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New macbook Air's compared to 2006 MAcbook Pro

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omegaphil6

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 19, 2002
332
0
Fort Myers Florida
I am using an old beat up 1.83 Core Duo (not even Core 2 Duo) Macbook Pro.

I want to get rid of this clunker and get an AIR as i just use it as a couch machine. I am assuming the 1.4 C2D in the 11 inch wont match or beat the old 1.83, but will the 13 inch 1.86 C2D with the 6MB on-chip L2 be faster and more responsive than this thing?

What i am using right now has these specs:

CPU Speed: 1.83 Core Duo
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
RAM Speed: 667 MHz
RAM: 2GB
Level 1 Cache: 32 kB data, 32 kB instruction
Level 2 Cache: 2 MB on-cpu


Will either the 11 inch or the 13 inch give me significant speed gains over those specs?
 
You'll notice most speed gain from the flash storage, not the CPU.
 
Hi,
I am curious as well, because I have a macbook (the white one) with the core2 cpu and 4 gb ram and I'd like to replace it wi th the MBA 13'' with 4 GB ram.

I am working mainly with Photoshop and I would be glad if so eone could give me some advice.
 
I think that, because of newer processor architectures, higher bus speeds, and the speed of the flash memory, that the 11" model will be pretty close if not slightly better (in some scenarios) than your old MBP.

The 13", especially the 2.13Ghz model, will be faster.
 
instantempo said:
Hi,
I am curious as well, because I have a macbook (the white one) with the core2 cpu and 4 gb ram and I'd like to replace it wi th the MBA 13'' with 4 GB ram.

I am working mainly with Photoshop and I would be glad if so eone could give me some advice.
Click to expand...
Photoshop is very memory-intensive. Check the Activity Monitor, it won't use that much of your CPU, so a slightly lower clocked CPU won't make any difference. The flash storage will be used when you run out of memory though, and swapping to flash is fast, and will almost seem like you have a lot more RAM available. In practice you will definitely not be worse of; everything will be much snappier instead.
 
C64 said:
Photoshop is very memory-intensive. Check the Activity Monitor, it won't use that much of your CPU, so a slightly lower clocked CPU won't make any difference. The flash storage will be used when you run out of memory though, and swapping to flash is fast, and will almost seem like you have a lot more RAM available. In practice you will definitely not be worse of; everything will be much snappier instead.
Click to expand...

Very interesting, C64, Thanks!! The MBA is tempting me :)
 
how about VRAM wise... this thing has a RadeonX1600 with 128MB of discrete VRAM... how would the intel integrated graphics in the new MBA's compare?
 
The 320m is about 2x as fast as the 9400m it replaced, which was about the same speed as the x1600. So basically, a twice as good video card.

I'm in the same boat, only with the c2d model. I'm thinking of selling it, and my dell, which would net me about a grand, and buying an 11" netbook air.
 
do you thinik the 1.4 C2D is fast enough tho? I mean back in 2006 when they first switched to intel the slowest they used was a 1.6Ghz... this seems like a step backwards in speed.
 
C64 said:
Photoshop is very memory-intensive. Check the Activity Monitor, it won't use that much of your CPU, so a slightly lower clocked CPU won't make any difference. The flash storage will be used when you run out of memory though, and swapping to flash is fast, and will almost seem like you have a lot more RAM available. In practice you will definitely not be worse of; everything will be much snappier instead.
Click to expand...

I am no expert, so I am NOT trying to be sarcastic, just curious. Are you suggesting that the flash storage that has replaced the HDD will serve as storage space as well as extra RAM?
 
The MBA will be so much faster than the old MBP in virtually all "normal" situations. Startup, app opening, big files, multitasking, RAM access, and etc.

The CPU will probably do CPU intensive things 25 to 35% faster depending on the task. The extra L2 will help and so will the NAND Flash over even SSDs. I suspect when Jobs said 2X performance he was talking over SSDs. Remember, with an SSD we still have the drive controller at SATA-II which can be saturated, whereas the NAND is going to be fast fast fast.

Add in other features like same workspace in a 13.3" display, faster RAM, and ability to drive up to a 2560 x 1600 display in addition to its native display. The mini display port is an advantage too.

Lightweight, and the former MBA was my favorite Mac ever. I am going to miss the backlit keyboard, but with all of the other features, I cannot pass it up due to the keyboard.

I think you will be happy with the speed and performance. I don't see many downsides to this other than you will lose the express card slot. That slot is pretty valuable to the <9% who use it.
 
Scottsdale said:
The MBA will be so much faster than the old MBP in virtually all "normal" situations. Startup, app opening, big files, multitasking, RAM access, and etc.

The CPU will probably do CPU intensive things 25 to 35% faster depending on the task. The extra L2 will help and so will the NAND Flash over even SSDs. I suspect when Jobs said 2X performance he was talking over SSDs. Remember, with an SSD we still have the drive controller at SATA-II which can be saturated, whereas the NAND is going to be fast fast fast.

Add in other features like same workspace in a 13.3" display, faster RAM, and ability to drive up to a 2560 x 1600 display in addition to its native display. The mini display port is an advantage too.

Lightweight, and the former MBA was my favorite Mac ever. I am going to miss the backlit keyboard, but with all of the other features, I cannot pass it up due to the keyboard.

I think you will be happy with the speed and performance. I don't see many downsides to this other than you will lose the express card slot. That slot is pretty valuable to the <9% who use it.
Click to expand...

The expressCard slot is the most useless thing ever!!!! I would prefer a SD slot ANYDAY!
Looks like the low end 13" model is the sweet spot between the 4 retail-ready models. Ill be headed to the Apple store tomorrow to pick one up.
 
Scottsdale said:
The MBA will be so much faster than the old MBP in virtually all "normal" situations. Startup, app opening, big files, multitasking, RAM access, and etc.

The CPU will probably do CPU intensive things 25 to 35% faster depending on the task. The extra L2 will help and so will the NAND Flash over even SSDs. I suspect when Jobs said 2X performance he was talking over SSDs. Remember, with an SSD we still have the drive controller at SATA-II which can be saturated, whereas the NAND is going to be fast fast fast.

Add in other features like same workspace in a 13.3" display, faster RAM, and ability to drive up to a 2560 x 1600 display in addition to its native display. The mini display port is an advantage too.

Lightweight, and the former MBA was my favorite Mac ever. I am going to miss the backlit keyboard, but with all of the other features, I cannot pass it up due to the keyboard.

I think you will be happy with the speed and performance. I don't see many downsides to this other than you will lose the express card slot. That slot is pretty valuable to the <9% who use it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this, I am in the same situation. It's too bad about the backlit keyboard!! What were they thinking?!!
 
elvineet said:
I am no expert, so I am NOT trying to be sarcastic, just curious. Are you suggesting that the flash storage that has replaced the HDD will serve as storage space as well as extra RAM?
Click to expand...

This is generally how modern operating systems work. When the RAM gets full, rather than just crashing, the computer starts to write stuff to disk (usually called "swap" or "page file") and then reading it back into RAM when needed.

On a magnetic hard drive, it's very slow in comparison to RAM, which is why your computer slows down so much when you fill your RAM.

With flash, the speed difference is less. Flash is still nowhere as fast as DDR3 RAM though, so you would still notice a major slowdown when you max out your RAM, but not as bad as with a traditional hard drive.
 
omegaphil6 said:
how about VRAM wise... this thing has a RadeonX1600 with 128MB of discrete VRAM... how would the intel integrated graphics in the new MBA's compare?
Click to expand...

The new MBA uses the Nvidia 320m, which is considerably faster than the intel integrated graphics, and it also has twice the VRAM. I'm fairly certain that the 320m is a bit better than the graphics in your MBP as well. If you are just couch surfing, you could get away with the 1.4 or 1.6 in the 11", and probably still have at least equal performance to your MBP (C2D was a big improvement over CD), and the 13" models will be a bit faster processor wise. Either way it will feel faster due to the flash storage.
 
alust2013 said:
The new MBA uses the Nvidia 320m, which is considerably faster than the intel integrated graphics, and it also has twice the VRAM.
Click to expand...

I believe that the 256mb of Vram that the 320M uses is actually from the system RAM (That's generally how integrated graphics works). So if you're going to be maxing that out for sure, might want to go with the 4GB option. :)
 
omegaphil6 said:
do you thinik the 1.4 C2D is fast enough tho? I mean back in 2006 when they first switched to intel the slowest they used was a 1.6Ghz... this seems like a step backwards in speed.
Click to expand...
Core 2 Duo processors are quite noticeably faster than Core Duos; you won't have an issue with the speed.
 
Xbench and Geekbench tests put the new 2.13 Air 20 some percent faster than the old core duo 2.0 MBP. The average between the two tests is in the mid 20 percentile. That's processor speed. I think, as others have pointed out, the machine might just feel faster due to the flash drive. Plus if you get the 4 GB ram upgrade that will certainly help. The old Core Duo's topped out at 2 GB and could bog down in Photoshop with several windows open. Photoshop should run faster on the new Airs.
 
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