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Lab tests: Build-to-order Core i7 MacBook Airs
#2
joejackdad 
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Posted 29 July 2011 - 04:18 PM
Why would a newer game perform better than an older game?
#3
Jason Snell
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Posted 29 July 2011 - 04:22 PM
We believe it's because newer games have been built to take advantange of features of this new hardware, while older games (developed before the hardware was released, or using development tools that were not optimized for the new hardware) simply don't.
#4
cycomachead
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Posted 29 July 2011 - 04:23 PM
Any info on the impact of battery life?
#5
Jason Snell
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Posted 29 July 2011 - 04:27 PM
cycomachead, on 29 July 2011 - 04:23 PM, said:
Any info on the impact of battery life?
We haven't run battery tests on the BTOs yet. There are only so many people in the Macworld Lab, and there's other testing ahead of it... hopefully it will come.
#6
oceans777
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Posted 29 July 2011 - 04:56 PM
I had the non-backlit kb MB Air 13" BTO and have had my new backlit kb 13" BTO Core i7, 1.8 GHz for about five days now. Battery life is definitely minimally affected if at all - I don't know how but I can still run the new MBA for hours and hours at almost full bright on screen and keyboard. I don't notice any decline at all.
#8
pawhite524
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Posted 29 July 2011 - 05:51 PM
I like the new bar graphs giving the percentage improvements and am glad you kept the other graphs as well. Easy reading, mmmm...
#9
flybynight
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Posted 29 July 2011 - 05:57 PM
Another vote of thanks for the BTO benchmarks, as well as to say that I like the % improvement charts. Very helpful info! Keep up the good work!
#10
John__B
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Posted 29 July 2011 - 06:38 PM
Thanks for the BTO benchmarks, guys! For whatever reason, I expected a larger impact with the 1.8GHz i7 ugprade, especially in the Cinebench CPU score. I think that might just be $100 better put toward a Thunderbolt Display instead.
#12
mariorelvas
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Posted 30 July 2011 - 02:46 AM
Is it correct to conclude that the 11" upgraded to i7 is faster than the 13" standard i5?
Thanks,
Thanks,
#13
iAustralian
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Posted 30 July 2011 - 04:04 AM
Hello
Out of curiosity can you let us know which of these models use the Samsung (faster) or Toshiba (slower) Flash drives. Might this explain the performance decrease on certain tests with the 11 inch MacBook Air?
Out of curiosity can you let us know which of these models use the Samsung (faster) or Toshiba (slower) Flash drives. Might this explain the performance decrease on certain tests with the 11 inch MacBook Air?
#14
KPOM
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Posted 30 July 2011 - 05:11 AM
Nice results, and easy to read graphs. Use the graphs in future lab reports. I think the main reason for the much bigger CPU boost in the 11" is that the 1.6GHz Core i5 turbo boosts only to 2.1GHz in dual core mode, while the 1.7GHz boosts to 2.4GHz and the Core i7 boosts to 2.6GHz. The extra 1MB cache has some impact, but not a lot of programs today are fully optimized for multicore usage and hyper threading (which would tend to keep the CPUs at the base speed), so the processor frequently uses turbo boost. I did a little test in Windows 7 in mine using Handbrake (and CPU-z to monitor clock speed), and during encoding it oscillated between 1.8GHz and 2.6GHz throughout, spending roughly half the time in each mode.
