Auto Cad and Photoshop on MBA 13"

I'm not entirely certain how CPU intensive Auto-CAD is when your'e in 2D. I have had no issues with Photoshop or Lightroom.

In the 13" model, the CPU difference between the i5 and the i7 isn't huge. I believe ~8% is what Anandtech reviewed it as. If you were going from the 11" i5 to the i7, it would be a much larger performance boost, being around 30%

^ Yep exactly...

Not sure you would notice 8% difference OP. Save your $ and put it towards something better

thatin said:

Hi, I'm between the MBA 13" i-5 and i-7
Have anyone experienced Auto Cad (2d only), Photoshop on the new MBA?
And, with auto cad, office app and photoshop, which core do u think I should get i5 or i7?

Thank you so muchhhhhh

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I'm runing acad in the 13 i5, and it runs really well. I'm also using office 2011 and CS3 without issue (well, other than the adobe updater, of which part is a PPC application and wont run)

Here's a little video I made of the 13" i7 processing a RAW file in both Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5. It'll give you an idea of the Air's performance.

thatin said:

oh, thank you guys so much for clearing my doubt
Okay, then I will go with the i5
But I so love the 11" air , Do you find it uncomfortable doing lightroom and Cad on 11" screen?
I have a 24" screen at home but for work, I need Cad and I dun have a spare screen at work.
Can share your thought about it?

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Well, I don't have an 11" version, however--the i5 in the 11" doesn't turboboost as much as the 13" version. It may be worth it to upgrade the processor in the 11" to the 1.8 i7.

As for workspace resolution--the 11" only has something like 70 less pixels horizontally, however vertically is where the larger loss is.

thatin said:

thank you so much Finally I bought the Air 13" i5 and i'm loving it
Installing windows via VMware now to run my CAD (my office only support CAD for windows). Hope it will work well.

For Lightroom and photoshop, I think it is not bad at all, quite smooth actually
Once again, thanks to all of you

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Enjoy your computer!

thatin said:

thank you so much Finally I bought the Air 13" i5 and i'm loving it
Installing windows via VMware now to run my CAD (my office only support CAD for windows). Hope it will work well.

For Lightroom and photoshop, I think it is not bad at all, quite smooth actually
Once again, thanks to all of you

Click to expand...

hi thatin,

how is the 13" i5 working out for you?
I'm looking at the 13" i5 MBA to run:

- autocad for mac (doing basic 2D furniture drawings)
- sketchup to model the furniture
- photoshop
- lightroom

Wondering if MBA could handle all that without it being a big struggle.