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Mac upgrade - processor query

C

chou

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 3, 2005
9
0
Hi All,

I currently have a mid 2014 MBP 13" 2.6ghz dual core i5 (8gb RAM) but have found since upgrading to Mojave when working with lots of images in finder and navigating through the folder hierarchy containing lots of images it struggles, and frustratingly even occasionally watching some youtube videos it can be a bit slow with the fan extremely noisy as its working double time!

As a result I'm looking at upgrading to a brand new macbook air.

My question is this - the 2020 latest airs have a 1.1ghz quadcore i5 - am i right in thinking that the 1,1ghz quadcore is the equivalent of a 4.4ghz in old world (i.e. non quad core?). Therefore the latest air would be a downgrade in terms of processor to my current MBP?

My second question would be is there anyway i can read to get a better understanding of whether I'm worthwhile upgrading RAM or processor when spec-ing a new MB? All the links I've read just give really vague comments on it but when I'm spending £1500 i would rather some more accurate examples of how in the real work i will see a difference and under what scenarios?
 
Last edited:
chou said:
Hi All,

I currently have a mid 2014 MBP 13" 2.6ghz dual core i5 (8gb RAM) but have found since upgrading to Mojave when working with lots of images in finder and navigating through the folder hierarchy containing lots of images it struggles, and frustratingly even occasionally watching some youtube videos it can be a bit slow with the fan extremely noisy as its working double time!

As a result I'm looking at upgrading to a brand new macbook air.

My question is this - the 2020 latest airs have a 1.1ghz quadcore i5 - am i right in thinking that the 1,1ghz quadcore is the equivalent of a 4.4ghz in old world (i.e. non quad core?). Therefore the latest air would be a downgrade in terms of processor to my current MBP?

My second question would be is there anyway i can read to get a better understanding of whether I'm worthwhile upgrading RAM or processor when spec-ing a new MB? All the links I've read just give really vague comments on it but when I'm spending £1500 i would rather some more accurate examples of how in the real work i will see a difference and under what scenarios?
Click to expand...
There are no relationship between frequency and core count.

The Air suffers a lot on any heavy workload. Air is fine for light use. As soon as you ask more, the fan ramps up and it struggles a bit.

You cannot upgrade either RAM or CPU in any Mac >2012.

I’d go with MBP 13 2020 on Intel 10th gen, or wait for Apple Silicon MBP planned later this year. Your problem is minor, so I would wait. I still work daily on my 2013 MBP and I’m a programmer, power user.
 
chou said:
Hi All,

I currently have a mid 2014 MBP 13" 2.6ghz dual core i5 (8gb RAM) but have found since upgrading to Mojave when working with lots of images in finder and navigating through the folder hierarchy containing lots of images it struggles, and frustratingly even occasionally watching some youtube videos it can be a bit slow with the fan extremely noisy as its working double time!

As a result I'm looking at upgrading to a brand new macbook air.

My question is this - the 2020 latest airs have a 1.1ghz quadcore i5 - am i right in thinking that the 1,1ghz quadcore is the equivalent of a 4.4ghz in old world (i.e. non quad core?). Therefore the latest air would be a downgrade in terms of processor to my current MBP?

My second question would be is there anyway i can read to get a better understanding of whether I'm worthwhile upgrading RAM or processor when spec-ing a new MB? All the links I've read just give really vague comments on it but when I'm spending £1500 i would rather some more accurate examples of how in the real work i will see a difference and under what scenarios?
Click to expand...

Have you ever considered that it is the built-in PCIe flash based SSD storage that is slowing you down? What you are experiencing is the lack of RAM (8Gb is limited if you work with lots of images/ 16Gb min or 32Gb best) and what is going on with Mojave is that it is paging your SSD often, which is why it struggles. Same with Youtube videos if you're using Chrome/Opera/Brave. The 4th gen i5 is still capable, but the limited memory and the slow SSD drive are what is causing your slowdown. You can upgrade your internal SSD to something larger and with even more speed or get an external large USB 3 SSD drive to solve your issues.

My Macbook Air which is also 2014 with its built-in 128Gb SSD was slow as molasses with Mojave. It's a slow SSD which is pretty well known for Apple to use for this year of Macbook Pro and Air. Once I moved Mojave to an external USB 3 SSD drive, the Air became responsive again. The SSD is being constantly paged as the access light never stops blinking, but this is due to the limited 8Gb of memory I have on my Air. But like yours and mine, you can not upgrade RAM after you bought the machine. I plan to upgrade my Air to a Feather M13 Turbo SSD in the future to speed up the disk I/O. Dealing with multiple images need a super fast I/O SSD drive, not the processor.
https://www.amazon.ca/Feather-Upgrade-MacBook-2013-2015-2013-2017/dp/B07LFP23S4/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=feather+m.2+turbo&qid=1596288980&sr=8-3&th=1
 
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Boyd01 said:
I think that heavy internal SSD access also generates a lot of heat, which might cause the processor to "throttle" and slow down even more.
Click to expand...

Yeap I agree. In fact, when I moved Mojave from my internal 128Gb SSD to my external USB 3 480Gb SSD, the fans work much less and there is a noticeable difference in performance. Funny that it didn't happen when I had High Sierra on my Air.
 
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