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M5 MacBook Air: Release Date, Features, and Performance Predictions
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lazyrighteye
Contributor
Of all the Macs I’ve owned/used over the past 30 years, my M2 MBA has been my fav to use to date. Ridiculously portable and shockingly capable. I can’t imagine what the M5 version can do.
Just picked up a M4 MBA at 25% off, goes to show a refresh is imminent.
Juanchi007
macrumors member
Quite the funny outdated line about M5 specs taken “allegedly from a next-gen iPad Pro running an M5 chip” - the machine came out last year!
Would it be fair to say the performance will be identical to the base MacBook? ignoring thermals, screen quality, speakers, it will be the same M5 10/10 chip, right?
Asking as someone who was going to buy a used M3 12/18 Pro, but maybe the M5 Air's performance is comparable, for very light 3D?
Asking as someone who was going to buy a used M3 12/18 Pro, but maybe the M5 Air's performance is comparable, for very light 3D?
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I don't know anything about Maya, but I have run an M2 MBA at 100% CPU on all cores for two hours doing chess analysis. Yes it throttled to protect itself, but did the job. I have also done Extended Cinebench testing to measure throttling. I have never managed to cause the machine to shut down. So I would say fanless is an option for some heavy tasks. Obviously if doing any heavy task regularly and where fastest time is paramount, fanless is not the way to go.
I do actually do chess analysis quite frequently and did try an M1 MacBook Pro briefly. Yes it was faster but the fans went straight to 6000RPM and was intolerable.
EDIT. I am very surprised that an MBA would actually shut down under any heavy load. My experience is that it will always protect itself which I understand is how it is designed.
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“the M5 MacBook Air will likely feel more responsive in daily use, particularly in single-threaded tasks, but it won't dramatically outpace the M4 for sustained workloads like video rendering”
I would have thought a 10% bump in cpu would be barely noticeable for most tasks yet a 36% in gpu would be more noticeable for video rendering?
Either way I’ll update my air once it has a 120hz screen.
I would have thought a 10% bump in cpu would be barely noticeable for most tasks yet a 36% in gpu would be more noticeable for video rendering?
Either way I’ll update my air once it has a 120hz screen.
The author of the article probably didn’t want to go down a rabbit hole when the piece was supposed to be fairly short. But, if you’re really interested…
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Or… how about this?
$599 A18 Pro MacBook 12/256
$799 A18 Pro MacBook 12/512
$999 M5 MacBook Air 16/256
Even if the M5 air throttles rendering video, which it will, timeline playback and performance should see significant gains over the M4 air. Metal GPU scores for the M4 air are around 55,000, the M5 air should come in around 75,000. That’s the largest GPU jump since going from the M1 air to the M2 air. The M5 air should be able to take on significantly more when it comes to video editing.
Vincent Hanna
macrumors regular
Nope.
Apple does not allow SKUs with lower storage tiers to cost more than those with higher storage tiers. Once you hit 512GB in the pricing ladder, all other models have to cost the same or more.
The purpose of the new base MacBook is twofold:
1) lower the entry level price of Mac laptops to $799
2) RAISE the entry level price of the MacBook Air line to $1199 so that it can evolve into a higher end product over time. Exactly like the iPhone Air.
Well, we’ll see, won’t we? We shouldn’t have long to wait. I suspect Apple is going to surprise us one way or the other.
Its about time the Air had a 120hz display.
Then I'd buy it. Not before.
Then I'd buy it. Not before.
arcite
macrumors 65816
As someone who switched from years of MBPs (2016 13" MBP w/ Touchbar > 2021 14" M1 Pro MBP) to my now current 15" M4 MBA, I absolutely love the MBA line.
As a "prosumer" who really didn't need the power, the move to Apple silicon and the amazingly-capable base M chip has been huge - I think an M-based MBA can now cover more like 80% of people's needs, vs the Intel days where Air performance covered something like 50%.
Even more so, when they came out with the 15" model, it's the goldilocks size for me. Bigger screen for when I'm "using it like a laptop", but still ultra-portable, light and thin for aesthetics and comfort. And more than enough power.
And when it further improved by getting 16gb memory in the base (thanks Apple Intelligence!) at the same price point - being able to get the base model (and the resulting discounting available on Amazon and other 3rd party retailers) made the value proposition that much better.
As a "prosumer" who really didn't need the power, the move to Apple silicon and the amazingly-capable base M chip has been huge - I think an M-based MBA can now cover more like 80% of people's needs, vs the Intel days where Air performance covered something like 50%.
Even more so, when they came out with the 15" model, it's the goldilocks size for me. Bigger screen for when I'm "using it like a laptop", but still ultra-portable, light and thin for aesthetics and comfort. And more than enough power.
And when it further improved by getting 16gb memory in the base (thanks Apple Intelligence!) at the same price point - being able to get the base model (and the resulting discounting available on Amazon and other 3rd party retailers) made the value proposition that much better.
I love my M4 MacBook Air - but after working with it outside for extended periods recently, my next Apple laptop may be something with a sharper screen and nano texture. Maybe the new oled MacBook Pro, or maybe just the M5 (or M6) with the current screen.
The M5 was first mentioned in 1976 and here we are with it still not released in the MBA. That and the M6 is just around the corner.
DonutHands
macrumors 6502
Expecting it to be a minor update with a new chip. I have the M4 version and it is a great MacBook. Like the Sky blue color too. Not expecting to see a new color this year. The M3 and M4 versions were released in March and will not be surprised if Apple decides to update the MacBook Air and the Pro together in March.
It's fine in the iPad Pro though, so it'll be fine in a MacBook Air.