TI-83+ or TI-84+

I am redoing some high school courses in Math (I obtained very poor grades in secondary school, mostly because I did not care to learn anything at that stage in my life. Now I want to see about getting an under-grad degree, and what I want to do requires that I actually know math :) ) and I am going to have to get a graphing calculator. The course work suggests (note: suggests, NOT requires) a TI-83+, as this is what they use for examples in the lesson materials. However, I was looking at the specs, and it seems that the TI-84+ packs a bit more punch, especially in terms of processor power, but also in flash memory size. When I was in school (years ago), we did not use graphing calculators, and so I really know little about them. I am looking for suggestions on this: Would it worth the extra few bucks for the TI-84+? Or should I just grab the TI-83+?

Go with the 84+ If you want to program your TI.

You are not limited to the 24KB accessible address space in RAM. Because of the USB port you can extend this with USB flash drives. There's also a large 1 Mb storage space for programs. Because I advise you use Z80 assembly (a charm to learn and program with), 1Mb is just huge and you will have a lot of room for storage of data. The USB port also greatly facilitates getting your programs to be coded on your computer through TI's own stuff or third party software and then moved to the TI.

Get the TI-83+ if you don't plan to program it. I don't think you will need anything the TI-84+ has to offer in that case. The functions are exactly the same and I think the software is exactly the same too. The TI-83+ is TI-84+ compatible.

I have also used Ti-84+ in high school and loved it. I'm not sure if it's worth it, though.

We don't use it in university at all. I am doing an electrical engineering degree and I'm pretty sure mech people don't use it either.

We just use computers (laptops). I guess graphing calcs are cheaper than laptops, but if you already have one...

Needless to say, computers are a lot more powerful, too.

TI-84s were banned in my exams (not sure why... you were allowed TI-83s), where calculators were allowed. So that's something you should check out before you buy one. Ofcourse TI-89s were banned as well, as they're CAS calculators.

My TI-83 is still going strong, save your money and opt for a TI-83. You don't have to fear maths changing on you ;)

Well that settles things then - I think I will grab a TI-83. Thanks for the advice guys.

Having now gone through 6 semesters of Mechanical Engineering classes, not once have we ever used or really needed a graphing calc. I guess if your lazy in calculus you can have it take the integral or derivative of a function, but then you don't learn anything.

Really the only thing that comes to mind that I needed other than pencil/paper was in my system modeling class, we would use MATLAB to help solve differential equations when we wanted to see effects of an impulse or step input on a system.

But when I was back in high school the graphing calculator I used, TI-83+, was more than sufficient. The most advanced features I actually had to use on it was some statistical functions, matrix operations and of course the graphing feature.

My college math classes forces the use of a regular TI-30XA calculator, which can't graph at all. I'm surprised you're allowed a graphing calculator >.<

We aren't allowed any calculator in university math courses. For engineering courses we are allowed any kind of calculator. I just use a $5 scientific calc, though. For projects and things there are always computers.

Came through university without a graphing calculator. I had one, but rarely if ever used the graphing functions at all (the larger screen was the main reason to buy it).
That was a Ti-81, still have it, but mainly I used a Ti-86.