Hello everyone,

 

I intend to purchase the new MacBook Pro Retina which I plan to use for DNS 11.5. I was wondering if I would benefit from the i7 2.7 With 8 MB cache compared to the i7 2.3 with only 6 MB cache. Everything else would be the same including the 16 GB of RAM. The cost to upgrade from 2.3 to 2.7 is quite significant but I'm willing to do it if the performance boost would be noticeable.

Also I would prefer using parallels instead of Boot Camp and was wondering if I will suffer from a performance hit by doing so. Will DNS 11.5 using parallels still be a multithreaded application?

 

Thanks do much for any input.

Rolando,

First of all what you mean by quite significant in terms of the difference between the Core™ i7 with 6 MB of L3 cache and the Core™ i7 with 8 MB of L3 cache. Aside from the fact that Apple tends to screw you would comes to pricing on MacBook Pro pricing anyway, but the cost differential between the two processors only $200 according to Intel. Now, given that, it may very well be that that is significant to you, and I understand that.

Second, the likelihood is that you would not generally experience any significant difference between the performance Re: DNS 11.5 and two processes that you're looking at. The performance differential might be slightly more noticeable for the 8 MB cache processor because DNS does make use of L3 cache. However, statistically speaking you would be no significant performance increase by going with the 8 MB L3 cache processor vs. the 6 MB L3 cache processor. I wouldn't worry about it. Go with what you can afford. If it were me, I would spend the extra money on the 8 MB cache Coretm i7 because I like to have the top-of-the-line. But that is a personal preference and not necessarily recommendation.

Lastly, others who are using MacBook pros can give you a better idea regarding any performance differences between Parallels vs. Boot Camp. However, based on my experience with clients, it usually depends on how you set it up. Some of my clients use Boot Camp and some of them use Parallels, but none of them have ever complained about taking any performance hits using one or the other. The only difference is that I'm aware of is a difference in the ease of setup and control.

Chuck

"Aiming for the moon and missing it is better than aiming for the ditch and hitting it." - Author Unknown

-------------------------

Chuck,

 

Thank you so much for your comments and for your quick reply. What I really want is to have a laptop configured in such a way that would allow me to dictate and have the words appear instantaneously on the screen. Can this be done with the 3rd generation i7 2.3 and 6 MB cache and 16 gb of RAM ? If so then I would be content with that. Or do I need the 2.7 version with 8 MB of cache to have instantaneous dictation ? Or .......is it even possible with current technology ?

 

Again thank you so much.

Rolando,

Keep in mind that there is more to performance with Dragon NaturallySpeaking relative to words appearing instantaneously on your screen then just the hardware itself. For example, you can have the fastest hardware in the world, but if your microphone/soundcard is not up to par you won't get instantaneous display of text (i.e., speech to text) because they poor microphone/soundcard combination will cause Dragon to work harder to understand what you're trying to say. Another factor is how much stress you put on Dragon NaturallySpeaking relative to other applications and utilities running in the background. Further, your dictation style, if not optimal, can cause Dragon NaturallySpeaking to engage in inordinate thrashing while trying to find the BestMatch between what you say and what it thinks you said.

Yes, going with a third-generation Coretm i7 (Ivy Bridge) processor with 8 MB of L3 cache will get you slightly better performance, but it's only one factor in a complex set of factors, all of which have to be taken into consideration. So, the bottom line is don't bank on just the processor in terms of giving you better performance. Also, the processor is not even in the equation as far as accuracy is concerned. Microphones/soundcards and CPUs don't increase accuracy. 70% of accuracy and performance is you the user. Hardware helps but all the best hardware can't compensate for poor dictation style or less than optimal set of speech files (Acoustic Model, Language Model, vocabulary).

It is difficult to predict absolutely in the end whether your CPU will produce instantaneous results. That being said, going with the third-generation Coretm i7 2.7 GHz and 8 MB of L3 cache certainly can't hurt and will tend to give you slightly better performance, everything else being equal and optimal.

Chuck

"Aiming for the moon and missing it is better than aiming for the ditch and hitting it." - Author Unknown

-------------------------