Wait for the MBP Core 2 Duos?...or buy now?

[Vito117]

What do you guys think?

I going to buy my first Mac product!

I like the idea of a dual boot laptop with Windows Vista + Mac OSX. I'll be able to run ADT 2006, Archicad 10, Photoshop, and the various Mac goodies that my wife loves.

I just got my Dell 3007WFP monitor and cant wait to use along with a Macbook Pro:D

Seems that no one knows when the new Macbooks Pros will be out though.

Do I patiently wait?.....Or ?

[AJLynn]

Tough call. If you want to do this on a schedule, buy now, cause the Core2 will be better but not that much better. The Core Duo is already pretty kickass.

[Vito117]

Any hint as to what the graphics will be like on the new MBP?

Will they stay with the ATI 256mb as standard?

Any other improved features?

My current Dell Precision M70's Quadro card can handle anything I throw at it.

[AJLynn]

No idea. There haven't been any specifics on an MBP update.

 

I have some friends who have that Dell. It's got fast graphics but no faster than the MBP when you softmod the video. I was working with a 12 MB Sketchup file today and it was unfazed, and it performed quite well when I transferred the file to Viz.

[Greg Hess]

If I remember correctly, coreduo vs core2duo is roughly a 8-14% performance difference (at the same clock speed) depending on application.

 

Comes down to what AJ was saying...if you need performance now, then waiting does you no good.

 

However, it is ALWAYS better to wait until want turns into need in terms of computer hardware. Faster and cheaper hardware is alway around the corner!

[manta]

what's the holdup do you think...they were doing so well staying ahead of the curve, they were the first ones to use the core duo's...and besides the 10% increase, won't it also add 64bit support, I think thats more important...

 

listen to me,,,,I don't even own a Mac, and I sound like I do...who knows probably someday...

[AJLynn]

I think the holdup is Intel taking a while getting the Merom chips into full production. Conroe is the priority, since they already have Yonah, and Apple won't release until the supply is assured and they've already cleared most of their Yonah inventory - they like to keep their product line as simple as possible, so I dobt they'd sell Merom and Yonah MBPs at the same time any longer than they have to. Also, OSX Leapard will have a pretty seamless 32/64-bit architecture, and most Apple customers who are concerning themselves so much with how many bits their CPU supports are probably buying Mac Pros, so I doubt it matters very much to them how long it takes to make their laptops 64-bit.

[manta]

Hmm...so maybe I'm confused, what kind of people ussually buy MBP as opposed to Macbooks, I would have thought graphics pro's would be more inclined to buy MBP's...

[AJLynn]

I think the Apple market in general is based more on points like interface/ease of use, design and brand loyalty than numbers - I can imagine that some of the customers are anxiously awaiting a 64-bit laptop, but not a very large percentage. (Of course, Apple will want to make those people happy, but they'll have some other product line issues to address first, and there's still the problem of needing to stockpile enough Merom chips to switch over the whole MBP line at once, because Apple doesn't like to make things complicated.)