I am considering getting this but is is worth the price increase for the i5? I would just upgrade the base $999 model and keep the 256GB SSD vs getting the better cpu out of the box model. Or is the i3 fine? It’s mostly for casual use since if I need anything more serious I have a windows laptop built for gaming which has a Quad core i5 and a Nividia 1660ti. At most I would have the sims 4 and KOTOR
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2020 i3 vs i5?
- Thread starter Closingracer
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Or a simple yes or no would suffice. Didn’t want watch a 5-10 minute video to get an answer that would take 5 seconds
Yes.
To be more specific, the i5 has better graphics unit. For daily task it will be any difference. Never play sims or KOTOR, but should be fine with both i3 and i5. As long as you do not read threads about bad air's design you will be happy user. I have always gone minimalistic with cheapest version, but this time i5 is not so much expensive. Better go for more RAM. I am very curious about starcraft 2 and remastered. Only games I am playing.
To be more specific, the i5 has better graphics unit. For daily task it will be any difference. Never play sims or KOTOR, but should be fine with both i3 and i5. As long as you do not read threads about bad air's design you will be happy user. I have always gone minimalistic with cheapest version, but this time i5 is not so much expensive. Better go for more RAM. I am very curious about starcraft 2 and remastered. Only games I am playing.
I mean tbh it’s mostly going to be a light use machine for YouTube , internet use. I have a Dell G3 which will be for most gaming needs. I also have an iPad Pro 11 2018 and an iPhone11 pro. Between sales tax and etc I will either get the i5 or Apple care. 16gb of ram would be nice but it’s not going to be used for my use case
lazy and demanding much?
There is no simple yes or no answer as everyone is different. The other user linked you to a very helpful video to help YOU make YOUR decision.
I say stick with i3. If you are needing the extra performance, wait until the Macbook Pro 14 or whatever the next refresh. The Air really is meant for normal stuff.
It's a good rule of thumb never to watch a video that doesn't have a transcript so you can skim the text in advance to see if it will be worthwhile. You'll save yourself a lot of wasted time sitting through unstructured waffle.
The worst offenders are programs which only provide user help in the form of videos, because they can't be bothered writing proper documentation.
that I get- especially when sites offer a video that very easily could have been a quick paragraph. I hate that and generally refuse to watch.
but my point still stands in this case. The post linked to a decent video explains the differences and the reply to the post was unnecessary.
It really didn’t. I don’t care about temperature since I’m NOT using it for anything sustained other then light gaming that isn’t demanding if that.
It wasn’t helpful and I wasted 15 minutes to not get an answer. $100 bucks for an i5 or not. It went on about heat temp. Faster to just tell me is it worth $100 for two more cores for basic stuff and maybe light gaming
Personally I would go with the i3. I’m still using an Air mid-2012 for basic stuff and it work well (grant3d I don’t play games at all), so I can’t imagine an i3 would perform worse.
would there be any reason why my i5 screen looks better than the i3 I returned? the colors are richer, just looks better overall. why would this be?
Yeah, Macbook Air is a great machine for doing light task which i'm very happy with it, turbo boost is great for keeping the computer responsive like the MBP 16 core i9 model but I don't expect to do sustained load on MBA.
I have a macbook pro 16 with i9 which is work given and I do sustained CPU work with all 16 hardware threads (hyperthreaded) at 100 percent for 2-3 hours.
I have a macbook pro 16 with i9 which is work given and I do sustained CPU work with all 16 hardware threads (hyperthreaded) at 100 percent for 2-3 hours.
I had planned to buy the base i3 model but I just ordered the i5 512gb model from best buy. I bought it used under their "excellent" category for $1183. I will try it out and if it checks out(always hesitant to buy used electronics), I'll be happy about that.
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Are you sure it‘s the 2020 version? If so, then that seems like a great deal. It’s buyer‘s remorse (e.g. someone hoping the Air would be a Pro replacement). It’s basically a 10% discount for a machine that was probably used a handful of times.
