2012 13" MBA i7 vs. i5

[TUSR]

Thermal question pertaining to the i7 and the i5 in the current MBA.

Does the i7 run hotter than the i5, and is there a website that can tell me the power consumption of these two processors.

Thanks.

 

[Calot]

Thermal question pertaining to the i7 and the i5 in the current MBA.

Does the i7 run hotter than the i5, and is there a website that can tell me the power consumption of these two processors.

Thanks.

Read this full review.

http://michael.olivero.com/post/201...Heat-Fan-Battery-Speed-Comparison-Part-2.aspx

The i7 is worth it. It's not THAT much hotter. It's noticeably faster on heavy processes.

 

[ixodes]

I have an i7 in my 13" MBA, pushing it hard for long periods is no problem. It's one of the cooler running Mac's I have. We have i5's at the office. I did a side by side one day just to check, and found there is no noticeable difference.

 

[AngryCorgi]

Also of note, graphics differences between the i5 and i7 are pretty large. i7 has 16 EUs, the i5 only has 6 EUs.

 

[thekev]

Also of note, graphics differences between the i5 and i7 are pretty large. i7 has 16 EUs, the i5 only has 6 EUs.

I think you're mixing up graphics chipsets. Take a look at some performance numbers.

http://barefeats.com/mba12a.html
http://barefeats.com/mbp12ma.html

It's not gaming, but these are gpu functions, and we're looking at the older Intel HD3000 vs the HD4000. Between Airs, the difference is absolutely negligible.

Read this full review.

http://michael.olivero.com/post/201...Heat-Fan-Battery-Speed-Comparison-Part-2.aspx

The i7 is worth it. It's not THAT much hotter. It's noticeably faster on heavy processes.

That review isn't very scientific if it won't run both as hard as possible. I'm not sure that either is safe from throttling. Overall if you're lagging on the Air, I'd be more likely to suggest stepping up to something that isn't the Air.

http://barefeats.com/mbp12cp.html

If you get right down to it, neither is fast compared to what is possible. It says they had 8GB of ram. I'm not sure if this was just the lack of a photoshop update to fully support them. With the 4GB of ram option, it can run certain gpu functions due to sub 512 vram at which point they will simply run cpu only (greys out the option entirely).

 

[stchman]

You will have to determine if the extra cost is worth the performance gain.

Big thing is in the 13" model, to get an i7 you have to get the 256GB SSD.

If you're going to get the i7 with 256GB SSD, might as well get 8GB RAM.

That's a grand total of $1699, and that's $500 more than the base 13" MBA.

 

[iAppl3Fan]

Since the i7 is faster than the i5 it will be hotter. However, it will not be hot enough for you to notice the difference. The one I chosen is in my signature.