Mid-2011 MBA to Mid-2013 MBA Worth It?

[boba7523]

Hi everyone,

I have a Mid-2011 13" MBA 1.7ghz Core i5, 4 gb, 128 SSD.

I'm thinking about upgrading to the Mid-2013 1.3 ghz Dual Core i5.

I do Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effect. I noticed performance for these apps are pretty solid on my current Mid-2011.

I'd like to know if there will be a drastic improvement if I upgrade to 2013?

Anyone who's been down this road please chime in!! Cheers

 

[alphaod]

There really won't be a massive improvement, unless you go for perhaps the i7.

 

[ET iPhone Home]

I have a 2011 MBA too and I'm waiting for the upcoming 2014 MBA. I don't believe it's worth upgrading at this time.

 

[Mrbobb]

20% improvement by the number. Real life WON'T be like going from dial-up to broadband.

Want massive improvement, get a PowerMac with 8 processors.

 

[macs4nw]

Hi everyone,
I have a Mid-2011 13" MBA 1.7ghz Core i5, 4 gb, 128 SSD.
I'm thinking about upgrading to the Mid-2013 1.3 ghz Dual Core i5.
I do Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effect. I noticed performance for these apps are pretty solid on my current Mid-2011.
I'd like to know if there will be a drastic improvement if I upgrade to 2013?
Anyone who's been down this road please chime in!! Cheers

You'll get some improvement from the 1.7 processor, but if you want to see an appreciable improvement, you'll have to up the memory to 8GB, or the memory as well as the storage to 256 or 512GB. Without any of the foregoing, the only improvement in the 2013 model you'll get is amazing battery life and 802.11ac WiFi.

 

[Boyd01]

Anyone who's been down this road please chime in!! Cheers [/B]

I went from a 2011 13" i5/4gb/256gb MBA to a 2013 11" i7/8gb/512gb MBA and it was a very nice upgrade. One big difference that has not been mentioned is that you will be going from USB 2 to USB 3.

The AC wifi is also a big upgrade. I get about 30 MB/s transferring files over the LAN.

Battery life improvement might be the biggest difference, I would get 6+ hours on the 2011 13" MBA and now 10+ hours on the 2013 11 MBA.

I would say that CPU is about 30% faster, but that's just a "feeling" and not a benchmark (but I also went up to the i7).

The 512gb SSD is really fast, about 700MB/s. Never benchmarked my 2011 machine, but the difference is noticeable for some things.

Since the most you could get in 2011 was 4gb/256gb, going to 8gb/512gb is also a big upgrade IMO.

Having said all this, for "everyday" type stuff like web browsing, finder operations, e-mail, MS office, etc., I notice very little difference. The most noticeable improvements show in faster Final Cut Pro rendering and lower Logic Pro latency.

 

[calvol]

Nah, same chassis, different proc. I've a 2010 MBA, and waiting till a chassis redesign with better screen, so maybe the 2014.

 

[drsox]

Hi everyone,

I have a Mid-2011 13" MBA 1.7ghz Core i5, 4 gb, 128 SSD.

I'm thinking about upgrading to the Mid-2013 1.3 ghz Dual Core i5.

I do Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effect. I noticed performance for these apps are pretty solid on my current Mid-2011.

I'd like to know if there will be a drastic improvement if I upgrade to 2013?

Anyone who's been down this road please chime in!! Cheers

I have just changed a 2011 i5 4GB RAM 128GB Toshiba SSD MBA for a 2014 i7 8GB RAM 256GB Sandforce MBA.
Much better. Faster response, Faster WiFi, Network shares open snappier.

 

[molala]

Have the same MBA specs as the OP (2011 i5 4gb 128) and very tempted to get the the 2013 i5 4gb 512 mostly for the extra storage space. Is $200 more for i7 and 8gb worth it?

 

[Arelunde]

I run Adobe's Creative Suite 6 (print) on a late 2011 MBP with no problems whatsoever. I DID upgrade the ram to 8 GB and use an external LaCie 1 TB drive for storage and scratch discs. Works just fine.