Question, Battery or On power, does the macbook airs speed/power change?

Appledreamer said:

Question, Battery or On power, does the macbook airs speed/power change?

if i use it just on battery or on power cable am i getting different speeds or performance, i ask this, as i am coming from a windows laptop that used to have different modes, power saver, balanced, high performance?

Thanks, i have looked for the answer but couldnt find one.

Cheers

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I use my new MBA on both power and battery and see no difference in the speed or performance of the machine.

Appledreamer said:

Question, Battery or On power, does the macbook airs speed/power change?

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Nope.

However this is true for any Windows PC.

The MBA will consume more power or less depending on what it needs, it doesn't care about where it comes from, if your processor needs more punch, it will use more power, and vice versa.

But! Having the power connected will help you on not draining your battery if you use things such as: Power Nap, Time Machine, and Bluetooth. Since these are working even when the computer sleeps.

The only difference I've noticed between plugged in and battery is that the screen darkens a little when I unplug it, but I can always change it back if I need to. On my old Windows PC it was horrible. The entire cooling system would shut off despite any heat and the colors would get all weird because the graphics card went in low-power mode. I'm so glad I switched to my MBA.

luisito said:

Nope.

However this is true for any Windows PC.

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With an important caveat. You can adjust power profiles in windows so that everything continues to run at full speed. It was a nice feature to extend battery life in years past, but today's processors downclock and under volt themselves during idle or low load states that it's kind of redundant.

I can't say I've had a cooling system disable itself in a windows environment. That sounds like an issue with the individual manufacturer more so than an OS issue.

I did read however, that there is a difference in power in clamshell mode due to thermal restrictions during the more CPU intensive programs. It may've been just the i7...I'll have to search for the article.

Here is the review that tested the i7 in clamshell mode:
Conclusion:
Based on my clam shell mode test, it's clear the CPU never went above 100 degrees and instead the CPU's processing power is reduced to control temperature. In clam shell mode it does indeed not get enough circulation for cooling purposes and instead of the machine overheating or shutting down altogether like the iPad in sunlight, it simply reduces the processing power of the CPU. in this case, it was reduced significantly enough where it was roughly 25% slower than the i5 in open mode sitting on a desk.