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Early Benchmarks Put Retina MacBook CPU Performance in Range of 2011 MacBook Air

subsonix said:
Are there no replacements? What kind of programs are they?
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You would be very VERY surprised how few real enterprise and corporate applications have absolutely zero interest in supporting OSx.

"Pro" just doesn't mean media producers and photographers. Especially in the Enterprise.

my particular software has zero support for OSx. Will never support OSx. can never support OSx.

however, since Apple has added bootcamp, people can finally use their Mac's in the office and still be fully capable of working. The same goes for our clients.

if Apple suddenly cut out the ability support Windows on their products, they would lose pretty much their ability to use their devices in large enterprise environments, ESPECIALLY the banking industry. would you like to tell the CEO of Large Bank #1 he can no longer use his Macbook at work anymore because none of his required software will run anymore
 
Naimfan said:
That looks like reasonable performance for what the machine appears to be designed for.

It's never going to be the fastest - get a Pro if you need speed.

For most, this will be fine.
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This is an April Fools post, right?

I cannot comprehend how someone can defend a $1300 machine having the same performance as something that came out *four years ago*.

If Dell or HP did the same thing you'd be calling them idiots, fools, and stupid for choosing form over function.
 
Not bad benchmarks

Honestly, when I heard about the "M" processor from Intel, I was expecting something close to performance of the Atom. The benchmarks aren't too terrible. I am possibly more swayed to buy one of these things. I don't do a lot of video editing -- but I do a lot of coding. I bet Xcode would run fine.

I'm still using my Late 2008 13" aluminum Macbook (non-pro) which I've upgraded to have a 512GB SSD, 8GB of RAM, and a brand new battery. It still runs great for what I do -- so I assume the new macbook would be fine for me too.

For me, having an ultra-light laptop is very attractive, because I've got some bad discs in my back. Carrying around fewer pounds in my backpack is a great selling point for someone like me.
 
iRun26.2 said:
Good one!

I'm sorry, I got a little rude. I'm just tired of people saying my decision to buy this new rMB is stupid. It's precisely what I want (although I would have preferred another USB port).
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and you shoudl get one if you want one.

I've been using, as mentioned the 2011 i5 MBA, and from a performance standpoint, if you're a regular casual everyday user, you will not be disappointed in the performance.

I don't think people seem to think that CPU's in laptops have hit a point of diminishing returns on performance. there have been only incremental increases of 5-10% tops (depending on revision by intel) The latest generations fo CPU's weren't about increasing performance by vast amounts, but more efficient use of power and heat.

2011 i5 performance itself is more than adequate CPU performance for just about every daily driving task. Sure, it's not going to be a gaming machine. Sure it's not going to really be all that fantastic for media editing. But hey, I still used lightroom on my MBA and it was quite usable.

(if anyone thinks I have issues with this device, it's just the price to what you get for that price that to me, doesn't make this a good buy. it is still a very good computer for what we know, this obv. doesn't take into acount personal preferences for things like keyboard and trackpad usage)
 
LordVic said:
You would be very VERY surprised how few real enterprise and corporate applications have absolutely zero interest in supporting OSx.

"Pro" just doesn't mean media producers and photographers. Especially in the Enterprise.

my particular software has zero support for OSx. Will never support OSx. can never support OSx.

however, since Apple has added bootcamp, people can finally use their Mac's in the office and still be fully capable of working. The same goes for our clients.

if Apple suddenly cut out the ability support Windows on their products, they would lose pretty much their ability to use their devices in large enterprise environments, ESPECIALLY the banking industry. would you like to tell the CEO of Large Bank #1 he can no longer use his Macbook at work anymore because none of his required software will run anymore
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What exactly do you mean by enterprise, unix applications, or mainframes in banking is not supported on Windows, and a lot of stuff is Java which obviously run on OS X for example. The reason I asked was that, these were applications installed on the laptop, did not have support on OS X and I wanted specific examples, not generalizations. I'm genuinely interested, consider it market research, lol. ;)
 
rdlink said:
If that's what you think you're wrong. Perhaps you should check again.

Macbook=$1299 with a 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM standard.

Macbook Pro 13" Non-Retina=$1549 with that same 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD installed.

Macbook Pro 13" Retina=$1499 with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.
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Going to depend what country you're in. Apple is jacking up prices around the world, but not in America on many of their products;

MacBook is 1549. Canadian
the RMPRO starts (albeit with 128gb storage, but faster everything else) for 1549.

so you get the choice for the entry price of 1549 between: Faster CPU, Faster GPU, slightly bigger higher res screen, more ports, more upgradability options (albeit you pay more), or, smaller, lighter thinner.
 
d0nK said:
Amen.
Been saying this for years.
Every year Apple gives less for more; more profit margin that they eek out, squeezing every last drop from it's customers. It's sigh-inducing.
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But apparently all the sighing hasn't induced you to change to Windows or, better yet, start your own company and offer a better product?
 
Lots of geniuses here denouncing this machine as underpowered, but I've yet to read a single justification of why everyone needs more processing power.

If this discussion were about cars people would be complaining that a compact car wasn't an F-150 truck, because everyone needs to haul lumber, obviously, while ignoring the fact the compact car is easier to park and uses less fuel.
 
subsonix said:
What exactly do you mean by enterprise, unix applications, or mainframes in banking is not supported on Windows, and a lot of stuff is Java which obviously run on OS X for example. The reason I asked was that, these were applications installed on the laptop, did not have support on OS X and I wanted specific examples, not generalizations. I'm genuinely interested, consider it market research, lol. ;)
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I can't due to NDA disclose a lot of the names of products, i am sorry.

but I work for a software company that makes enterprise banking software. The front end for our platform, which uses a popular runtime for the industry, does not have any available options for OSx and have outright said, there is no business in it, and will not be.

So while our back end does run usually on un*x system, the front end of it will not run on OSx.

And as for the competition, most of the rest of the software vendors in this industry are also in the same boat and will not remake their software to support OSx, since there's no real market for it (Apple computer usage is still a small minority of PC users believe it or not). Apple also has zero corporate support, server platforms or, as it almost always comes down to bottom line, does not offer significant value (since they don't have "discount" products for mass roll out)
 
Most of this thread is yet another reason why Apple doesn't take suggestions from message boards. I agree the pricing is high, but that's :apple: for ya.
 
Single core performance for the Macbook is greater than my 2008 Mac Pro - which I am currently using.... I know I have 8 cores, 10GB of memory, and an SSD (on older SATA).... and I am not left wanting for any power (upgraded video cards).

The performance of the macbook is adequate (IMHO) given that the CPU is only part of the package.... it comes with lots of memory and a fast SSD (which is more important to perceived performance).

Yes I have more power overall, but applications tend to use 1 core.

Two interesting notes, the performance was posted on April 1st for a 5Y30 (which is not the processor that was suppose to be used).

A powerhouse it is not, but it is more than adequate for 80% of users.
 
DrEasy said:
My only issue with the performance of this MacBook is future-proofing. I know that the performance of a 2011 MBA is good enough right now, since that's what I have. But I'm running out of HD space, the battery life is declining, and a few things are crashing on me that I can't bother fixing anymore, so long story short I'm looking for an upgrade. I love the portability and for sure a retina MBA would have been ideal, but what can you do.

So I wonder if not only the new MB will run Yosemite smoothly (it looks like it should), but how will it fare in 4 years and two OS upgrades later? What are the kind of applications that will suffer from the (lack of) performance of this processor? Will I be able to run Parallels (with Windows on it), Office, a web browser (with bazillion tabs open), iTunes, an email program and TextMate simultaneously? It seems to me that as long as there's enough RAM there should be no problem. Or am I off-base here?

The lack of ports is not really an issue as long as you fork the dough for the multi-headed dongle (and they stuffed this baby with batteries so that's why there's no room for a second USB-C port either). Sure, they could have included the dongle for free, but this is Apple we're talking about...
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Not really responding to you directly, but your post is a convenient place to make a point. This is a Gen 1 product. It's not worth debating whether it's "future proof" (whatever that means in tech hardware...12 months? 24 months? 36 months?). This is guaranteed *not* to be future proof. In my opinion that's the real issue with this or any Gen 1 product: it's guaranteed to be significantly upgraded several times in the next couple of years. Anyone who doesn't want to own, in a literal, economic sense, that risk, shouldn't buy one. I'm not trying to be nasty - did you buy the 2008 Air? I sure didn't. Did you buy the iPad (1)? I didn't. I may buy this one but I understand that it's going to be superseded in very short order and I may see a greater than normal (for Apple hardware) percentage of my purchase price disappear.
 
LordVic said:
I can't due to NDA disclose a lot of the names of products, i am sorry.

but I work for a software company that makes enterprise banking software. The front end for our platform, which uses a popular runtime for the industry, does not have any available options for OSx and have outright said, there is no business in it, and will not be.

So while our back end does run usually on un*x system, the front end of it will not run on OSx.

And as for the competition, most of the rest of the software vendors in this industry are also in the same boat and will not remake their software to support OSx, since there's no real market for it (Apple computer usage is still a small minority of PC users believe it or not). Apple also has zero corporate support, server platforms or, as it almost always comes down to bottom line, does not offer significant value (since they don't have "discount" products for mass roll out)
Click to expand...

Does your leader go by Dave?
 
LordVic said:
I can't due to NDA disclose a lot of the names of products, i am sorry.

but I work for a software company that makes enterprise banking software. The front end for our platform, which uses a popular runtime for the industry, does not have any available options for OSx and have outright said, there is no business in it, and will not be.

So while our back end does run usually on un*x system, the front end of it will not run on OSx.

And as for the competition, most of the rest of the software vendors in this industry are also in the same boat and will not remake their software to support OSx, since there's no real market for it (Apple computer usage is still a small minority of PC users believe it or not). Apple also has zero corporate support, server platforms or, as it almost always comes down to bottom line, does not offer significant value (since they don't have "discount" products for mass roll out)
Click to expand...

You can't mention the name of the products, one would imagine that's not a secret. Anyway, the question wasn't directed at you specifically but the fellow who traveled with a laptop and needed old Windows applications for some reason. But thanks for answering.
 
Applefreak007 said:
Yes sorry I meant the 13" air. Thanks for your reply. I wonder why they do not provide them with retina display.
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As a guess, because they looked at the upgrade and figured it would update to a 2015 machine (at best) and decided to take the long view and see if they could engineer and design a notebook for 2017 - and see what their market liked and didn't like about it. The guys screaming about specs and benchmarks have their vision focused backward. Apple is focusing forward, possibly (we will see) a little too far forward.

----------
dexterbell said:
Yea, a MBA that doesn't even have a 1080 display, a new rMBP 13 with a sorry, integrated GPU and an expensive rMBP 15 running a two year old GPU. Not very good options.
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Well, that pretty much takes care of the entire Apple lineup. So, which Windows machine are you running now, and which one are you buying next?
 
fuchsdh said:
It's going to be faster. Intel Atom < Intel Core M < Intel Core iX
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I had estimated that the single core performance of the Atom x7 to be around 40% the single core performance of the 5Y70 (maybe a little bit higher if these performance numbers are accurate).

The 4 core performance of the Atom x7 would fall in around 80 - 85% of the 2 core performance of the 5Y70.

Single core performance is important since most applications use 1 core only.
 
I'm tired of everyone defending this. It's a first gen product. You get what you pay for. Apple's 2nd and 3rd iterations are arguably better. But this is with every consumer device ever.

3D TVs didn't have a standard for glasses for years. You're paying to be a guinea pig/first. Not to mention the BS that is Intel.
 
subsonix said:
You can't mention the name of the products, one would imagine that's not a secret. Anyway, the question wasn't directed at you specifically but the fellow who traveled with a laptop and needed old Windows applications for some reason. But thanks for answering.
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No Prob. Sorry I can't provide more information. Just not something I feel comfortable with sharing on a public message board.

My opinions here, do not reflect my company and are not meant to be coming from my company. I like to keep this life (personal) seperate and don't feel comfortable really "spilling the industry beans".

I was just commenting on the fact that if Apple decided to cut Windows support in some way from their products, it would be a very poor business decision, from my opinion.

if you're mainly a consumer though, I don't know of many products though that don't have similar, and compatible software between the two. Even microsoft has Office available for OSx now, which as long as that continues, gives a great deal of support to using OSx for business use.
 
n-evo said:
Read the whole text next time.
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The fact that there's a cached copy proves nothing about the legitimacy of the original page. On the contrary, the fact that a cached copy is all that's left tells us everything we need to know about the "benchmarks."
 
LordVic said:
Whose Dave?

I'm probably not who you think I am then. :cool:
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Just going by the description of the company (in Ontario). Worked at a company (on and off / and on and off contract-wise) that would fit that description. A spin-off of Footprint (there were at least 2 of those). I know by that comment I am dating myself :p
 
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