Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Which is the smarter buy: 13" rMBP vs 13" MBA?

yosemit said:
The 13" rMBPs don't have a faster CPU. They do have a better GPU and a better display, at the cost of less battery time and slightly increased weight.
Click to expand...

The 13" MacBook Airs come with a 1.3 GHz Core i5 that turbo boosts to 2.6 GHz. The 13" rMBPs come with a 2.4 GHz to 2.6 GHz Core i5 that turbo boosts to 2.9 or 3.1 GHz.

Granted in the real world that's probably not much. Geekbench scores for the two suggest the rMBP outperforms the MBA by only a few hundred points.

But it's there, however slight.
 
Actually, by Geekbench, only the 2.8GHz i7 13" rMBP is slightly faster than the i7 MBAs. The 2.4GHz and 2.6GHz 13" rMBPs are slightly slower than the i7 MBAs (11" or 13"). The i7 in the MBAs boosts to 3.3GHz.

Of course, the i5 rMBPs are faster than the i5 MBAs.

Anyway, one can hardly feel the difference in most daily scenarios.

notjustjay said:
The 13" MacBook Airs come with a 1.3 GHz Core i5 that turbo boosts to 2.6 GHz. The 13" rMBPs come with a 2.4 GHz to 2.6 GHz Core i5 that turbo boosts to 2.9 or 3.1 GHz.

Granted in the real world that's probably not much. Geekbench scores for the two suggest the rMBP outperforms the MBA by only a few hundred points.

But it's there, however slight.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
yosemit said:
The 13" rMBPs don't have a faster CPU.
Click to expand...

Huh? The rMBP has a full voltage 28w CPU. The MBA has a 15w ULV CPU. There's a big difference.

If you want to measure raw CPU performance, the rMBP will crush the MBA. But these days a lot of people do not require such power, so if all you are doing is browsing the net and listening to music for example, the 'ultrabook' class CPU's found in the MBA are more than enough.

----------
yosemit said:
Actually, by Geekbench, only the 2.8GHz i7 13" rMBP is slightly faster than the i7 MBAs. The 2.4GHz and 2.6GHz 13" rMBPs are slightly slower than the i7 MBAs (11" or 13"). The i7 in the MBAs boosts to 3.3GHz
Click to expand...

It was relevant up until about 2003, but the clock speed of a CPU is a very poor measure of performance.

For example, a 2.4GHz Xeon class CPU will maul the 3.5GHz Haswell based i7 in a PC. Clock speed is irrelevant.
 
It's 28W for CPU and GPU and some other stuff. The GPU of rMBP needs the extra power budget.

For programs that only use CPU, the i7 MBAs are indeed (slightly) faster than the 13" i5 rMBPs. That's measured by benchmarks, not from frequency comparison.

The 15" rMBPs are different because they use 4 CPU cores.

Steve121178 said:
Huh? The rMBP has a full voltage 28w CPU. The MBA has a 15w ULV CPU. There's a big difference.

If you want to measure raw CPU performance, the rMBP will crush the MBA. But these days a lot of people do not require such power, so if all you are doing is browsing the net and listening to music for example, the 'ultrabook' class CPU's found in the MBA are more than enough.
Click to expand...
 
But i7 MBA is slower than i5 2.4 rMBP in multithreading benchmark (CPU only).

yosemit said:
It's 28W for CPU and GPU and some other stuff. The GPU of rMBP needs the extra power budget.

For programs that only use CPU, the i7 MBAs are indeed (slightly) faster than the 13" i5 rMBPs. That's measured by benchmarks, not from frequency comparison.

The 15" rMBPs are different because they use 4 CPU cores.
Click to expand...
 
Dr. McKay said:
What config do you have ? I don't get anywhere near that with mine (i7, 8Gb, 256SSD).
I do use it a lot at my desk, though, with a Bluetooth Magic mouse and a usb TM hard drive connected frequently
I assume, using it without any Bluetooth or usb devices attached, I should get better battery life...
Click to expand...

I've got the base model 13" Air - i5, 4gb, 128SSD. I'm guessing Bluetooth and USB are accounting for your lesser battery life. I mostly write on mine all day (WriterPro, Pages), so I'm not using power hungry apps, and usually no attached peripherals. Are you running Mavericks? That made a big difference for me...
 
That is right.

The bottom-line is, all are good pretty good machines. Their performance are close or very close (excluding the 15" rMBP).

Chatran said:
But i7 MBA is slower than i5 2.4 rMBP in multithreading benchmark (CPU only).
Click to expand...
 
I think the Air is fine for writing programs.

I don't see a difference looking at text.


You could either get an Air/iPad or get a rPro.

Or just an Air.

----------
yosemit said:
The 13" rMBPs don't have a faster CPU. They do have a better GPU and a better display, at the cost of less battery time and slightly increased weight.

Guys, there is no "smarter buy" that fits everyone. The 11" MBA, 13" MBA, and 13" rMBP are all good computers. Which one is the smart buy really depends on your specific need.

I use an i7 11" MBA. CPU-wise, it is as powerful as 13" rMBP. I do like the retina display, but I use an external 24" monitor for 90% of my computer time, and I travel a lot, so it makes sense for me to get the 11". Some people need the insane battery time of the 13" MBA, which also makes sense.
Click to expand...



But if you are using an external monitor, the Air is severely limited in what i can handle.
 
Actually, MBA i7 is a perfect machine for writing programs with an external monitor: It's about the same performance as 13" rMBP. The best thing about 13" rMBP is the retina display, but what's the use of it with an external display? :)

My next plan is to get a 4K external display for MBA.

Andrew Ryan said:
I think the Air is fine for writing programs.

But if you are using an external monitor, the Air is severely limited in what i can handle.
Click to expand...
 
Actually, MBA i7 is a perfect machine for writing programs with an external monitor: It's about the same performance as 13" rMBP. I use 1900x1200 24" displays with it for 90% of time.

The best thing about 13" rMBP is the retina display, but what's the use of retina if the machine is connected to a 24" external display? :)

Andrew Ryan said:
I think the Air is fine for writing programs.

But if you are using an external monitor, the Air is severely limited in what i can handle.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
yosemit said:
Actually, MBA i7 is a perfect machine for writing programs with an external monitor: It's about the same performance as 13" rMBP. The best thing about 13" rMBP is the retina display, but what's the use of it with an external display? :)

My next plan is to get a 4K external display for MBA.
Click to expand...

Awesome. And how exactly have you planned to actually use a 4K display, since you'll need a MP or 15" rMBP (I'm not sure about the 13" rMBP, but I find it unlikely that Iris will suffice) to drive it?

You thought that TB 1-port would do it for you? How cute.
 
Cutie, check this out: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1681560/
"Thumbs up 2012 Macbook Air supports 4K monitor (Seiki @ 3840x2160)"
:)

As I said, all those machines are good. Just pick one that suits you the best. It's not about who has the best toy.

sergiobaschi said:
Awesome. And how exactly have you planned to actually use a 4K display, since you'll need a MP or 15" rMBP (I'm not sure about the 13" rMBP, but I find it unlikely that Iris will suffice) to drive it?

You thought that TB 1-port would do it for you? How cute.
Click to expand...
 
Steve121178 said:
Huh? The rMBP has a full voltage 28w CPU. The MBA has a 15w ULV CPU. There's a big difference.

If you want to measure raw CPU performance, the rMBP will crush the MBA. But these days a lot of people do not require such power, so if all you are doing is browsing the net and listening to music for example, the 'ultrabook' class CPU's found in the MBA are more than enough.

----------



It was relevant up until about 2003, but the clock speed of a CPU is a very poor measure of performance.

For example, a 2.4GHz Xeon class CPU will maul the 3.5GHz Haswell based i7 in a PC. Clock speed is irrelevant.
Click to expand...


The rMBP does not crush the MBA even in raw CPU performance, sure it's higher but not by that much, i think it's a 7% difference between i7s in geekbench, but the GPU in the rMBP is the better of the two, Iris 5100 vs HD 5000.

A part of the increase in TDP in the rMBP goes to the GPU. maybe broadwell will have a good enough GPU at 15W to drive a retina display, maybe they can make enough igzo displays at 13" as well... then you won't have to choose
 
13" rMBP. I see no point in the 13" MBA; if you were to choose between the 11" MBA and the 13" rMBP, I might be favor to the 11".
 
If you do a lot of writing i'd say go for the rMBP, the keyboard is slightly better in my experience, or even the classic MBP which is again, slightly better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back