How much memory did the MacBook have? When on the road I've been rather happy with my 2011 with 16GB of RAM.I got fed up with my 2010 MacBook Pro running so slow in Lightroom and Photoshop so I switched over to a blazing fast 3.4ghz i7 iMac. I couldn't even imagine trying to go from a Mac Pro to a MacBook Air as a primary machine.![]()
How much memory did the MacBook have? When on the road I've been rather happy with my 2011 with 16GB of RAM.
I was looking at the 13" yesterday and messing about in PS. I was impressed with the speed - I upsampled an image to something like 7000x4000 to try out some of the filters. The performance was nice. I could work with the limited screen size on the road (actually it is better than my MacBook Pro). My only concern is with the 8GB limit on memory.
Actually, the cpu in the MacBook Air is already faster than in the first Mac Pros (look at the single core Cinebench benchmarks where the Air beats a 2009 Mac Pro). I was unable to find a direct comparison to earlier 4-core Mac Pros, but this comparison between a 2006 Mac Pro and a 2012 quad-core Mac mini indicates that a 4-core 2006 Mac Pro is about as fast as a 2-core 2012 mobile CPU. Then you use that the Haswell upgrade on mobile is performance-neutral compared to 2012 and you arrive at the conclusion that even in conditions where the app makes good use of all 4 cores, the Mac Pro and the MacBook Air are comparable. For workloads which rely on fast storage (the Air's SSD is faster than any SATA SSD you can put in a Mac Pro) or on single-core performance, the Air will be faster. But that's not really surprising, given that we're comparing a 5~7-year old machine to a new one.Keep in mind that most of the computing done for digital photography is done by the CPU. That being said, the MBA will NEVER catch up to a quad core Xeon Mac Pro.
Actually, the cpu in the MacBook Air is already faster than in the first Mac Pros (look at the single core Cinebench benchmarks where the Air beats a 2009 Mac Pro). I was unable to find a direct comparison to earlier 4-core Mac Pros, but this comparison between a 2006 Mac Pro and a 2012 quad-core Mac mini indicates that a 4-core 2006 Mac Pro is about as fast as a 2-core 2012 mobile CPU. Then you use that the Haswell upgrade on mobile is performance-neutral compared to 2012 and you arrive at the conclusion that even in conditions where the app makes good use of all 4 cores, the Mac Pro and the MacBook Air are comparable. For workloads which rely on fast storage (the Air's SSD is faster than any SATA SSD you can put in a Mac Pro) or on single-core performance, the Air will be faster. But that's not really surprising, given that we're comparing a 5~7-year old machine to a new one.
Again, I'd be more careful: on single-core benchmarks, the Air beats even the 2009 Mac Pro. The reason behind that is the vast jump in performance introduced by Sandybridge in 2011 which was leaps and bounds faster than its predecessor. Back then, the slowest 2011 MacBook Air was as fast or faster than the highest-end 2010 15" MacBook Pro. Since the Mac Pros never got Sandybridge and will only get Ivybridge later this year, it's not surprising the Air is faster for quite a few workloads.I wasn't aware how old the OP's Pro was...wow I stand corrected.
Although on multithreaded tasks I'd expect the Pro to outdo the Air by a small margin.
Yes. If I were in the OP's shoes, I'd wait for the new revision of the Retina MacBook Pro and get the 15" model with maxed out RAM and storage as needed. I can't wait to see what the battery life on these machines is.The OP's MBP will outperform both the Pro and the Air though.![]()
Hey OP
Do you still have your MBA? If yes, are you using it as your primary machine? And how instant are slider adjustments when you are working in the develop module of LR with your 36mp RAW files? I'm basically wondering if the MBA has enough grunt for LR and 12mp or bigger RAW files?
My personal situation is similiar to yours: I have a 27" iMac (Mid 2011) and an iPad 4. I also use LR 4 to work on 12mp RAW files.
I'm considering to get the new 13" Haswell MBA with 8GB RAM and the i7 CPU as my primary machine. I'd sell the iMac and iPad but also get a TBD so I'd still have a proper screen for editing.
Any input would be very welcome.![]()