New Mac Benchmarks Surface

Benchmarks from the 2018 MacBook Air are trickling out, and they are about what I expected. The machine is faster than the 12-inch MacBook, but not as quick as the entry-level MacBook Pro. Juli Clover has the numbers over at MacRumors:

Single-Core Performance:

  • 2018 MacBook Air – 4248
  • 2017 MacBook Air – 3335
  • 1.4GHz 2017 MacBook – 3925
  • 1.3GHz 2017 MacBook – 3630
  • 1.2GHz 2017 MacBook – 3527
  • 2.3GHz 2018 MacBook Pro – 4504
  • 2.3GHz 2017 MacBook Pro – 4314

Multi-Core Performance:

  • 2018 MacBook Air – 7828
  • 2017 MacBook Air – 6119
  • 1.4GHz 2017 MacBook – 7567
  • 1.3GHz 2017 MacBook – 6974
  • 1.2GHz 2017 MacBook – 6654
  • 2.3GHz 2018 MacBook Pro – 16464
  • 2.3GHz 2017 MacBook Pro – 9071

While the new Air does use a MacBook-class CPU, it’s rated for 7W, not 5 like the MacBook, which is good news. I think the Air is a safe recommendation for students and home users, or anyone else without a crazy workload.

Then there’s the case of the Mac mini. A 3.2GHz 6-core i7 has been taken for a spin through Geekbench:

The Mac mini also closely matches the 2013 Mac Pro models when it comes to multi-core performance and exceeds them when it comes to single-core performance. With the exception of the iMac Pro, it outperforms 2017 iMac models, which were not refreshed this year.

Holy moly.