Use it for a week...then go back to your previous Mac and then realize how slow your old one was. Much better comparison than using the new Air for a few hours/days and then saying "oh it's faster but not by much"
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MacBook Air 2020 USER reviews
- Thread starter Untapped Potential
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Re: “Volta”
A report:
Volta broken in Catalina...alternatives?
I've wanted to use Volta to limit the processor power to make my MBA 2015 a little cooler and less loud under load. Works perfectly (no undervolting). But in Catalina, the app itself uses almost 100% CPU power which is kind of self defeating. The app developer has yet to respond to my mail, but...
forums.macrumors.com
saw that, I haven't bothered trying yet. don't see any requirement at this time.
Someone was talking about changing the thermal paste on the CPU earlier on here...
Rene recommends the i5 for the majority of users is the tl;dr. Good boost in performance for casual tasks, really hardcore users might see some more utility from i7 though dubious with thermal throttling and the way turbo boost works, and i3 may be fine for really light users but i5 still offers a nice boost
wish he touched on 8 vs 16gb. I really wrestled with this one but I think 8gb is fine for me. I'll probably upgrade in a year or two if A-series chip laptops really are coming along, and I might pour money into upgrades then. 8gb was never an issue with my 2016 nTB either, and the faster RAM speed should help significantly. I also really wanted to stay at $999 ($1099 - $100 for edu for quad core)
512 would be nice to have too, but I don't think I'm going to dual boot this laptop and especially if I keep my nTB. Might also help with migrating from x86 to ARM eventually too - won't be a 'downside' not being able to run windows down the road. Starting fresh, 256 should be sufficient
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thank you rba1989 for this nice and honest review (honest =no sensationalism to generate clicks, like. etc)
it quiets me into my choice : i5/8/512 at 1350 euros with educational price (1475 $ including 20% VAT and 10% Apple tax for Europe 😭)
it quiets me into my choice : i5/8/512 at 1350 euros with educational price (1475 $ including 20% VAT and 10% Apple tax for Europe 😭)
Pros = fast (for most things), great keyboard, lightweight, battery life has been good.
Cons = fan sounds like a jet engine and kicks up to 7000 rpm as soon as I do any video conferencing (which given the current remote working/education is quite a bit), camera quality is terrible...even though technically still 720 like other laptops I've had before.
If the MBP came out tomorrow, I am pretty confident I would return my MBA. The fan/heat thing is kinda a dealbreaker.
Cons = fan sounds like a jet engine and kicks up to 7000 rpm as soon as I do any video conferencing (which given the current remote working/education is quite a bit), camera quality is terrible...even though technically still 720 like other laptops I've had before.
If the MBP came out tomorrow, I am pretty confident I would return my MBA. The fan/heat thing is kinda a dealbreaker.
did you test turbo boost switcher ? http://tbswitcher.rugarciap.com
you can switch on and Off turbo boost. ?... in pro version you can tune up when and on which app it switches on/off the turbo boost
Look to Activity Monitor - are you using a swap file? are you using a big swap file? If so, more memory would probably make your tasks zippier.
Thank you - I had heard about this... I guess it's one of those things where I feel like if I have to intentionally cripple the device so the fan doesn't go nuts when the device hits 100C is this really a device I want to own? Or maybe I'm just being too emotional about it and just need to do what makes the device work best for me. lol.
Thank you - I had heard about this... I guess it's one of those things where I feel like if I have to intentionally cripple the device so the fan doesn't go nuts when the device hits 100C is this really a device I want to own? Or maybe I'm just being too emotional about it and just need to do what makes the device work best for me. lol.
the idea is that maybe your video conferencing software may be able to work without turbo boost then noise
regarding fans. I actually have a MBPR TB 15 2016. Tonight I asked him to zip a large file (35GB) : even with its power and heat sink, after 20 sec it was blowing like a bull
Tried it out. The difference is remarkable!
Will the i5 have improved gpu performance after it throttles or will it mirror the i3 there too?
Yeah, that was something else I was considering, again if I feel the need to. at the moment as I mentioned before, it behaves pretty much the same way every other MacBook I've owned does;
- Mostly silent doing day to day stuff
- fans come on when working hard and mostly inaudible
- when pushing 100% cpu for extended period fans get quite loud.
I do suspect maybe even using liquid metal (thermal paste) on the heat sink might help, but I'm not going to go voiding my warranty until/unless I feel the need to do it. Apple do have a history of doing a really poor thermal paste job on their machines.
From the one photo I've seen, the 2020 MBA is as bad as other MBA's I've opened up in regards to the poor workmanship of the thermal paste application. Too much volume, not enough spread, leads to bad thermal conductivity.
I'm like you - I don't want to void my warranty unless it becomes so annoying I may as well. My i5 arrives tomorrow and I'll post my review here, but I very much appreciate your updates on how you're tracking with your i7. Cheers Thro.
i just received my MBA i5 / 256 / 8 gb and beautiful machine. I'm not a gamer by any means but I play one web based game that my $250 Chromebook runs perfectly and my 2013 MBA plays it good too. But when I try it with my 2020 MBA it was absolutely terrible.
I'm going to sleep on it but I don't see how I can justify a upgraded laptop paying full $1100 retail price that can't run a basic game. Especially when I can get the i3 for $950 or wait for the refurb i3's to come out for ~$850. it just feels wrong.
I don't do anything besides word processing, consume media, run Citrix desktop, and play 1 game that a Chromebook can play. Don't get me wrong, everything else is flawless that I can see but I'll be sleeping on it.
I'm going to sleep on it but I don't see how I can justify a upgraded laptop paying full $1100 retail price that can't run a basic game. Especially when I can get the i3 for $950 or wait for the refurb i3's to come out for ~$850. it just feels wrong.
I don't do anything besides word processing, consume media, run Citrix desktop, and play 1 game that a Chromebook can play. Don't get me wrong, everything else is flawless that I can see but I'll be sleeping on it.
This is a good review. I agree that the chassis isn’t that hot even though the CPU is 100 degrees.
Ah sorry, I misunderstood your post.
You're right though, the Air behaves in the same way as every other MacBook I've owned does - including the Pro ones...