VT-d missing on 1.6G Core i5 (11" MBAir)

[wallny]

This Anandtech post says that the 1.6g cpu from 11" Air doesn't have VT-d technology, which can be found on 1.7g i5 or 1.8g i7.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4554/apples-11inch-macbook-air-core-i7-18ghz-review-update

I've googled "VT-d" but those tech terms seem too obscure to me.

What's the real benefit in Parallels Desktop? I do a lot of Windows stuff on PD, is the performance gain (if any) from VT-d noticeable?

I just bought my $1199 11" air a few days ago. Is it worth the hassle to return and re-order a customized one with the 1.8G core i7 cpu, just for the VT-d?

 

[ayeying]

You won't be able to use VT-d stuff anyways. The only advantage for VT-d are for workstations with multiple processors and multiple graphics for direct I/O.

Parallels uses a virtualization, which is VT-x supported.

 

[jsolares]

This Anandtech post says that the 1.6g cpu from 11" Air doesn't have VT-d technology, which can be found on 1.7g i5 or 1.8g i7.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4554/apples-11inch-macbook-air-core-i7-18ghz-review-update

I've googled "VT-d" but those tech terms seem too obscure to me.

What's the real benefit in Parallels Desktop? I do a lot of Windows stuff on PD, is the performance gain (if any) from VT-d noticeable?

I just bought my $1199 11" air a few days ago. Is it worth the hassle to return and re-order a customized one with the 1.8G core i7 cpu, just for the VT-d?

VT-d is an implementation of IOMMU there is no performance gain in virtualization unless you need it (imagine a pci-e card, and having the virtualized OS direct access to it)