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NVIDIA MacBook Air Benchmarks

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macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,537
30,847


Macworld provides benchmarks for the new NVIDIA-based MacBook Air that was introduced in October.

Macworld found that benchmarks improved up to 39%, when comparing the new 1.86GHz MacBook Air (SSD) to the first generation 1.8GHz MacBook Air (HDD).
The new high-end Air posted a 39 percent higher Speedmark 5 score than that old CTO Air. It was also 28 percent faster in our Photoshop tests and 22 percent faster in our Cinema 4D testing. Compressor, iMovie and iTunes were faster on the new system, but not by as big of a margin. Again, the biggest gains for the new Air were in our game frame rate tests. The new Air was able to display 24.8 frames per second in our Quake 4 tests, as opposed to the older CTO Air’s 3.9 fps - that’s more than a 6x improvement.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, many of these test results are likely skewed by the use of the SSD hard drive in the new MacBook Air, so it's difficult to isolate what is contributing to the improvement in scores.

Article Link: NVIDIA MacBook Air Benchmarks
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2008/11/10/nvidia-macbook-air-benchmarks/
ltldrummerboy

ltldrummerboy

macrumors 68000
Oct 15, 2007
1,534
9
It's crazy to think that the new Air is a better gaming machine than my year-old MacBook.

Edit: I love technology.
 
BWhaler

BWhaler

macrumors 68040
Jan 8, 2003
3,788
6,244
I owned the first generation Air and loved it. I bought the second generation, but canceled the order and went with the MacBook.

The reason I did this was because the MacBook seemed like a good compromise between power and portability. Yes, I do long for the almost invisible nature of the Air, but I am happy so far. The only bummer on the MacBook--and it's a big one--is the poor screen.

The reason I left the Air was not its limits--memory, capacity, heat, GPU--because those were all addressed in the update.

For me, it was the screen wobble. About 2 months ago, my screen developed a wobble, something mentioned on Apple's boards and across the web. Since this is not something Apple will repair, I decided to stay away from the Air.

I think Apple is starting to get serious about quality. After years of sliding quality, the MobileMe launch and 2.0 iPhone OS seemed to wake the company up a bit. (To say nothing of Leopard's bugginess.)

Apple lost a $1,000 from me because of a screen hinge. I hope to buy v3 of the Air in the future, but I need quality first.
 
nagromme

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
My dream come true: an Air that can run idTech 4 games! (Lower the detail and I bet it would surpass 30--which meets my standard for casual fun on the road.)
 
F

Freyqq

macrumors 601
Dec 13, 2004
4,038
181
nagromme said:
My dream come true: an Air that can run idTech 4 games! (Lower the detail and I bet it would surpass 30--which meets my standard for casual fun on the road.)
Click to expand...

25 fps on a 3 y/o game that wasn't even top of its game when it was released graphically..at who knows what settings...

casual gaming indeed, but i wouldn't expect anything beyond that

and wow..what an unscientific test. Rather than comparing the two top of the line models, they compare the top air of today with the bottom air of last gen. Of course it will be faster...but i think it would have been a more useful test to compare comparable models.
 
I

iansilv

macrumors 65816
Jun 2, 2007
1,083
357
You know what- I completely agree. This is the kind of stuff that kills a purchase for me. Good to know about the hinge.


BWhaler said:
I owned the first generation Air and loved it. I bought the second generation, but canceled the order and went with the MacBook.

The reason I did this was because the MacBook seemed like a good compromise between power and portability. Yes, I do long for the almost invisible nature of the Air, but I am happy so far. The only bummer on the MacBook--and it's a big one--is the poor screen.

The reason I left the Air was not its limits--memory, capacity, heat, GPU--because those were all addressed in the update.

For me, it was the screen wobble. About 2 months ago, my screen developed a wobble, something mentioned on Apple's boards and across the web. Since this is not something Apple will repair, I decided to stay away from the Air.

I think Apple is starting to get serious about quality. After years of sliding quality, the MobileMe launch and 2.0 iPhone OS seemed to wake the company up a bit. (To say nothing of Leopard's bugginess.)

Apple lost a $1,000 from me because of a screen hinge. I hope to buy v3 of the Air in the future, but I need quality first.
Click to expand...
 
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