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Just ordered my first Mac

S

SeasonalEclipse

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 12, 2014
13
0
So, in the past I have owned a IPod touch but that was my extent of apple products. My current laptop which is a N586 Lenovo is getting long in the tooth and I refuse to use Windows 8, to the point that I figured if I was going to have to learn a new OS I might as well purchase a MAC. I ordered a MBA from the Refurb Apple page for 799, just a basic 13 incher with 4gbs of ram and I5. I figured if I liked what I got I could get a MBP with 8GB+ in a couple years. On my current machine I use no more then 3GBs at any given time anyway..

Anyhow! I wanted to confirm that the MBA late 2013 Gen could play Youtube HD videos without any lag. I was reading reviews and one reviewer mentioned it lagged on HD videos. I normally watch youtube videos at 480 or 720 and just wanted to see how everyone elses machines hold up.
 
Z

zunairryk

macrumors regular
Mar 8, 2009
217
3
Vancouver, BC
Congratulations! You are going to love it! i know i love mine. It is the best laptop i have ever owned. AMAZING battery life plus it runs so cool and silent.

Regarding your question; it will play youtube videos just fine. Even 4K works perfectly without any lag whatsoever and runs cool without fan kicking in.
 
S

SeasonalEclipse

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 12, 2014
13
0
zunairryk said:
Congratulations! You are going to love it! i know i love mine. It is the best laptop i have ever owned. AMAZING battery life plus it runs so cool and silent.

Regarding your question; it will play youtube videos just fine. Even 4K works perfectly without any lag whatsoever and runs cool without fan kicking in.
Click to expand...
Okay good then! This is what I was talking about..

"All I know is, when I tried to play a YouTube video full-screen at 1080p, the MacBook Air began giving me lip in the form of periodic stutters. This is the same type of problem I originally moved to the Pro line to escape, and in my unfortunately entitled way, I can’t believe this kind of thing is still happening in a practically new computer."

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013...-macbook-air-vs-13-inch-retina-macbook-pro/2/
 
Altemose

Altemose

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2013
9,189
487
Elkton, Maryland
SeasonalEclipse said:
Okay good then! This is what I was talking about..

"All I know is, when I tried to play a YouTube video full-screen at 1080p, the MacBook Air began giving me lip in the form of periodic stutters. This is the same type of problem I originally moved to the Pro line to escape, and in my unfortunately entitled way, I can’t believe this kind of thing is still happening in a practically new computer."

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013...-macbook-air-vs-13-inch-retina-macbook-pro/2/
Click to expand...

Hasn't happened on machines I have tried.
 
Intelligent

Intelligent

macrumors 6502a
Aug 7, 2013
922
2
It's a Mac, not a MAC. But I'm sure you will enjoy your new Mac. It won't lag at all with HD videos, the people that say that do not have a good enough internet connection. With a good enough internet connection any Mac released after 2006 can definitely watch HD movies with no lag.
 
Y

yosemit

macrumors regular
Jul 19, 2013
167
0
Something was wrong when that observation was made. :cool:

The tests show that MBA and rMBP "13 have mostly the same performance except for two GPU benchmarks. That's about right. For CPU-intensive but not GPU-intensive programs, rMBP "13 has practically no performance advantage over MBA. Decoding 1080p does not stress the GPU.

SeasonalEclipse said:
Okay good then! This is what I was talking about..

"All I know is, when I tried to play a YouTube video full-screen at 1080p, the MacBook Air began giving me lip in the form of periodic stutters. This is the same type of problem I originally moved to the Pro line to escape, and in my unfortunately entitled way, I can’t believe this kind of thing is still happening in a practically new computer."

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013...-macbook-air-vs-13-inch-retina-macbook-pro/2/
Click to expand...
 
ET iPhone Home

ET iPhone Home

macrumors 68040
Oct 5, 2011
3,823
529
Orange County, California USA
SeasonalEclipse said:
So, in the past I have owned a IPod touch but that was my extent of apple products. My current laptop which is a N586 Lenovo is getting long in the tooth and I refuse to use Windows 8, to the point that I figured if I was going to have to learn a new OS I might as well purchase a MAC. I ordered a MBA from the Refurb Apple page for 799, just a basic 13 incher with 4gbs of ram and I5. I figured if I liked what I got I could get a MBP with 8GB+ in a couple years. On my current machine I use no more then 3GBs at any given time anyway..

Anyhow! I wanted to confirm that the MBA late 2013 Gen could play Youtube HD videos without any lag. I was reading reviews and one reviewer mentioned it lagged on HD videos. I normally watch youtube videos at 480 or 720 and just wanted to see how everyone elses machines hold up.
Click to expand...

My 2011 MBA 4GB 128SSD is running smoothly without issue. I'm always on YouTube and no lag at all from my home wifi. The only lag I experience is when I'm staying at certain hotels. But once the video starts playing, it runs effortless, just jumpstarting it may have some little lag. I can't wait to replace mine with the new MBA whenever that is coming out.
 
Altemose

Altemose

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2013
9,189
487
Elkton, Maryland
ET iPhone Home said:
My 2011 MBA 4GB 128SSD is running smoothly without issue. I'm always on YouTube and no lag at all from my home wifi. The only lag I experience is when I'm staying at certain hotels. But once the video starts playing, it runs effortless, just jumpstarting it may have some little lag. I can't wait to replace mine with the new MBA whenever that is coming out.
Click to expand...

Don't count on it soon. The last refresh was 48 days ago.
 
B

bbfc

macrumors 68040
Oct 22, 2011
3,849
1,612
Newcastle, England.
SeasonalEclipse said:
So, in the past I have owned a IPod touch but that was my extent of apple products. My current laptop which is a N586 Lenovo is getting long in the tooth and I refuse to use Windows 8, to the point that I figured if I was going to have to learn a new OS I might as well purchase a MAC. I ordered a MBA from the Refurb Apple page for 799, just a basic 13 incher with 4gbs of ram and I5. I figured if I liked what I got I could get a MBP with 8GB+ in a couple years. On my current machine I use no more then 3GBs at any given time anyway..

Anyhow! I wanted to confirm that the MBA late 2013 Gen could play Youtube HD videos without any lag. I was reading reviews and one reviewer mentioned it lagged on HD videos. I normally watch youtube videos at 480 or 720 and just wanted to see how everyone elses machines hold up.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the Mac!

I bought my first Mac back in September 2011, a MacBook Pro 13". It's by far the greatest laptop i've ever used, and trying to use anything else now just seems like a step backwards. I even convinced a few friends to purchase a Mac as their next upgrade.

I love everything about it - the backlit keyboard, the build quality, the trackpad, OS X.

I'm going to hang on to this MBP for a few more years as it's still a capable machine.
 
M

mad3inch1na

macrumors 6502a
Oct 21, 2013
662
6
ET iPhone Home said:
It was? Is that the 2014 model? What happened to this rumored Retina MBA?
Click to expand...

The rumored rMBA was potentially going to be released in April or at the WWDC, but that was under the assumption that it would come with an A-series chip, considering the next generation Broadwell processors were delayed until Q3/Q4. The 0.1 GHz processor bump in April was a pretty good indicator that the MBA was not getting a redesign anytime soon. The current model is technically from 2014, but I would say that there will most likely be a Broadwell refresh by year's end. This is where we would see a major refresh.

Matt
 
ET iPhone Home

ET iPhone Home

macrumors 68040
Oct 5, 2011
3,823
529
Orange County, California USA
mad3inch1na said:
The rumored rMBA was potentially going to be released in April or at the WWDC, but that was under the assumption that it would come with an A-series chip, considering the next generation Broadwell processors were delayed until Q3/Q4. The 0.1 GHz processor bump in April was a pretty good indicator that the MBA was not getting a redesign anytime soon. The current model is technically from 2014, but I would say that there will most likely be a Broadwell refresh by year's end. This is where we would see a major refresh.

Matt
Click to expand...

Thanks… I'm not uo with when Apple refreshes their MBA line, but I will wait until the end of the year to upgrade my 2011 MBA.
 
Altemose

Altemose

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2013
9,189
487
Elkton, Maryland
scaredpoet said:
False, the SSDs are the same.
Click to expand...

http://www.cnet.com/news/2014-macbook-air-storage-performance-questioned-then-clarified/

https://www.macrumors.com/2014/05/02/2014-macbook-airs-slow-storage/

http://www.macworld.com/article/2150841/lab-tested-new-2014-macbook-air-benchmarks.html

They may be the same parts but some users with certain model SSDs are reporting significantly lower speeds than 2013 models. The problem does not affect all computers, and therefore OWC probably got the better SSD.
 
DesignerOnMac

DesignerOnMac

macrumors 6502a
Jul 23, 2007
827
65
SeasonalEclipse said:
Okay good then! This is what I was talking about..

"All I know is, when I tried to play a YouTube video full-screen at 1080p, the MacBook Air began giving me lip in the form of periodic stutters. This is the same type of problem I originally moved to the Pro line to escape, and in my unfortunately entitled way, I can’t believe this kind of thing is still happening in a practically new computer."

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013...-macbook-air-vs-13-inch-retina-macbook-pro/2/
Click to expand...

Only time this happens to me if when I run the battery down to 10%. Upon recharging the battery all is well!
 
scaredpoet

scaredpoet

macrumors 604
Apr 6, 2007
6,627
342
Altemose said:
Either way the new brand is slower.
Click to expand...

No, if you do a search on this very forum, there were "slow" brands and faster brands of SSD on the 2013 Macs as well.

The speeds are the same. Just like last year, the exact speed you got depended on the vendor; it was luck of the draw. There has been no change in that between 2013 and 2014 models.
----------

Altemose said:
http://www.cnet.com/news/2014-macbook-air-storage-performance-questioned-then-clarified/
Click to expand...

"It appears that Apple is using the same SSDs in the 2014 models as were used in its 2013 lineup. And in OWC's initial testing, the performance of our new MacBook Air models with SanDisk SSDs inside is nearly identical to previous year's models."

https://www.macrumors.com/2014/05/02/2014-macbook-airs-slow-storage/

http://www.macworld.com/article/2150841/lab-tested-new-2014-macbook-air-benchmarks.html
Click to expand...

Outdated and incorrect information. Again, the data presented here ignored the fact that the same vendors - some providing drives a bit slower than others - were being used in both 2013 and 2014 models. And it so happened that the testers got a 2013 model that was sourced from the faster vendor, and a 2014 sourced from the slower one. Left to chance, the opposite could have occurred, and the test "results" would've been very different.
 
Altemose

Altemose

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2013
9,189
487
Elkton, Maryland
scaredpoet said:
No, if you do a search on this very forum, there were "slow" brands and faster brands of SSD on the 2013 Macs as well.

The speeds are the same. Just like last year, the exact speed you got depended on the vendor; it was luck of the draw. There has been no change in that between 2013 and 2014 models.
----------



"It appears that Apple is using the same SSDs in the 2014 models as were used in its 2013 lineup. And in OWC's initial testing, the performance of our new MacBook Air models with SanDisk SSDs inside is nearly identical to previous year's models."



Outdated and incorrect information. Again, the data presented here ignored the fact that the same vendors - some providing drives a bit slower than others - were being used in both 2013 and 2014 models. And it so happened that the testers got a 2013 model that was sourced from the faster vendor, and a 2014 sourced from the slower one. Left to chance, the opposite could have occurred, and the test "results" would've been very different.
Click to expand...


True. Very true. I do think Apple should enforce a more stringent specification for SSDs to prevent such variation. Do you agree?
 
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