Mac vs Windows recent experiences

[HDNitehawk]

It has been a while since I have seen a Mac vs Windows debate.
I thought maybe we could get a discussion going with those that have bought the newer systems.

I had switched to Mac years ago and thought it was a better system for years, but with recent releases I have changed my position to neutral.

Now I will go with the system that is the most economical and fits my needs.

I have just bought a new 13" top off the shelf 13" Mac Book Pro, 3.1 Ghz Intel Core i7, 16gb with 512gb flash. A bit over $2,300 with tax.
I bought it for its size to travel with.

Last year I bought a ASUS laptop from best buy. 8 gb of ram, 17" Intel Core i7 with 2.6 Ghz and a 1 TB normal hard drive. It has a touch screen, running windows 10. $1500 and it weighs about 8 lbs. It is built for gaming and has a top of the line video card.

I expected the Mac to outperform the windows machine since it has a flash drive and faster processer. That hasn't been the case. The Mac is no faster than the ASUS and it has more glitches. Often it will be on a screen and it will just go dead and you have to close the app and start over. This usually happens during browsing. I expected it to be like all of the other Mac's I have bought in the past, plug it in and it automatically intergrate in to the system with almost no effort. That is not the case and I still haven't spent the time tying it in to the system. The only benifit it has is weight. The magnetic cord falls out far to easy, making it a pain to keep it charged if you ever get it down.

The ASUS has only one working problem. When I first bought it windows 10 was just released. I had to upgrade it for free myself. At upgrade something happens that disables the touch screen. Several times I have had to in and repair it. It is a minor thing, and really doesn't matter much because I seldom use the touch screen.

Using Light Room I see no difference in the two, other than the smaller screen of the Mac is harder to work with but that should be expected.

So the Mac was the right size, but in every other respect I feel like it dissapointed (as Mac reputation goes).

[Kayaker72]

I've been running windows for years with no complaints. Lightroom works flawlessly. I am still considering the surface pro, and will likely go into Best Buy to check it out and if I like the feel, get it. Based on reviews I am likely to get the i7, 8GB, 256 GB hard drive.

I built my home system and it now has: AMD 8-core (4 Ghz per core), GT 430, and 8 GB RAM. Both Lightroom and photoshop can utilize all 8 cores on the AMD processor.

[Joel Eade]

I still use my 2010 Mac Book Pro but with the large files from the 5DS R and the 5D MKIV some processes are very slow. Overall it has been a workhorse. I did put an SSD in it about 3 years ago because it was dropped (not by me) and the original HD was damaged. It was a simple fix and my time machine back up worked flawlessly. It just works and works without issues or any type of maintenance. Sorry to hear that a new MAcBook has frequent glitches.

[neuroanatomist]

Agree with Joel. My late-2011 17" MBP is still going strong. I swapped the 500 GB HDD for a 1 TB SSD mainly for more storage, but the speed boost was noticeable. I'm running the latest non-beta OS, it's generally stable (the exception is an occasional Aperture glitch, but since Apple isn't supporting it any more, that's not unexpected).

If the MagSafe is loose enough to fall out on its own, you might want to visit an Apple Store. IMO, it's a great feature – it's saved my Macs from tumbles several times when me or the kids trip over a cord (I killed a work-provided HP laptop that way once).

Like Joel, I also had an HDD die. That was in my 2006 17" MBP – I replaced it with the 500 GB drive from my 2011 model. Despite being two years older than my oldest kid, that 10 year-old Mac is still running fine for basic tasks like internet browsing, MS Office, etc.

[Lumens]

I believe it depends on the Manufacturer. I left the MS world after the update to Win10. Bottom line Win10 destroyed two PC's leaving them useless even for surfing the net. It was not a problem with Win10, it was a problem with the design of the PC. It had been designed for marketing not computing. Yes 16 gig RAM, 2.6 MHz quad core processor, and 1 Terabyte hard drive sounded pretty good at the time and it ran fine on Win8. But once forced to upgrade upgrade to Win10 the hard drives were rendered useless. They ran at 100% for 100% of the time. Even bringing up one web page could take as much as much as five minutes. Most likely this was a driver issue the manufacturer was too slow to update, but it left me without a computer.

I picked up a 15" Macbook Pro, never looked back. I am extremely happy with my Mac. My PCs from work had to be upgraded and they work fine, but for home use I'll stick to my Mac.

[HDNitehawk]

The new Macbook Pro replaces the wife's 2009 13" Macbook Pro. My experience with it is similar to Joel's and Neuro's. It still handled the 5Ds R ,albeit slowly, and I would have stuck with it except the hard drive is just too small.

Lumens, I believe you are right it does matter who makes the machine. The laptop I have from ASUS is an ROG and built for gaming, it has a quality video card and I think that helps. It was a pain working with 10 at first but once I figured out how to get back to a more conventional desktop screen I have to say I have had not problems.

Kayaker, when you buy your new 5D IV or 5Ds R you will regret getting a surface pro with just 256gb.


Two of the problems with the new Mac that were bugging me last night:
Occasionally when reviewing files in Adobe Bridge, the delete button would just completely stop working. I would have to shut the program and restart.
If I open Google Earth and minimize the pointer will not recognize the icon on the taskbar and will not open it.
I may take it back to the apple store and see if they can reload the operating system.

[DavidEccleston]

When Windows 8 came out I switched to Mac. I actually bought a copy of Windows 8, but, based on the Surface RT Microsoft had given me at a conference, I couldn't bring myself to install it on my main computer. My 27" iMac and 15" MacBook Pro, both refurbs, both still work great. As I still use Windows daily at work (Win 7), I'm not living in a Mac only bubble. There are annoyances and surprising omissions on each OS, but I prefer the Mac, and the Unix based OS X.

As for performance, you may have mis-read the specs. The 13" size doesn't just affect its portability, but the level of technology that can be crammed in there. The 13" MBPs use 2-core i5/i7 chips, while the 15" MBPs use 4-core. While it has more "GHz", the CPU will be much slower. I would never expect to do serious work on the 13". On the other hand, the 17" gaming PC, being a gaming model, likely has a not only the 4-core i7, but probably slightly overclocks the CPU, RAM, and GPU. The high-end graphics card is likely helping the PC too in certain tasks.

I don't know your exact CPUs, but I expect something like these two laptop CPUs:
2.6GHz quad core (CPU core of 9446) vs. 3.1GHz dual core (CPU score of 4899)

The fact the 2-core MBP is matching a much beefier 4-core gaming PC would be a win for the Mac in my eyes.

[HDNitehawk]

David,

I thought the ssd would have made more of a difference with the Mac.

It might be a win for the Mac, but the same ASUS ROG sells for about $1k now vs 2.1K for the Mac. Like I said in the op, now I will go with the system that is the most economical and fits my needs. I would probably still buy the Mac for its size and weight but no other reason.

Not trying to sound like the Nikonians and Sonyians trolling CR with doom and gloom statements every time Canon posts an announcement. But as a consumer the level of quality and satisfaction I came to expect from Apple over the past 8 years or so doesn't seem to be there.

[Kayaker72]

Kayaker, when you buy your new 5D IV or 5Ds R you will regret getting a surface pro with just 256gb.

That is the debate. I read a couple of reviews of people with D810s that were happy with the 256 GB. Maybe I'll jump to the 500 GB. But I do travel with a 2 TB hardrive. Also, this is not meant to be my main processing machine. That is my desktop at home. I will likely be upgrading my monitor at some point to that as well.

I want something for travel. My company is security conscience and I have to work through an IT admin to install software on my company laptop. I just heard back from them and they'll install Lightroom for me, but no updates. Plus that machine is i5/128 GB/4 GB/32 bit. I am thinking that might get frustrating for photo processing.


Overall, I think the lack of debate is because both windows and apple are working well. Perhaps, as is mentioned above, the issues are no longer Windows vs Mac, but rather specific machines.

[DavidEccleston]

The SSD will only help disk performance. Any operations occurring in RAM will be hindered by the slower CPU.

I chose Mac because they are built better than the common PC / laptop. They have longer support (Good luck getting a driver for a new version of Windows on a 2-3 year old PC laptop). They tend to actually last longer. They have a really nice IPS screen, at a decent resolution. The trackpad is higher-end than anything I've used on a PC laptop. The software I need is available on it.

Yes, I'm paying a premium for it to last longer, to have a nice display, and to have well functioning input. When comparing Dell's laptops with high-res displays and SSDs, and matching CPUs, yes the Apple was more, but not by *that* much. Apple's refurb pricing (15-20% off) typically brought it to the same price point as the Dell, but I'm willing to bet the Apple one is better built, and will have longer support. The ultra-cheap PC laptops were typically missing something I felt was important.