The New MacBook Air Part II : Performance

Don’t be fooled by the sliver-thin profile of MacBook Air. This small wonder features powerful NVIDIA graphics, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, lightning-fast flash storage and long battery life. So while looks may be deceiving, performance doesn’t lie.

 

 

Powerful NVIDIA graphics.

The new MacBook Air features the fastest integrated graphics on the market. The NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor with 48 processing cores boasts a performance gain of over 2x when compared to the previous-generation MacBook Air.¹ That makes a huge difference when you’re firing up graphics-intensive applications or playing 3D games like EVE or Call of Duty 4. Speaking of huge, connect a 27-inch Apple LED Cinema Display to MacBook Air and marvel at how the NVIDIA GeForce 320M drives over four million pixels of eye-popping colour on-screen.

Graphics Performance for MacBook Air

 

Over 2x faster with NVIDIA GeForce 320M¹

Portal (Timedemo)

2.9x13-in MacBook Air

2.9x11-in MacBook Air

Baseline

Call of Duty 4 (Timedemo)

2.4x13-in MacBook Air

2.2x11-in MacBook Air

Baseline

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Times faster than NVIDIA GeForce 9400M

Fast Intel processors.

 

It may be hard to believe that a computer so slim is capable of keeping up with your everyday tasks. But this one is. With an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 3MB of shared L2 cache (6MB on the 13-inch model), MacBook Air runs your applications smoothly and efficiently. So you can do everything you normally use a computer for. Touch up your photos, edit home movies, create presentations, send email, play games and all the other little (and big) tasks in between. On a notebook that weighs less than a Sunday paper.

 

All-flash storage.

 

“Wow, that was fast.” With MacBook Air, you’ll find yourself saying that a lot. Because flash storage is two times faster than a conventional hard drive,² everything you do is more responsive — browsing a large photo library, launching applications, opening files and waking MacBook Air from sleep, for instance. And flash storage doesn’t have any moving parts. Which means it’s more reliable and it’s also quiet. Lightning fast, durable, silent — fitting qualities for an ultra-compact notebook like MacBook Air.

 

• Up to 5-7 hrs
  wireless productivity
  
  
  
• Up to 30 days
  standby time
  
  
  

Long-lasting battery.

Take MacBook Air with you to the office, to school, to wherever and you’ll be amazed at how far it will take you. The 11-inch MacBook Air has a battery that lasts up to 5 hours and the 13-inch model lasts up to 7 hours. And while you may never pry yourself away from your notebook for up to 30 days, with MacBook Air, you can if you want to.³ Standby mode gives MacBook Air the ability to wake instantly from days — even weeks — of standby, with battery life to spare.