3 ms·

Am looking to get a new machine, but am curious, how stark is the performance difference between the air line and the pro line nowadays?

sjtrny 12y ago
For everyday tasks? Most people wouldn't notice much of a difference. If you're doing something CPU/GPU heavy like gaming, simulations or video editing then you will notice a large difference between the two. Take a look at http://www.barefeats.com/mba13b.html http://www.barefeats.com/mba13b.html. And don't forget about the higher res screen.
thesnufkin 12y ago
The difference is still very stark in my experience, but the baseline performance is already quite good with both. I am assuming that you are looking to compare the air with the 13" MBP, as the 15" is just way more powerful. What are you going to use it for? The 13" air has higher native resolution than the "native" 13" retina, but its CPU is significantly slower than the MBP [1]. In terms of battery life the Air is the winner, but the MBP is not far behind, nor is it much heavier. For travel and relatively standard development tasks the air is perfect. For extended desktop usage, or if i were traveling less I'd seriously consider the MBP. [1] http://www.macworld.co.uk/review/mac-laptops/which-apple-macbook-air-vs-pro-comparison-review-3481192/ http://www.macworld.co.uk/review/mac-laptops/which-apple-mac...
- brianbreslin 12y ago
  I use xcode occasionally, light coding work (php, rails), lots of office (word, excel), very sporadic photoshop work. I currently have a mid 2012 air.
DCKing 12y ago
The difference between the Air and the 15" Pro is pretty big. The difference between the Air and the 13" Pro is that the Air comes with ULV processors and cannot be configured with 16GB of memory. In my experience, you can do development well enough on an Air (2012 MBA for me), but it's not without complaints. I do a lot of Scala+IntelliJ work, and there the CPU is definitely noticeable a limiting factor. It is not unworkable by any means, but it's noticeable. Also, don't underestimate the added value of a retina display for development. I'm looking to buy a new one somewhere in the next few months, and I'll definitely go for a Pro then. Even if Apple starts making retina Macbook Airs.
- dustingetz 12y ago
  i think the scala/intellij lag is intellij's fault, not your cpu - i get it on my spring 2014 mbp.
  - DCKing 12y ago
    That is true, I've seen it struggling everywhere. It just struggles less on faster machines.
e1g 12y ago
I used the Air for two years as my primary machine both for development and regular office use. I had absolutely no problems with it, and it kept up very well with all of my tools (VMWare, IntelliJ, cli watchers, Xcode, mobile dev etc). And this was the previous generation. I tried using MBP couple times, but always kept on going back to the Air for the form factor. Finally, two months ago I lost my Air and replaced it with a retina MBP machine. During my regular activities, I cannot tell any difference in performance. Sometimes archives get processed quicker and batch jobs get done faster, but this is less than 5% of my work so I don't care about it at all. What did make the difference is the retina screen - I love it enough to keep on using the bulkier MBP (regardless of how close they are on paper, you will feel the difference in your hands). But I will switch to a retina Air with 16GB as soon at it comes out.
- sjtgraham 12y ago
  Pretty much feel exactly the same as you. I have a 15 inch retina MBP supplied by work, and a 11 inch maxed out MBA as my personal machine. I really love the little guy but using the that screen after staring at a beautiful retina display all day feels like stepping back in time.
mkautzm 12y ago
As best as I can tell (and maybe I'm just missing the fine print somewhere), the base models probably ship with something like a i5-4278U? They might actually be shipping with some variety of a generation 3 i5? I dunno. The Air's seem to ship with a i5-4260U. Assuming I'm at least in the ballpark, if you are pushing the limits of the computer, you'll probably get a noticeably better performance out of the Pro. If you are just doing day-to-day things, it'll probably be negligible.
golergka 12y ago
The only difference I noticed is in compilation, asset importing and similar tasks; if you're a web developer (like a lot of folks on Hacker news) and don't have operations that take more then a minute of 100% processor load in your workflow, get MBA.

sjtrny 12y ago

For everyday tasks? Most people wouldn't notice much of a difference. If you're doing something CPU/GPU heavy like gaming, simulations or video editing then you will notice a large difference between the two. Take a look at http://www.barefeats.com/mba13b.html http://www.barefeats.com/mba13b.html. And don't forget about the higher res screen.

thesnufkin 12y ago

The difference is still very stark in my experience, but the baseline performance is already quite good with both. I am assuming that you are looking to compare the air with the 13" MBP, as the 15" is just way more powerful. What are you going to use it for? The 13" air has higher native resolution than the "native" 13" retina, but its CPU is significantly slower than the MBP [1]. In terms of battery life the Air is the winner, but the MBP is not far behind, nor is it much heavier. For travel and relatively standard development tasks the air is perfect. For extended desktop usage, or if i were traveling less I'd seriously consider the MBP. [1] http://www.macworld.co.uk/review/mac-laptops/which-apple-macbook-air-vs-pro-comparison-review-3481192/ http://www.macworld.co.uk/review/mac-laptops/which-apple-mac...

brianbreslin 12y ago
I use xcode occasionally, light coding work (php, rails), lots of office (word, excel), very sporadic photoshop work. I currently have a mid 2012 air.

DCKing 12y ago

The difference between the Air and the 15" Pro is pretty big. The difference between the Air and the 13" Pro is that the Air comes with ULV processors and cannot be configured with 16GB of memory. In my experience, you can do development well enough on an Air (2012 MBA for me), but it's not without complaints. I do a lot of Scala+IntelliJ work, and there the CPU is definitely noticeable a limiting factor. It is not unworkable by any means, but it's noticeable. Also, don't underestimate the added value of a retina display for development. I'm looking to buy a new one somewhere in the next few months, and I'll definitely go for a Pro then. Even if Apple starts making retina Macbook Airs.

dustingetz 12y ago
i think the scala/intellij lag is intellij's fault, not your cpu - i get it on my spring 2014 mbp.
- DCKing 12y ago
  That is true, I've seen it struggling everywhere. It just struggles less on faster machines.

e1g 12y ago

I used the Air for two years as my primary machine both for development and regular office use. I had absolutely no problems with it, and it kept up very well with all of my tools (VMWare, IntelliJ, cli watchers, Xcode, mobile dev etc). And this was the previous generation. I tried using MBP couple times, but always kept on going back to the Air for the form factor. Finally, two months ago I lost my Air and replaced it with a retina MBP machine. During my regular activities, I cannot tell any difference in performance. Sometimes archives get processed quicker and batch jobs get done faster, but this is less than 5% of my work so I don't care about it at all. What did make the difference is the retina screen - I love it enough to keep on using the bulkier MBP (regardless of how close they are on paper, you will feel the difference in your hands). But I will switch to a retina Air with 16GB as soon at it comes out.

sjtgraham 12y ago
Pretty much feel exactly the same as you. I have a 15 inch retina MBP supplied by work, and a 11 inch maxed out MBA as my personal machine. I really love the little guy but using the that screen after staring at a beautiful retina display all day feels like stepping back in time.

mkautzm 12y ago

As best as I can tell (and maybe I'm just missing the fine print somewhere), the base models probably ship with something like a i5-4278U? They might actually be shipping with some variety of a generation 3 i5? I dunno. The Air's seem to ship with a i5-4260U. Assuming I'm at least in the ballpark, if you are pushing the limits of the computer, you'll probably get a noticeably better performance out of the Pro. If you are just doing day-to-day things, it'll probably be negligible.

golergka 12y ago

The only difference I noticed is in compilation, asset importing and similar tasks; if you're a web developer (like a lot of folks on Hacker news) and don't have operations that take more then a minute of 100% processor load in your workflow, get MBA.