I'm pretty sure the Air would be enough for me performance-wise but the number of ports is a problem - I have 3 USB-C ports occupied right now. Any tips for a docking station?
Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip
321–330 of 593 posts
Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip
#322Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not to be rude but this is an inaccurate and poor understanding of computers. The entire chip architecture of the Mac changed since 2010. 16 gigs of RAM on an M1-based chip gets you much, much better performance than 16 gigs on an Intel chip from 10 years ago. Even the RAM and SSD stats you cite are apples and oranges - both have gotten dramatically faster in the last decade.
> Not to be rude but this is an inaccurate and poor understanding of computers Not to be rude, but a poor understanding of computers would be to think that speed is all that matters. Software has only been getting more and more complex and bloated over the last 10 years. What good is 16GB of super fast RAM if the machine is swapping out to disk regularly?
Speed _is_ all that matters. Who cares what the hardware is as long as it responds quickly to my commands?
Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip
#323Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a lot faster and of higher quality now. Those numbers do not reflect the speed of the ram, the speed of the memory, the quality of the screen, or the performance of the CPU
Ya but it's the same amount. Wew my files load marginally faster, but I can only have 5 of them for the same money that I used to be able to have 10. That's like telling someone who can't get a new van with similar features for the same price to instead get a one wheel
It really doesn't matter what the underlying hardware is. If it responds to your input quicker, then it's a better product (remember how slow it was to fill that memory in the first place and then save your changes to disk?).
That's not to forget the improvements in network speeds, the screen, the speakers, the battery life, the webcam, etc.
Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip
#324Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Not to be rude but this is an inaccurate and poor understanding of computers Not to be rude, but a poor understanding of computers would be to think that speed is all that matters. Software has only been getting more and more complex and bloated over the last 10 years. What good is 16GB of super fast RAM if the machine is swapping out to disk regularly?
> a poor understanding of computers would be to think that speed is all that matters. > What good is 16GB of super fast RAM if the machine is swapping out to disk regularly? If the swapping is fast enough not to be noticeable, then speed is all that matters. In fact, if SSDs were about as fast as RAM, we wouldn't need RAM at all! The whole reason why we have all these layers of memory (disk, RAM, L3, L2 and L1 cache,…
You’re describing your results on an Intel Mac. They aren’t relevant to this particular bit of the discussion. And, owning two different M1 laptops, I concur that the relationship between the RAM and SSD and M1 SoC yields fundamentally different results from prior hardware. The result is stunning.
Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip
#325Almost 10 years ago we purchased a MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD for approx 2K UK pounds. It's really surprising and disappointing that a decade later these same specs essentially cost the same!
Not to be rude but this is an inaccurate and poor understanding of computers. The entire chip architecture of the Mac changed since 2010. 16 gigs of RAM on an M1-based chip gets you much, much better performance than 16 gigs on an Intel chip from 10 years ago. Even the RAM and SSD stats you cite are apples and oranges - both have gotten dramatically faster in the last decade.
> 16 gigs of RAM on an M1-based chip gets you much, much better performance than 16 gigs on an Intel chip from 10 years ago.
Unless you want to run VMs. Then more RAM is generally more better.
Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip
#326Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Not to be rude but this is an inaccurate and poor understanding of computers Not to be rude, but a poor understanding of computers would be to think that speed is all that matters. Software has only been getting more and more complex and bloated over the last 10 years. What good is 16GB of super fast RAM if the machine is swapping out to disk regularly?
Speed _is_ all that matters. Who cares what the hardware is as long as it responds quickly to my commands?
The killer feature of the M1 chip is actually performance-per-watt, not outright performance/speed. It does not help to oversimplify things.
Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip
#327I don't understand why the new M2 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar exists. Looks like it adds active cooling but keeps an old design? Is it for generalists who don't want the 14"? Who is it for?
Is this the 13" model? Might just be they still have a bunch of manufacturing capacity or something comparable left. But my wife owns the 2-core version (w/o touchbar) and so far its my favorite sized macbook -- had me regularly wondering why the air existed. If it weren't for the touchbar on the current model, I would have strongly considered it but couldn't resist a better keyboard + no touchbar on the 14" model. Still, side by side I just love the size and feel of the 13". Curious to checkout the air now at some point.
Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip
#328"Supercharged" does not mean anything.
Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip
#329Earlier quoted context omitted.
> a poor understanding of computers would be to think that speed is all that matters. > What good is 16GB of super fast RAM if the machine is swapping out to disk regularly? If the swapping is fast enough not to be noticeable, then speed is all that matters. In fact, if SSDs were about as fast as RAM, we wouldn't need RAM at all! The whole reason why we have all these layers of memory (disk, RAM, L3, L2 and L1 cache,…
Apple must've spent a fortune on marketing bamboozlement ("you don't need as much RAM with apple silicone") that even people on HN now seem to parrot it. NVME is around two orders of magnitude slower than DDR3 RAM, so as soon as your heap is tapped out you'll hit a performance wall. As I sit here and type this, my 10.15.7 Catalina desktop is sitting at 12.25Gb of used memory with 2 Edge tabs and an open Citrix sessio…
> Any actual, professional use will put you way north of even 16gb.
Plenty of people will be more than happy with 8GB of RAM on an M1. I had a base model M1 Mac Mini and it worked great even for gaming.
Obviously if you're running VMs or editing video or doing any other memory intense workload you're going to need more memory. But for anyone who doesn't need an absurd (>16gb) amount of memory (college students, many programmers, those who use computers just for web browsing and Netflix), 8GB or 16GB will feel snappy.
Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip
#330It's unfortunate that the base price is $1200. I don't see myself recommending this to friends when the M1 Air starts at $1000 and is so similarly spec'd.