same time on each machine. The 16" took slightly longer to load images, and at one stage where I rapidly tapped the right arrow key to skip through ~20 images, the 16" took a whopping 19 seconds from the last key press to navigate to the last image (whereas the 13" got there practically immediately).

I filmed it again so will try to upload later for the side by side look, but while I adore the 16" screen size, I think I'll save £1k and stick to 13" for time being.

One final thought though is that I was surprised how well your 2015 15" performed. I wonder if actually you're already getting the best from c1 that you csn expect - or close to it. I use 'istat' to monitor Mac performance in real time which could be worth a look. Pretty sure it's free.
 
It's certainly a lot snapper than my 2015 13".

On the latest mbp models, I bought the 2019 16" 8 core i9, 16gb ram, 1tb, Amd Radeon Pro 5500M graphics with GDDR6 memory (MVVM2B/A) from Amazon to put through its paces. Only things I did were download captureone and copy over the same library and do a side by side comparison with the top spec 2020 13".

Firstly the 16" screen seems brighter, and it is a lovely screen size. After 15 years on 13" I was surprised how still relatively compact it is, fitting into my peak design every day 20ltr perfectly.

Performance wise though, it was if anything a tad slower than the 13". The dedicated graphics card is obviously an improvement, but the larger screen means it's presumably got more to load. Side by side was difficult given the different sizes, but I decided to set both up as I would use them - maximum resolution possible (display settings set to scaled and then selecting the farthest option to the right, labelled "More Space"). I then screen grabbed the area of captureone showing a landscape image to decide on preview image size - this was 1440 on the 16" and 1024 on 13", and opened up my wasp album and browsed in parrallel, advancing through the images at exactly the same time on each machine. The 16" took slightly longer to load images, and at one stage where I rapidly tapped the right arrow key to skip through ~20 images, the 16" took a whopping 19 seconds from the last key press to navigate to the last image (whereas the 13" got there practically immediately).

I filmed it again so will try to upload later for the side by side look, but while I adore the 16" screen size, I think I'll save £1k and stick to 13" for time being.

One final thought though is that I was surprised how well your 2015 15" performed. I wonder if actually you're already getting the best from c1 that you csn expect - or close to it. I use 'istat' to monitor Mac performance in real time which could be worth a look. Pretty sure it's free.

I've got a 2015 macbok air 11 inch with all the options - i7, 8gb ram, 512gb ssd - and genuinely its a little pocket rocket! And a nice keyboard too!
 
Here's the side by side of 2020 13" top spec non custom build mbp vs medium spec 16" 2019 mbp (2.3ghz i9, 16gb RAM) as explained in my last post. See from 3 minutes for the huge delay on 16" keeping up with my button presses
View: https://youtu.be/HFH_37RwlW4
 
Here's the side by side of 2020 13" top spec non custom build mbp vs medium spec 16" 2019 mbp (2.3ghz i9, 16gb RAM) as explained in my last post. See from 3 minutes for the huge delay on 16" keeping up with my button presses
View: https://youtu.be/HFH_37RwlW4
That's crazy the higher spec laptop is slower than the cheaper one. Might be worthwhile sending Capture One a message to see if they might know of an explanation. Perhaps the software doesn't utilise the architecture of the new processor somehow - and it's not using the potential of the resources. That's my guess. Have you tried running a geek bench test on both machines to see which is faster?
 
*Think* I read recently that C1 doesn't really use the power of modern graphics cards. Couple that with the i9 of the macbook thermally throttling and you'll get apparently reduced performance compared with the lower spec machine. The only way to get the i9 in a Macbook to perform at max is to supply the air intakes with chilled air to help take the heat away..
 
*Think* I read recently that C1 doesn't really use the power of modern graphics cards. Couple that with the i9 of the macbook thermally throttling and you'll get apparently reduced performance compared with the lower spec machine. The only way to get the i9 in a Macbook to perform at max is to supply the air intakes with chilled air to help take the heat away..
Interesting stuff. The detailed info here at least implies the GPU should be doing better: https://www.dtcommercialphoto.com/where-to-spend-your-money-when-buying-a-computer-for-capture-one/

I then found out that it's important to go to energy saver in system preferences and make sure 'Automatic graphic switching' is disabled (which wasn't when I did the the side by side above). I then found this great free app https://gfx.io which adds a menu bar icon to show whether you're using the integrated or dedicated GPU. Turns out that with automatically graphic switching on, capture one - in my testing at least - never lead to the dynamic switching of the GPU to the dedicated. That free app does allow you to manually switch between them though (which saves turning automatic switching on every time you want to save battery and off every time you want to use C1), and suing dedicated does improve things. Unfortunately I can't test this on the 16" as it is already packed up for return to Amazon, but I have picked up a 2016 15" and can see a noticeable improvement with dedicated GPU forced on when in c1. @gilbouk, you may want to check that automatic switching is off AND/OR download gfx to see if that improves things for you.

I'm now trying to decide between keeping this top spec 15" 2016 mbp (4gb Radeon Pro 460 GPU, 16gb RAM, 1tb with brand new battery and keyboard) or the top spec 13" 2020 mbp only a few weeks old. The pros/cons come out as:

Pros of 2020 top spec 13" model
  • 3 years of apple care
  • Faster write speeds of drive (2500 vs 1800 via black magic test)
  • Much nicer keyboard- so much quieter (which is important given the Mac is mainly used in front of the tv and the tapping will drive my wife mad!)
  • Faster CPU, potentially meaning faster Helicon focus stacking (need to do side by side tomorrow)
  • Fractionally faster browsing C1 images (even when dedicated GPU is selected)
  • More future proof?
Pros of 2016 top spec 15" model
  • £400 cheaper
  • Bigger screen (which is growing on me)
  • Dedicated GPU

I've got to say the keyboard of the 2020 could well be swinging it at present. As I type this post out on the 15" butterfly keyboard the tap tap tap is madly loud. I've done a full time machine backup of the 13" today so will build that onto this 15" over night and do a true side by side and decide tomorrow I think...
 
Ok, so just finished a side by side between the 15” 2016, 2.9ghz i7, 16gb ram, 1tb and the 13” 2020, 2ghz i5, 16gb ram, 1tb.

So two interesting things here, but first something really important for anyone with a Mac with dedicated graphics card. Unless you tell your Mac to use the dedicated graphics card, it will not be invoked by any of the tests I’ve done below. But, if you force the graphics card to be used, the performance is notably better. So if you have a dedicated graphics card, you must go to system preferences, then energy saver and make sure ‘Automatic graphic switching’ is turned off. What I would actually recommend you do is go to https://gfx.io and download gfxCardStatus V2.3 which adds a menu bar item to let you fast switch between dedicated (discrete) and integrated graphics on the fly. It’ll also notify you as and when it is changed (you can also enable dynamic here so it’ll change when needed- but as per the above, this is useless in captureone). And before anyone asks, yes I did have hardware acceleration enabled for both.

So, now on with the side by side, with the 15” set to use the dedicated graphics card, the Radeon pro 460 in my case. The two interesting findings being...


1) very little performance difference in capture one. Both load up previews at similar speeds. The only difference is that the 15” exports faster (probably 15-25% faster than the 13”)

2) with round trip to helicon focus, the 15” exports the image faster (as already mentioned above), but then processing by helicon focus takes identical time, but 15” is faster on the first pass (I think when helicon focus identifies the focus areas) and then slower on the second pass (I think where it decides which details to take from which pic)


I’m still a bit surprised by this. Yes, the 4 year old 15” I have is the top spec model, but so is the 13”. I would have expected - even bearing in mind the smaller form factor - that four years on would deliver a better performance.

The ONLY redeeming factor of the 2020 13” is the keyboard. I can’t get over how noisy the infamous butterfly keyboard is on the 2016 15” whereas the 13” is a joy to use. It is also nice having a dedicated escape key and the arrows in the inverted T just feels more natural. Plus I bought it with 3 years apple care.

But all said and done, I think it’s the 15” that I’ll keep and take the money on the 13”. It’s close though, so in fact they may both go up for sale and I’ll just keep the one that doesn’t sell first! Anyone want a new mbp?
 
Ok, so just finished a side by side between the 15” 2016, 2.9ghz i7, 16gb ram, 1tb and the 13” 2020, 2ghz i5, 16gb ram, 1tb.

So two interesting things here, but first something really important for anyone with a Mac with dedicated graphics card. Unless you tell your Mac to use the dedicated graphics card, it will not be invoked by any of the tests I’ve done below. But, if you force the graphics card to be used, the performance is notably better. So if you have a dedicated graphics card, you must go to system preferences, then energy saver and make sure ‘Automatic graphic switching’ is turned off. What I would actually recommend you do is go to https://gfx.io and download gfxCardStatus V2.3 which adds a menu bar item to let you fast switch between dedicated (discrete) and integrated graphics on the fly. It’ll also notify you as and when it is changed (you can also enable dynamic here so it’ll change when needed- but as per the above, this is useless in captureone). And before anyone asks, yes I did have hardware acceleration enabled for both.

So, now on with the side by side, with the 15” set to use the dedicated graphics card, the Radeon pro 460 in my case. The two interesting findings being...


1) very little performance difference in capture one. Both load up previews at similar speeds. The only difference is that the 15” exports faster (probably 15-25% faster than the 13”)

2) with round trip to helicon focus, the 15” exports the image faster (as already mentioned above), but then processing by helicon focus takes identical time, but 15” is faster on the first pass (I think when helicon focus identifies the focus areas) and then slower on the second pass (I think where it decides which details to take from which pic)


I’m still a bit surprised by this. Yes, the 4 year old 15” I have is the top spec model, but so is the 13”. I would have expected - even bearing in mind the smaller form factor - that four years on would deliver a better performance.

The ONLY redeeming factor of the 2020 13” is the keyboard. I can’t get over how noisy the infamous butterfly keyboard is on the 2016 15” whereas the 13” is a joy to use. It is also nice having a dedicated escape key and the arrows in the inverted T just feels more natural. Plus I bought it with 3 years apple care.

But all said and done, I think it’s the 15” that I’ll keep and take the money on the 13”. It’s close though, so in fact they may both go up for sale and I’ll just keep the one that doesn’t sell first! Anyone want a new mbp?

Great review on speeds. It goes to show that all that hype Apple make about greatly improved performance, in real life use isn’t as noticeable as they make out. Does your 2020 13” have the i5 2.0GHz or the i7?
 
Great review on speeds. It goes to show that all that hype Apple make about greatly improved performance, in real life use isn’t as noticeable as they make out. Does your 2020 13” have the i5 2.0GHz or the i7?
So true! I'm still surprised but obviously too much of a sucker for the marketing! It's the top spec non customised version you can buy on apple website, so 2.0ghz i5
 
Great review on speeds. It goes to show that all that hype Apple make about greatly improved performance, in real life use isn’t as noticeable as they make out. Does your 2020 13” have the i5 2.0GHz or the i7?

I upgrade my 2015 air 11 inch to a top end model - the i7, with the bigger hard drive etc. Genuinely can't believe how nippy and fast it is. I've also got the 2019 MacBook Pro 15 retina and barely anything in it.. I even don't mind the screen with its low res!
 
I upgrade my 2015 air 11 inch to a top end model - the i7, with the bigger hard drive etc. Genuinely can't believe how nippy and fast it is. I've also got the 2019 MacBook Pro 15 retina and barely anything in it.. I even don't mind the screen with its low res!
So you're saying you've got the 2015 air 11 inch with optional extras (2.2 ghz i7, 8gb RAM, 256gb) and it's on par with the 2019 MacBook Pro 15"? I've been obsessed with benchmark tests in the past, but clearly the numbers vs actual use for photography are quite different. I wonder what the bottle neck is that prevents any noticeable improvement in CaptureOne. I don't really use my Mac for anything else strenuous (just email, browsing etc.) so can't say if this is isolated to C1, but surely it must be (else no one would upgrade!).

Out of interest, what is the spec on your 15" 2019? Below are the options, with price (and theoretically, performance) increasing L-R:
Processor options: 2.6ghz i7 // 2.3ghz i9 // 2.4ghz i9
Memory options: 16gb // 32gb
Graphics card: AMD Radeon Pro 555x // AMD Radeon Pro 560x // AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 // AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20
 
Ok, so just finished a side by side between the 15” 2016, 2.9ghz i7, 16gb ram, 1tb and the 13” 2020, 2ghz i5, 16gb ram, 1tb.

But all said and done, I think it’s the 15” that I’ll keep and take the money on the 13”. It’s close though, so in fact they may both go up for sale and I’ll just keep the one that doesn’t sell first! Anyone want a new mbp?

Might be worth checking what hard drive is installed. I fairly certain on my Mid 2015 i can upgrade it to a faster spec.
 
Did you end up selling your 13" 2020. How much did you get for it?
Bought it for £1500 on Avforum and sold it for £1500 plus postage on Avforum. Given it came with 3 years AppleCare as well, I probably could have made some money on it selling it somewhere else, but didn't buy to profit from it so passed on the good deal to the next person.
 
Might be worth checking what hard drive is installed. I fairly certain on my Mid 2015 i can upgrade it to a faster spec.
Think the 2015's are the last ones that could be upgraded by the user still. The 2016 and onwards are all soldered down so no upgrades possible. But pretty sure the i7 2.9ghz is top spec of that edition - technically 2.7ghz was fastest processor but could customise to 2.9ghz. Also the graphics card was Radeon 450 as standard, upgradeable to Radeon 455 or 460, and again the mpb I've bought was customised up to the 460 (which is 4gb vs the 2gb of the other two). You're right, though technically there is a 2tb version, but a bigger hard drive won't make things run faster (unless you're right up to the hd limit. Unless I misunderstood you?
 
Think the 2015's are the last ones that could be upgraded by the user still. The 2016 and onwards are all soldered down so no upgrades possible. But pretty sure the i7 2.9ghz is top spec of that edition - technically 2.7ghz was fastest processor but could customise to 2.9ghz. Also the graphics card was Radeon 450 as standard, upgradeable to Radeon 455 or 460, and again the mpb I've bought was customised up to the 460 (which is 4gb vs the 2gb of the other two). You're right, though technically there is a 2tb version, but a bigger hard drive won't make things run faster (unless you're right up to the hd limit. Unless I misunderstood you?

2015 have SSDs and as far as I know you can’t upgrade anything on them. I think2012 were the last MacBooks with upgradeable RAM and spinning drives
 
2015 have SSDs and as far as I know you can’t upgrade anything on them. I think2012 were the last MacBooks with upgradeable RAM and spinning drives
I believe that to be correct - no user upgrades possible for the 2015 models.
 
2015 have SSDs and as far as I know you can’t upgrade anything on them. I think2012 were the last MacBooks with upgradeable RAM and spinning drives
You can upgrade 2015 MacBook Pro SSDs - using an M.2 NVMe SSD with a cheap adapter.

Loads of info about it in the first post of this MacRumors forum thread.

It's been a while since I followed that thread, but from what I remember...the best MacBook Pro to upgrade the SSD is the 15" 2015 as it allows the fastest speeds and fewest limitations; but there are still caveats; such as NVME drives consume more power than the native Apple drives (shorter battery life), run hotter, and there maybe problems updating the MBP firmware during OS updates etc.
Other variants of MBP and Macbook Air (2013-2015) can also be upgraded but they have additional considerations.

If you're interested, read the first post of that thread, it's quite comprehensive.
 
You can upgrade 2015 MacBook Pro SSDs - using an M.2 NVMe SSD with a cheap adapter.

Loads of info about it in the first post of this MacRumors forum thread.

It's been a while since I followed that thread, but from what I remember...the best MacBook Pro to upgrade the SSD is the 15" 2015 as it allows the fastest speeds and fewest limitations; but there are still caveats; such as NVME drives consume more power than the native Apple drives (shorter battery life), run hotter, and there maybe problems updating the MBP firmware during OS updates etc.
Other variants of MBP and Macbook Air (2013-2015) can also be upgraded but they have additional considerations.

If you're interested, read the first post of that thread, it's quite comprehensive.
For me, I’d not be keen changing the drive as I’d be worried something might go wrong resulting in owning an expensive paperweight - particularly when moving away from the original design specifications, there’s no saying what damage might occur with the new NVME drive installed. The other worry would be disk failure / corrupted data etc at some point in the future which might be more likely
 
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