13" MBA 2.13 faster than 2008 15" MBP 2.53?

[fyrefly]

I'm not basing it solely on megahertz. It's just the case that the 2.53 is faster from everything I've seen. Am i wrong?

Not at all.

The two processor are from the same family even. Same Gen Core2Duo. Same 45mn manufacturing technology. Same 6MB L2 Cache. The P9500 is just *faster* than the SL9600.

Where people are getting these Mhz myths from, I don't know - that would apply is you were talking about a 2nd Gen MBP with a Yonah CoreDuo at 2.13Ghz, but not when talking about two very similar processors apart from clock speed.

There's also the 9600GT to think about. It's faster than the 320m.

Is the Poster complaining about battery life running the 9600 constantly, or the 9400m? That'll have an effect on battery life but also performance. (I'd say if you're only getting 3h on word processing, you don't need the 9600GT running).

I don't get all these people saying the MBA is faster than MBPs. You gotta compare *to  Yeah, the MBA is awesome, I've owned a RevA, RevB and I'm trying out a RevD now. But the revD is so speedy 'cause of the SSD (and to a lesser degree the 320M). However, any current MBP with a decent SSD will perform better than the MBA, since they all have faster processors and the same or better graphics.

That said, there are certainly other draws for the MBA (weight being a big one - that's why I'm such a huge fan).

 

[Glaxx]

I'm seriously considering replacing my '08 unibody 2.53Ghz MBP with a new 2.13Ghz 13" MBA, but want to make sure I'm not taking a step backwards from a processor perspective.

I can't find a good comparison online, and I know it's not just a matter of comparing clock speeds.

Can anyone tell me if I'll be "upgrading?"

Thanks!

My personal anecdote..

I switched from the late '08 2.4GHz MBP like yours to the current 13" MBA 1.86GHz w/4GB RAM. The switch for me has been amazing. The MBA feels much faster than my old laptop at just about every task I throw at it. It launches apps extremely quickly. The only areas I can see a difference are in movie editing (iMovie is definitely not as quick) and in Photoshop (it runs nearly the same, though, just gets slow with very big files >30mb or so).

For me, the switch was definitely an upgrade. I lost lots of weight and size, which increases portability greatly. I kept about the same performance overall for what I do along with the same screen resolution.

Maybe that can help you decide! I definitely say go for a MBA. You'll love it.

 

[gwsat]

I switched from the late '08 2.4GHz MBP like yours to the current 13" MBA 1.86GHz w/4GB RAM. The switch for me has been amazing. The MBA feels much faster than my old laptop at just about every task I throw at it. It launches apps extremely quickly. The only areas I can see a difference are in movie editing (iMovie is definitely not as quick) and in Photoshop (it runs nearly the same, though, just gets slow with very big files >30mb or so).

For me, the switch was definitely an upgrade. I lost lots of weight and size, which increases portability greatly. I kept about the same performance overall for what I do along with the same screen resolution.

Maybe that can help you decide! I definitely say go for a MBA. You'll love it.

I have found than my 13 inch Ultimate MBA runs Windows 7 and a couple of apps in VMware Fusion's Unity mode simultaneously with 6 OS X apps about as fast as my 17 inch Santa Rosa 2.4Ghz MBP with 6GB of RAM does. I think the MBA compensates for its slower chip speed with its ultra fast flash memory, 6GB of RAM cache compared to 4GB on the MBP, and a 1.07GHz bus speed compared to 800MHz on the MBP.