Apple MacAir Spec Question

[Grahamfff 10]

I am thinking of replacing my 10 or 11 year old Macbook Pro with a new Mac Air.

 

The Air's processor is a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5; my old Macbook Pro has a 2.53 GHz Intel "Core 2 Duo" processor.

 

In practice, what sort of performance improvement can I expect from a new machine?

[Ghozer 112]

You cannot really compare the two, as not only as the "core 2 duo" very old tech, it's not even the same range as the new Mac Air..

the "Core i5" (and i3 and i7" are the "Core i" series, and have been around for about 10 years now, the "Core 2" series pre-dated the "i" series, there were some "Core 2 Quad" (Quad cores) but they were still "core 2" (intel's 2nd major core-design change essentially)

since the "Core i" first came out (around 2009/10) there has been at least 5 more "major core design changes" to the chips and as such you could say it's probably 6 or 7 generations out of date.... 

But performance wise, you likely couldn't compare them, you also have other things to take into account such as newer/faster RAM and hard drives (and SSD's also)

[Grahamfff 10]

Thasnks for this. I realise my question was a bit too simplistic - there is a lot more to it than just the chip speed in GHz.

 

But I'd be itneersted in hearing from anyone who has actuallygot an Air and can compare it with a much older Mac Pro.

[the_bloke 17]

You'll get considerable raw power/performance increases with the new model, which will be offset by the heavier slower OS. It'll be quicker yes, but don't expect it to boot up in seconds. Plus, get ready to be annoyed with the lack of physical connections on it compared to your old machine.

 

I've got a mid 2011 iMac sat on my desk with an i5 in it running High Sierra; in day to day use it's no slower than the latest spec model sat on my colleague's desk until you start doing something like video encoding.