MacBook Air speed

Hi, I want to buy the MacBook Air 13 inch.
My question is: what do you recommend to make the MacBook Air faster; a better processor or 8 GB memory?
Thank you for answering!

i'm not very good with computers but while im on here i will try to help you with my experience rather than textbook knowledge
you will only notice minute difference with the processor if you use the mac for basic tasks, but
if you run many programmes simultaneously the memory would benefit you more...if you run fewer, more demanding ones then the processor would speed things up slightly
If cost is an issue (seeing as you are choosing one of the two) then bear in mind if you want to upgrade the processor you need to buy the upgraded storage too...I don't understand why but that's how it is

Similar Messages

Macbook White vs Macbook Air (Speed)

Hello Guys,
I am considering purchasing either the macbook white or the macbook air for portability and speed. I'm currently not wanting a Pro because 1) its beyond my budget and 2) it's a bit bulky.
So my question is: What preforms faster in general, the Macbook or the Macbook Air? I plan on doing some casual gaming (Nothing too intense like Borderlands) on it as well. What would be a good option?

thx joey for finishing my thought on that...
it boils down to this: size (small), speed (fast), cost (cheap).
Can only pick 2 which is the most important to the OP? 2nd most important? Probably the best advice I can offer on this. good luck!
Message was edited by: kmac1036

My Macbook air laptop sound, fan and speed is messed up, how do I fix it?

Where do I start. One random day I came home to find out that my sound has been muted. I tried to fix it with headphones, reseting the PRAM, google, and even by asking my schools computer tech. Some times the mute button would disappear and the sound bar would be in color but their would still be no sound. After the computer tech went on his account on the laptop to un-mute it, which he couldnt, he told me that my built in speakers dont work and would need to be replaced next year. Im like okay no problem, that same day i closed my laptop and found that the light was still on, I asked a friend and he said the black bar between the keypad and screen is what activates the laptop to shut off, which means its broken, so in between class periods i either shut down my laptop or put it to sleep. The next day my laptop starts to run slow and as soon as i power it on the fan runs immediately but the laptop isnt hot. My mouse moves at normal speed but my applications are running slow. This all happened in one week which is this week. My battery dies at a normal pace though.
More information
This is a school given macbook air for a magnet program called iPrep, so i cant download anything with our administration password
This is my second laptop out of the 3 years ive been in the program. My first laptop started to break after the sound got muted and my laptop ended up with an X on the battery and would only turn on when a charger is plug but would go super slow. This makes me scared cause i dont want that happening at all to this one.
Problems
Sound is muted, it sometimes un-mutes but there is still no sound, internal speakers broken
When closed the screen display is still open
Computer applications go slow, fan turns on immediately
Any help, this is bothering me so much

Hi Jollified,
Does your sound work when you try to use head/earphones? If so, try the following:
Plug your Headphones into your Mac.
Play a sound through them (a song for example), then stop the sound.
Make sure 'Preferences' is isn't open. If it is, Quit.
Launch System Preferences > Sounds.
While the Sounds tab is open and set to 'Headphones', pull out the Headphones from the jack.
You should see your Mac reset to 'Internal Speakers'
Also, I see you have tried resetting the PRAM, have you tried resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)? Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support
As for your MacBook not sleeping when you close the lid, there are many reasons this can occur.
First of all, check out Apples article on the issue: OS X Yosemite: If your Mac won’t go to or stay in sleep If you find these steps don't help, try a few of the following:
A common cause for the Mac not sleeping is your printer. If there are queued jobs waiting to be printed, but your printer is switched off, for some reason you Mac just wont like it and simply will not go to sleep. System Preferences > Print and Scan > Open Print Queue
Do you have an Ethernet Cable connected? People have reported in the past that removing their Ethernet allowed their Mac to sleep. This goes for other things you may have connected directly to your Mac also.
Try heading into your Mac Preferences > Sharing and deselecting 'Internet Sharing' as well as 'Printer Sharing'.
Also deselect Wake For Network Access by heading to System Preferences > Energy Saver > Power Adapter > Wake For Network Access.
Energy Saver > Schedule > Startup or Wake - Uncheck.
Alternatively, set your system preferences to Never Sleep, and put into Sleep manually: System Preferences > Energy Saver > Computer Sleep > Never.
Good luck!

How can I speed up my MacBook Air?

Hi folks,
My MacBook Air has gotten painfully slow over time but I can't afford to buy a new one right now. It freezes for a few seconds at a time, all the time, especially when I am using Chrome.* Any ideas for how to speed it up?
Specs are:
Model: 13-inch, Late 2010
Processor: 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 2 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Software: Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 (11G63b)
Graphics: Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB
Storage: The Mac partition is 75 GB, of which 44 GB are free (there is also a 45GB Bootcamp partition).
I was running out of disk space, which I thought was causing the problem by cramping the space available for the swapfiles, which in turn was requiring extra disk activity (you can see that discussion here). There is a clear correlation b/w disk activity and CPU Usage (the two screenshots were taken back to back last night; the dock icon for Activity Monitor is showing CPU history):
However repartitioning to add another 35GB of free space to the Mac partition didn't do anything. In fact, the swapfile sizes are exactly the same as they were two weeks ago when I posted the other question (this is from just now):
I was thinking about buying an aftermarket SSD to increase the storage size, but if increasing the partition size didn't help it doesn't seem that will either.
Thanks much!
* The big memory and CPU hog is Chrome, and in particular gmail, but my workflow is pretty dependent on working in the cloud. I use Firefox and Safari from time to time, but my experience with those is that they run all tabs in a signel process, so to free up memory you have to close the entire browser, and if one tab crashes the whole browser does, whereas with chrome you can kill individual tabs if they freeze and/or to free up their memory.

You need more RAM if that's possible in your model. I think you can go up to 4 GBs. You will use more swap space as memory availability declines.
About OS X Memory Management and Usage
Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory & determine how much RAM is used
Memory Management in Mac OS X
Performance Guidelines- Memory Management in Mac OS X
A detailed look at memory usage in OS X
Memory Usage Performance Guidelines- About the Virtual Memory System
Understanding top output in the Terminal
The amount of available RAM for applications is the sum of Free RAM and Inactive RAM. This will change as applications are opened and closed or change from active to inactive status. The Swap figure represents an estimate of the total amount of swap space required for VM if used, but does not necessarily indicate the actual size of the existing swap file. If you are really in need of more RAM that would be indicated by how frequently the system uses VM. If you open the Terminal and run the top command at the prompt you will find information reported on Pageins () and Pageouts (). Pageouts () is the important figure. If the value in the parentheses is 0 (zero) then OS X is not making instantaneous use of VM which means you have adequate physical RAM for the system with the applications you have loaded. If the figure in parentheses is running positive and your hard drive is constantly being used (thrashing) then you need more physical RAM.
Adding RAM only makes it possible to run more programs concurrently. It doesn't speed up the computer nor make games run faster. What it can do is prevent the system from having to use disk-based VM when it runs out of RAM because you are trying to run too many applications concurrently or using applications that are extremely RAM dependent. It will improve the performance of applications that run mostly in RAM or when loading programs.
Kappy's Personal Suggestions About OS X Maintenance
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utility is: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption. Drive Genius provides additional tools not found in Disk Warrior for defragmentation of older drives, disk repair, disk scans, formatting, partitioning, disk copy, and benchmarking.
Four outstanding sources of information on Mac maintenance are:
1. OS X Maintenance - MacAttorney.
2. Mac maintenance Quick Assist
3. Maintaining Mac OS X
4. Mac Maintenance Guide
Periodic Maintenance
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) See Mac OS X- About background maintenance tasks. If you are running Leopard or later these tasks are run automatically, so there is no need to use any third-party software to force running these tasks.
If you are using a pre-Leopard version of OS X, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced after Tiger. (These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion and should not be installed.)
Defragmentation
OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive except when trying to install Boot Camp on a fragmented drive. But you don't need to buy third-party software. All you need is a spare external hard drive and Carbon Copy Cloner.
Cheap and Easy Defragmentation
You will have to backup your OS X partition to an external drive, boot from the external drive, use Disk Utility to repartition and reformat your hard drive back to a single volume, then restore your backup to the internal hard drive. You will use Carbon Copy Cloner to create the backup and to restore it.
1. Get an empty external hard drive and clone your internal drive to the
       external one.
2. Boot from the external hard drive.
3. Erase the internal hard drive.
4. Restore the external clone to the internal hard drive.
Clone the internal drive to the external drive
1. Open Carbon Copy Cloner.
2. Select the Source volume from the left side dropdown menu.
3. Select the Destination volume from the left side dropdown menu.
4. Be sure the Block Copy button is not depressed or is ghosted.
5. Click on the Clone button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive and click on the upward pointing arrow button.
After startup do the following:
Erase internal hard drive
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your internal hard drive (this is the entry with the
       mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the
       drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is
       failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be
       reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the
       DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the
       drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended
       (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to
       GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait
       until the process has completed.
Restore the clone to the internal hard drive
1. Open Carbon Copy Cloner.
2. Select the Source volume from the left side dropdown menu.
3. Select the Destination volume from the left side dropdown menu.
4. Be sure the Block Copy button is not selected or is ghosted.
5. Click on the Clone button.
Destination means the internal hard drive. Source means the external startup drive.
Note that the Source and Destination drives are swapped for this last procedure.
Malware Protection
As for malware protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. Starting with Lion Apple has included built-in malware protection that is automatically updated as necessary.
Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection:
1. Mac Malware Guide.
2. Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware
3. Macintosh Virus Guide
For general anti-virus protection I recommend only using ClamXav, but it is not necessary if you are keeping your computer's operating system software up to date. You should avoid any other third-party software advertised as providing anti-malware/virus protection. They are not required and could cause the performance of your computer to drop.
Cache Clearing
I recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX 2.4.3, or Cocktail 5.1.1 that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc. Corrupted cache files can cause slowness, kernel panics, and other issues. Although this is not a frequent nor a recurring problem, when it does happen there are tools such as those above to fix the problem.
For emergency cleaning install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. (AppleJack works with Snow Leopard or earlier.)
Installing System Updates or Upgrades
When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
Backup and Restore
Having a backup and restore strategy is one of the most important things you can do to maintain your computer. Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Carbon Copy Cloner.
2. Deja Vu
3. SuperDuper!
4. Synk Pro
5. Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance and backup and restore.
Always have a current backup before performing any system updates or upgrades.
Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity or 20 GBs, whichever is greater, as free space. Avoid installing utilities that rely on Haxies, SIMBL, or that alter the OS appearance, add features you will rarely if ever need, etc. The more extras you install the greater the probability of having problems. If you install software be sure you know how to uninstall it. Avoid installing multiple new software at the same time. Install one at a time and use it for a while to be sure it's compatible.
Additional suggestions will be found in:
1. Mac OS X speed FAQ
2. Speeding up Macs
3. Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
4. Essential Mac Maintenance: Get set up
5. Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev up your routines
6. Five Mac maintenance myths
7. How to Speed up Macs
8. Myths of required versus not required maintenance for Mac OS X
Referenced software can be found at CNet Downloads or MacUpdate.

Airport speed does not go over 144 Mb on new macbook air

just got a new macbook air but the speed of the link to time capsule does not go over 144 Mb (shown in network utility)
same time machine with my old mackbook air show 270 mbit.
It does not flactuate it is constant, and it less then 3ft from the time capsule

Turn off your computer, then turn back on and press F12 (fn + volume button) or hold the mouse or trackpad button before the spining circle or apple logo appear on the gray startup screen

Advice: How to speed up Macbook Air (2010)

Under Lion my 2010 (HDD) Macbook Air has been intolerably slow. It could take 10 minutes to start a program. When connecting to a projector, it could likewise take 10 minutes for it to resize windows during which it was unresponsive. I have been about to hurl it in the trashcan because this computer was just such an impediment to my work. But now I found the solution: don't run Safari. I had long suspected 2G ram combined with a slow HDD was the culprit. I tried to minimize the number of programs open, but let Safari run permanently. But it turns out Safari uses enormeous amounts of memory, and it has a tendency to just grow and grow its memory grab. Now, I quit Safari when I want to run other programs, and after this the computer is merely slow, not intollerably so. It is annoying to always have to quit Safari, but at least it makes the computer useful.
Any better suggestions than always quitting Safari?

The fact is that Mac OS X is good at of taking care of itself, if there are performance issues, there are a couple of things you can check:
Check your Login Items under System Preferences > Accounts to see what you have automatically launching.Also check /Library/LaunchAgents/ and /Users/yourusername/Library/LaunchAgents/ for items launching at startup
Launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes". Then see what may be consuming your OS X system resources.
Check the System Memory tab at the bottom of Activity Monitor to see if you have excessive "page outs", a sign that you may benefit from more RAM.
Check if you are running any poor Mac anti-virus programs as they may take large resources.
If you don't want to do these manually or the above checks still won't help, let the MacBook speed up tool http://www.speedupmacbook.com/ perform a health check of your Mac and fix relevant issues.
Best regards!

Why is the SSD on 2011 Macbook Air much slower then 2010 Macbook Pro with Samsung 830 SSD (less then half the speed) ?

Why is a laptop designed from ground up to use flash slower then a older laptop with a upgraded SSD from a 3rd party?
My old MBP is more then 2x the speed (read/write) with a SSD upgrade (Samsung 830) then my Air.
Any fixes or mods to boost the flash speed of the Air?

We would like you to show us how to do that.......Especially when the Samsung 830 will not fit the Air.....Please don't say duct tape....
Ok, scratch that idea. Let me think for a moment,,,em,,,em. OK I got it. Sell both units and buy a mid Macbook Air 2012 version.
(d-mn I'm good)
__________ All Hail The King _________

Why SSD Macbook AIr 13" 2015 speed low

Score Test of Macbook air 13" (2015) 128GB

i have tried to reinstall OS X and run Disk speed test again
now the scores are same as the other's benchmark

New MacBook Air vs previous version- processor speed?

I was going to exchange my < 2wk old MacBook Air for the newer version. the new one has better battery life but it looks like smaller processor? 1.3 GHz vs the 1.8 that I have. How much difference is this?

500HMz is actually a pretty big difference... especially in this range. Depending on your use though, it's entirely possible you would never notice. Besides improved battery life, the new Air also has significantly better graphics performance (about a 40% increase). What do you typically use your MacBook Air for? If you use processor intensive applications, you may want to stay with your current model. If you do things that involve graphics, the newer model might be a better option.
Basically... you might have one car that can go 200 miles per hour... and one that can go 150 miles per hour. But maybe you only ever need to go up to 70 miles per hour. Basically, they would both meet your needs as you'll never need the full power of either. That's how you can look at the difference in the processor performance. Just because one is lower, doesn't mean it will perform differently in your daily tasks.
I personally would probably go with the newer model (especially since you're still within the 2 week return period). The boost in graphics performance and the reduced energy use would outweigh the difference in processor speeds.

Why is my iPhone 5 S WiFi speed 50% slower than my MacBook Air 2012?

Why is my iPhone 5 S WiFi speed 50% slower than my MacBook Air 2012?

Hello jagimc,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
For more information on this, take a look at this article:
iOS: Troubleshooting Wi-Fi networks and connections
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1398
Wi-Fi disconnects, or signal strength is less than expected
Move closer to the Wi-Fi router (access point).
Check for sources of potential interference.
Remove any case, stand, or other accessories from your iOS device and see if signal strength improves.
Reset network settings by tapping Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings.
Note: This will reset all network settings including: previously connected Wi-Fi networks and passwords, recently used Bluetooth accessories, VPN and APN settings.
Best of luck,
Mario

Slow speeds on iOS devices but not on Macbook Air

Have 2 iPads in the house together with 2 iPhones - 1 iPhone still has iOS 6 as a comparison - all the other devices have iOS 7.
Problem is download speeds for all these devices. whilst I get 10-12 mbps on Macbook Air over Wi-Fi, all of the above devices only achieve 3--5mpbs.
Have tried renaming SSID, rebooting router etc but no improvement.
There is no difference between any of the iOS devices in terms of spec. etc.
This has only happened in the last couple of months. I have a speedtest result from the start of October which shows 10+ mbps on iPad, so there was no problem back then.
Any thoughts gratefully received

Thanks Texas
I had seen these posts and don't have WMM or QoS on my modem. Have tried making the changes to G and N but this doesn't make much difference.
I was on another wifi network today with the iphone and there was no problem on that, so I know it's something to do with my set up
FI
Netgear modem
Airport Extreme dealing with wi-fi
Wired cat 5 throughout house
Thanks

MacBook Air 2010 network speed drop sharply after download starts

My MBA 2010 started having network issue a few month ago. The symptom is:
1. Sometime, the network speed (both in and out) drops to 0B/sec suddenly and all connection died, then comes back after a few sec.
2. When downloading large files, the initial download speed was great, 2MB/s, but sharply dropped to 20KB/s after a few sec. And never increase.
I have another MacBook Pro on the same home network. Never had such issues with it. I also tried to download the same file from both machines at the same time or one after another. No matter which way, my MBP can consistently have 2MB/s speed, but my MBA only had 20K/s.
I had this issue with MBA when it was running snow leopard. And I thought it may deal with OS. So just upgraded to Mountain Lion (clean install). But still the same issue.
But when speedtesting with www.speedtest.net, MBA still works pretty good, 18mbps download, 4mbps upload. This really confuses me. I begin to suspect if my airport adapter is broken or getting flaky. Any help or suggestion will be appreciated.

Ok, when I take the MacBook Air into the room with the Airport Express the Internet Connection works well and the Airport Utility shows the Phy Connection as 802.11 a / n as opposed to 802.11 b / g / n
Does this tell me anything about why when connected to the Network via the Airport Express that I am having trouble connecting to almost any URL? Sometimes it connects but very slowly. When I do get through to the Speedtest things look Ok but with some serious valleys in the graphic.

My MacBook Air 2nd h 2011 running Mac OS X ver 10.7.5, camera disappeared. FaceTime. Photo Booth, iChat, Skype can't find it. It isnt in System Report, in USB High-Speed tree. I've browsed discussions found no solution.Pls help me

My MacBook Air 2nd h 2011 running Mac OS X ver 10.7.5, camera disappeared. FaceTime. Photo Booth, iChat, Skype can't find it. It isnt in System Report, in USB High-Speed tree. I've browsed discussions found no solution.Pls help me

JLeme wrote: ... camera ... isnt in System Report, in USB High-Speed tree...
If you have tried every relevant suggestion from How to Troubleshoot iSight but your camera is still not recognized anywhere in your System Profiler's USB Device Tree, you likely have a hardware problem.
Properly applying the Combo version of the latest update for your Mac OS can sometimes correct software problems, but, if your trouble is caused by a hardware problem, there are no user serviceable parts of the camera. For hardware help, contact Apple or an Apple-Authorized Service Provider for service on your MacBook Air.

Network speed: MacBook Air and Belkin N1 vision

Hi all,
I have a MacBook Air wireless connected to a Belkin N1 vision which has an Gigabit ethernet connection to a Maxtor Shared Storage II device. From my MacBook Network Utility, I can see my connection is only 130 MBits/second. I'm expecting to see 802.11n speeds but don't seem to be getting them.
Anyone know why?

Apple's notebooks only seem to support the fastest speeds when used with an 802.11n router that supports wide-band at 5GHz. I tried the Belkin N1 Vision and D-Link Xtreme N DIR-655 before I realized this. With both of those routers, my MacBook Pro could only connect at 130Mbps.
Most 3rd party 802.11n routers only support 2.4GHz. Some routers are dual band and support 2.4GHz and 5GHz, but I haven't found one that supports wide-band at 5GHz.
Now I'm using the Airport Extreme Gigabit Base Station, which supports wide-band at 5GHz, and my MacBook Pro connects at 300Mbps. My MacBook Air only seems to connect at 270Mbps for some reason though. Although it's still impossible to transfer data at 300Mbps, I've seen speeds as high as 12MB/s when within 10 feet or so of router, which is about the speed of 100 Base-T Ethernet. I was only able to achieve about half of that with the other routers I've tried.

Typical WiFi speeds for Macbook Airs

Hello,
I'll admit right away that I have a bit of an obsession with WiFi speeds, it's never fast enough for me, so I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to squeeze the best speed I can out of my mid-2012 Air. I'm hoping to find like-minded people here that are as obsessive as I am.
Right out of the bat, I know the Air has a 2x2 antenna, so there are limits to how much you will get out of a 802.11n network. I find due to where I live, only 5Ghz is a realistic option. It also allows for 40hz channels, so it does help. I use iperf for most of my testing.
As far as I can tell, theoretical speed for the Macbook Air Mid-2012 is 300mbps. I'm easily getting close to but never above 200mbps on an ASUS RT-N66U when in the same room. As far as I can tell, this is actually on the high side from various posts on the Internet. As soon as I go upstairs to my bedroom that sits right above the router, speed drops to at best 40mbps. This is consistent on both a Retina iPad Mini and my Macbook Air. Just goes to show what an impact a wall can have on the 5Ghz band.
So what I'm looking for are typical experiences from other users as well as from people who have made the jump to 802.11ac.

Also, not sure if it's just me, but the image in the orignal post is no longer showing up, so I'm posting it again here

MacBook Air speed

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