CPU comparison, MBA 2011 vs 2013

[sergiobaschi]

I have a 2011 11" MBA with the i7 CPU, and I'm having thoughts on replacing it with a 2013 11".

I'm worrying about the i5's processing power, and I have a hard time finding comparison data.

I do some Photoshop, Indesign and some xcode coding. Thinking of an 11" i5/8/256 instead of my i7/4/128. How would the CPU perform, and if anyone could give some general comments I would be glad.

Thank you.

 

[Astrofox]

Still hard to get conclusive reports on the i7. But early indicators have it as anywhere from 10% to 30% faster in various tasks. The base clock jump from 1.3 to 1.7 is quite a substantial leap, but both chips are bound by the same TDP (draw the same power).

 

[musika]

Still hard to get conclusive reports on the i7. But early indicators have it as anywhere from 10% to 30% faster in various tasks. The base clock jump from 1.3 to 1.7 is quite a substantial leap, but both chips are bound by the same TDP (draw the same power).

Apple folks that I have talked to have said the i7 machines get the same battery life. They could be wrong, of course, but that seems to be generally be what I'm hearing.

 

[Neeyul]

The i5 will perform just fine for what you're doing. I did the same stuff with a Sandy Bridge i5 and the Haswell is a huge step up from that, even at a lower base frequency. It will turbo boost to handle the more intensive tasks. You may not even notice a meaningful difference doing mundane tasks in those programs with the i7. I opted for the i5/8gb.

 

[sergiobaschi]

Thank you all for your posts.

Just to clarify - I'm looking for a comparison between the (A) 2011 i7 CPU vs the (B) 2013 i5 CPU. (And just for the fun of it, let's add the (C) 2013 i7 as well.)

How would you rank them performance-wise (from fastest to slowest):
C-B-A or C-A-B

Thank you for your replies.