Pay a bit more for i5 on MacBook?

[Abs_p]

I have used 11 inch MacBook Airs since they came out, getting a new one every 2 years. Bought my last one last year and I got the MBP as upgrade but it's too heavy(sigh).

I am very much sold on the 12 inch MacBook because of how close it is to the 11 inch and I get decent discounts and I was thinking of paying a bit more for the "i5" upgrade (I know 4.5w but yea).

Ends up costing me ~$1315+ tax(minus another 5%) if I get it from Apple, thinking if it's worth the extra ~85 that I would have to pay or the base model would be good enough for my very light weight usage (basically chromebook-ish usage)

 

[apiro]

@Abs_p, consensus is that upgrade to i5 alone is not worth it. Only if you need 512 SSD.

 

[ZapNZs]

@Abs_p, consensus is that upgrade to i5 alone is not worth it. Only if you need 512 SSD.

Agreed. It is the same physical chip, with slightly improved efficiency. The real-world performance differences seem to be limited, as do the differences in synthetic benchmarks. It makes perfect sense if one needs more than 256 GB of storage though.

 

[EugW]

Check out my performance thread here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...uns-of-cinebench.2073415/page-2#post-25271927

 

[Abs_p]

Okay now that confuses me a bit more on whether I should have just kept the MacBook Pro or use the MacBook Air for a bit longer.
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@Abs_p, consensus is that upgrade to i5 alone is not worth it. Only if you need 512 SSD.

I dont get it, what's the rationale behind that consensus? :|

 

[EugW]

Okay now that confuses me a bit more on whether I should have just kept the MacBook Pro or use the MacBook Air for a bit longer.
[doublepost=1511284238][/doublepost]

I dont get it, what's the rationale behind that consensus? :|

See above graph. Sustained performance improvement from m3 (wood table) to i5 is quite small. The main reason to get the i5 is because that's the only way to get a 512 GB SSD. Apple only offers 256 GB for the m3 options.

The performance difference being small shouldn't come as a big surprise since at least for the default wattage, the i5 is rated at 1.2 GHz / 3.2 GHz whereas the m3 is rated at 1.1 GHz / 3.0 GHz. It's true that Apple runs these chips slightly higher, but the performance delta should be in the same ballpark.

Theoretical performance difference is 3.2/3.0 = 6.7%, and that gets reflected in Geekbench scores (m3 is ~7050 and i5 is ~7525). However, in the real world, the difference may even be smaller than that, as evidenced by that graph. In that graph, the performance difference is well under 5%, which is negligible. In fact, for every day type usage, most people would have a hard time telling apart two machines with less than 10% CPU speed difference.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

Too much computer geek to confuse the poor poster here. All 2017 MacBooks are fabulous in performance. Even the entry level M3 is great but limited by a 256GB of storage which is OK for some but not good if you keep photos, music & HD / 4K video on your MacBook along with iPhone back ups.
Buy the i5 if you want the 512GB of storage. That's what I did as i was always fighting with my old MacBook with its limited storage. For me, just like my new iPhone X with a 256GB option, it's truly wonderful not having to worry about filling my devices plus they are so speedy.
Bottom line, if you plan on downloading video or putting your iPhone 4K videos which you may over the next year on your MacBook, go for 512GB. Apple experience has taught me that you can never have too much storage, but my gosh, you certainly can have not enough and that truly sucks!!!
Go for the i5 MacBook - you'll love it. In fact i'm just editing audio on mine in Adobe Audition and my gosh, it's a slick beautiful professional little device. We used to audio edit on desktops in the studio and this MacBook is beautiful!

 

[EugW]

Too much computer geek to confuse the poor poster here. All 2017 MacBooks are fabulous in performance. Even the entry level M3 is great but limited by a 256GB of storage which is OK for some but not good if you keep photos, music & HD / 4K video on your MacBook along with iPhone back ups.
Buy the i5 if you want the 512GB of storage. That's what I did as i was always fighting with my old MacBook with its limited storage. For me, just like my new iPhone X with a 256GB option, it's truly wonderful not having to worry about filling my devices plus they are so speedy.
Bottom line, if you plan on downloading video or putting your iPhone 4K videos which you may over the next year on your MacBook, go for 512GB. Apple experience has taught me that you can never have too much storage, but my gosh, you certainly can have not enough and that truly sucks!!!
Go for the i5 MacBook - you'll love it. In fact i'm just editing audio on mine in Adobe Audition and my gosh, it's a slick beautiful professional little device. We used to audio edit on desktops in the studio and this MacBook is beautiful!

In my case, 512 GB is too little for a primary computer, but even 256 GB is more than enough for a secondary computer.

Thus, I bought an iMac with 1 TB SSD, and a MacBook with 256 GB SSD.

Everyone's needs are different.

 

[Bart Kela]

For the proposed usage case (Chromebook like activities), you are better off buying the base model with 256GB SSD, forget the processor upgrade, and save a few bucks.

 

[Abs_p]

See above graph. Sustained performance improvement from m3 (wood table) to i5 is quite small. The main reason to get the i5 is because that's the only way to get a 512 GB SSD. Apple only offers 256 GB for the m3 options.

The performance difference being small shouldn't come as a big surprise since at least for the default wattage, the i5 is rated at 1.2 GHz / 3.2 GHz whereas the m3 is rated at 1.1 GHz / 3.0 GHz. It's true that Apple runs these chips slightly higher, but the performance delta should be in the same ballpark.

Theoretical performance difference is 3.2/3.0 = 6.7%, and that gets reflected in Geekbench scores (m3 is ~7050 and i5 is ~7525). However, in the real world, the difference may even be smaller than that, as evidenced by that graph. In that graph, the performance difference is well under 5%, which is negligible. In fact, for every day type usage, most people would have a hard time telling apart two machines with less than 10% CPU speed difference.

Ahh..I didn't know that! Makes sense now.

I knew the i5 wasn't gonna be the same as on MBP due to the 4.5W TDP but I didnt know they were THAT close.
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Too much computer geek to confuse the poor poster here. All 2017 MacBooks are fabulous in performance. Even the entry level M3 is great but limited by a 256GB of storage which is OK for some but not good if you keep photos, music & HD / 4K video on your MacBook along with iPhone back ups.
Buy the i5 if you want the 512GB of storage. That's what I did as i was always fighting with my old MacBook with its limited storage. For me, just like my new iPhone X with a 256GB option, it's truly wonderful not having to worry about filling my devices plus they are so speedy.
Bottom line, if you plan on downloading video or putting your iPhone 4K videos which you may over the next year on your MacBook, go for 512GB. Apple experience has taught me that you can never have too much storage, but my gosh, you certainly can have not enough and that truly sucks!!!
Go for the i5 MacBook - you'll love it. In fact i'm just editing audio on mine in Adobe Audition and my gosh, it's a slick beautiful professional little device. We used to audio edit on desktops in the studio and this MacBook is beautiful!

Lol no. I understand the numbers! I wasn't aware of the fact that 512GB was only offered with i5 and hence the question. Never bothered with that much storage because I have very light usage and have a very fast NAS server and a decent external HDD for my storage needs!

I haven't had harder time to making a decision as much as I have had with the MacBook vs MacBook Pro. lol. Even that 1LB of weight makes a LOT of difference.
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For the proposed usage case (Chromebook like activities), you are better off buying the base model with 256GB SSD, forget the processor upgrade, and save a few bucks.

The base model would cost me $1089 via my credit card's price protection policy. I think that's what I am going for!

 

[canuckRus]

I have used 11 inch MacBook Airs since they came out, getting a new one every 2 years. Bought my last one last year and I got the MBP as upgrade but it's too heavy(sigh).

I am very much sold on the 12 inch MacBook because of how close it is to the 11 inch and I get decent discounts and I was thinking of paying a bit more for the "i5" upgrade (I know 4.5w but yea).

Ends up costing me ~$1315+ tax(minus another 5%) if I get it from Apple, thinking if it's worth the extra ~85 that I would have to pay or the base model would be good enough for my very light weight usage (basically chromebook-ish usage)

Basic MacBook a joy for its light weight factor alone compared my previous 11"Air.

 

[EugW]

I knew the i5 wasn't gonna be the same as on MBP due to the 4.5W TDP but I didnt know they were THAT close.

Actually, Apple runs them slightly hotter and thus slightly faster than the default specs.

BTW, there are two m3 chips and two i5 chips for Kaby Lake this year.

m3-7Y30 (1.0 / 2.6 GHz)
m3-7Y32 (1.1 / 3.0 GHz)
i5-7Y54 (1.2 / 3.2 GHz)
i5-7Y57 (1.2 / 3.3 GHz)

Apple uses the faster m3 and the slower i5 (both in bold), which is why they are so close (7%). If Apple had used the slower m3 and the faster i5, then the difference in performance would have been much greater (27%).

P.S. This has been reflected in Apple's choice of review machines. There is a pretty significant boost in m3 speed this year vs. last year. Last year Apple shipped the m5 for reviews. This year they shipped the m3 for reviews, and this m3 is actually faster than last year's m5.