2.0ghz i7 worth it?

[Ptdr]

For me, I'm deciding on whether upgrading the higher tier 13" Macbook Air from i5 to i7 is worth it.

It costs $89 for the upgrade from $1,519.65 to $1,608 US (Converted from Hong Kong educational store), and even though its the macbook air is already pretty expensive for me, I may be able to justify the cost.

The cost seems so marginal, but I'm not certain about how the battery life, heat, and performance are affected.

Exactly, me too i'm interested in the ratio battery life/performance as the upgrade isn't that pricey...

What do you guys think, if money isn't an issue, and if battery life is at least as important as performance, would you go for the i7?

Cheers.

 

[throAU]

I'm in the same boat, i don't mind paying extra for the i7 and get a bit more juice...
BUT i'm concerned aboud heat and battery.

the i7 is more efficient clock for clock. it will chew more battery and heat if you are running it at 100%, but if you are doing the same workload, it should be more efficient, as it will spend more time idling.

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Exactly, me too i'm interested in the ratio battery life/performance as the upgrade isn't that pricey...

What do you guys think, if money isn't an issue, and if battery life is at least as important as performance, would you go for the i7?

Cheers.

Yes, i'd go the i7. the cpu has a better feature set and as per above... it will sleep/idle more.

 

[macneubie]

the i7 is more efficient clock for clock. it will chew more battery and heat if you are running it at 100%, but if you are doing the same workload, it should be more efficient, as it will spend more time idling.

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Yes, i'd go the i7. the cpu has a better feature set and as per above... it will sleep/idle more.

both the i5 & i7 have the same max TDP of 17W. So there should not be any negative impact on the battery life.

 

[Blackened Apple]

I'm not quite sure about this, but I think last year's i5 and i7 also had the same efficiency and TDP, but numerous reports still mentioned that it was quite a bit hotter overall, both under a workload and while idling, besides also having some battery life chewed off. I remember some threads mentioning people who had bought the i5, decided to return them for the i7, and regretted it so badly that they went back to the i5.

I'm looking into buying a 13 " MBA myself this year, and I'm looking at the i5/256GB/8GB configuration exactly because of the aforementioned thermal and battery-life-related problems of last year's i7...

 

[KohPhiPhi]

I'm concerned aboud heat and battery.

So if the i7 is only a little bit faster but brings less battery and more heat, no thanx, for me it's not worth it...

I'm EXACTLY in the same boat: it's not about the money cost, it's about the heat+battery cost.

I would *LOVE* to see a 2012 i5 vs i7 test in terms of heat and battery life.

 

[KPOM]

AnandTech said his review of the 2012 MacBook Air will be up after he's back from a couple of days off. If history is any guide, about a week after that he'll post some additional data from an i7 model.

 

[throAU]

both the i5 & i7 have the same max TDP of 17W. So there should not be any negative impact on the battery life.

Sure, but they don't both run at max TDP all day.

Max TDP is not "your CPU will consume this much power".

 

[fleawannabe]

Hasn't there been overheating issues with the 2.0?

 

[3goldens]

every single cent!

 

[yensteel]

The benchmarks of the ultimate Macbook Airs just came in.

There's a noticeable difference in handbrake and iTunes encoding for both macbook air sizes.

http://www.macworld.com/article/1167418/ultimate_macbook_air_2012_models_put_to_the_test.html

No word on the battery life comparisons though. Interestingly, A lot of the comments are asking the same thing about battery life and heat.

 

[derlockere]

The benchmarks of the ultimate Macbook Airs just came in.

There's a noticeable difference in handbrake and iTunes encoding for both macbook air sizes.

http://www.macworld.com/article/1167418/ultimate_macbook_air_2012_models_put_to_the_test.html

No word on the battery life comparisons though. Interestingly, A lot of the comments are asking the same thing about battery life and heat.

The only downside of this comparison is that the models they compare have a different RAM size (8GB for the i7 versions vs. 4GB for the i5 version).
I would estimate that this makes kind of a difference right!?

 

[kodeman53]

Hasn't there been overheating issues with the 2.0?

No.

 

[Blackened Apple]

I have a couple of questions about these Intel chips.

When they say a CPU has a base frequency of 2.0 GHz, what exactly does that mean, practically? It should actually idle at lower frequencies, right? And it should also be able to step up in frequency when presented with a demanding workload, right? So at what times exactly is it at 2.0 GHz?
It seems that this year's i5->i7 upgrade is somewhat more substantial than last year's. Can anyone who has both compare the i5 and i7 models in terms of heat and battery life?
Geekbench relative improvements [(i7-i5)/i5]
32-bit:
13" 2012: 12.78%
13" 2011: 6.85%
11" 2012: 20.34%
11" 2011: 24.26%
64-bit:
13" 2012: 13.50%
13" 2011: 7.83%
11" 2012: 20.68%
11" 2011: 25.79%

 

[KPOM]

I have a couple of questions about these Intel chips.

When they say a CPU has a base frequency of 2.0 GHz, what exactly does that mean, practically? It should actually idle at lower frequencies, right? And it should also be able to step up in frequency when presented with a demanding workload, right? So at what times exactly is it at 2.0 GHz?

They idle at 800MHz. The 2.0GHz i7 can step up to 3.2GHz with 1 core shut down and 2.8GHz with both cores running.

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Note to all that for now, there appears to be a bug in the Boot Camp drivers for the i7 MacBook Air that prevents it from going into Turbo Boost in Windows 7. A few of us have noticed this. Oddly, the i5 does not seem to be affected.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1392041/

 

[yensteel]

The only downside of this comparison is that the models they compare have a different RAM size (8GB for the i7 versions vs. 4GB for the i5 version).
I would estimate that this makes kind of a difference right!?

Good point. I don't think the ram would make too much of a difference in terms of benchmarking, but I'm not sure about which benchmarks it's more sensitive to.

I found a discussion about a person who has the 2011 i7 and the 2012 i7 13" inch model. He says that basically the battery life is about the same, around 4.5 hours of usage

https://discussions.apple.com/message/18714854#18714854

 

[raftr]

I have a 2011 13" i5 1.7GHz 4GB. It handles well Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. but Lightroom previews don't appear as instantaneous as they could.

I upgraded the SSD to an OWC Aura Pro 6G (from an original Samsung blade) and it it only made it marginally faster.

I am upgrading to a 2.0GHz i7 with 8GB RAM now, this should help.