[Qgis-user] On Wed, 9 Sep 2020 at 02:00, RMG <reikogoodwin at gmail.com> wrote:

[Garth Fletcher]

On Wed, 9 Sep 2020 at 02:00, RMG <reikogoodwin at gmail.com> wrote:
> I would like advice on purchasing a new Mac...

The Mac you describe (12,1) is a
   "MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)"
introduced 3/2015 and discontinued 6/2016

Geekbench 5 benchmarks for Macs can be found at
   <https://browser.geekbench.com/mac-benchmarks>

Your Early 2015 earns a score of 763/1622 on their test set.
The first number, 763, is the performance of a single core while
the second number, 1622, is the performance when all cores are is use.

While such tests are not the whole story, they do provide an indication
of performance on an average set of tasks.  Too little RAM or a slow
old style (rotating) disk can greatly diminish performance.

Your MacBook Pro (Retina,...)
  MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2015),                      763 / 1622

More recent MacBook Pro models with 1 core benchmarks > 1000 include:
  MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2020),  i7, 2.3 GHz, 4 cores  1233 / 4516
  MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2020),  i5, 2.0 GHz, 4 cores  1142 / 4238
  MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2019),  i9, 2.4 GHz, 8 cores  1115 / 6746
  MacBook Pro (16-inch Late 2019), i9, 2.4 GHz, 8 cores  1110 / 6945
  MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2019),  i7, 2.8 GHz, 4 cores  1103 / 4186
  MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2019),  i9, 2.3 GHz, 8 cores  1082 / 6287
  MacBook Pro (16-inch Late 2019), i9, 2.3 GHz, 8 cores  1074 / 6615
  MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2018),  i9, 2.9 GHz, 6 cores  1044 / 5052
  MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2019),  i7, 1.7 GHz, 4 cores  1032 / 3882
  MacBook Pro (16-inch Late 2019), i7, 2.6 GHz, 6 cores  1022 / 5374
  MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2018),  i7, 2.7 GHz, 4 cores  1021 / 3989
  MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2019),  i7, 2.6 GHz, 6 cores  1020 / 5054

The "i5", "i7" and "i9" refer to different generations of the Intel
CPU chips used.

Most have SSD (Solid State Disk) rather than rotating hard disks, which
make a trememdous difference, especially with software that accesses
very large amounts of file data such as QGIS.

Also consider the large amount of disk space needed if you use many
raster files.  Orthophotographs can require many GB just to cover a
single town.  So far my 1 TB SSD has been adequate, but my focus is on
just a small area under 50 square miles, albeit with many layers of
LIDAR, DEM, orthophotos, etc.

For GIS use I would want a larger screen than 13", or plan on using a
large external screen whenever practical.  I find my 24" ViewSonic,
which cost under $200, to be just large enough for comfortable GIS use.

RAM is always useful and is cheap.  This is an especially important
consideration with MacBooks because you cannot later add more memory
(MackBook Pro models after 2012). I would recommend at least 16 GB.

Cordially,
-- 
Garth Fletcher