macbook pro 15" retina or normal

[Anonymous]

Hello,
I work with AC 16 and i want to buy a macbook pro 15" to work with when i'm not at home. When i'm at home i plan to conect it with a bigger monitor.
My question is:
Should i buy the retina or the normal display?
Somebody told me the normal display is better for CAD working, because the retina needs more graphic-power! Does it also work with the retina?
I whould prefer the retina but if it makes no sense i will not.
Please help me with my decison!
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[Anonymous]

The retina has twice the VRAM so I doubt the performance is an issue. It seems that the current retina is all around faster and better than the old 15". The only limitation seems to be that an internal hard drive is not an option, but with 512 to 768GB of flash drive available this maybe the opposite of a limitation. Extra storage is readily added via Thunderbolt or USB.

From what I can see it doesn't make sense not to get the retina.

[Anonymous]

Thank you!
Is the 256 flash drive not enough?
I want to buy the standard version...

[Erich]

The 15" retina works just fine, but I would upgrade the drive and the RAM if at all possible. That done, it is a beast for such a little machine and the display is hard to beat (it sort of makes up for the loss of the old 17" machine).

[PB]

I'm working on the retina 15" and it is a very impressive machine. Besides the good performance, the retina display also has a great advantage: With a small add-on such as 'Pupil' you can have full control of the screens resolution. When (if) needed I can run AC16 with a screen resolution up to a huge 3840x2400......50% more than my 30" cinema display !

you will need good eyesight to do this...but on a more practical note, it does mean that you can set the same resolution as your external monitor & not have to keep switching between two different work profiles (something I've only just realised myself ! ).

In my case it has been a great investment (especially moving from a 2006 laptop), and I thoroughly recommend it if you have the means.

[Anonymous]

I was in the same boat. I was discussing it with some clients I have - one works for Apple, the other for Google. Between the 2 of them, they have pretty much every Apple product. I was considering an Air, or a non-retina MBP. They strongly pushed me towards the 15" retina, and went as far as to bring out an Air and 15" MBPs in retina and non-retina and line them up.

I went with the 15" Retina and couldn't be more pleased. For AC, I set the resolution 1 or 2 settings higher than the default, which compresses the pallets in small footprints, maximizing the real estate for the windows, which is great for presentations (the main purpose I bought the MBP) or work.

I still need to max the RAM, but memory seem like less of an issue with Mavericks installed than ML