First week with Macbook Air: Core Shutdown Tests

[LinMac]

I typically have unrealistic expectations of my machines so I decided to put the Macbook Air through the most unreasonable set of realistic conditions I could think of. This had to be something I might actually do while using the machine.

I connected the Superdrive to the machine and started ripping a DVD with Handbrake, opened Firefox then started playing the Evolution of Dance Youtube video, and then started to copy a 5GB file over my local network onto a local file server (done via SCP/SSH).

This test lasted roughly 15 minutes because it didn't take me long to get tired of watching videos on Youtube, but the test did show me that the Macbook Air is a fairly capable machine.

Handbrake: The Handbrake encoding has maintained an average of 19.77fps over the course of the test and the Youtube videos froze only for a moment as I was messing about with the system settings for the trackpad.

Flash video: I tested with Hulu for higher quality streaming video and Youtube videos for downloaded flv via HTTP video, but both worked fine. The encode slowed a bit as the Hulu videos played due to their more resource intensive nature.

File copy: The transfer between the Air and the workstation was a steady 9MB/s over the network (both devices are 802.11n equipped) wirelessly.

I was not able to recreate the core shutdown on this machine with these tests. I am not using Coolbook and I am not using smcFanControl. This is just a OS X 10.5.4 install with all updates.

It isn't as fast as a Macbook Pro, but it'll do.

Edit: It should be noted that I disconnected the machine from AC power roughly half way through the test.

 

[DJGuy]

HD or SSD?

 

[LinMac]

HD or SSD?

80GB HD

 

[wolfman28]

1,6GHZ or 1,8GHZ?

 

[orpheus1120]

1,6GHZ or 1,8GHZ?

Sounds like the 1.6ghz.

 

[LinMac]

Sounds like the 1.6ghz.

That is correct.

 

[mhnajjar]

How would you explain that some Airs suffer from core shutdown while others don't

 

[Alan Taylor]

How would you explain that some Airs suffer from core shutdown while others don't

How do you explain why some people are tall and others are short?

Clearly it's a minor change in the construction that might possibly lead to them!

 

[hellfire88]

Wow running all that and no core shutdowns? I wish I was that lucky.

I had firefox open with 10 tabs, and I opened Activity monitor. I was getting core shutdowns every few seconds. There was even a point where the whole bottom core graph was black! So i guess the entire 2nd core shutdown or something for like 10seconds.

I have a Macbook (SR 2007) which is my first Mac, and it feels very snappy and can keep up with all my multi-tasking (Firefox w/ 20+tabs, VMWare Fusion, iTunes, Office). I love it so much I splurged on this Macbook Air. But I can't even run Firefox alone on it so the experience hasn't been great.

I took it to the store and the Genius took one look at my screenshots I took of the core shutdown, and called another fellow Genius to look at the screenshot where the entire 2nd core was shutdown. They had a laugh at my expense and now my Macbook Air is in for a logicboard replacement. Hope it comes back at least able to run firefox!

 

[sanPietro98]

DId you have the Activity Monitor on? If so, did either of the two cores go to 0% for a while?

Since updating to 10.5.4, I only had a core drop to 0% once, but I would have never noticed it without the Activity Monitor. The machine never slowed down or got jittery.

 

[173080]

Run it with the power adapter plugged in and driving a secondary display. You're not escaping the core shutdown.

 

[nick9191]

How would you explain that some Airs suffer from core shutdown while others don't

Over the period of the last 7 months, they've ironed out the wrinkles.

 

[LinMac]

DId you have the Activity Monitor on? If so, did either of the two cores go to 0% for a while?

I had the activity monitor on top the entire time.

Run it with the power adapter plugged in and driving a secondary display. You're not escaping the core shutdown.

I've rerun the test with the power plugged in for the entire time and also displaying the flash video on the secondary monitor which makes it easier to keep up with.

I still see no core shutdowns, but my Macbook Air is sitting flat on a desk without the fans being blocked. The test lasted 25 minutes this time with Hulu videos playing the entire time. The machine was as close to 100% usage as you can reasonably push it with normal tasks.

 

[TheBearman]

Willing to run one more test? On a flat surface run CPUTest with the following parms.

Test Type - Huge
Repetitions - 10
Instances - 2

After 15 minutes I do see a core drop out, not completely but it does happen.

Like you other than this test or when testing with my new case I don't have the problem.