Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
i5 v i7 purchases.
- Thread starter warriorz
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I just picked up an 11" i7/8/256, and very happy with the choice. I have used the thing off and on for about six hours per day, and haven't actually been able to run the battery down... I've actually never heard the fan (as opposed to my late 2008 aluminum Macbook I'm using to post this message... just using Safari it's warming my lap). I've also never been able to get the thing warm at all. So far, I'm super impressed with this little machine.
I think the thing people are missing is that both processors will clock around 1.15-1.3GHz when high performance is not needed, so battery life difference is not large when doing simple browsing/word processing on both cores. However, I need this thing to still be "more than usable" in 5 years, so I opted for the faster processor up front. I got a slight discount, so I only gave $1377+ tax for it.
I think the thing people are missing is that both processors will clock around 1.15-1.3GHz when high performance is not needed, so battery life difference is not large when doing simple browsing/word processing on both cores. However, I need this thing to still be "more than usable" in 5 years, so I opted for the faster processor up front. I got a slight discount, so I only gave $1377+ tax for it.
Look up "race to sleep"
cliffnotes: a faster CPU at the same power rating, doing the same workload will get the machine back to idle faster and potentially save power. in reality, power consumption at same workload between i5 and i7 = essentially same.
the i7s often have other CPU features (beyond clockspeed increase) that if you need them, an i5 simply does not provide.
If you don't understand what I'm talking about, you should buy the i5, as you don't need them.
cliffnotes: a faster CPU at the same power rating, doing the same workload will get the machine back to idle faster and potentially save power. in reality, power consumption at same workload between i5 and i7 = essentially same.
the i7s often have other CPU features (beyond clockspeed increase) that if you need them, an i5 simply does not provide.
If you don't understand what I'm talking about, you should buy the i5, as you don't need them.
I bought the i5 (11" 8GB RAM, 256 SSD) and put the money I saved from not buying the i7 towards the Airport Extreme. The i5 is fine for my needs, I doubt I'll ever notice the extra performance gain from the i7 for basic tasks e.g. web browsing, email etc.
Never?
If you have it, it will be used. Maybe inadvertently but at some point I'm sure the machine will make use of it, as you're importing photos, and decide I'll add these 20 too, or burning/ ripping CD's and decide actually ill convert to a higher bit rate for this song, maybe a family member test drives another display. All, initially at least, simple non "power user" applications (such as the oft quoted music/ video creation and production apps). Still I'm not saying ill opt for the i7 but it's not realistic in this scenario, with Haswell, to say it will *never* be used. And well at the point of purchase I might well look at the i7 acknowledge these points, and others real world experience with it, and pay that $150, race to idle/sleep points etc.
There are a few faults in this line of thinking:
-It can snowball. Well, with that in mind, what's $200 when you're spending a grand? Add those (and probably the inevitable ram upgrade), and you're looking at adding almost 20% to your original cost just because you're already spending a grand, so it's ok. 20% is not an immaterial number, and this doesn't include the additional tax you'll be paying (if it applies to you).
I haven't even mentioned Apple Care yet...and any other accessories you may opt to buy along with it (sleeve/case/bag/external monitor/external keyboard/external mouse or trackpad/external speakers/etc.)
-What's wrong with spending less then you have to? Maybe it's my accounting way of thinking, but I don't see the value of spending extra just because I'm already spending an amount over some arbitrary barrier. I think it's ok to spend a little more for something out of love for hobby or whatnot, but spending more just because you're already spending over a set amount is kind of silly to me. I can assure you even without statistical data, that for the vast majority of the targeted demographic of the Airs, the i7 won't really make any real difference in their lives, and if cpu power was really that important to their (presumably) professional life, they would probably be looking at a 15" rMBP.
These spending arguments are really pointless, as it depends on the specific person's financial situation. $150 is just a fraction of the overall cost, but for some folks that is a big deal. For others it just isn't.
So money aside, having the fastest and most powerful MBA that can be had appeals to many folks over the extra hour of battery when you are already pushing 12 hours. I'd rather be able to play that late Civ stage game or that 1st person shooter without too much lag. I won't be playing for 2 hours straight, much less 8 or 10 or 12.
If you want to make it into a financial argument, then you have to discuss personal financial situations and that is just not cool. Whether it is "worth" it for you or not depends on what $150 is worth to you, and how much you value having those extra MHz and extra horses to push your software harder.
i5 owners should be happy with their purchase and not have i7 envy. And i7 owners shouldn't have battery life envy either. Buy whatever you want and can afford. But if you come here asking for advice, just know that the advice comes tainted with people's personal perceptions of "worth", and the only one who can decide whether $150 is "worth" it is you.
Peace.
So money aside, having the fastest and most powerful MBA that can be had appeals to many folks over the extra hour of battery when you are already pushing 12 hours. I'd rather be able to play that late Civ stage game or that 1st person shooter without too much lag. I won't be playing for 2 hours straight, much less 8 or 10 or 12.
If you want to make it into a financial argument, then you have to discuss personal financial situations and that is just not cool. Whether it is "worth" it for you or not depends on what $150 is worth to you, and how much you value having those extra MHz and extra horses to push your software harder.
i5 owners should be happy with their purchase and not have i7 envy. And i7 owners shouldn't have battery life envy either. Buy whatever you want and can afford. But if you come here asking for advice, just know that the advice comes tainted with people's personal perceptions of "worth", and the only one who can decide whether $150 is "worth" it is you.
Peace.
i7 - I actually bought a 2011 iMac over a brand new specifically for that reason. I've done some encoding via Handbrake and a few other things that actually use all 8 cores that you get with the i7 that you don't get with the i5. Unless I'm mistaken the i5 doesn't do Hyper Threading so anything that can utilize all the processors isn't even going to be as close to as fast as an i7.
The 2011 i7 iMac I bought runs circles around the all the i5 late 2012 iMacs for the tasks that I need.
The 2011 i7 iMac I bought runs circles around the all the i5 late 2012 iMacs for the tasks that I need.
All mobile i5s and i7s have Hyper threading, not just the i7s which is the case with the desktop processors.
Unfortunately the CPU isn't the bottleneck for games in the MBA, the GPU is, so adding the i7 won't allow you to play Civ when you wouldn't before, and won't reduce any lag in that "1st person shooter"
So yeah, complete waste of money unless you're doing processor-limited tasks, of which gaming isn't one on the MBA.
As for this "race to sleep" argument everyone's using - that only applies to tasks which would increase the processor clock speed and enable turboboost, and only applies if the time saved outweighs the extra battery used. Otherwise it's completely pointless. Mostly applies to mobile phones.
Last edited:
As has already been posted by Jazwire, there are indeed games that are CPU limited; with most of these being RTS/RPG games (spoiler alert: he mentions in his post that Civ is indeed one of those CPU intensive games). Also, the i7 has a GPU turbo rate of 100mhz higher than the i5 (1000mhz for the i5 vs 1100mhz for the i7). While not the most impressive stat in the world it would still be better during games that are GPU intensive. If people want to buy the macbook air and play games on it, then the i7 is the much better option for higher performance.
Te reiterate the common consensus here: For the targeted audience of the macbook air the i5 is the best choice. For those select few people that would like to do some intensive amounts of work in the lightest package available, the i7 wins hands down.
i7/8gb/512 as they had it in stock - I just wanted 8GB/512, but by adding the i7 I took it home on the day
I plan on a bit of photo editing, so think the i7 will help a bit, but in reality the old i5 in the 2011 Air was fast enough for most things, but the new i7 is amazingly fast when pushed
I plan on a bit of photo editing, so think the i7 will help a bit, but in reality the old i5 in the 2011 Air was fast enough for most things, but the new i7 is amazingly fast when pushed
I went for the i7. The apple purchase I can't seem to make up my mind about is the $70 magic mouse. I'm using a wired mouse now, and I supposed the next time I'm in an apple store, I'll try the magic mouse. But $70 for a mouse...seems over the top to me.
The i7 saves about an hour when compiling a very large movie.
If I only do 2 per month and keep the mac for 3 years thats 72 hours of my time saved for $150. i7
If I only do 2 per month and keep the mac for 3 years thats 72 hours of my time saved for $150. i7
The i7 saves about an hour when compiling a very large movie.
If I only do 2 per month and keep the mac for 3 years thats 72 hours of my time saved for $150. i7
So you sit and watch your i7 encode the whole movie and do nothing else in the meantime?