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The $999 model seems to come equipped with a 1.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo. Any ideas why they didn't use the newer i series CPUs? Don't they have better performance per w

The $999 model seems to come equipped with a 1.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo. Any ideas why they didn't use the newer i series CPUs? Don't they have better performance per watt?

brownleej 16y ago
I'm guessing it's to keep costs low.
wmf 16y ago
The Core i3/i5/i7 are too hot to fit in the Air and have a sucky GPU. Note that it's possible to haver higher performance per watt and higher power at the same time.
adolph 16y ago
This is kind of interesting to me as an owner of a couple older Minis: is Apple signalling that 10.7 will run fine on a lower end Core 2 Duo?
- wtallis 16y ago
  I would be shocked if 10.7's CPU requirements were anything more stringent than a 64-bit capable CPU (ie. Core 2 or later). There's a chance that they might drop support for low-end GPUs like then Intel GMA950, but it seems too soon for them to require an OpenCL-capable GPU, so they'll probably keep Intel graphics support around until they're ready to make that jump.
  - adolph 16y ago
    Yeah, 64bit and the graphics card will probably become more important. I was wondering why they went with the Nvidia card (which probably precluded using a Core i-series processor instead of the Core 2 Duo), but given the OpenCL emphasis, it makes sense. Hopefully Apple will allow some performance optimizations, like how they disabled the water-ripple effect of Dashboard on non-OpenGL video card computers when that came out.
zyb09 16y ago
Also, 2GB Ram and 64GB storage isn't something I could work with. Would need at least 4GB Ram and 256GB, but then I'd pay something like $1600 for a 13" notebook? I think the main problem about the MacBook Air and the previous one is that the MacBook Pro is a much more attractive deal.
- DougBTX 16y ago
  The Air comes in at $1800 with 4GB ram and 2.13GHz cpu. Apple are charging $750 just for the 256 GB SSD upgrade on the 13 inch MacBook Pro, that's a crazy price for an SSD.
  - malandrew 16y ago
    That's about a 33% premium. Unfortunately you can't go elsewhere because the SSD industry is packing SSDs in a ridiculous 2.5" form factor. The industry needs to develop a standard size SSD for ultra-portables, especially one that Apple is likely to use in future devices.
wtallis 16y ago
The i3/5/7 laptop chips these days come with on-chip integrated graphics that is way below Apple's standards, and doesn't support OpenCL. Apple really wants all of their machines to support OpenCL on the graphics chip. In order to get this, they need to use an NVidia graphics chip. For the Core 2 generation CPUs, NVidia produces a chipset with one of their GPUs integrated. For the i3/5/7 generation, Intel refused to let NVidia make chipsets. In order for Apple to get NVidia graphics in a laptop with an i3/5/7, they have to have the i3/5/7 CPU, an Intel chipset, and an NVidia graphics chip. The necessity of using 3 big, hot chips instead of two increases the parts costs, slightly increases the power consumption, makes cooling and motherboard design more complicated, and, in the case of the MacBook Air, they pretty much don't fit unless you make the machine thicker or use a smaller battery. Until Intel can produce a decent graphics core or they decide to play nice with NVidia, ultraportables have to decide whether to have good graphics or the latest CPUs. (If, however, AMD's upcoming mobile Fusion parts end up being as fast or faster than the Core 2, this will change significantly.)

The $999 model seems to come equipped with a 1.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo. Any ideas why they didn't use the newer i series CPUs? Don't they have better performance per watt?

brownleej 16y ago

I'm guessing it's to keep costs low.

wmf 16y ago

The Core i3/i5/i7 are too hot to fit in the Air and have a sucky GPU. Note that it's possible to haver higher performance per watt and higher power at the same time.

adolph 16y ago

This is kind of interesting to me as an owner of a couple older Minis: is Apple signalling that 10.7 will run fine on a lower end Core 2 Duo?

wtallis 16y ago
I would be shocked if 10.7's CPU requirements were anything more stringent than a 64-bit capable CPU (ie. Core 2 or later). There's a chance that they might drop support for low-end GPUs like then Intel GMA950, but it seems too soon for them to require an OpenCL-capable GPU, so they'll probably keep Intel graphics support around until they're ready to make that jump.
- adolph 16y ago
  Yeah, 64bit and the graphics card will probably become more important. I was wondering why they went with the Nvidia card (which probably precluded using a Core i-series processor instead of the Core 2 Duo), but given the OpenCL emphasis, it makes sense. Hopefully Apple will allow some performance optimizations, like how they disabled the water-ripple effect of Dashboard on non-OpenGL video card computers when that came out.

zyb09 16y ago

Also, 2GB Ram and 64GB storage isn't something I could work with. Would need at least 4GB Ram and 256GB, but then I'd pay something like $1600 for a 13" notebook? I think the main problem about the MacBook Air and the previous one is that the MacBook Pro is a much more attractive deal.

DougBTX 16y ago
The Air comes in at $1800 with 4GB ram and 2.13GHz cpu. Apple are charging $750 just for the 256 GB SSD upgrade on the 13 inch MacBook Pro, that's a crazy price for an SSD.
- malandrew 16y ago
  That's about a 33% premium. Unfortunately you can't go elsewhere because the SSD industry is packing SSDs in a ridiculous 2.5" form factor. The industry needs to develop a standard size SSD for ultra-portables, especially one that Apple is likely to use in future devices.

wtallis 16y ago

The i3/5/7 laptop chips these days come with on-chip integrated graphics that is way below Apple's standards, and doesn't support OpenCL. Apple really wants all of their machines to support OpenCL on the graphics chip. In order to get this, they need to use an NVidia graphics chip. For the Core 2 generation CPUs, NVidia produces a chipset with one of their GPUs integrated. For the i3/5/7 generation, Intel refused to let NVidia make chipsets. In order for Apple to get NVidia graphics in a laptop with an i3/5/7, they have to have the i3/5/7 CPU, an Intel chipset, and an NVidia graphics chip. The necessity of using 3 big, hot chips instead of two increases the parts costs, slightly increases the power consumption, makes cooling and motherboard design more complicated, and, in the case of the MacBook Air, they pretty much don't fit unless you make the machine thicker or use a smaller battery. Until Intel can produce a decent graphics core or they decide to play nice with NVidia, ultraportables have to decide whether to have good graphics or the latest CPUs. (If, however, AMD's upcoming mobile Fusion parts end up being as fast or faster than the Core 2, this will change significantly.)