Since I received my base 13" MBA yesterday, I have fallen in love with its little i5 1.7 GHz processor. It's running like a charm: lightning fast and power efficient.
I switched from a late 2010 13" equipped with a C2D 2.13 GHz, and did not expect such a difference. I'm very impressed. To think that, initially, I only wanted to try it out for 14 days, now I know the 2010 has to go.
Like the 2010, apps start snappily. Unlike the 2010, the CPU handles running them like it's nothing:
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* CPU usage percentages in this post are expressed on a scale of 0 .. 100%, not 0 .. thread-count * 100% (like 200% on the C2D and 400% on the i5).
I switched from a late 2010 13" equipped with a C2D 2.13 GHz, and did not expect such a difference. I'm very impressed. To think that, initially, I only wanted to try it out for 14 days, now I know the 2010 has to go.
Like the 2010, apps start snappily. Unlike the 2010, the CPU handles running them like it's nothing:
- In Chrome, I have yet to see pages stutter while scrolling (CPU never spikes above 10%*, even in endless Google Reader pages).
- I'm not afraid to run Activity Monitor while on battery anymore. It used to reach 5% just for refreshing a list of processes. Now, it rarely touches 2%.
- For a given 720p movie, VLC used to use 30-35% CPU. Now, 11-12%. That's about 3 times as efficient at software H.264 decoding.
- Playing a 1080p movie (variable 10-20 mbps bitrate), VLC plays it smooth as can be using 15-17% CPU.
- On YouTube, I can finally watch videos for hours on end with ridiculously low CPU usage in HTML5-mode (with YouTube5 on Safari [hardware decoding], *not* Chrome [software]). I can now focus on the videos rather than the little battery icon.
- Plugging in a TV did not seem to make a difference on battery drain. The HD 3000 seems very energy efficient at handling multiple video outputs.
* CPU usage percentages in this post are expressed on a scale of 0 .. 100%, not 0 .. thread-count * 100% (like 200% on the C2D and 400% on the i5).
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