Dual Core etc...?

[Peter Franks]

My 13" MBPro says in the website product listings it's an Intel Dual-Core, and lists the MBAir as an Intel Core i5, (which incidentally so does my 'About This Mac') so is it dual? What is the difference, as the MBP is i5 but doesn't say dual on the about this mac, and what difference if it is dual?

Strangely, regardless of this, and also the processor for my MBP is 2.3GHz as opposed to 1.7GHz for the MBA, When I was playing with the Air in store, it appeared to be a hell of a lot faster than my MBP?

 

[altecXP]

My 13" MBPro says in the website product listings it's an Intel Dual-Core, and lists the MBAir as an Intel Core i5, (which incidentally so does my 'About This Mac') so is it dual? What is the difference, as the MBP is i5 but doesn't say dual on the about this mac, and what difference if it is dual?

Strangely, regardless of this, and also the processor for my MBP is 2.3GHz as opposed to 1.7GHz for the MBA, When I was playing with the Air in store, it appeared to be a hell of a lot faster than my MBP?

Dual means "Dual core" effectively 2 processors on one chip. The 15 and 17in Pro use Quad Cores, 4 processors on one chip.

The Air and 13in pro both use dual core 15 and i7 processors. The difference is the amount of power they use and how much performance they up out.

The Air uses a lower power and lower performance version for better battery life. The 13in Pro uses a higher power usage and higher performance version.

The reason the Air feels faster is because it uses SSD storage which is a lot faster than your typical Hard drive.

 

[ZZ Bottom]

To add to what he said, you can have an SSD installed in your MBP to make it perform much better than the Air. The advantage with the MBP is that capability to upgrade, which the Air essentially does not have.

Also, it kind of sounded like you are confused about Intel's processor naming. i5 is the type of processor which comes in both dual-core and quad-core variants for laptops. The "5" in i5 is basically an arbitrary number.

 

[Peter Franks]

Thanks for those replies, much appreciated. Does the MBA give more battery than the pro. My MBP after 30 minutes of streaming or DVD can kill 50 or 60% of the battery.

I didn't know the Air was dual, just because it only listed the MBP as dual on the site.

Was unaware the Air is all SSD, I asked the guy in store why it felt so fast and he said it was the newer sandy core processors? but this was good few weeks back and am guessing the new line weren't out then anyway.

Are the quad cores noisier than the the dual? Does anyone think i7 is noisier than i5?

 

[TDCanada]

Thanks for those replies, much appreciated. Does the MBA give more battery than the pro. My MBP after 30 minutes of streaming or DVD can kill 50 or 60% of the battery.

On my MBP with wifi off and brightness at 25%(which is plenty bright in the dark) I get 10 hour battery watching a movie.

 

[snaky69]

Thanks for those replies, much appreciated. Does the MBA give more battery than the pro. My MBP after 30 minutes of streaming or DVD can kill 50 or 60% of the battery.

I didn't know the Air was dual, just because it only listed the MBP as dual on the site.

Was unaware the Air is all SSD, I asked the guy in store why it felt so fast and he said it was the newer sandy core processors? but this was good few weeks back and am guessing the new line weren't out then anyway.

Are the quad cores noisier than the the dual? Does anyone think i7 is noisier than i5?

The i5's come in dual and quad core flavors, a little hop over the intel website would've told you as much, heck, even a wikipedia search would've explained it all in greater detail than you could ever want.

The air is all SSD, as mentioned on the Apple website, it uses blade type SSDs which are smaller in form factor but a bit slower than their "regular" counter parts.

The processors do not make any audible noise when operating normally, so neither processor is louder than the other.

The quad cores are able to generate more heat though, so it could lead to a bit more cooling fan noise under load than a dual core.

 

[Peter Franks]

On my MBP with wifi off and brightness at 25%(which is plenty bright in the dark) I get 10 hour battery watching a movie.

Seriously?? Unbelievable. Really unbelievable!!?
Movie how, dvd, stream, youtube, other site?

The i5's come in dual and quad core flavors, a little hop over the intel website would've told you as much, heck, even a wikipedia search would've explained it all in greater detail than you could ever want.

The air is all SSD, as mentioned on the Apple website, it uses blade type SSDs which are smaller in form factor but a bit slower than their "regular" counter parts.

The processors do not make any audible noise when operating normally, so neither processor is louder than the other.

The quad cores are able to generate more heat though, so it could lead to a bit more cooling fan noise under load than a dual core.

no audible noise, nothing? I mean the MBP isn't loud but always hear it, without fans

 

[snaky69]

Seriously?? Unbelievable. Really unbelievable!!?
Movie how, dvd, stream, youtube, other site?



no audible noise, nothing? I mean the MBP isn't loud but always hear it, without fans

Your fan(s) is always spinning at a minimum of 2000rpm, that is the default speed for apple notebooks. Even when you "don't hear the fan", it's still spinning, all the time, and never stops until you sleep or power off the machine.

If you have a platter hard drive(non-SSD hard drive), some make a distinct whooshing noise when the computer is powered on, some are louder than others, this also sounds like a fan this may also be what you're hearing.

The processor itself is completely silent.

 

[dusk007]

On my MBP with wifi off and brightness at 25%(which is plenty bright in the dark) I get 10 hour battery watching a movie.

I seriously doubt that you can get a 6 W average power draw while watching even the least demanding video, regardless of brightness settings.
You mind supporting that claim.

 

[Warbitrary]

Thanks for those replies, much appreciated. Does the MBA give more battery than the pro. My MBP after 30 minutes of streaming or DVD can kill 50 or 60% of the battery.

Since nobody mentionned it yet: using the DVD drive will kill your battery, because the Mac has to spin the DVD constantly.

To get good battery life, the movie need to be ripped to the hard drive, in H.264 format if possible. This can be done with Handbrake.

 

[Peter Franks]

Thanks, I think streaming vids, and AVI films did just as much damage to my battery as discs to be honest. I'm never far from an electric point!