Microsoft Prepares for Launch of New MacBook Air by Updating Low-Cost Surface Laptop

[Cognizant.]

Well, my current build is stated to last for a few more years. So I am not in a rush to update given the current market conditions.

I mean when you build it yourself, it lasts a long time. My buddy's system I built him 6 years ago can still play most games and handle his editing workflow in Lightroom like a dream and he's also hooked up to 4 monitors. You know the quality of the components you are putting in when building it yourself. And repairing it is also a thousand times easier when something goes wrong.

 

[Danfango]

Yes it does and you don't have to believe me if you don't want to.
It runs Tropico 6 and Cities Skylines and Civilisation VI way better than my MacBook Air. (I only play strategy games, so I haven't tested anything else).
It runs perfectly fine and boots up faster than my MacBook Air. Not really sure what's wrong with your PC.

Well duh they're games. You don't take a motorbike to the supermarket...

Now ... Excel?

 

[mi7chy]

I missed that comment. Calling an Air a glorified ChromeBook is hilarious. The thing literally destroyed my Ryzen 3700X and didn’t even need a fan.

Yep, destroyed software x64 compatibility so very few things run on it.

 

[haysoos123]

I have an 8GB Lenovo Yoga 6 and it runs AAA Cyberpunk 2077, Doom Eternal, etc. while 8GB Macbook Air M1 struggles with crappy Baldur's Gate 3 RPG.

Did a memory utilization comparison clean booting and running same five browser tabs where Linux was best followed by Windows then MacOS last. 4GB would be plenty usable on Linux and mostly usable on clean install of Windows minus the Lenovo bloat.

And how does your 8GB Lenovo Yoga 6 do running Baldur's Gate 3? I find it very hard to believe your 8GB laptop runs Cyberpunk 2077 well to any satisfactory degree. Maybe lowest settings at low resolutions. Doom Eternal runs acceptably on almost anything. 8GB isn't really suitable for modern gaming at all, and no one said that the MacBook Air was ever meant for gaming.

I have an m1 max MacBook Pro as well as a i7 12700K gaming pc, so you can't BS me like some others here who don't own PCs, lol. The m1 has a crazy amount of power for the games it can run, all in a very balanced package.

 

[Cognizant.]

And how does your 8GB Lenovo Yoga 6 do running Baldur's Gate 3? I find it very hard to believe your 8GB laptop runs Cyberpunk 2077 well to any satisfactory degree. Maybe lowest settings at low resolutions. Doom Eternal runs acceptably on almost anything. 8GB isn't really suitable for modern gaming at all, and no one said that the MacBook Air was ever meant for gaming.

I have an m1 max MacBook Pro as well as a i7 12700K gaming pc, so you can't BS me like some others here who don't own PCs, lol. The m1 has a crazy amount of power for the games it can run, all in a very balanced package.

Yes, for the 3 games it can run, it runs them well.

 

[jav6454]

I mean when you build it yourself, it lasts a long time. My buddy's system I built him 6 years ago can still play most games and handle his editing workflow in Lightroom like a dream and he's also hooked up to 4 monitors. You know the quality of the components you are putting in when building it yourself. And repairing it is also a thousand times easier when something goes wrong.

Agreed. The only part that is a PITA with mine is the cooling. Since it's hard tubing water, upgrading the GPU is a PAIN as I have to redo the connection to and from the GPU and not to mention empty and refill the loop.

 

[Cognizant.]

Agreed. The only part that is a PITA with mine is the cooling. Since it's hard tubing water, upgrading the GPU is a PAIN as I have to redo the connection to and from the GPU and not to mention empty and refill the loop.

Hard tubing is prettier, but maintenance is way easier with soft tubing, so I stick with soft tubing. Otherwise it's just a nightmare.

 

[mi7chy]

I have an m1 max MacBook Pro as well as a i7 12700K gaming pc, so you can't BS me like some others here who don't own PCs, lol.

What does a 12700K winter heater have to do with memory utilization on laptops? BG3 runs better on that 8GB Windows laptop than 8GB MBA M1 but not really a surprise since that game has mobile graphics compared to something like Cyberpunk 2077.

 

[jav6454]

Hard tubing is prettier, but maintenance is way easier with soft tubing, so I stick with soft tubing. Otherwise it's just a nightmare.

This time around I chose the "prettier" look. It was a hassle to put in everything and it's a hassle to try to modify anything.

 

[Cognizant.]

This time around I chose the "prettier" look. It was a hassle to put in everything and it's a hassle to try to modify anything.

Yeah, it certainly looks cooler, but I'm always modifying something so it's annoying.

 

[iHorseHead]

Well duh they're games. You don't take a motorbike to the supermarket...

Now ... Excel?

Excel works fine as well. Even on low performance mode. It opens excels even faster than MacBook Air.
If you want to know what sucks then the hinges. I can't open or close the laptop that much and the keys break down as well. Pretty much the build quality sucks.

 

[haysoos123]

What does a 12700K winter heater have to do with memory utilization on laptops? BG3 runs better on that 8GB Windows laptop than 8GB MBA M1 but not really a surprise since that game has mobile graphics compared to something like Cyberpunk 2077.

Never said it had anything to do with memory management, that's just the pc I have. It's a pretty good CPU, but Intel has a lot of work to do to catch up on efficiency. A massive 280 AIO cooler is "sufficient" for it, which says a lot.

Would love to see an actual comparison with how those two laptops do in BG3, since you make the claim but didn't post any numbers. They are still tweaking the optimization of that game and its performance is even changing from patch to patch relative to its memory usage. That's even mentioned in the video you posted. Doesn't change the fact that the m1 air is a great machine that punches well above its weight for what it was designed to do.