Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Macbook Pro, MacBook Air
MBP vs. MBA benchmarking showdown
This doesn't mean the MBA is a bad computer at all -- for most tasks, it'll work just fine. But complicated 3D graphics (both Halo and Unreal Tournament 2004 were tested) will be almost unplayable in games, and there will be a substantial wait, sometimes up to minutes more, for certain processor intensive tasks. If speed is a high priority (at least higher than portability), the MBA isn't for you.
I would like to see how the MacBook compares, though. It's not surprising that the MBP is a fast machine, but where does the MBA line up compared to the cheaper model?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
drewgaren said 4:50PM on 4-21-2008
I used to have a MacBook Pro and then I bought the Air. I have to say that I keep reading these articles and they make the Air look like it's a piece of crap machine, but in all reality it does the same things a MBP can do. Something may be a little slower but overall performance is not bad. People complain about the Air's battery time. I get almost a full 6 hours of battery time out of my Air, which I'm surprised about but it's still keeping a great charge. The processor might be a little slow but there are so many little tweaks you can do to leopard to make the OS preform faster, just delete unused files makes it faster. The graphics are better then a Mini and are shared so it pulls from the system ram but it does a great job. Pictures and videos are great on this computer. I can actually use it for my photography if I want. But then one thing that ticks me off about all these reviews is how everybody tries to make the computer look like crap. It's not the fastest, but I have Halo on my Air and it just takes a minute to load but after that the graphics look just as good as they did on my MBP. I even have Vista installed on my Air and a bunch of steam games and they run pretty damn well. My next step will try to use software to overclock the gpu. But the Air is a great computer, don't think it's weak without using one for a month.
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sammy said 6:03PM on 4-21-2008
Love the cognitive dissonance-- you admit to repeatedly reading reviews even after you made your purchase, but can't deal with the fact that most of them (even the worst apologists) can't deny that there's at least some drawbacks to the Air.
Six hours battery life? Unlikely. Even Apple doesn't make that claim. Maybe if you turn it on, turn the brightness all the way down, and leave it alone.
You say the Air does the same things a Pro can do, but you then proceed to list all the tweaks you have applied or will apply to make the Air function more acceptably.
Just admit you bought it for the hype. A lot of us would.
Joseph said 11:57AM on 4-22-2008
I think you were not using the MBP to it's full potential. This is not a diss against you, but you are one of the people where the MBA will suit nicely. try running photoshop, indesign, Final Cut Pro, Motion, etc.. then you will start to see some difference. Also, if you want to play a 3D game that utilizes the discrete graphics, that is another place. My wife doesnt notice a huge difference between her MB and my MBP, but she isn't pushing that computer to it's limits either.
Aron Trimble said 4:52PM on 4-21-2008
You almost have to ask why bother comparing the two... It's kind of like someone put up a bulletin that says "Newsflash: Professional laptop faster than consumer laptop". What people really want to know is how does it compare to the other "small" Apple notebook, the Macbook plain.
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Ed said 10:02PM on 4-21-2008
Well, I can at least get a playable framerate out of UT2k4 on my MacBook (base model, late 2007.) On the windows side, Half-Life 2 and the like often crash and burn.
Kenji F said 5:05PM on 4-21-2008
Isn't that a big "Duh!!"?
Comparing a MBP (Pro/sumer laptop) to a MBA (Ultra-Portable) is like comparing apples to oranges. I'm getting sick of this non-stories.
(Yet, I still carry a PBG4 to do everyday work)
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Erik said 5:13PM on 4-21-2008
The MacBook Air is rather underpowered when compared to a MacBook Pro with respects to the processor and GPU?! Thank you for this late-breaking information!!!!!!!!
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robogobo said 7:08PM on 4-21-2008
ok, look, I'm so sick of these guys benchmarking game performance, as if I look like someone who pays thousands of $ to play games.
(oh, you can't see me)
Anyway, another TUAW pointless tidbit.
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Justin D said 11:18PM on 4-21-2008
My Air replaced a pretty loaded MacBook Pro, and honestly I haven't seen any major differences in performance. They exist, totally, but I just haven't run into them. If I have run into them, the difference has been negligible.
In fact, the only time I really notice the difference is when copying songs to iTunes. iTunes is a dog on any machine when it comes to copying into its Library though. ;)
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Jason Sawtelle said 9:35PM on 4-21-2008
Nice touch using the "octagon".
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(01) said 9:42PM on 4-21-2008
I'm not sure why anyone is surprised by this...Sure, the MBA isn't slow computer, but compared the MBP of course it isn't going to stack up. Are we going to pit the Mini against the Pro next?
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Ed said 2:29AM on 4-22-2008
Have I missed the point here? What is the use of comparing these two machines - apart from the fact that they are both a notebook, they are completely different. What have we learnt from this? Absolutely nothing.
I don't see the reason for running the test, nor why TUAW would blog about it.
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pagod said 3:20AM on 4-22-2008
incidentally, has anyone seen a (good?) comparison between an MBA and an MB? i think the MBP is too much for my needs (my old dual G5 is doing great in every respect :-) ), but i'd definitely need a portable solution, and i'm still wondering which would be better...
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Peter Payne said 2:30PM on 4-22-2008
While I am happy with my Macbook Pro, my wife also enjoys her MPB. It's light, can run (barely) Parallels, and is awful fun to use. And the screen is so bright, it's too bright -- I have to turn it down to use it.
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db said 3:44PM on 4-22-2008
Glad there are some voices of reason .. next they'll be comparing Mini-Cooper's against Tesla's.
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