New Benchmarks Show 13-Inch MacBook Air Rivaling Its MacBook Pro Counterpart

[MacRumors]

Yesterday, we noted some early benchmarks for Apple's newly-revamped MacBook Air models, comparing performance of the new machines to earlier generations of the MacBook Air, the current 13-inch MacBook Pro, and the iPad. The Geekbench benchmarks included in the report, however, only tested processor and memory performance, omitting any benefit that might be gained from the graphics hardware and flash storage used in the new models.

Macworld has now published a more thorough set of benchmarks, offering a somewhat more real-world assessment of overall performance using its Speedmark 6.5 benchmarking suite and examining all four standard configurations of the new MacBook Air. Among the most interesting observations made in the study is that the new 13-inch MacBook Air actually slightly outperforms the current-generation 13-inch MacBook Pro, a machine that offers a significantly faster 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo processor as compared to the MacBook Air's 1.86 GHz version. This comes despite the MacBook Air with its standard 2 GB of RAM being tested against the MacBook Pro with 4 GB of RAM.

The report also points to the significant improvement for the new 13-inch MacBook Air over the previous-generation models, particularly on processor-intensive tasks despite the older models offering equal or faster processors. Macworld attributes this difference to processor throttling imposed by Apple on the earlier models to deal with heat issues, something the company appears to have solved in the new models to allow the processors to run at closer to their full capacity.

When first released in 2008, the MacBook Air suffered from issues with heat, and Apple's approach to fixing the problem was to slow down the processor when things started to heat up, usually during processor intensive tasks. So even though you might have a 1.86GHz processor in your MacBook Air, it might be running much slower at times when you could really use the faster speed.

Looking at our benchmark results, it appears that these latest MacBook Air models (even with processor speeds that are slower than their predecessors) are running closer to their specified speeds, and therefore outperforming the "faster" processors that they replace.

Apple's 11-inch MacBook Air of course does not match the 13-inch model's performance in most areas, due to its slower 1.4 GHz processor, and of course neither machine is able to challenge the 15" MacBook Pro running a higher-end Core i5 processor, but the new 13-inch MacBook Air at least seems to be a worthy competitor to the 13-inch MacBook Pro, as well as the MacBook.

Article Link: New Benchmarks Show 13-Inch MacBook Air Rivaling Its MacBook Pro Counterpart

 

[SidewaysTakumi]

oooh...this opens my eyes a little.

The top of the line 13 air is about the same cost as a top processor 13 mbp with upgraded ram and they are rated about the same on this test. (108 vs. 106)--I know they didn't compare those exact configurations but it still gives a more accurate view.

Hrm...

I'm guessing there would be a similar gap vs a 4gb air and an 8gb mpb?

 

[flopticalcube]

It's all down to the flash.

 

[dereth]

That does it.

Getting the13 incher.

 

[franswa za]

It's all down to the flash.

because it does not support Flash

 

[M87]

It's all down to the flash.

Did you actually read the article?

 

[falconeight]

I love my new MBA 13 I have had a big goofy smile on my face for 3 days now. I don't miss my MBP 13 one bit. I can't remember ever using the DVD drive.

 

[theheadguy]

...Macworld attributes this difference to processor throttling imposed by Apple on the earlier models to deal with heat issues, something the company appears to have solved in the new models to allow the processors to run at closer to their full capacity....

It's unfortunate that this was ever the case. Apple should have fixed the heat issue instead of slowing the computer down.

 

[flopticalcube]

Did you actually read the article?

Completely.

 

[millertime021]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

I'd buy the new a Air over the white MacBook.

 

[slicecom]

It's unfortunate that this was ever the case. Apple should have fixed the heat issue instead of slowing the computer down.

They did... in the new Airs.

 

[KPOM]

It would be interesting to see the performance of the 13" Pro if equipped with the SSD to get an "Apples to Apples" comparison.

 

[Yamcha]

Its because of the SSD Flash Memory.. Not surprised, you will notice the biggest performance boost with an SSD, at least in terms of applications launching faster..

 

[talkingfuture]

That is quite impressive - the future of MacBooks indeed.

 

[KPOM]

It's unfortunate that this was ever the case. Apple should have fixed the heat issue instead of slowing the computer down.

The 13" models have the exact same processors that were in the previous generation (1.86GHz Core 2 Duo and 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo). Apple has offered the 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo since November 2008. However, it finally seems to be running at full speed most of the time.

 

[windels]

why didn't they test the one 2.13 ghz?

 

[maverick808]

They tested the Airs with only 2GB, and all the Pros with 4GB, so most of these results aren't really that useful. They hid that info in the footnote of the first table, they must have known it was an issue.

 

[lshaner]

Does this particular benchmark take disk I/O speed into account?
If so, then it's Apples/Oranges since standard config MBP's don't use SSD -- although SSD is an option. If disk I/O speed *IS* a factor in this benchmark then they should try against MBP with SSD option.

 

[Speedy2]

Come on guys. Please compare Apples to Apples and rerun the test with a 64GB SSD in the 13" Macbook Pro. The model they tested it against has a 5400rpm HDD.

CPU-wise, the MBA is no match for any current MBP.

 

[devburke]

It's all down to the flash.

Its because of the SSD Flash Memory.. Not surprised, you will notice the biggest performance boost with an SSD, at least in terms of applications launching faster..

From the article:

The Geekbench benchmarks included in the report, however, only tested processor and memory performance, omitting any benefit that might be gained from the graphics hardware and flash storage used in the new models.

You’ve made it clear that you commented without reading the article.

 

[Boston007]

Comparing the MBP with an HDD and the MBA with an SSD is complete BS. You can't even compare them, because it's so blatantly obvious the SSD will be hands down faster.

 

[Speedy2]

They tested the Airs with only 2GB, and all the Pros with 4GB, so most of these results aren't really that useful. They hid that info in the footnote of the first table, they must have known it was an issue.

You wouldn't notice 4GB vs 2GB in the most common scenarios. That's why the MBA is faster in that benchmark.

 

[Speedy2]

From the article:



You’ve made it clear that you commented without reading the article.

You quoted the wrong part of the article:

Macworld has now published a more thorough set of benchmarks, offering a somewhat more real-world assessment of overall performance using its Speedmark 6.5 benchmarking suite and examining all four standard configurations of the new MacBook Air.

 

[plinden]

I'm not sure how the final benchmark score is calculated, but it seems the tests that the MBA got the best scores are dependent on the SSD. "Duplicate 1GB file" is fully dependent on the HD/SSD, while the "Unzip 2GB folder" seems to depend on both HD/SSD and CPU.

So for the MBPs replace the 32 by 13 and 68 by 29, say, and recalculate.

 

[patsfan83]

Comparing the MBP with an HDD and the MBA with an SSD is complete BS. You can't even compare them, because it's so blatantly obvious the SSD will be hands down faster.

Why not? Most people don't have SSD drives in their Macbook Pros. Are you just mad that your MBP almost got beat by the Air?