2015 vs 2020 Macbook

[nanogirl21]

I know there is a lot of threads like this, but hoping someone can help me directly.

I have an Early-2015 Macbook Pro with these specs:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.9 GHz
Memory: 8 GB

I am considering getting the 2020 13-inch MacBook Air with 16 GB RAM and 1.2GHz quad-core i7 processor.

The main reason for wanting a new computer is because I'm running out of hard drive space. I also get a low memory error due to the 8 GB of RAM. I always have multiple Safari tabs open, youtube playing in the background, Spotify, Apple Music, MS office applications, and Notes open. Those are my staple applications. I don't do heavy video editing, but every now and then I do use photoshop and play games.

Is it okay to drop from 2.9 GHz to 1.2 GHz? Will I see a huge difference in computer speed? My current computer is far from fast, but I don't think I can handle anything slower. I don't really know much about processors. The low memory and lack of space is driving me crazy too. I'm not really considering the Macbook Pro because I don't care about the touch bar and the price difference is huge. The other specs, just reading off the paper, is very similar. I also don't want to wait several months for a new Macbook Pro release.

Is going for the new 2020 Macbook Air worth it? Any tips or advice about this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[thadoggfather]

this may not be useful but for that workload I doubt you'll notice a difference between 8 and 16gb surprised that you do

I think the faster ram 3733mhz ddr4 should help all together with the Air. And I think it would be a nice upgrade, if you want the smaller form factor and True Tone and the new keyboard that's a hybrid of old + butterfly combined.

I guess what's the main reason you want the laptop?

I would think cpu power efficiency should lend itself to better battery life too

 

[CheesePuff]

You're going from a dual-core to quad-core CPU, with higher Turbo Boost, and more cache, so even though the clock rate is slower on paper it will perform better.

edit: your 2015 has 3716 / 7050 for GeekBench 4 CPU performance, compared to 2020 1.2 MBA has 5516 / 15,867

 

[Dhonk]

your computer benchmarks: 761 single-core, 1522-multi core
2020 i3: 989, 1960
2020 i5: 1069, 2706

So the lowest 2020 Air is 30%+ faster and the mid-2020 is 40%+ faster at single core, with the 2020 i5 multi as nearly double.

 

[thadoggfather]

your computer benchmarks: 761 single-core, 1522-multi core
2020 i3: 989, 1960
2020 i5: 1069, 2706

So the lowest 2020 Air is 30%+ faster and the mid-2020 is 40%+ faster at single core, with the 2020 i5 multi as nearly double.

thanks for those

700/1608 is my 2.0ghz base 2016 NTB

 

[nanogirl21]

this may not be useful but for that workload I doubt you'll notice a difference between 8 and 16gb surprised that you do

I think the faster ram 3733mhz ddr4 should help all together with the Air. And I think it would be a nice upgrade, if you want the smaller form factor and True Tone and the new keyboard that's a hybrid of old + butterfly combined.

I guess what's the main reason you want the laptop?

I would think cpu power efficiency should lend itself to better battery life too

Wouldn't the jump from 8 GB to 16 GB help with the "Your system has run out of application memory" messages that I currently get?

 

[throAU]

I know there is a lot of threads like this, but hoping someone can help me directly.

I have an Early-2015 Macbook Pro with these specs:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.9 GHz
Memory: 8 GB

I am considering getting the 2020 13-inch MacBook Air with 16 GB RAM and 1.2GHz quad-core i7 processor.

The main reason for wanting a new computer is because I'm running out of hard drive space. I also get a low memory error due to the 8 GB of RAM. I always have multiple Safari tabs open, youtube playing in the background, Spotify, Apple Music, MS office applications, and Notes open. Those are my staple applications. I don't do heavy video editing, but every now and then I do use photoshop and play games.

Is it okay to drop from 2.9 GHz to 1.2 GHz? Will I see a huge difference in computer speed? My current computer is far from fast, but I don't think I can handle anything slower. I don't really know much about processors. The low memory and lack of space is driving me crazy too. I'm not really considering the Macbook Pro because I don't care about the touch bar and the price difference is huge. The other specs, just reading off the paper, is very similar. I also don't want to wait several months for a new Macbook Pro release.

Is going for the new 2020 Macbook Air worth it? Any tips or advice about this would be greatly appreciated.

I just made this exact upgrade (and still have the 2015 13" Pro in the house - passed it to the GF). Specs in my sig.

The 2.9Ghz on the 2015 is 3.3 ghz max boost speed.

The 2020 i7 air boosts to 3.8. It has twice as many cores. Those cores have 15-20%+ higher throughput at the same clock. Its GPU is much stronger. The Keyboard is even better (imho). The speakers are better. The screen is better (True Tone). If you have an iPad that supports it, sidecar is neat.

I'm happy with it. If you liked your 2015 I think you'll be happy with the 2020 air in either i5 or i7 spec, as in the real world is is significantly more powerful and all the user input and output components are better. And yes, I'd suggest 16 GB of RAM too.

 

[thadoggfather]

Wouldn't the jump from 8 GB to 16 GB help with the "Your system has run out of application memory" messages that I currently get?

probalby

just find it odd 8gb can’t handle the processes that you describe more thananything

 

[throAU]

probalby

just find it odd 8gb can’t handle the processes that you describe more thananything

Depends what is open in photoshop and office.

 

[Tubamajuba]

your computer benchmarks: 761 single-core, 1522-multi core
2020 i3: 989, 1960
2020 i5: 1069, 2706

So the lowest 2020 Air is 30%+ faster and the mid-2020 is 40%+ faster at single core, with the 2020 i5 multi as nearly double.

Geekbench scores are an irrelevant metric for the 2020 MacBook Air, as anything that involves heavy CPU and/or GPU usage will cause severe throttling after a few minutes or less. The machine is well suited for light web browsing, word processing, and other basic tasks, but not much else.

 

[throAU]

Geekbench scores are an irrelevant metric for the 2020 MacBook Air, as anything that involves heavy CPU and/or GPU usage will cause severe throttling after a few minutes or less. The machine is well suited for light web browsing, word processing, and other basic tasks, but not much else.

It outperforms the 2015 Retina 13" in extended duration CPU tests. By a lot.

If this thing is only good for light web browsing (lol) then the previous generation pro machines must be paperweights.

tip: they're not. I own both machines in this thread.

 

[Tubamajuba]

It outperforms the 2015 Retina 13" in extended duration CPU tests. By a lot.

If this thing is only good for light web browsing (lol) then the previous generation pro machines must be paperweights.

tip: they're not. I own both machines in this thread.

I have a 2012 13" non-retina MBP with a dual core Core i7-3520M and Intel HD 4000 graphics along with my i7 2020 MBA. For light tasks, the MBA feels a bit faster, but the playing field levels out when multitasking is involved. Furthermore, I play Civ V quite a bit, and it runs equally as poorly on both machines despite the MBA supposedly being much more powerful- and the MBA is louder and hotter. When stress testing the CPU and GPU on the MBA, the CPU drops as low as 300 MHz and hovers between 400 and 600 MHz. The GPU maintains high clocks, but the choked CPU makes that irrelevant.

 

[mick2]

I have a 2012 13" non-retina MBP with a dual core Core i7-3520M and Intel HD 4000 graphics along with my i7 2020 MBA. For light tasks, the MBA feels a bit faster, but the playing field levels out when multitasking is involved.

You've discounted the Geekbench scores, but the Cinebench scores also don't support your assertion:

Cinebench R20 multi core:

Core i7-3520M - 663 (source)
Core i5 MBA 2020 - 987 (source)

So your impression that your 2012 i7-3520M is level with the MBA doesnt seem to be supported by actual tests. Even under a continous multi core test, the thermally-limited MBA is about 50% faster than your 2012 MBP. And that's the core i5 version.

 

[KPOM]

your computer benchmarks: 761 single-core, 1522-multi core
2020 i3: 989, 1960
2020 i5: 1069, 2706

So the lowest 2020 Air is 30%+ faster and the mid-2020 is 40%+ faster at single core, with the 2020 i5 multi as nearly double.

And the i7 gets about 3200 on Geekbench for multi core.
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I know there is a lot of threads like this, but hoping someone can help me directly.

I have an Early-2015 Macbook Pro with these specs:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.9 GHz
Memory: 8 GB

I am considering getting the 2020 13-inch MacBook Air with 16 GB RAM and 1.2GHz quad-core i7 processor.

The main reason for wanting a new computer is because I'm running out of hard drive space. I also get a low memory error due to the 8 GB of RAM. I always have multiple Safari tabs open, youtube playing in the background, Spotify, Apple Music, MS office applications, and Notes open. Those are my staple applications. I don't do heavy video editing, but every now and then I do use photoshop and play games.

Is it okay to drop from 2.9 GHz to 1.2 GHz? Will I see a huge difference in computer speed? My current computer is far from fast, but I don't think I can handle anything slower. I don't really know much about processors. The low memory and lack of space is driving me crazy too. I'm not really considering the Macbook Pro because I don't care about the touch bar and the price difference is huge. The other specs, just reading off the paper, is very similar. I also don't want to wait several months for a new Macbook Pro release.

Is going for the new 2020 Macbook Air worth it? Any tips or advice about this would be greatly appreciated.

The i7 Air should be a noticeable upgrade. That said, the base 13” Pro is still faster. If you can hold off for a few weeks or months, the base Pro is expected to get a 10th generation upgrade, as well, and perhaps a 14” display. That processor will be significantly faster since the Pro has better thermals.

 

[nanogirl21]

And the i7 gets about 3200 on Geekbench for multi core.
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The i7 Air should be a noticeable upgrade. That said, the base 13” Pro is still faster. If you can hold off for a few weeks or months, the base Pro is expected to get a 10th generation upgrade, as well, and perhaps a 14” display. That processor will be significantly faster since the Pro has better thermals.

Honestly, if it wasn't found the touch bar I would get the Pro.

Can you explain this termal thing? I don't get it. All computers have some type of heat to them. Doing basic stuff like I mentioned above will not cause the computer to be extreemly hot and unusable right?

 

[Dhonk]

while putzing around on the net last night, I found this. This young guy seemed to describe my typical usage and has me convinced of the i3. Safari, numbers, pages, stocks, notes, iMessage.
i3 vs i5 link

 

[nanogirl21]

while putzing around on the net last night, I found this. This young guy seemed to describe my typical usage and has me convinced of the i3. Safari, numbers, pages, stocks, notes, iMessage.
i3 vs i5 link

Helpful video. Thanks.

 

[Macdctr]

As nice as the 2020 MacBook Pro/MacBook Air computers are, unless you need the faster speeds the newer computers provide, the 2015 is still useable. You mentioned you are running out of storage drive. I assume you're using what came with the computer. If so you can easily upgrade your 2015 to NVMe M.2 storage and see close to 3x drive performance improvement over the original Apple storage drive. You can also increase storage up to 2TB so it all comes down to what you really need. If you look at my sig below I make due with my 2015 laptops and am happy with their usability. If you don't need cutting state of the art tech the new computers provide and can get by with what you currently have for what you need them for... you can use the Duet app and have the same functionality regarding having an additional display and Touch Bar functionality using your current laptop.

Yes the 2015 laptops are slower and the graphics not as good as compared to Apple's current offering but functionally, a person can do everything that they need a computer for if all they are using it for is web browsing, video streaming, emails, simple word processing/excel related stuff and even some photo processing tasks. I don't find the 2015's to be too slow and am okay with their speed...

I don't see the need to spend full price for a new laptop if you're not using all the tech that comes with it however it is ultimately up to the individual what they want to do. In my case I figure I will have a few years before considering upgrading but right now I am able to run Apple's latest OS with MacOS 10.15.5 Catalina on my 2015 laptops

 

[nanogirl21]

Well I got the Air in the mail a few days ago and it was HOT to the touch and became extremely loud withing 4 hours of use. I returned the device this morning. I'm not looking into the Pro, but am wondering if this same thing will happen.

 

[Macdctr]

If this is a brand new 2020 laptop you just made it easier for me to decide to keep my 2015 laptops and use them a little bit longer. I can easily upgrade the storage drives for these laptop should the need to have larger capacity storage presents itself... Sorry to see that you had problems with your new laptop....

 

[esphil]

Well I got the Air in the mail a few days ago and it was HOT to the touch and became extremely loud withing 4 hours of use. I returned the device this morning. I'm not looking into the Pro, but am wondering if this same thing will happen.

You didn't let it run long enough, it does indexing in the beginning for the first few days. Of course it will run hot. You should leave all energy saver turned off, and leave the lid open connected to a power source.

 

[Yogi1984]

As nice as the 2020 MacBook Pro/MacBook Air computers are, unless you need the faster speeds the newer computers provide, the 2015 is still useable. You mentioned you are running out of storage drive. I assume you're using what came with the computer. If so you can easily upgrade your 2015 to NVMe M.2 storage and see close to 3x drive performance improvement over the original Apple storage drive. You can also increase storage up to 2TB so it all comes down to what you really need. If you look at my sig below I make due with my 2015 laptops and am happy with their usability. If you don't need cutting state of the art tech the new computers provide and can get by with what you currently have for what you need them for... you can use the Duet app and have the same functionality regarding having an additional display and Touch Bar functionality using your current laptop.

Yes the 2015 laptops are slower and the graphics not as good as compared to Apple's current offering but functionally, a person can do everything that they need a computer for if all they are using it for is web browsing, video streaming, emails, simple word processing/excel related stuff and even some photo processing tasks. I don't find the 2015's to be too slow and am okay with their speed...

I don't see the need to spend full price for a new laptop if you're not using all the tech that comes with it however it is ultimately up to the individual what they want to do. In my case I figure I will have a few years before considering upgrading but right now I am able to run Apple's lates OS with MacOS 10.15.5 Catalina on my 2015 laptops

Hi - I hope its ok to post this here...

This sounds really interesting, as I thought the storage couldn't be upgraded? (I'm extremely non-technical with this stuff and Google results are conflicting). I'm having similar problems to the OP where the storage runs low and I use my Macbook in a similar way. To be clear, the upgradable storage your talking about is the same storage you see when clicking "About this Mac - Storage"? If it is possible, how difficult is it to do? I've someone who knows their way around Windows computers and upgrading storage, but not Macs and I'm super nervous about handing it over to someone to do in case they damage it...

And if I would buy a new one, is it more important to have the i3 or i5 model, or does that not really matter? Currently I have:

1.6 GHz Intel Core i5
4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
251GB Flash storage

And its been actually great up until the last 6 months or so with storage and super slowness/lagging. The wheel comes up and stays there for a very long time, and I get more and more toolbar messages that the site I'm on is causing the Mac to slow down (sites like Canva or Squarespace). Is this something that your option of upgrading can fix?

Thank you!

 

[DanSilov]

And if I would buy a new one, is it more important to have the i3 or i5 model, or does that not really matter? Currently I have:

1.6 GHz Intel Core i5
4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
251GB Flash storage

And its been actually great up until the last 6 months or so with storage and super slowness/lagging. The wheel comes up and stays there for a very long time, and I get more and more toolbar messages that the site I'm on is causing the Mac to slow down (sites like Canva or Squarespace). Is this something that your option of upgrading can fix?

4GB of RAM is too little for modern day macOS. Upgrade to a i5 Air with 16GB of RAM and it will be night and day for you.

 

[Yogi1984]

4GB of RAM is too little for modern day macOS. Upgrade to a i5 Air with 16GB of RAM and it will be night and day for you.

Yep, but there is a budget factor too, and I'm not sure I can justify 1600€ right now, especially if its somehow unavoidable...could it work with 8GB? Or i3 instead?

 

[DanSilov]

Yep, but there is a budget factor too, and I'm not sure I can justify 1600€ right now, especially if its somehow unavoidable...could it work with 8GB? Or i3 instead?

Yeah, the new i3/8GB will also be so much faster than your current setup. However, in my personal experience, better CPU and more RAM give you more milage for your money. So the suggestion is not for the current needs, but to make the new machine last 2-3 years longer and stay competitive performance-wise.

I still have a 2015 Air with i7/8GB (it was maximum at the time), and it served me well for 5 years without too many concerns about the performance.