How much will graphics change with SB vs Nvidia?

[MBABuyer]

I am planning on buying the SB 13.3" MBA when it will hopefully come out in June.

Lots of the people who use this forum have spoken out against the Intel Graphics because it will be slower and in general a worse GPU if you do heavy gaming, and heavy video editing, etc.


I will be using my MBA for: web surfing, school work, document writing, some movies, youtube, light iphoto use, and occasionally making an imovie movie.


For what I will be using it for, will there be any change in graphics from the current MBA to SB MBA???

I am not a gamer, other than maybe angry birds or something similar, so I am assuming the update will be nothing but beneficial for me (better CPU, thunderbolt, and possibly backlit keyboard.


Thanks Guys!
Swayne

 

[Psilocybin]

Uh with your uses you wouldn't even need sb. My suggestion? Get a refurb


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[MBABuyer]

Well, I am not getting a refurb, this is my first mac, and I will be using it everyday for the school year at 9 hours off school per day.

I am just asking about SB vs Nvidia and if I will see any negative affects from Intel graphics, in the way I would use my computer.

So when I said notes, I mean big notes, and projects, power points, and papers.

Swayne

 

[FX4568]

No big note will occupy 1.86 Ghz Core2duo.
You could probably go with a Pentium IV and be okay.
Anyways, if you are thinking of some gaming, like I do, just go with the Nvidia 320m... core2duo and nividia 320m combo is so far ahead of one quad processor named SB doing all the work.

 

[Psilocybin]

No big note will occupy 1.86 Ghz Core2duo.
You could probably go with a Pentium IV and be okay.
Anyways, if you are thinking of some gaming, like I do, just go with the Nvidia 320m... core2duo and nividia 320m combo is so far ahead of one quad processor named SB doing all the work.

Agreed


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[halledise]

I am planning on buying the SB 13.3" MBA when it will hopefully come out in June.

don't hold your breath for that one.

if you don't want a refurb, buy a newbie with your EDU discount.

current 13" Airs are more than enough for your stated purposes

I am just asking about SB vs Nvidia and if I will see any negative affects from Intel graphics, in the way I would use my computer.

yes - compared to the current pairing

 

[fyrefly]

I am planning on buying the SB 13.3" MBA when it will hopefully come out in June.

Lots of the people who use this forum have spoken out against the Intel Graphics because it will be slower and in general a worse GPU if you do heavy gaming, and heavy video editing, etc.

I will be using my MBA for: web surfing, school work, document writing, some movies, youtube, light iphoto use, and occasionally making an imovie movie.

For what I will be using it for, will there be any change in graphics from the current MBA to SB MBA???

I am not a gamer, other than maybe angry birds or something similar, so I am assuming the update will be nothing but beneficial for me (better CPU, thunderbolt, and possibly backlit keyboard.

Wow, so much FUD and mis-advice based on prejudging here. Yowch.

If you don't intend to play Call of Duty or Portal 2 on your MacBook Air, the SB will be nothing but beneficial for you.

It'll handle any Movies and YouTube (the i5-LV Sandy Bridge chip in the Samsung Series 9 handles 1080p just fine according to reviews).

And the processing power will help with iMovie - every time you render a movie or apply an effect to a clip, it'll be that much faster.

Look at the handbrake numbers between the 2010 C2D MacBook Pro and the 2011 Corei7 MBP:

Now, that's going from a standard voltage chip to a standard voltage chip. But it's 2x as fast!

So while I'd say you won't see a difference between the current MBA and a potential SB MBA when you're just typing and surfing, you'll definitely see it when you use iMovie.

And if you don't see yourself playing any games other than Angry Birds or more casual games, you'll be fine on the IGP 3000. (Plus, like you said, you'll get the benefits of other new stuff - probably thunderbolt, hopefully a BL keyboard, etc...)

 

[MBABuyer]

Mistake post

 

[MBABuyer]

Wow, so much FUD and mis-advice based on prejudging here. Yowch.

If you don't intend to play Call of Duty or Portal 2 on your MacBook Air, the SB will be nothing but beneficial for you.

It'll handle any Movies and YouTube (the i5-LV Sandy Bridge chip in the Samsung Series 9 handles 1080p just fine according to reviews).

And the processing power will help with iMovie - every time you render a movie or apply an effect to a clip, it'll be that much faster.

Look at the handbrake numbers between the 2010 C2D MacBook Pro and the 2011 Corei7 MBP:

Image

Now, that's going from a standard voltage chip to a standard voltage chip. But it's 2x as fast!

So while I'd say you won't see a difference between the current MBA and a potential SB MBA when you're just typing and surfing, you'll definitely see it when you use iMovie.

And if you don't see yourself playing any games other than Angry Birds or more casual games, you'll be fine on the IGP 3000. (Plus, like you said, you'll get the benefits of other new stuff - probably thunderbolt, hopefully a BL keyboard, etc...)

That is what I thought, and WOW, some people really are in love with C2D

Thanks,
Swayne

 

[MBABuyer]

Thanks fryefly for the information.

I know that macrumors has many people with diverse opinions, so if any of you agree or disagree, feel free to post.

The more opinions, the better.

Thanks guys,
Swayne

 

[FuNGi]

I am planning on buying the SB 13.3" MBA when it will hopefully come out in June.

-snip-
I am not a gamer, other than maybe angry birds or something similar, so I am assuming the update will be nothing but beneficial for me (better CPU, thunderbolt, and possibly backlit keyboard.

Thanks Guys!
Swayne

I think you can safely assume it will be based on your needs. Get 4GB's and two externals with it though. One as a backup and the other as a backup backup.

 

[halledise]

That is what I thought, and WOW, some people really are in love with C2D

Thanks,
Swayne

it's not a matter of 'being in love with C2D', sunshine, it's more a case of the C2D pairing with nVidia 320M (and flash storage) being far superior than any combo offered by Intel at present - even a SandyBridge processor with Intel cack GPU

 

[warfed]

it's not a matter of 'being in love with C2D', sunshine, it's more a case of the C2D pairing with nVidia 320M (and flash storage) being far superior than any combo offered by Intel at present - even a SandyBridge processor with Intel cack GPU

Depends on use. It's inferior in pretty much every way except for video games. And it's not like 320m is a great video card, it's Okay, but not a huge sacrifice to the Intel GPU.

It all depends on what YOU need it for. You might prefer a better GPU, I prefer a better CPU.

 

[Lara F]

OP - aside from iMovie your uses are pretty similar to mine...and if I can currently get by with a GMA 950 (on my 07 Macbook) I wouldn't be overly concerned about the 3000.

 

[fyrefly]

OP - aside from iMovie your uses are pretty similar to mine...and if I can currently get by with a GMA 950 (on my 07 Macbook) I wouldn't be overly concerned about the 3000.

There we go.

And we have people in other thread claiming the Intel HD 3000 will have trouble running the 1440x900 resolution of the MBA currently. When the GMA950 could run a 1920x1200 full DVI monitor (I've done with with my old Black MacBook).

Oh the falsities some people will try to spread due to their hate of Intel!*

*(All things being equal, I like the 320m better than the HD3000. But there's no future for Intel Chips + Integrated Nvidia Chipsets, so we're stuck with Intel for now - but it's not as bad as many here will have you believe!!)

 

[nebulos]

Well, I am not getting a refurb, this is my first mac, and I will be using it everyday for the school year at 9 hours off school per day.

Apple refurbs are like new quality and come with the same warranty. (Just search the forum.) The student discount on the Airs is weak. However, the back-to-school deal should be starting soon (a week or so). So, sell or keep the ipod, that probably makes it worth buying new.

The many GPU-philes on here are almost certainly all 'gamers' to some extent. Correct me if I'm wrong. It's not easy figuring out what the GPU does outside of this, or, rather, when a non-gamer should ever worry about his/her GPU power, but video editing is almost all CPU, not GPU, from what I have gathered.

I would guess that either machine is fine for you, though the SB CPU will help with video. The question is, do you want to wait for it?

 

[peskaa]

Correct me if I'm wrong. It's not easy figuring out what the GPU does outside of this, or, rather, when a non-gamer should ever worry about his/her GPU power, but video editing is almost all CPU, not GPU, from what I have gathered.

Not quite. GPUs are used for video playback a lot - these are very intensive tasks for CPUs, particularly HD resolutions, which used to cause older machines to drop frames or refuse to play. These days, the task is offloaded to the GPU which is far more suited for the work, meaning that an MBA can play a 1080p video even though the CPU alone would struggle to do so.

However, you are correct that a non-gamer shouldn't worry about this kind of thing. They wouldn't see the difference between a 320M and a HD 3000 from Intel in day to day usage - except that the Intel may give longer battery life (due to a lower TDP of the SandyBridge with IGP versus the C2D + 320M).

 

[halledise]

Depends on use. It's inferior in pretty much every way except for video games. And it's not like 320m is a great video card, it's Okay, but not a huge sacrifice to the Intel GPU.

It all depends on what YOU need it for. You might prefer a better GPU, I prefer a better CPU.

then obviously you've already made up your mind - so buy your SandyBridge with Intel GPU and give the rest of us a fricking break

 

[cathyy]

then obviously you've already made up your mind - so buy your SandyBridge with Intel GPU and give the rest of us a fricking break

It's obvious you like 4 year old technology.

 

[MBABuyer]

Thanks for the help!

That makes me feel better about my decision to wait for the SB MBA (which will hopefully come in June) Much of what you guys said was what I had thought, but I wasn't quite sure because of all of the gamers posting about how awful Intel HD3000 will be for them.

I just need to get the MBA before school starts on the 1st of September. So, many people seem to think by then the SB refresh will be in place.

Thanks,
Swayne

 

[lasuther]

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Wait for the 13" Sandy Bridge update, Lion OS release, and buy with the free iPod and $100 printer rebates for students. Hopefully it happens by July.

 

[watchthisspace]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Wait for the 13" Sandy Bridge update, Lion OS release, and buy with the free iPod and $100 printer rebates for students. Hopefully it happens by July.

+1 Couldn't agree less.

You're not going to miss the dedicated GPU vs the IGP of Sandy.

 

[warfed]

then obviously you've already made up your mind - so buy your SandyBridge with Intel GPU and give the rest of us a fricking break

LOL I hope you see the irony in this...

 

[Xgm541]

People have different needs. I purchased the MBA11 with the nvidia GPU because I need the better GPU. As far as I know, the intel HD 3000 has a ~40% decrease in performance in 3d gaming.

That being said, because the intel GPU is integrated well with the CPU, processor intensive graphics like flash will work "better". You also gain the benefit of better imovie experience.

Once again, there is no problem in liking "2 year old technology" if it works well for you. I would actually not purchase the new SB MBA's because of the decrease in GPU performance. So the new technology is worse for me.

 

[halledise]

LOL I hope you see the irony in this...

yes