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Don't Buy The First MBA With Sandy Bridge?

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bella92108

macrumors 68000
Mar 1, 2006
1,610
0
henrikrox said:
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Heh. Apple can do that. Who cares about gpu power in a MBA. if you want a good gpu buy a mbp;)
Click to expand...

yeah no sh%$ I dunno why people here who are power users act like they're going to do their power work on a MBA. The MBA will not be a power computer anytime soon.... so if someone claiming to be a power user says hold out for the "next gen" then they're obviously not a power user.
 
BlackMax

BlackMax

macrumors 6502a
Jan 14, 2007
901
0
North Carolina
I read a prediction somewhere (I think it was MacWorld) that if Apple moved to the Sandy Bridge architecture on the next MacBooks/MacBook Airs they would probably still include a discrete GP with them because of the anticipated poor graphics processing of the IGP on the first version of Sandy Bridge.

Sent for my iPad
 
A

AMDGAMER

macrumors 6502
Jan 4, 2011
270
0
The macbook air snaps....its a strong laptop for its size, no doubt. If you want power, MBPRO or a laptop like an alienware M15X/17X if you want to talk crazy GPU power and dual SSDs etc...The GPU in my desktop can run circles around any GPU in any mac but why COMPARE? two different things.
 
2

2IS

macrumors 68030
Jan 9, 2011
2,938
433
BlackMax said:
I read a prediction somewhere (I think it was MacWorld) that if Apple moved to the Sandy Bridge architecture on the next MacBooks/MacBook Airs they would probably still include a discrete GP with them because of the anticipated poor graphics processing of the IGP on the first version of Sandy Bridge.

Sent for my iPad
Click to expand...

That sounds a lot more like guess work than anything. I highly doubt Apple is going to use SB AND a separate GPU on a MBA considering where they want to go with it, which is smaller, lighter, more efficient. On the MBP it would make a bit more sense because they have quite a bit more room to play with. It would also add more separation between their product lines, which may or may not be a good thing.
 
henrikrox

henrikrox

macrumors 65816
Feb 3, 2010
1,219
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Good point. The MBA is all about battery life, portability etc. I wouldn't be suprised if the new MBA will have intel gpu. Which is more then good enough. Really. People can't blame the MBA for not having a good gpu. If you want to game the MBA isn't for you.
 
lewdvig

lewdvig

macrumors 65816
Jan 1, 2002
1,416
75
South Pole
The ULV SB notebooks are not due until late spring early summer. They won't support OpenCL.

My guess is the MBA gets a backlit kb and Ivy Bridge for Christmas 2011 or January 2012.

Using the Alienware M11x as an example: it was updated from C2D to i7. The C2D is actually faster according to people on NBR that have both.

So I would not jump to conclusions before we know what ULV SB is all about. There could be all kind of compromises such as 2000 series IGP vs 3000. In which case the 320m would be faster.

Who knows what Nvidia will have by the time Ivy Bridge and new MBAs come out. Also the license agreement between INtel and Nvidia relate to existing patent violations on both sides. So Intel will be paying for technologies already in their chips that Nvidia claims patents to. There won't be Nvidia GPUs on Intel dies. If Intel wanted to do that they would just buy Nvidia.
 
W

weckart

macrumors 603
Nov 7, 2004
5,976
3,697
P

pandamonia

macrumors 6502a
Nov 15, 2009
585
0
weckart said:
I don't see an ULV cpu in those tests. How does the IGP function when underclocked for thermal reasons? Does it still 'own' the 320M.

Jury's still out on this one.
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The CPU can be run at a much higher TDP since the chipset isnt sucking down power for the GPU. The new CPU is also extremely power smart it makes C2D look like an antique. It also has turbo boosting which means it can clock up significantly to a set TDP pushing out as much power as it can within its thermal parameters.

Lets face it the Air isnt a gaming rig and if your playing casual games then its going to be more than enough.

Increased battery life which could even double the current model. Windows PC's are getting 6-7 hours on Sandy!

Faster and smarter CPU which leaves C2D for dust.

couple this with the new double density SSD NAND and your looking at a 256gb Air for the price of the current 128GB model.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1506/1/

25w TDP will have FULL power GPU and 17w will have max 200mhz less than the 25w TDP model. This TDP includes the Southbridge CPU and GPU also! its WAY better than C2D
 
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Hellhammer

Hellhammer

Moderator emeritus
Dec 10, 2008
22,164
582
Finland
weckart said:
I don't see an ULV cpu in those tests. How does the IGP function when underclocked for thermal reasons? Does it still 'own' the 320M.

Jury's still out on this one.
Click to expand...

Likely not. ULV chips have clock speed of 350MHz and LV chips have 500MHz. Normal chips have 650MHz so I would expect there to be a noticeable difference.
 
F

foiden

macrumors 6502a
Dec 13, 2008
809
13
Gaming isn't the only use of the GPU. And even with some of those tests, once you start using higher end graphics, the IGP still has problems. It's only better for the lower end graphics stuff.

However, the bigger use of GPU is probably Audio/video stuff (that includes 3D transforms) like iMovie/Final Cut express/ and the like. Those jump quickly to higher end graphic demands.

Sure, the Air is made mainly for the road warrior kind of stuff. But then again, if that was the case, they'd hardly ever need to release an MBA that is neither the Stock 11" or 13" models. There would be no real point to releasing anything other than versions of those models with higher SSD capacity. The default stuff handles all your quick typical road tasks that people argue the point with. So obviously some of the heavier-lifting tasks were in the plans for these non-stock machines.
 
K

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,311
8,324
pandamonia said:
It wont make much difference on an AIR
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To be fair, it was only on the low detail tests where the Sandy Bridge slightly outperformed the 320m. On the medium detail tests, the results were reversed. What that suggests is that the low detail tests were benefitting from the faster CPU.

I suspect that the Sandy Bridge MacBook Air will have only the integrated graphics. Its primary purposes are to be small, light, and "powerful enough." A ULV Arrandale Core i3/i5/i7 wouldn't have met the last criterion, but it seems that a ULV Sandy Bridge i5 or i7 might.
 
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weckart

macrumors 603
Nov 7, 2004
5,976
3,697
KPOM said:
I suspect that the Sandy Bridge MacBook Air will have only the integrated graphics. Its primary purposes are to be small, light, and "powerful enough." A ULV Arrandale Core i3/i5/i7 wouldn't have met the last criterion, but it seems that a ULV Sandy Bridge i5 or i7 might.
Click to expand...

I wasn't expecting anything other than the i3 for the Airs. Would an i5 even be feasible?
 
xlii

xlii

macrumors 68000
Sep 19, 2006
1,867
121
Millis, Massachusetts
If you are skittish about buying Sandy Bridge when it first comes out... don't. Wait a few weeks... let the early adopters do the testing for you. They will tell you if the machine has problems or if it's a sweet machine.
 
A

altecXP

macrumors 65816
Aug 3, 2009
1,115
1
bella92108 said:
I love these threads...

I have a iMac 3.2 quad core with 16GB RAM, and my MB Air runs circles around it in times of everyday use\speed. SSD affects performance. For my use, a better processor doesn't.
Click to expand...

Then why did you buy a quad with 16GB of ram is the CPU makes no difference ein what you do?. Also why not just spend $150 on a good SSD for your desktop?
 
iRun26.2

iRun26.2

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Aug 15, 2010
2,123
344
bella92108 said:
yeah no sh%$ I dunno why people here who are power users act like they're going to do their power work on a MBA. The MBA will not be a power computer anytime soon.... so if someone claiming to be a power user says hold out for the "next gen" then they're obviously not a power user.
Click to expand...

But you must understand that 'power users' still use email, surf the web, watch video, and use MS Office like everybody else. When 'power users' are away from their 'more powerful machine' they still want basic computing power and, I would argue, a machine capable of at least running the same software they would normally use on their 'more powerful machine'. Even if it is slower on a MBA, still being able to take it with you (in a very compact package) make a MBA a very useful tool for the 'power user'.
 
W

wisty

macrumors regular
Feb 18, 2009
219
0
Ivy may be as late as 2012. Ouch.

As far as I can see, Apple has 4 options:
1. Skip yet another generation of chips. Why did they even bother going x86?
2. Discrete graphics! Some people will hate this idea, and I'm not even sure if it's possible due to space / TPD considerations.
3. Go AMD - Llano might be capable, but I've really no idea.
4. An early update to Sandy, taking a hit on GPU, and losing OpenCL for a generation. Update to Ivy a little later than they would otherwise do.
 
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