CPU load on sites with lots of gifs

[C64]

On my 2011 1.86GHz Core2Duo MacBook Air sites with many gifs cause the CPU to jump to 100%, the fan turns on, and everything gets unbearably slow. Prime examples are Tumblr, Pinterest, Imgur, and in general sites with endless scrolling that accumulate a lot of gifs and other content.

How does the 2016 MacBook handle these kinds of sites? Obviously there's no fan, so that's a plus either way, but what about the scrolling and overall browser/system speed?

 

[capathy21]

I have a 2015 1.1 base model. I just tested all of those sites and it was lightning fast. Nothing was slow or stuttered and my CPU usage was only at 12 percent. I have the weakest of all of the 2015/2016 MacBooks and I've never ran into anything that slows me down. Now if I have 10 programs open and try to do something real quick, sometimes it will pause for a second, but that happened on my 2015 retina MBP too. Everyday I still get surprised by what this little machine can handle.

Obviously there are power users who could not get by on a MacBook but for 90 percent of users, it's the perfect machine. When the MB first came out, many tech snob reviewers claimed how weak it was because in their eyes, anything that can't edit 4k video in a nanosecond is slow or weak. It got a reputation for being incapable of doing the most basic tasks.

My normal workload includes Safari with 5-10 tabs, iTunes always playing music, at least 2 or 3 pdf documents open in preview, 1 or 2 MS Word documents, Mail, iMessage, Chrome with a couple of tabs, Calendar, Notes, and I am usually running Visual Studio in Windows 10 via Virtual Box. Even with 3gb of my 8gb of ram allocated to Virtual Box, I rarely have any issue on the Mac side. If I don't have Virtual Box running, then I can do even more.

I have noticed no difference between this workload on a 13 inch 2015 retina MacBook Pro and this base model 2015 MacBook. Battery life was better on the Pro but the 2016 MacBook has better battery life so you will be good there.

I highly recommend the retina MacBook. At first it felt too small but after changing the resolution to 1440x900, I can actually see more than with a 13.3 MacBook Pro at native retina.

I will say this. If you haven't typed on the keyboard yet, try one before committing. I am finally used to it but it is a completely different experience than previous MacBook keyboards. If you are a keyboard pounder, it's a big adjustment.

Sorry for the long post, just figured some of the information may be useful.

 

[windywalks]

Having a 2013 rMBP and a maxed out 2016 rMB I can tell you, that both machines will eventually succumb to infinite scrolling sites you have mentioned. Tumblr, Pinterest etc. are just bad design at its peak in terms of efficiency and at one point or another both are going to stutter.

The C2D processor you have, along with the rest of the components will be blown out of the water by any current MacBook, even the low end one, so unless you're waiting for a refresh - the last one was in April 2016 - you can pull the trigger and enjoy. It's an amazing machine.

 

[C64]

I have a 2015 1.1 base model. I just tested all of those sites and it was lightning fast. Nothing was slow or stuttered and my CPU usage was only at 12 percent. I have the weakest of all of the 2015/2016 MacBooks and I've never ran into anything that slows me down. Now if I have 10 programs open and try to do something real quick, sometimes it will pause for a second, but that happened on my 2015 retina MBP too. Everyday I still get surprised by what this little machine can handle.

Thanks for all the info, sounds good! The MBA holds up surprisingly good after 6 years, but it'd be really nice to have modern (and inefficient) sites be fast as well. Sounds like the rMB will do the job just fine.

The C2D processor you have, along with the rest of the components will be blown out of the water by any current MacBook, even the low end one, so unless you're waiting for a refresh - the last one was in April 2016 - you can pull the trigger and enjoy. It's an amazing machine.

I've wanted to pull the trigger a while ago, but at this time waiting for the refresh seems like the best option. I either case, the 2016 model sounds pretty great for my purposes, so now it's just waiting for the refreshed version. Looking forward to it!