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MBA, and dual core future????

S

spmiz12

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 17, 2009
180
0
I spent several weeks searching for a decision prior to me buying, I really weighed heavy at one point toward the 13" MBA. I read alot about Dual Core processor now being obsolete; IE....ecspecially in the 13" MBP realm. SO I am wondering with all the buzz with the MBA, why is it the hottest thing, ecspecially when they supposedly have to upgrade this also?????

Trust me, I understand the attraction and the SSD drive; but what will become of the MBA in the next version?????
 
The MBA is all about mobility, not about CPU performance. I'm pretty sure that quad cores wont be in the next MBA revision either.
 
bolen said:
The MBA is all about mobility, not about CPU performance. I'm pretty sure that quad cores wont be in the next MBA revision either.
Click to expand...

So then tell me, why is the MBA so great if the processor will also be obsolete; what does the future hold?? Why is this so bad for a MBP yet good enough for a MBA??

I understand portability, but what gives??

Apple doesn't make a plan a year or two out; they build on the future; so what does the future have in store for us all??? I mean they don't release something so GREAT last year to watch it fail.....
 
spmiz12 said:
So then tell me, why is the MBA so great if the processor will also be obsolete; what does the future hold?? Why is this so bad for a MBP yet good enough for a MBA??

I understand portability, but what gives??

Apple doesn't make a plan a year or two out; they build on the future; so what does the future have in store for us all??? I mean they don't release something so GREAT last year to watch it fail.....
Click to expand...

Who said it's going to be obsolete? When they do eventually change the processor (probably in 2011 sometime), is my MBA going to stop functioning? No. Photoshop CS5, Office 2011, and everything else I throw at it will continue to scream right along all in a nice lite and slim package.
 
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teski said:
spmiz12 said:
So then tell me, why is the MBA so great if the processor will also be obsolete; what does the future hold?? Why is this so bad for a MBP yet good enough for a MBA??

I understand portability, but what gives??

Apple doesn't make a plan a year or two out; they build on the future; so what does the future have in store for us all??? I mean they don't release something so GREAT last year to watch it fail.....
Click to expand...

Who said it's going to be obsolete? When they do eventually change the processor (probably in 2011 sometime), is my MBA going to stop functioning? No. Photoshop CS5, Office 2011, and everything else I throw at it will continue to scream right along all in a nice lite and slim package.
Click to expand...

I never said it all would stop working, nor was I trying to imply that... Sorry if I upset you... What I meant was alot of people base their opinions on the latest bells and whistles, the next greatest CPU and technology, but Apple built their faith on a rediscovered machine, the MacBook Air... That is based on a dual core processor; so frankly, I feel the power they and the 13" mbp
 
spmiz12 said:
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I never said it all would stop working, nor was I trying to imply that... Sorry if I upset you... What I meant was alot of people base their opinions on the latest bells and whistles, the next greatest CPU and technology, but Apple built their faith on a rediscovered machine, the MacBook Air... That is based on a dual core processor; so frankly, I feel the power they and the 13" mbp
Click to expand...



You don't get it at all. Because the Macbook Air has a dual core processor and quad core mobile processors are coming out, doesn't mean the Air will be obsolete. Hell, quad core processors aren't "the next greatest CPU/technology", they've been out for years. Many PC vendors already use them in their notebooks, Apple just hasn't yet as they don't meet the wattage requirements for their hardware designs.


I've had an EIGHT core Mac Pro for almost three years now and my dual core MBP isn't "obsolete", nor are any of the current models out there.

You literally don't get the concept of modern technology.
 
spmiz12 said:
So then tell me, why is the MBA so great if the processor will also be obsolete; what does the future hold?? Why is this so bad for a MBP yet good enough for a MBA??

I understand portability, but what gives??

Apple doesn't make a plan a year or two out; they build on the future; so what does the future have in store for us all??? I mean they don't release something so GREAT last year to watch it fail.....
Click to expand...

Apple builds machines based on user experience not specs. Its usually the idiots from PC land that talk about "outdated" or "obsolete" hardware specs, and how slow Apple is on release cycles, and clearly they have no clue what they are talking about as both performance and user experience is great on the MBAs. Thats why they are selling.

Because of the nvidia/intel dispute currently going on the MBA's would get stuck with an Intel GPU if the used the "latest" spec iCore cpu. No room inside for dedicated GPU and power requirements would be tough even if there was room. Similar to the position of the 13" MBP.

Apple takes a little longer to get things right rather than be bleeding edge spec wise. Thats my main attraction to apple and I could care less about specs as long as I get a good user experience (good speed, usability, and reliability). No way I would trade this for bleeding edge specs or I would still be using a PC.
 
The comments that the OP has read from MBA-detractors crying that the MBA's processor is obsolete are just specheads.

We all know why they went with the C2D at this point (i.e. to add the 320M graphics) and frankly, this laptop will handle the tasks that it is designed to carry out for many many years to come.

If you want to do heavy lifting, then yeah, an MBA probably isn't the best choice. If you want to browse, email, play media, do a little photo editing, do some light gaming, word process and the like on the go, then the 13" MBA is a fantastic choice
 
Even the new Core i5 and Core i7 processors are dual cores. Quad cores aren't coming to laptops as standard in the base models for quite a long time. OP's research is flawed.
 
spmiz12 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)



I never said it all would stop working, nor was I trying to imply that... Sorry if I upset you... What I meant was alot of people base their opinions on the latest bells and whistles, the next greatest CPU and technology, but Apple built their faith on a rediscovered machine, the MacBook Air... That is based on a dual core processor; so frankly, I feel the power they and the 13" mbp
Click to expand...

The next revision of the air will most likely bring sandy bridge which is still a dual core. The reason people (and me) are buying the air is for portably not speed, thats what the 12 core mac pro is for! The core 2 duo is still a great processor plus the 320m graphics beats any core i5 in any other 13 laptop for me. I'd much rather take better Nvidia graphics over the crappy Intel IGP.
 
Zackmd1 said:
The next revision of the air will most likely bring sandy bridge which is still a dual core.
...
I'd much rather take better Nvidia graphics over the crappy Intel IGP.
Click to expand...

So I take it you wouldn't buy a Sandy Bridge equipped Air ? Seriously, I doubt the next Air will have Sandy Bridge. At this point, I doubt any Apple laptop will, if they have to revert to Intel IGPs to do it.
 
If you want the computers further down the CPU roadmap, you will always end up waiting.

Buy or be gone ;)
 
KnightWRX said:
So I take it you wouldn't buy a Sandy Bridge equipped Air ? Seriously, I doubt the next Air will have Sandy Bridge. At this point, I doubt any Apple laptop will, if they have to revert to Intel IGPs to do it.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure, I haven't seen a real benchmarks for the sandy bridge IGP but I hear it is "good". I'm pretty sure though that if the IGP is less then the 320m then Apple won't put it in to their laptops.
 
KnightWRX said:
So I take it you wouldn't buy a Sandy Bridge equipped Air ? Seriously, I doubt the next Air will have Sandy Bridge. At this point, I doubt any Apple laptop will, if they have to revert to Intel IGPs to do it.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure, I haven't seen a real benchmarks for the sandy bridge IGP but I hear it is "good". I'm pretty sure though that if the IGP is less then the 320m then Apple won't put it in to their laptops, then I guess its up to AMD. Apple can't couple a i5 and nvidia IGP so that doesn't very many options.
 
Zackmd1 said:
I'm not sure, I haven't seen a real benchmarks for the sandy bridge IGP but I hear it is "good". I'm pretty sure though that if the IGP is less then the 320m then Apple won't put it in to their laptops.
Click to expand...

Yeah yeah yeah... we've heard about Intel graphics being good since the introduction of the i740 in 1998. I'll believe it when I see it. As it stands, most people are saying "good" means on-par with the 9400m, which is half the performance of the 320m.
 
KnightWRX said:
Yeah yeah yeah... we've heard about Intel graphics being good since the introduction of the i740 in 1998. I'll believe it when I see it. As it stands, most people are saying "good" means on-par with the 9400m, which is half the performance of the 320m.
Click to expand...

If thats the case then count me out on the next revision.
 
It's hilarious that people who want efficient machines, don't have any professional urgencies to acquire a machine as soon as possible.

"Maybe I'll be a editor for Martin Scorsese next week, so I need the power, just in case he calls me..."

"Maybe Oracle calls me tomorrow and need to borrow my Mac Pro to process half of the worlds credit cards..."
 
Some of you guys make it sound like apple are slower than they are. Sometimes (like getting the i5/i7 MBP), but equally the 2.8GHz i7 was said to be coming from intel "in the fall". In october a new BTO option for the 2.8GHz i7 appeared, right on time!

MBA's have never been built for speed, and a C2D is still plenty for most people (including a bit of video editing etc). If you want real processing power for hardcore daily video/audio production then trying to buy the thinnest laptop you can is just naive!
 
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