i3 or i5?

[**maestro**]

Dear All,

I've watched countless YouTube videos and read countless reviews but I can't find information that would benefit my decision, most naturally, is about benchmarking scores, which I cannot understand. I would appreciate your collective expert advice.

I currently have a 2018 13" MacBook Pro, 2.7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 16 GB RAM, 2TB SSD. However, the butterfly keyboard has already been replaced four times. I constantly travel for work and this is HIGHLY frustrating, as I am often in remote places without access to an Apple Store and thus, without a working computer. Further, I feel this MacBook Pro is overkill for what I now use it for.

Due to travelling, I am feeling to buy a 2020 MacBook Air (which is also lighter than the Pro). I will definitely be getting 16GB RAM (Activity Monitor constantly says my Memory Used is around 11GB) + 1TB SSD (currently I have 77GB of used space on my SSD + 2TB iCloud account). But, I cannot decide between the i3 or i5.

I mainly use it for the following programs: Mail, Safari (also Netflix), Things, Reminders, Calendar, Notes, Messages, Music (I have 300GB of music - my work), WhatsApp, Microsoft Word & Excel, Dropbox and occasionally AirPlay or use a VPN. I don't play games or edit videos.

The financial difference is not a problem. I have heard that the i5 runs with much shorter battery, much more fan noise and much hotter and I have heard that the i3 is much slower. They are my main concerns. But I'm not sure if either of those would concern me for what I do.

Thank you so much in advance for your advice, I REALLY appreciate it!

 

[ruka.snow]

The i5 is faster at multi tasking and you should take into account the reviews of these machines are based on benchmarks. In day to day use the i5 is a little warmer, but it also has more CPU cores. These CPU's are best when they are infrequently running a heavy task every now and then, the Air is not a heavy lifter.

As your tasks are all very light, it isn't going to matter much. Though personally I would go for the i5 for that little extra when multi tasking.

While I would normally link to a real review, this video should give you a good indication of heat differences between them

 

[Mr. Heckles]

Never an i3, always an i5 or higher.

 

[maflynn]

i5 all the way, I think i3 will just frustrate you (or anyone)

 

[SkiHound2]

If you're upgrading to 16gb of ram and 1TB SSD, the i5 seems like a no brainer. The base i3 configuration is a good package for someone with minimal power needs who doesn't want to spend much money. The i5 is the first thing I'd pay to upgrade that Macbook. BTW, you're memory requirements may not be as high as you think. You need to look at memory pressure. I have 40gb on my iMac. I'm not running much right now. Safari with 5-6 tabs, email, Pages is open. No video or photo editing software is open. I'm seeing that I have 8.4gb available and 8% cpu load. MacOs manages memory well and makes use of the resources available. I could be easily running what I have open right now with 8gb and probably not notice a difference. That said, I do think 16gb should be the standard these days.

 

[Rick_2020]

On Geekbench.com, the single core scores average 1002 and 1056 (i3 vs i5) and 2001 and 2646, respectively. I don't think there is a huge difference, but others might have more insight if they own the machine. I have a MBP now, and I love the Air but I honestly don't want to give up my Touch Bar. Good luck.

 

[**maestro**]

Dear All,

Thank you so much for all your input! Much appreciated! Looks like I'll go with the i5

Thanks also @ruka.snow for the video, it was helpful to see it.

@SkiHound2 , may I ask how I can check re. the memory? In Activity Monitor, my Memory Pressure is always green in colour. I assume this just means that my current 16GB is enough for my use. But, how can I see if it would cope with also 8GB? Is there a way?

@Rick_2020 thanks also for your input. I guess it's these geek bench scores that confuse me. I admit that I am completely ignorant and these are just numbers to me as I don't know how those scores correlate with my every day use, other than being "a better score". I guess everyone has individual needs. I'm really glad that you love the Touch Bar and that it suits your needs. As for me, I have been using it for the past year and find it annoying But, each to their own )) At least the option is there!

 

[Rick_2020]

Hi Maestro, I'm not a power user either, but I like to have something moderately powerful so that I don't have any regrets. I think the i5 will work good for you if you want the Air. I noticed I had given the i5 vs i7 in my post, so I just updated it. Sorry about that. Either way, you can go to https://browser.geekbench.com/mac-benchmarks/ and see the scores for Macs. Just search for "Air" and see the 2020 scores. You can click the tab at the top to switch to multi-core scores.

Geekbench is a benchmarking software and you can purchase a license to run the scores on your machine or just view the scores submitted by others. When running the test, it puts your computer through the paces to see how fast it can complete various computing tasks. My understanding is that in most casual use, the single core is being used most. The multi-core is more important for multi-tasking, as is RAM of course. I would get 16 GB of RAM before getting an i7. I find my 8 GB of RAM sometimes not enough.

I would look at the scores as the HP in a car. You might not need a Ferrari, but you don't necessarily want a small economy car because you never know, you might have to tow a trailer or something sometime, haha. So, an i3 would be like the economy car and the i7 like the Ferrari. With the i5, you get a middle of the pack and future proof your machine a bit as well. Of course, the ultimate future proof is the MBP but you want the form factor and battery life of the Air.

Rick

 

[SkiHound2]

Dear All,

Thank you so much for all your input! Much appreciated! Looks like I'll go with the i5

Thanks also @ruka.snow for the video, it was helpful to see it.

@SkiHound2 , may I ask how I can check re. the memory? In Activity Monitor, my Memory Pressure is always green in colour. I assume this just means that my current 16GB is enough for my use. But, how can I see if it would cope with also 8GB? Is there a way?

@Rick_2020 thanks also for your input. I guess it's these geek bench scores that confuse me. I admit that I am completely ignorant and these are just numbers to me as I don't know how those scores correlate with my every day use, other than being "a better score". I guess everyone has individual needs. I'm really glad that you love the Touch Bar and that it suits your needs. As for me, I have been using it for the past year and find it annoying But, each to their own )) At least the option is there!

Go to utilities and open activity monitor. Click on memory and at the bottom you should see a box that says memory pressure. If not, click view and make sure memory is checked. You can view all kinds of activity. If that's green, you're golden and macOs is using memory efficiently. If it's red, you need more memory. I don't know how you could check if 8gb is enough. If you use Chrome as your browser, it's a resource hog and uses lots of memory. Safari is much less demanding. Benchmark scores are just that, benchmark scores. They are useful to compare potential performance, but what they measure may, or may not, represent the activities that any individual uses. My general view is that for the activities most of us do most of the time, there's just not much difference. If you're running lots of programs or are using software that exploits more cores, then the number of cores and threads is hugely beneficial. More so than clock speed for most things. If you're playing games, they tend to not exploit multiple cores (at least that's been the history of most games) clock speed and gpu are more important. The i5 upgrade is only $100 and is 4 core with multi-threading while the i3 is 2 core with multi-threading; seems like a pretty worthwhile upgrade to me. The i5 also has a better graphics processing unit. The i7 is also 4 core and is probably very similar (perhaps the same production line) and is clocked a bit higher. But heat will probably limit how much faster an i7 is than the i5 in the Macbook Air. Going to 16gb ram is $200 and may be more of a decision. I don't really see any configuration of the Macbook Air being good choice for really intensive tasks. To me it's really best suited to things like email, web surfing, task management, word processing, presentations, maybe light photo editing, etc.

 

[**maestro**]

Dear @Rick_2020 - Thank you again kindly for your explanation and insight!

Dear @SkiHound2 - Thank you for your help! I followed the pressure for 24 hours and it was always green. I only use Chrome very rarely (when something is not compatible with Safari).

 

[SkiHound2]

Since you have 16gb now, I wouldn't go lower. I think 16gb is kind of the sweet spot for most folks. The cost of 32gb upgrades from Apple get kind of prohibitive.