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Sandy Bridge Air vs. Ivy Bridge Air - Worth waiting for?

A

Akamatsu

macrumors member
Oct 7, 2010
30
0
Austin USA and Japan
What do you own right now matters

zinka said:
C2D -> SB is 3 generations of processor advances.

SB -> IB is only one generation, and it's a die shrink. That will mean reduced power, but not a whole lot of speed increase.
Click to expand...

If you currently have a 2010 MBA, then you may want to wait. If you don't have a MBA and want one, don't wait. Buy it now.
 
K

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,311
8,326
Hellhammer said:
Ivy Bridge will have only 16 EUs while Sandy Bridge has 12. That's 33% increase which isn't too promising. The micro-architecture is the same so you won't see any "hidden" gains either. The clock speeds would have to be increased dramatically to provide 100% better performance than SB.

My guess is that IB's graphics will end up being roughly 50% faster. Haswell is a new MA so Intel can do more tweaks to increase the performance.
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According to Wikipedia, Intel is targeting a 20% CPU boost and 30% GPU boost with Ivy Bridge. It sounds more like the jump from the Merom Core 2 Duo to the Penryn. Nice, but not something worth waiting a year for. Wednesday's announcement was like jumping from a Pentium 4 or Pentium M to a Core 2 Duo.
 
A

alflavor

macrumors regular
Oct 31, 2010
176
2
Whittlesey, UK
I think most sensible 2010 owners like me will wait for next generation, seems silly to upgrade after not even 1 year.

2010 MBA is still a fine machine!
 
Sensamic

Sensamic

macrumors 68040
Mar 26, 2010
3,072
689
Ivy Bridge will come with USB 3.0 support, so that means next Macbook Air will come with Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 instead of the 2.0.

Im waiting probably.
 
Hellhammer

Hellhammer

Moderator emeritus
Dec 10, 2008
22,164
582
Finland
DavidC1 said:
Remember, Intel has never increased EU count more than 20-30% per generation, yet got 2x gains. EUs alone won't get you high there. Think about it, if just increasing the EUs got you 100% scaling, that would mean performance is 100% bound, and that is just a bad design.

The microarchitecture has been "same" since the GMA X3000. Not the performance though.

GMA X3000: 8 EUs
GMA 4500: 10 EUs ~1.5-1.7x faster, more caches, 2x faster hardware VS, 20% higher clock
GMA HD: 12 EUs ~1.5-2.5x faster, inclusion of a proper HSR mechanism, higher clock, better transcendental performance
HD 3000: 12 EUs ~1.5-2.5x faster, GPU Turbo mode, better transcendental performance, CPU cache sharing, CISC architecture

For Ivy Bridge we can expect not only higher clock, but possibly doubling the ROP and TMU units(every arch since GMA X3000 at 2 ROP/4 TMUs), along with a general change.

If anything, I'd bet on Ivy Bridge getting more benefits than Haswell, as the shrink affords more die size.
Click to expand...

There have been architectural changes as well, like for example NotebookCheck says. You don't get 100% performance boost by using the same EUs at the same clock speeds, no matter how many other tweaks you add. Ivy Bridge seems to be the first time when there won't be any architectural changes, given that it's only a dies shrink.

KPOM said:
According to Wikipedia, Intel is targeting a 20% CPU boost and 30% GPU boost with Ivy Bridge. It sounds more like the jump from the Merom Core 2 Duo to the Penryn. Nice, but not something worth waiting a year for. Wednesday's announcement was like jumping from a Pentium 4 or Pentium M to a Core 2 Duo.
Click to expand...

30% sounds reasonable and what I would expect as well. Maybe a bit more, like 50% though.
 
D

DavidC1

macrumors member
Jul 26, 2006
75
0
Hellhammer said:
Ivy Bridge seems to be the first time when there won't be any architectural changes, given that it's only a dies shrink.
Click to expand...

Actually, we don't know that. Moving to DX11 from DX10.1 is a architectural change in itself. I'm pretty certain they'll change other aspects.
 
Hellhammer

Hellhammer

Moderator emeritus
Dec 10, 2008
22,164
582
Finland
DavidC1 said:
Actually, we don't know that. Moving to DX11 from DX10.1 is a architectural change in itself. I'm pretty certain they'll change other aspects.
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Hmm, you're right, I forgot that :eek: Of course we all hope that Intel can provide the 100% increase as that is really needed. However, it's never too easy to be optimistic when talking about Intel GPUs :p
 
C

calvol

macrumors 6502a
Feb 3, 2011
995
4
Wait for Ivy if you own 2010 MBA, unless you're doing video editing. For all other things, the CPU is not the bottleneck. Sandy Bridge runs hotter and has shorter battery life than C2D. This is an incremental refresh, the next one should be a major redesign.
 
B

Bokes

macrumors 6502
Mar 4, 2008
468
14
Hahahaha!
This kills me every time....they just released an awesome machine....and you want to wait for what's next...?

I sold my old VerC Mac Air and I just picked up a new 13inch.
Do NOT wait. Go get the damn thing.
It's very nice!
 
Hellhammer

Hellhammer

Moderator emeritus
Dec 10, 2008
22,164
582
Finland
calvol said:
Wait for Ivy if you own 2010 MBA, unless you're doing video editing. For all other things, the CPU is not the bottleneck. Sandy Bridge runs hotter and has shorter battery life than C2D. This is an incremental refresh, the next one should be a major redesign.
Click to expand...

The battery life is actually slightly longer in 2011 MBA

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Hellhammer

Hellhammer

Moderator emeritus
Dec 10, 2008
22,164
582
Finland
XX55XX said:
Where is the associated article? Can't find it on AnandTech's main site.
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It's not out yet. That is a teaser from Anand's Twitter. I would expect the full review next week unless Anand has lots of other things to write about (though I don't think so, considering that there are no tweets or other info).
 
M

Meever

macrumors 6502a
Jun 30, 2009
641
30
You should just wait for the golden gate bridge Macbook Air that'll be coming out in 2019. It'll support usb 4.0 natively, have integrated GPU that's comparable to the gtx560 AND it'll all be on a 0.05mm die!


Technology moves too fast now. If you wait 8 months whatever just came out will spank the last gen stuff in benchmarks.

The real question is what the difference in real life performance will be. Is waiting 8 months for something that's 30% faster (30 seconds of waiting to 21 seconds!) Will Apple support usb 3.0 along with thunderbolt? Are they going to use a new SSD technology (the soldered on kind?) etc, etc.

Most modern computers are obscenely fast already. It can last us years.... Every performance gain is nowhere near as substantial as it used to be. so take all that into account and figure out when you want to buy.

There's a very popular expression that floats around quite a bit on the forums. "upgrade when you need to and buy as fast as you can afford"
 
S

Samsumac

macrumors regular
May 18, 2011
115
0
Well said.... :cool:
Meever said:
You should just wait for the golden gate bridge Macbook Air that'll be coming out in 2019. It'll support usb 4.0 natively, have integrated GPU that's comparable to the gtx560 AND it'll all be on a 0.05mm die!


Technology moves too fast now. If you wait 8 months whatever just came out will spank the last gen stuff in benchmarks.

The real question is what the difference in real life performance will be. Is waiting 8 months for something that's 30% faster (30 seconds of waiting to 21 seconds!) Will Apple support usb 3.0 along with thunderbolt? Are they going to use a new SSD technology (the soldered on kind?) etc, etc.

Most modern computers are obscenely fast already. It can last us years.... Every performance gain is nowhere near as substantial as it used to be. so take all that into account and figure out when you want to buy.

There's a very popular expression that floats around quite a bit on the forums. "upgrade when you need to and buy as fast as you can afford"
Click to expand...
 
G

Greg M

macrumors 6502
Jul 13, 2008
341
35
Sensamic said:
Ivy Bridge will come with USB 3.0 support, so that means next Macbook Air will come with Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 instead of the 2.0.

Im waiting probably.
Click to expand...

I REALLY want a lighted keyboard. I had one with my MBP but now I've got the only MBA that doesn't have one. I'm willing to buy the new MBA just for the lighted keyboard.

However, if there's a chance that USB 3 might be on the next MBA then I just might hold off on a new one to wait for that. Thunderbolt is kind of useless for now. USB 3 will probably be more useful than thunderbolt for some time.
 
D

DavidC1

macrumors member
Jul 26, 2006
75
0
Hellhammer said:
Hmm, you're right, I forgot that :eek: Of course we all hope that Intel can provide the 100% increase as that is really needed. However, it's never too easy to be optimistic when talking about Intel GPUs :p
Click to expand...

You could turn out to be right. Newer generation brings other benefits as well like better game compatibility, or image quality, but I agree performance is still something that is at the top for what people want.

I'll take my words back if I said anything that sounded definitive.

Regardless, the tip with such fast moving area as tech, its best to get what you need now than waiting.
 
G

Greg M

macrumors 6502
Jul 13, 2008
341
35
alflavor said:
I think most sensible 2010 owners like me will wait for next generation, seems silly to upgrade after not even 1 year.

2010 MBA is still a fine machine!
Click to expand...

Except for those of us that could really use the lighted keyboard. I figure it's going to cost me about $250 to upgrade. The lighted keyboard is worth it to me.
 
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