How will the difference between a 2019 i5 and new M2 feel? Or against the Studio Ultra?

[Sean Dempsey]

I’m stuck waiting for a shipment. Even after a reformat this i5 just was a sluggish turd. I need to be able to do light video editing and compiling of large Indesign books, some photoshop.

The i5 just takes forever. Even simple OS tasks are so slow.

I use a Max Studio Ultra for my main manchine and the i5 feels like a brick. I am wondering though if the M2 air will be noticeably slower than the Studio Ultra.

 

[russell_314]

I’m stuck waiting for a shipment. Even after a reformat this i5 just was a sluggish turd. I need to be able to do light video editing and compiling of large Indesign books, some photoshop.

The i5 just takes forever. Even simple OS tasks are so slow.

I use a Max Studio Ultra for my main manchine and the i5 feels like a brick. I am wondering though if the M2 air will be noticeably slower than the Studio Ultra.

I don't have the studio ultra so I can't tell you side-by-side comparison, but what I can say is it would depend on what you're doing

Single core speed, the M2 will technicality outperform the M1 Studio (Probably not noticeable). Where it's going to meet some difficulty is multi core and GPU performance compared to the Studio. Doing normal things like opening a web browser or some app it's going to be very quick, but if you're trying to process 8K video, the studio ultra is probably going to beat it hands down

I don't ever feel my M2 MacBook Air is sluggish. There's a 14 day return period or if you live near an Apple Store you can go look at one.

 

[Wokis]

It won't beat the ultra, but it will slay your current Air and actually be able to handle those tasks, yes. How far from an Ultra will depend on how well you saturate all those cores with your current workload.

I'm rendering a 43 min 1080p video right now in DaVinci Resolve. 12 nodes of color grade and two plug-ins. ~25 min 'til I have my ProRes 422 HQ render cache ready. An Intel MBA would have trouble reaching real-time playback with just one basic node.

 

[tstafford]

I went from 2019 MBA to M2 MBA (plus I have a Studio Max). You will not be disappointed. The M2 MBA will be much faster than your MBA for any tasks. Even basic things like browsing and email are far better. Once you go Apple Silicon, Intel Mac just seems slow.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

I got the M2 on Tuesday, it's so fast. I can't believe it. It did Geekbench6 ahead of the Studio on single-core tasks, running at 112% performance, but on multi core it is at 60%, so Studio still beats it.

But I was able to open my Final Cut projects and scrub and see transitions without proxy media in real time, so I am happy. I haven't tried compiling a large book from InDesign yet, but I presume it will be great.

Normal web browsing and whatnot, Notion, etc, is just insane, I am so glad to be rid of the i5 now. And the hardware of the m2 Air, I got the black one, it's so square and blocky, I love it!!

 

[StoneJack]

I got the M2 on Tuesday, it's so fast. I can't believe it. It did Geekbench6 ahead of the Studio on single-core tasks, running at 112% performance, but on multi core it is at 60%, so Studio still beats it.

But I was able to open my Final Cut projects and scrub and see transitions without proxy media in real time, so I am happy. I haven't tried compiling a large book from InDesign yet, but I presume it will be great.

Normal web browsing and whatnot, Notion, etc, is just insane, I am so glad to be rid of the i5 now. And the hardware of the m2 Air, I got the black one, it's so square and blocky, I love it!!

In addition to the benefits you described, I also love M2 Air's battery life.