Poll: *** The official 2020 MacBook Air/13" MacBook Pro thread (it has the M1 chip and everything!) ***

What 2020 Apple Silicon notebook have you ordered?

  • MacBook Air

    Votes: 71 71.0%
  • 13" MacBook Pro

    Votes: 29 29.0%

  • Total voters
    100
Soldato
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From The Verge on thermal throttling:

dhKc6zS.png

In a 10-minute run, MBA and MBP are the same, but when you extend that to 30 minutes, the thermal throttling on the Air begins to show.

So the choice between Air and Pro is simple: If you don't put it on sustained load for more than 10 minutes, the thermal capacity of the Air's design is capable of absorbing the heat while sustaining peak performance and you don't need the fan in the Macbook Pro.

Assuming the display difference is negligible to you, I guess 99% of people should just pick the Air and use that price difference for more ram or SSD.
 
Commissario
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So the choice between Air and Pro is simple: If you don't put it on sustained load for more than 10 minutes, the thermal capacity of the Air's design is capable of absorbing the heat while sustaining peak performance and you don't need the fan in the Macbook Pro.
That's me. I doubt I've ever got this MB warm enough to throttle.
 
Soldato
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So the choice between Air and Pro is simple: If you don't put it on sustained load for more than 10 minutes, the thermal capacity of the Air's design is capable of absorbing the heat while sustaining peak performance and you don't need the fan in the Macbook Pro.

Assuming the display difference is negligible to you, I guess 99% of people should just pick the Air and use that price difference for more ram or SSD.

I was really hoping this would be the case. I'm on a late-2013 MBP at the moment and I know it'll suffice for a couple more years yet. But, I like to plan ahead and seeing how capable the MacBook Air is now compared to the stunted Intel versions, it seems a no brainer that an Air will be the future purchase. Just wish there were 4 USBC/Thunderbolt ports - maybe by the time I come to buy a new one that'll have changed.
 
Associate
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From The Verge on thermal throttling:

dhKc6zS.png

In a 10-minute run, MBA and MBP are the same, but when you extend that to 30 minutes, the thermal throttling on the Air begins to show.

This graphic is really useful. After toying about with this MBA more, I think it will be absolutely perfect for work but seeing as the game performance is decent... if during an extended session I am going to drop maybe 25% of frames, I might as well upgrade to the MBP. These are all edge case scenarios, but since I am lucky enough to be able to choose either without much fuss... I might go for the Pro in the end. The final question is what is the fan like, how often does it come on, how loud etc etc. If its stays fanless for everything but a render or a gaming session, then I'm sold.

But amazing value for the base MBA.
 
Commissario
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I've just had the shipped email with the tracking info that says it's in Eindhoven which is utter rubbish, it's not there yet. I can guarantee that the tracking won't change until Monday or Tuesday next week when it actually gets there.
 

Pez

Pez

Soldato
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I've just had the shipped email with the tracking info that says it's in Eindhoven which is utter rubbish, it's not there yet. I can guarantee that the tracking won't change until Monday or Tuesday next week when it actually gets there.

Same, just got it for my Air with 16gb ram.
 
Soldato
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This graphic is really useful. After toying about with this MBA more, I think it will be absolutely perfect for work but seeing as the game performance is decent... if during an extended session I am going to drop maybe 25% of frames, I might as well upgrade to the MBP. These are all edge case scenarios, but since I am lucky enough to be able to choose either without much fuss... I might go for the Pro in the end. The final question is what is the fan like, how often does it come on, how loud etc etc. If its stays fanless for everything but a render or a gaming session, then I'm sold.

But amazing value for the base MBA.

The Verge said the fan never became audible unless they actively tried to make it go loud by running benchmarks for 15 minutes.
 
Associate
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Is it possible that anyone with the new air could try unity for me and see if it works / loads .


Looking at getting one for my son the base model for homework and for him to use unity .

But it was mentioned a few pages back it might not work with the M1 chip .

Thank you.
 
Soldato
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When does the WOW 9.02 patch drop that supports M1?

Yes.

I honestly don't know how Apple have managed this.

It's really only persistent year-on-year improvements while the competitors went to sleep for years and years (AMD 2007-2017 and Intel 2010-2020). Imagine if AMD hadn't had their resurgence and Intel was still selling us 4-core CPUs for £350. This M1 would have wiped the floor with them so bad. Hopefully this means better future products from both Intel and AMD (and ARM itself as well).
 

LiE

LiE

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Decided to take a quick photo. RAW photo processed in Lightroom CC (not been updated for AS yet). It was pretty snappy. I decided to open Lightroom CC along side all the other apps to see how it manages memory (8GB). Swapping between Lightroom CC and Safari and selecting a dormant tab, there was a brief second where the page popped back in (I guess loading it from cache). Surprising good! No slow downs.

DSCF9110.jpg
 
Soldato
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Very impressed with what I've seen so far.

The Air seems a better package than the Pro for me. Looking at the reviews and benchmarks it's going to be a beast compared to my 2015 13" Pro. The only real negative is the brightness. You need the Pro for 500 nits (which still isn't amazingly bright), but then the 2015 is less than 400 anyway.

Definitely going to grab one of these once I'm back in civilisation.
 

TS7

TS7

Soldato
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Just making my way through the YouTube reviews and have found The Verge to be quite unusual. They literally sing praises as to how amazing both the Air and Pro are and then as you get towards the end it's almost like they've been told you have to add something negative and he states "the Touch Bar is horrific" - with no further context, a bit extreme. Then they proceed to hammer the webcam quality... yet the example they show is the guy sitting a dark room.....
 
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