Drawbacks to the MBA?

[JoshMKB24]

Originally Posted by Sully151

Thanks for the info, everyone. I stopped by the apple store today and the salesperson all but talked me out of the 13" rMBP and basically told me to save some cash and get an Air.

Since, hopefully, it will be my secondary computer, it seems to make sense.

Silly question, but without an optical drive, how do you watch movies and store music? All through an external?

I have an external 8TB drive that I use to watch all my movies and store all my music and pics. I have a secondary backup 8TB drive in case something bad happens. Currently I have 800 blurays including 3D on it and it works great. All said, the enclosure plus drives was right around 600

[rabidz7]

Originally Posted by leman

Well, Novabench is mostly a joke. But comparing GeForce FX 5200 and the HD 4000 is just silly... the HD 4000 is obviously much faster than a card which was criticised as being outdated before it was actually released.

And modern Ivy Bridge CPUs, even ULV ones, are also considerably faster than the ancient G5...

NO it is not.

2 cores vs 4

SSE2 vs altivec

RISC vs CISC

Have you even seen the floating point on an i7!

[leman]

Originally Posted by rabidz7

NO it is not.

Maybe you should have a look at some benchmarks instead of living in a fantasy? I will even be so nice and give you a link

Here is a dual-CPU G5 workstation vs a 2012 Ivy Bridge based MacBook Air.

Originally Posted by rabidz7

2 cores vs 4

PowerPC 970 is single or dual core. Ivy Bridge is dual or quad core. Anyway, the benchmark above shows clearly that two 970MP@2.5Ghz (four cores) cannot even compete with two IB cores at 1.7Ghz.

Originally Posted by rabidz7

SSE2 vs altivec

Yes, SSE is faster than altivec. Besides, SSE2 was introduced in 2001, loooong time ago. Current Intel CPUs support SSE4 and AVX.

Originally Posted by rabidz7

RISC vs CISC

Do you even know what it means, or are you simply throwing around with buzzwords? Modern x86 CPUs are superscalar execution units, capable of decoding and executing multiple instructions per cycle. Anyway, look up the benchmarks.

Originally Posted by rabidz7

Have you even seen the floating point on an i7!

Yes, its faster than the PPC 970MP. So what are you trying to say?

[AndyWong]

Originally Posted by rabidz7

NO it is not.

2 cores vs 4

SSE2 vs altivec

RISC vs CISC

Have you even seen the floating point on an i7!

Cant find FX5200 mate with a better processor because it is running on AGP.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm06/15494959 FX
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm06/16993479 HD400
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm06/5334 ATI Mob 9700

[rabidz7]

Originally Posted by leman

Maybe you should have a look at some benchmarks instead of living in a fantasy? I will even be so nice and give you a link

Here is a dual-CPU G5 workstation vs a 2012 Ivy Bridge based MacBook Air.




PowerPC 970 is single or dual core. Ivy Bridge is dual or quad core. Anyway, the benchmark above shows clearly that two 970MP@2.5Ghz (four cores) cannot even compete with two IB cores at 1.7Ghz.




Yes, SSE is faster than altivec. Besides, SSE2 was introduced in 2001, loooong time ago. Current Intel CPUs support SSE4 and AVX.



Do you even know what it means, or are you simply throwing around with buzzwords? Modern x86 CPUs are superscalar execution units, capable of decoding and executing multiple instructions per cycle. Anyway, look up the benchmarks.



Yes, its faster than the PPC 970MP. So what are you trying to say?

Altivec is much faster. CISC is always faster.

intel:

Status Launched
Launch Date Q2'12
Processor Number i7-3667U
# of Cores 2
# of Threads 4
Clock Speed 2 GHzIntel® Smart Cache 4 MB
Bus/Core Ratio 20
Instruction Set 64-bit
Instruction Set Extensions AVX
Embedded Options Available No
Lithography 22 nm
Max TDP 17 W

instruction set CISC

PowerPC G5

Launch Date 2005
Processor Number 970MP
# of Cores 2
# of Threads 4
Clock Speed 2.5 GHz
Cache 2 MB
Bus/Core Ratio 2
Instruction Set 64-bit
Instruction Set Extensions altivec
Lithography 22 nm
Max TDP 150 W

Instruction set RISC

[yinz]

Originally Posted by nick_elt

Its great but after having my macbook airFor less than a week it has alot of wifi issues its really annoying.

It's probably your router or modem. No issue with my MBA wifi.

[leman]

Originally Posted by rabidz7

Altivec is much faster. CISC is always faster.

Show us some benchmarks then. And yes, in this case the CISC x86 is much faster than the RISC PowerPC, but claming 'CISC is always faster than RISC' just shows that you have no clue about computing whatsoever.

[nick_elt]

Originally Posted by yinz

It's probably your router or modem. No issue with my MBA wifi.

Mba 13 inch has wifi issues with lion and mountain lion. I have found out now just search wifi not working waking from sleep. Its a osx issue as windows doesnt have the problem. Some routers will work fine and I have found a work around for now by changing my router channel. But the issue is with the mba and nothing else. Some people had alot worse wifi issues than me. Consider yourself lucky.

----------

But I do absolutely love the mba, it's just an issue to be aware of. My last macbook lasted for 5 years worth not many problems at all over the time. Was a little suprised that it had some out of the box. I do think it's the best laptop out there tho

[Sully151]

Alright, with all that being said, is there a reason to get the 13" rMBP over an air? And is it worth it to wait for the next refresh with Haswell?

[Stingray454]

Originally Posted by Sully151

Alright, with all that being said, is there a reason to get the 13" rMBP over an air? And is it worth it to wait for the next refresh with Haswell?

Depends what you're after. rMBP will get you some nice things - more battery time, a bit faster processor, better screen, obviously the higher resolution, more ports. There are some disadvantages too - heavier / larger, more expensive, and most importantly - lacking discrete graphics. The rMBP 13" has the same GPU as the Air, which means the same graphic card will have to power a 4 times larger screen (= about 4 times slower graphics performance).

I'm not saying the rMBP is bad, not at all. Personally I don't need the extra ports / performance, I think there is a big difference in mobility (I use the 11"), and don't want to run a screen with that high resolution on a HD4000 GPU.

About haswell, it looks nice indeed - lower power consumption and better GPU is always welcome. I'm guessing we won't see a new Air / MBP with those until juli at the earliest, so that depends if you want to wait that long. If you need a computer now, buy one now - it doesn't get worse just because a new version is released, and if you feel you need to upgrade, apple computers usually keeps a pretty nice resell price, so an upgrade don't have to be that costly.

[yinz]

Originally Posted by nick_elt

Mba 13 inch has wifi issues with lion and mountain lion. I have found out now just search wifi not working waking from sleep. Its a osx issue as windows doesnt have the problem. Some routers will work fine and I have found a work around for now by changing my router channel. But the issue is with the mba and nothing else. Some people had alot worse wifi issues than me. Consider yourself lucky.

----------

But I do absolutely love the mba, it's just an issue to be aware of. My last macbook lasted for 5 years worth not many problems at all over the time. Was a little suprised that it had some out of the box. I do think it's the best laptop out there tho

It's actually the first time I've heard this being an issue. I wake from sleep at home, at school and at my friend's homes and my MBA seems fine. That said, I will consider myself lucky then. Thanks.

No kidding, the MBA is a masterpiece. After owning it for 7 months, I still admire the external aesthetics of the machine. It's really a joy to look at even when I'm not using it. The software and user experience is very satisfying as well. Before my MBA, I used my Asus EEE PC for 3 years as my main computer. The 13" i5 is a sweet upgrade!

My only gripe with OSX is that, sometimes (unlike Windows), the short cut commands differ from app to app (full screen for safari vs full screen with other apps; 'del character in front' is sometimes control + D and sometimes fn +delete; etc.). Is it that difficult to make all of the short cut keys the same?

[QCassidy352]

Surprised nobody has said battery life, on the 11" especially. To me, that's the biggest area for improvement.

[Poisonivy326]

I think there's a huge drawback to the 11" MBA. Not so much the 13" but the 11":

1. Doesn't have an Sd card
2. The display ratio makes the screen look weirdly compressed and hurts my eyes the way the 13" and iPads don't.
3. Base configuration is a joke at 64 GB. Yes I know you can order more but $999 for a machine with 64 GB HD?

I'd love to personally own a 13" MBA but wouldn't touch the 11" one. I think it's Apple's weakest offer.

[Dr Charter]

Originally Posted by Poisonivy326

I think there's a huge drawback to the 11" MBA. Not so much the 13" but the 11":

1. Doesn't have an Sd card
2. The display ratio makes the screen look weirdly compressed and hurts my eyes the way the 13" and iPads don't.
3. Base configuration is a joke at 64 GB. Yes I know you can order more but $999 for a machine with 64 GB HD?

I'd love to personally own a 13" MBA but wouldn't touch the 11" one. I think it's Apple's weakest offer.

I'm inclined to agree with you as far as a primary machine is concerned. There are too many limitations. However, I love the base 11" for it's price and portability, particularly when flying coach or sitting at a small Starbucks table. I still have room for books or papers because of that small footprint.

I don't use SD cards, haven't been bothered by the compression you speak or and with an iMac at home 64Gb hasn't bothered me. I think the base model is a decent value as a secondary computer that I only use for a few hours a day.

[stridemat]

MOD NOTE

Open. All, please review the Rules for Appropriate Debate before posting in this thread.

[Amad3U5]

Originally Posted by rabidz7

My 2005 powerbook has better graphics than the macbook air.

I highly doubt that. Can a PowerBook run Minecraft on 60 FPS and Portal 2 on 40 FPS? Sure, Intel HD aren't amazing, but the assumptions that you're making are both irrational and false.

[rabidz7]

Originally Posted by Amad3U5

I highly doubt that. Can a PowerBook run Minecraft on 60 FPS and Portal 2 on 40 FPS? Sure, Intel HD aren't amazing, but the assumptions that you're making are both irrational and false.

Not at 60 fps, but at around 30.

[Amad3U5]

Originally Posted by rabidz7

Not at 60 fps, but at around 30.

Actually I get well over 60 FPS on my 2012 base-model 13" MBA, with all settings on max.
Screenshot for proof.

[maxosx]

I'm on my second MBA & it's been great.

There's no drawbacks to these based on my personal experiences. It's simply of matter of choosing the right configuration to serve your needs.

[Michael Goff]

Originally Posted by Amad3U5

Actually I get well over 60 FPS on my 2012 base-model 13" MBA, with all settings on max.
Screenshot for proof.

Never played Minecraft.

Seeing that screenshot of MAX GRAPHICS makes me glad I haven't.

[scupking]

Only issue I can see is you can't upgrade it. I would wait till the 2013s since they will have better graphics and you probably can get it with 16GBs of ram.

[BornAgainMac]

Don't pay attention to it not having a dedicated GPU. The Intel HD Graphics 4000 seems to defy physics and most people will be happy with it.