Re:MacBook Air supplies dwindle ahead of WWDC, Intel CPU ref...
by rz2k on Saturday May 18, 2013 @11:20AM
(#5729198)
It may also be worth noting that the difference in power is significantly greater than that, but still probably is not discernible in most situations.
The MBA has a 2-core i7-3667U-2.0GHz while the rMBP has a 4-core i7-3615QM-2.3GHz. There may be a "540%" difference between the highest performance rMBP (4x2.7) and the highest performance MBA (2x2.0) when naïvely considering just clock speed and cores.
However, while you have a point about the weight difference having shrunk to only 300 grams (or 1/2 lb) with the retina version of the MBP, I think the performance difference won't be noticeable to people who aren't performing 'exotic' and computationally intensive tasks.
The new integrated GPU's power and greater energy efficiency may make a retina display likely on the Air, so I see the segmentation becoming pretty obvious and increasingly based on specific users' profiles rather than budget alone. For example: are you more interested in portability and probably battery life; or, are you doing some compiling or scientific computing away from your desk?
Re:MacBook Air supplies dwindle ahead of WWDC, Intel CPU ref...
by mgcross on Saturday May 18, 2013 @11:41AM
(#5729263)
I think only the 15" is available with the 4-core. (And more RAM. And dedicated graphics.) But a 15" laptop now feels to me like what a 17" used to - unwieldy.
The MBA has a 2-core i7-3667U-2.0GHz while the rMBP has a 4-core i7-3615QM-2.3GHz. There may be a "540%" difference between the highest performance rMBP (4x2.7) and the highest performance MBA (2x2.0) when naïvely considering just clock speed and cores.
However, while you have a point about the weight difference having shrunk to only 300 grams (or 1/2 lb) with the retina version of the MBP, I think the performance difference won't be noticeable to people who aren't performing 'exotic' and computationally intensive tasks.
The new integrated GPU's power and greater energy efficiency may make a retina display likely on the Air, so I see the segmentation becoming pretty obvious and increasingly based on specific users' profiles rather than budget alone. For example: are you more interested in portability and probably battery life; or, are you doing some compiling or scientific computing away from your desk?