About two weeks ago I purchased a Space Grey 256gb/8gb MBA. It's mainly being used to remote into some VM's, remote into a Raspberry Pi, run a single Parallel's VM (Server 2016) for PowerShell scripting/testing (Active Directory stuff for work), and VS Code. It does all of that perfectly fine. My wife also got the same exact model, but in Gold.
She is replacing a MacBook Pro 13", mid 2012 model. The main purpose of her MBA is to create basic seminar-like video's for aspiring accountants/bookkeepers (She's a business owner, does accounting, taxes, payroll, that kind of stuff).
With all these reviews on the 2018 MBA, not many of them went over things that I cared about. No one did any VM testing (not even basic stuff, like using Parallels), no one did any code compile examples/testing, no one did some basic game testing in BootCamp using a eGPU, etc.
So.... because my wife will be doing quite a bit of editing with 4K content, I wanted to see for myself first hand if the 2018 MBA could handle basic 4K editing. I wanted to see how having a eGPU in Final Cut with the Air would affect export times. I wanted to see if adding a eGPU in BootCamp would allow me to play a triple-A title (like say... Destiny 2, Diablo 3, Hades, Forza Horizon 4, etc.).
Now, if you've read this far, you're probably wondering "Why didn't your wife go with a MBP 13" instead?". My wife is an accountant and shes also very practical. She absolutely will not spend any more money than necessary. She wanted a new computer that had a reliable keyboard, had good battery life, didn't have the useless TouchBar (her words, not mine), could run Final Cut, export 1080p content (4K video is not a priority), and was no more than $1300 after taxes. Microcenter had 2018 MBA 256gb/8gb models for $1,199, so perfect.
So far, she loves it. Everything works great, Final Cut runs just fine, shes more than pleased with it, etc.
BUT... me being me, I read/watch reviews, frequently visit these forums (at times) and I've decided I needed to do some real testing in the areas that I cared about:
1) How does it run games in BootCamp with a eGPU?
2) Does Final Cut show improvements when using a eGPU?
3) How does it handle Parallels?
4) How does it handle Windows Pro 10 and Hyper-V in BootCamp?
I already had a RX 580 sitting around so I went ahead and purchased a OWC Thunderbolt 3 eGPU chassis.
So far I've run a few Final Cut exports using a 2 minute 4K sample vid that had a film grain filter applied.
I plan to do more testing with games and VM stuff over the next week, I'll report back and update the thread as results are concluded.
Test Configuration
------------------------------
Results
------------------------------
iStat Menus - During 4K 5 Minute Exports
CPU Temperatures During 4K 5 Minute Exports
Conclusion / TLDR:
------------------------------
If you plan to use the MBA for video editing, it will most certainly work just fine. But don't expect quick exports. If you plan to do 4K to 1080p conversions.... be prepared to wait a very long time while it crunches away. It only has a dual core processor and the Intel 617 isn't exactly a screaming GPU for transcoding.
If you do some video editing here and there the MBA is more than capable. If you plan to primarily use a MBA for video editing on the go, just make sure you have a eGPU to help with the export times (The Zotac mini box and a small form RX 580 would be perfect when traveling).
For my virtual machine use, things ran just fine. I only had time to test a single VM (Server 2016) in Parallels and it ran just fine. I was able to use VSCode from Parallels and was able to write and run the scripts with any issues. Running multiple VMs I would assume is be a bad idea, maybe I'll test that later. But for a single VM, it ran it just fine.
As for gaming, just get a console (Nintendo Switches are really good consoles by the way).
Overall, I'm really pleased with the 2018 MBA. In my opinion, the screen is perfectly fine, the keyboard is indeed better than the previous iterations, the wedge design is a pleasure to type on, the speakers are awesome, the battery life has been really good. The size and weight of it is great as well.
My only real complaints are the processor core count and the price. I wish it had a quad core instead of a dual core. More cores and threads is always better. Pricing wise, for $999-$1199 (MicroCenter), the base and 256GB 2018 MBA is a great buy. At the normal pricing, I'd really evaluate the money you're spending and recommend just going with the base $1799 13" MBP. If you're going to spend $1400+ you might as well get the Pro.
She is replacing a MacBook Pro 13", mid 2012 model. The main purpose of her MBA is to create basic seminar-like video's for aspiring accountants/bookkeepers (She's a business owner, does accounting, taxes, payroll, that kind of stuff).
With all these reviews on the 2018 MBA, not many of them went over things that I cared about. No one did any VM testing (not even basic stuff, like using Parallels), no one did any code compile examples/testing, no one did some basic game testing in BootCamp using a eGPU, etc.
So.... because my wife will be doing quite a bit of editing with 4K content, I wanted to see for myself first hand if the 2018 MBA could handle basic 4K editing. I wanted to see how having a eGPU in Final Cut with the Air would affect export times. I wanted to see if adding a eGPU in BootCamp would allow me to play a triple-A title (like say... Destiny 2, Diablo 3, Hades, Forza Horizon 4, etc.).
Now, if you've read this far, you're probably wondering "Why didn't your wife go with a MBP 13" instead?". My wife is an accountant and shes also very practical. She absolutely will not spend any more money than necessary. She wanted a new computer that had a reliable keyboard, had good battery life, didn't have the useless TouchBar (her words, not mine), could run Final Cut, export 1080p content (4K video is not a priority), and was no more than $1300 after taxes. Microcenter had 2018 MBA 256gb/8gb models for $1,199, so perfect.
So far, she loves it. Everything works great, Final Cut runs just fine, shes more than pleased with it, etc.
BUT... me being me, I read/watch reviews, frequently visit these forums (at times) and I've decided I needed to do some real testing in the areas that I cared about:
1) How does it run games in BootCamp with a eGPU?
2) Does Final Cut show improvements when using a eGPU?
3) How does it handle Parallels?
4) How does it handle Windows Pro 10 and Hyper-V in BootCamp?
I already had a RX 580 sitting around so I went ahead and purchased a OWC Thunderbolt 3 eGPU chassis.
So far I've run a few Final Cut exports using a 2 minute 4K sample vid that had a film grain filter applied.
I plan to do more testing with games and VM stuff over the next week, I'll report back and update the thread as results are concluded.
Test Configuration
------------------------------
- MacBook Air 2018 - 256GB SSD / 8GB Memory
- OWC Helios FX External Graphics Chassis
- PowerColor RX 580 8GB Graphics Card
- LG 29UM68 Monitor - 2560x1080p Resolution
Results
------------------------------
- Final Cut Pro X
- 2 Minute 4K Sample with Film Grain filter applied
- Vanilla Setup - 3 minutes and 15 seconds.
- With RX 580 - 1 minute and 18 seconds.
- 5 Minute 4K Sample with Film Grain filter applied
- Vanilla Setup - 17 minutes and 59 seconds.
- With RX 580 - 4 Minutes and 6 seconds.
- 2 Minute 4K Sample with Film Grain filter applied
- Fortnite (Mac)
- 2560x1080 - Medium Settings
- Game was displaying a very wide results for FPS, 30-60, constant dips, hiccups, etc. I'm not sure if its cause its the under powered processor or just the Mac version of Fortnite, but it ran like garbage, basically unplayable IMO.
- 2560x1080 - Medium Settings
- Team Fortress II (Mac)
- 2560x1080 - Medium Settings
- 70-100+ FPS in most situations, but it didn't run very smooth. It also felt like it was hiccuping and it was definitely having dips in framerate.
- 2560x1080 - Medium Settings
- Parallels 14
- Single VM running Windows Server 2016
- Started the VM up, made it a domain controller on an isolated network setup. Installed a few services/features; Windows Deployment Services (WDS), DHCP, SQL Express, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT). Edited and ran multiple PowerShell scripts using VS Code and PowerShell ISE. The scripts configured MDT, imported Windows 10 image file for image creation, MDT task sequences creation, WDS boot file creation, etc. I normally run VM's off an external drive but this was configured on the internal drive. Everything ran pretty well, was more than acceptable.
* I plan to make a second VM to test a client deployment from the server, surely this would bring things to a crawl but we'll see.
- Started the VM up, made it a domain controller on an isolated network setup. Installed a few services/features; Windows Deployment Services (WDS), DHCP, SQL Express, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT). Edited and ran multiple PowerShell scripts using VS Code and PowerShell ISE. The scripts configured MDT, imported Windows 10 image file for image creation, MDT task sequences creation, WDS boot file creation, etc. I normally run VM's off an external drive but this was configured on the internal drive. Everything ran pretty well, was more than acceptable.
- Single VM running Windows Server 2016
iStat Menus - During 4K 5 Minute Exports
- Smaller tall section - RX 580
- Wider tall section - Vanilla
CPU Temperatures During 4K 5 Minute Exports
- With RX 580
- Max: 89C
- Average: 88C
- Fan Noise: None, it never came on.
- Vanilla
- Max: 90C
- Average: 88C
- Fan Noise: It came on once it hit 90C and, temps then stayed at 88C. Fan noise wasn't very loud, but you could hear it. I wouldn't consider it annoying or overly loud. Just, normal.
Conclusion / TLDR:
------------------------------
If you plan to use the MBA for video editing, it will most certainly work just fine. But don't expect quick exports. If you plan to do 4K to 1080p conversions.... be prepared to wait a very long time while it crunches away. It only has a dual core processor and the Intel 617 isn't exactly a screaming GPU for transcoding.
If you do some video editing here and there the MBA is more than capable. If you plan to primarily use a MBA for video editing on the go, just make sure you have a eGPU to help with the export times (The Zotac mini box and a small form RX 580 would be perfect when traveling).
For my virtual machine use, things ran just fine. I only had time to test a single VM (Server 2016) in Parallels and it ran just fine. I was able to use VSCode from Parallels and was able to write and run the scripts with any issues. Running multiple VMs I would assume is be a bad idea, maybe I'll test that later. But for a single VM, it ran it just fine.
As for gaming, just get a console (Nintendo Switches are really good consoles by the way).
Overall, I'm really pleased with the 2018 MBA. In my opinion, the screen is perfectly fine, the keyboard is indeed better than the previous iterations, the wedge design is a pleasure to type on, the speakers are awesome, the battery life has been really good. The size and weight of it is great as well.
My only real complaints are the processor core count and the price. I wish it had a quad core instead of a dual core. More cores and threads is always better. Pricing wise, for $999-$1199 (MicroCenter), the base and 256GB 2018 MBA is a great buy. At the normal pricing, I'd really evaluate the money you're spending and recommend just going with the base $1799 13" MBP. If you're going to spend $1400+ you might as well get the Pro.
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