Can New AS Macbook Air Handle 40+ Zoom Windows?

[polyun7]

I'm a teacher and debating between the Macbook Air and Macbook Pro. The question I have has to when using Zoom and other open windows. When I use Zoom I typically have 40 simultaneous student screens displayed for 90 minutes at a time. Using a 2020 macbook pro I noticed the fan turning on occasionally but when I used a 2020 macbook air for the class the fans ran constantly.

The question I have is whether you think I will have the same issue with fans running on the new AS Macbook Air? Or should I look into buying an AS Macbook Pro?

 

[casperes1996]

The Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Air doesn’t even have a fan, so that issue certainly won’t be there. It will be silent at all times.

I will say this though; Have a look at your memory pressure. You will need to get the memory you need at time of purchase so if you need 16GB and not just 8 remember to get that

 

[polyun7]

I should have rephrased that. Do you think it throttle down the performance of the macbook air so that the video displays will stutter or freeze?

 

[casperes1996]

I should have rephrased that. Do you think it throttle down the performance of the macbook air so that the video displays will stutter or freeze?

Assuming Zoom makes a universal binary I’d say there’s absolutely 0 risk of that. Assuming they keep only an x86 binary that will have to run under Rosetta there is some risk, but I’d say it’s extremely small - like <5%. But it’s a guesstimate. It looks more than enough powerful to handle it all even with a significant reduction in performance from translation, I just don’t want to rule it out entirely. But I would find it highly improbable it would have issues with that workload even if it does throttle the CPU clocks down substantially it should still run no problem

 

[polyun7]

Assuming Zoom makes a universal binary I’d say there’s absolutely 0 risk of that. Assuming they keep only an x86 binary that will have to run under Rosetta there is some risk, but I’d say it’s extremely small - like <5%. But it’s a guesstimate. It looks more than enough powerful to handle it all even with a significant reduction in performance from translation, I just don’t want to rule it out entirely. But I would find it highly improbable it would have issues with that workload even if it does throttle the CPU clocks down substantially it should still run no problem

Awesome, thanks for your reply!

 

[thingstoponder]

I should have rephrased that. Do you think it throttle down the performance of the macbook air so that the video displays will stutter or freeze?

What kind of CPU and RAM usage are you seeing in activity monitor? That should tell a lot.

 

[acidfast7_redux]

I'm a teacher and debating between the Macbook Air and Macbook Pro. The question I have has to when using Zoom and other open windows. When I use Zoom I typically have 40 simultaneous student screens displayed for 90 minutes at a time. Using a 2020 macbook pro I noticed the fan turning on occasionally but when I used a 2020 macbook air for the class the fans ran constantly.

The question I have is whether you think I will have the same issue with fans running on the new AS Macbook Air? Or should I look into buying an AS Macbook Pro?

Those are rookie numbers. We do 350 students in parallel.

Even my 2012 rMBP didn't have a problem.

 

[Yebubbleman]

I'm a teacher and debating between the Macbook Air and Macbook Pro. The question I have has to when using Zoom and other open windows. When I use Zoom I typically have 40 simultaneous student screens displayed for 90 minutes at a time. Using a 2020 macbook pro I noticed the fan turning on occasionally but when I used a 2020 macbook air for the class the fans ran constantly.

The question I have is whether you think I will have the same issue with fans running on the new AS Macbook Air? Or should I look into buying an AS Macbook Pro?

If you need to pull the trigger on something now, I'd just go Pro to be safe. The difference between an M1 Air with xGB of RAM and xGB/TB of SSD and an M2 2-port 13" Pro with that same specs is $150. If you need to pull the trigger now and are unsure, I'd just spend the $150. Otherwise, I'd wait until more real-world tests are conducted. There will be TONS of people conducting these tests as soon as they are in people's hands.

 

[casperes1996]

Those are rookie numbers. We do 350 students in parallel.

Even my 2012 rMBP didn't have a problem.

Yeah - I have a 2014 15" and at peak I've been at 500 people, which is the maximum Zoom limit for my university's Zoom account. But how tough it is on the machine depends on viewing mode. If you just show one person like a lecturer that's easier than trying to view all participants' cams. Though I've never dropped frames I have had fan spikes

 

[pshufd]

I don't think that the number of people on the conference matters as video and audio are served off the cloud (Zoom runs, at least partially on Oracle Autonomous Database Cloud). If fan noise is a problem, I recommend using an external microphone and external speakers.

I have used 2014 and 2015 MacBook Pro 15s for Zoom conferences, a 2015 MacBook Pro 13, iPhone and iPad as well. The 13 running only Zoom is okay. The iPhone and iPad - no problems. On the MacBook Pro 15s, it depends on what other things I'm running.

Adding recording on a conference adds to the load.

I think that the best way to use Zoom is with a tower desktop but schools aren't buying Mac Pros for their teachers.