Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Early Benchmarks Reveal New MacBook Air Rivaling High-End 2010 MacBook Pro

-LikesMac- said:
The MBA 13 has screen res that is = to MBP 15? :eek::eek::eek::eek:

This shows that the MBP needs a spec bump.

MBP 13 should get the MBA 13 res screen
MBP 15 should have its "hi-res" 1680x1050 screen standard,
MBP 17...left alone I guess

The MBPs can get a SLIGHT graphics boost...

Anyone think Apple can release External GPU dock, which would be good for MBA and the MBP 13.
Click to expand...

Actually, the 2010 MBA model I already have 13" had the screen resolution of the MBP 15". This is the 2nd generation of Air that has it. And yes, the 15" could use a bump due to this, I think Apple may be ready to bump all the resolutions up, though I think they should first make 512MB addressable graphics memory a standard across the line, first. Even for the non-discrete graphics options.

Still, I think it's a shocker what was announced with this, is that the Macbook Mini gets a full discrete video card for the 2.5GHZ option. It could be possible that Apple is actually selling a Mac with a full discrete ATI video card for less than $1000, for once.
 
They're comparing the air to last year MBP... 2011 MBP are way more powerful, still like many I can't wait to see what Ivy Bridge will bring.
 
Wow I can't believe how dumb these people are though .. from the electripig link on this article "The subtle change in clock speed from 1.4 to 1.6 GHz in the 2011 11-inch MacBook Air might sound small on paper, but in terms of benchmarks, it’s nothing short of monumental. "

wow, just wow. It wasn't a subtle change in clock it was a full 2 (arguably 3) generations newer architecture!! The old Pentium 4's had clock rates up to 3.8 Ghz... do they expect them to smoke any computer available today?

Sorry i'm like really bitter having known this for a while and hearing everyone say that the sandy bridge chip, which is multiple generations newer than C2D, would be a marginal upgrade and that Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge (same generation) would be a staggering leap. For a tech website to write someone equally obtuse is mind blowing.

Torrijos said:
They're comparing the air to last year MBP... 2011 MBP are way more powerful, still like many I can't wait to see what Ivy Bridge will bring.
Click to expand...

Probably 5%-15% faster clock for clock like all of Intel's upgrades for the past 5 years. Look at Intel's tick tock cycles for releasing chips and you'll see why everyone was excited about C2D to Sandy Bridge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Tick_Tock
 
Glideslope said:
Yup. Take one in a minute. But then, who would buy a 15" MBP? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

People who still want optical drives, lots of storage, strong GPU and Quad-Core processors. The current MBP is overkill for the vast majority of people who buy it. The MBA would continue to be the computer for the average user and the Pro would be exclusively for Pro users and would eventually be killed off like the MB once it became cheap enough for the MBA to have 500 GB of flash storage and a stronger GPU.
 
Put t this way, if the new MBA 13.3 inch can handle quakelive gameplay, I'm sold!
I have the 13 inch 2008 macbook Al unibody and it is a monster. But I would gladly give it to my girlfriend(she bought it) and purchase the new high and MBA in a heart beat.
 
Glideslope said:
Yup. Take one in a minute. But then, who would buy a 15" MBP? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

MBPs are desktop replacement machines.

They need to still fill in the low end market.

$899 MacBook would not hurt but they discontinued MacBook instead of growing that line.

Still one cannot buy a affordable 15" laptop from Apple. hmmm.
 
What puts this even more into perspective (at least for me) is the fact, that this score equals the one of the first MacPro (2006)!

So it took only 5 years to squeeze the power of a fully blown workstation into such a tiny notebook. Am i the only one who finds this outright amazing?!
 
shouldbeworking said:
The new MBA dont have turbo boost or hyperthreading. Read the specifications on the Apple Website.
Click to expand...
bonch said:
Hogwash
Click to expand...
Well, it looks like shouldbeworking may be correct. There is a thread on Apple's support forums where this question was raised and someone reported that they called Apple and the support genius confirmed that the new MacBook Airs don't support either turbo boost or hyperthreading. Seems a bit odd and obviously it isn't 100% confirmed as yet.

In any case, the new Airs definitely have a faster CPU than the previous models.
 
typo in chart?

the new mba 13 doesn't come with a 1.6 core i5.

it only comes with a 1.7 i5 or 1.8 i7.

I don't know much about geekbench but from their webpage, it sounds like this benchmark considers the CPU and memory more than anything else.

If that's true, the impact the SSD would have on these benchmarks shouldn't matter much. I mention this because I think many people look at these results without understanding the methodology behind it.

Certainly if we measure hard disk performance across apple off-the-shelf products, the macbook air would be through the roof.

So if there's a bench mark that does consider cpu, ram and hd, would the MBA fair even better???
 
SilianRail said:
If they can do benchmarks, they can do teardowns. Is the SSD confirmed soldered on?
Click to expand...
Apple says it is soldered on, they even show a picture of the flash chips soldered to the motherboard. They are calling it a feature since is saves space for the battery and other components.
 
wikus said:
I can't believe Apple's been getting away with glossy screens on a 'Pro' labeled computer.
Click to expand...

True, not to mention that they've got some of the lamest custom configs in PC history.

Once you choose that base model, all you can really customize is the processor, and screen. The rest you can always upgrade later.

shanmugam said:
MBPs are desktop replacement machines.

They need to still fill in the low end market.

$899 MacBook would not hurt but they discontinued MacBook instead of growing that line.

Still one cannot buy a affordable 15" laptop from Apple. hmmm.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say MBPs are desktop replacements given that the rest of the computer industry is looking at Dell's M6600 as such. The MBPs are just really well built middle of the line models.

You're right about the price issue though.
 
I want to know how the graphics perform. It's nowhere to be seen at apple.com, as Apple is using the CPU to show performance and has apparently eliminated all mention of the graphics system in terms of results vs. prior generation.

I want to see some graphics benchmarks and read some reviews from people using all different types of apps. How does the Intel IGP fare vs. the 13" MBP? How does it fare vs. the Nvidia 320m in the last generation MBA? How does it fare vs. the Nvidia 9400m in the prior generation air to that? How about vs. the Samsung Series 9? Give me some real world information, about how the graphics do with a variety of apps and games...

Sure, we knew the CPU would be fast, but how is the graphics system???

That is amazing how well the CPU fares even in ULV CPUs. The 11" MBA seems like a much more capable system than before as it competes identically with the 13" MBA now. Before they had different CPUs in that 11 had ULV and 13 has LV CPUs. And the clock speed was 50% faster in the 13" MBA as well.
 
Wow, this is impressive if it holds up...

BTW, I'm pretty sure Geekbench only tests the processor and the memory subsystem -- so SSD and GPU don't have an impact.

Considering the Airs all have SSDs they should significantly outperform MBPs without SSD in real world tests -- (again, if these numbers hold up, I'd like to see confirmation).
 
Now the real test is thermal issues. Even last years MBA's would throttle back the CPU if you used it for very long. The MBP has the fans and heat dissipation abilities to let you run it at 100% CPU constantly (assuming its not on a cloth surface snuffing the fans out).

I have an original MBA and it is completely unusable. I really want to get the new ones, but until I find out about thermal stability, I have to wait.
 
jamesryanbell said:
Completely defeats the purpose. Thin only "counts" if it's a small footprint. ;)

The WHOLE THING has to be small.
Click to expand...

They could just about fit a 15" LCD in the 13" MBA footprint as it is. The bezel is nothing but wasted space... apparently so it feels thinner at the edges???
 
jamesryanbell said:
Completely defeats the purpose. Thin only "counts" if it's a small footprint. ;)

The WHOLE THING has to be small.
Click to expand...

That doesnt necessarily mean it SHOULDNT be done. Any kind of physical improvement to make it smaller, lighter, stronger, thinner is always welcome. But NOT at the expense of the 15" screen.

Would be pretty awesome to keep the 15" screen size macbook pro without much of a bezel and slimming it down to macbook air size. First thing that has to go though is the optical drive. But I would still like to have two SSD drives in my laptop (or at least one HDD and a smaller SSD, one for boot the other for storage).
 
jamesryanbell said:
Completely defeats the purpose. Thin only "counts" if it's a small footprint. ;)

The WHOLE THING has to be small.
Click to expand...

I don't know... I just bought the new MBA 13 i7. Had a 15 inch been available, I would have gotten that.

You have a point, but there are many of us who like a big screen. (I bought the new 27" display too). Perhaps I'm in the minority because Apple is shipping MBA in a 55/45 split in favor of the 11.

But my guess is that if there were a 15 offered, the split would be something like 50/30/20.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back