2011 Macbook Air Owners. A question of power...

[Cicatrix]

I have a question for all of the new 2011 Macbook Air owners out there. With the new i5, and i7 processors the Air's are sporting I want to know if any of you have run any apps that you feel the new Air's can't handle comfortably. I am aware of the benchmark tests made, but I am talking about actual real life performance. For instance, if your working in Logic, or Final Cut Pro, and your machine is about to have a heart attack because of the work load your putting on it. I ask because I hear people being nervous about not having enough power in their machines all of the time. I have never run into not having enough power even in my older core2duo laptops I have. I see a lot of people saying that a processor like the i5 is plenty of power for most things, but it seems like so many people are worrying that an i5 will not be enough. Final Cut Pro, and Logic, which can be pretty demanding programs at times don't even break a sweat at most user's uses of them. To the people who are saying their machines are being pushed to the limit, what are you using your machines for?

Thanks.

 

[ckeck]

You should have no problems with these apps. The i5 and i7 chips plus the speed of the SSD storage chips is incredible.

The only thing you need to look out for is GPU intensive use-cases. So gaming basically. Not that it can't run *some* games but my experience was so painful I had to return my new 13" MBA due to this, and I wasn't even running any very graphics intensive games which was the sad part.

Outside of this they scream though.

 

[LeakedDave]

You should have no problems with these apps. The i5 and i7 chips plus the speed of the SSD storage chips is incredible.

The only thing you need to look out for is GPU intensive use-cases. So gaming basically. Not that it can't run *some* games but my experience was so painful I had to return my new 13" MBA due to this, and I wasn't even running any very graphics intensive games which was the sad part.

Outside of this they scream though.

Wait, what games wasn't it running? Lol. It's run every single game I've tried so far.

 

[Cicatrix]

You should have no problems with these apps. The i5 and i7 chips plus the speed of the SSD storage chips is incredible.

The only thing you need to look out for is GPU intensive use-cases. So gaming basically. Not that it can't run *some* games but my experience was so painful I had to return my new 13" MBA due to this, and I wasn't even running any very graphics intensive games which was the sad part.

Outside of this they scream though.

Thanks for this ckeck. I play all my games on PS3 anyway so I don't use it for any gaming at all. I don't even watch dvd's on my MBP. I know, I'm lame.

 

[FAsnakes]

I'll let you know if i come across anything.. .
I also have a 2010 11" MBA 1.6 & i can't use Sony Vegas (video editing) media in HD - Under Windows 7 in bootcamp.

My 2011 11" i5 is able to handle this..

 

[ckeck]

Wait, what games wasn't it running? Lol. It's run every single game I've tried so far.

Well it runs Starcraft 2 pretty bad...was hard to keep it playable. This was probably the worst. Looking forward to Diablo 3 sometime next year as well which would be even worse.

 

[Cicatrix]

Well it runs Starcraft 2 pretty bad...was hard to keep it playable. This was probably the worst. Looking forward to Diablo 3 sometime next year as well which would be even worse.

Is the Air underpowered with Starcraft 2 due to the GPU, or does it have more to do with the processing power?

 

[ckeck]

Is the Air underpowered with Starcraft 2 due to the GPU, or does it have more to do with the processing power?

Completely an issue of GPU...I had the Ultimate 13" Air which had the core i7 proc...more than enough processor horsepower.

 

[KPOM]

Is the Air underpowered with Starcraft 2 due to the GPU, or does it have more to do with the processing power?

GPU. The CPU is more than adequate, since CPU-intensive games like WoW can run on it. The Intel HD 3000 is a step backwards from the NVIDIA 320m used in last year's model. Had Intel licensed NVIDIA to produce a version of the 320m compatible with the Sandy Bridge, Apple likely would have used it, and we'd have seen frame rates increase on most games, rather than decrease or stay the same. Last year's Air was held back by the Core 2 Duo. This year's is being held back by the HD 3000.

 

[Cicatrix]

I see. That is a big bummer for the gamers out there. So if the MBA had a better GPU it would be a significant force for gaming with an extremely portable device? Hopefully the GPU will be improved on the next go.
I can see in a few years or less the MBA becoming the sole workhorse for Apple laptops though.