I'm in the market for a new laptop. I'm currently considering either a base model 13" rMBP or a similarly priced Air. The retina display is appealing to me, but I'm thinking its not worth it to me. When using the laptop at work it will be hooked up to an external monitor so I won't be using the retina screen. In terms of performance, will there be much difference between the 2.5 i5 of the rMBP and the 2.0 i7 of the air?
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rMBP w/ external monitors
- Thread starter smurray
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According to Geekbench results, the MBA's i7 is actually a bit faster than the 13" rMBP's i5 (6849 points vs 6663).
I know that 2.5 GHz is higher than 2.0 GHz, but clock speed is not all that matters. The MBA's i7 has a higher TurboBoost frequency and more L3 cache, so that may help.
I'm not sure how much a Geekbench result is representative of real-world performance for the tasks you do, but it's pretty safe to assume that any difference between both CPU is minimal.
If the Retina display isn't a big deal for you, go for the Air.
I know that 2.5 GHz is higher than 2.0 GHz, but clock speed is not all that matters. The MBA's i7 has a higher TurboBoost frequency and more L3 cache, so that may help.
I'm not sure how much a Geekbench result is representative of real-world performance for the tasks you do, but it's pretty safe to assume that any difference between both CPU is minimal.
If the Retina display isn't a big deal for you, go for the Air.