MacBook Air / 2.0 GHz Core i7 / 8GB RAM / Intel HD 4000

[Anonymous]

I am thinking of replacing my old MacBook Pro 4,1 (2.5 GHz, 6GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 512 MB, 128GB SSD, 15" display with 1440x900) with the above MacBook Air. I work with medium-sized projects and although my laptop is more then 4 years old, it is still capable of perfectly running ArchiCAD 16.

The new MacBook Air is 1.2Kg lighter than my current laptop, has a significantly faster processor, more RAM, a faster SSD drive and the same screen resolution (although the display size is 13" and it has a bit of reflections due to its glossiness).
The main reason for choosing MBA would be its weight (I carry my laptop every day with me) and the price in comparison to the Retina MacBook Pros.

I know that integrated graphic chips, such as Intel HD 4000, are not recommended for ArchiCAD but all the benchmarks show that the Intel card is faster than my 4-year-old NVIDIA (for example, the average Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL score of 15.5 vs 9.3 on my MBA). With 8GB RAM, I would even get the same amount of (shared) graphic memory- 512MB.

Is there anyone with a first-hand experience of working with a similar configuration? Is MacBook Air 2012 able to run a medium-sized project in ArchiCAD smoothly?

Any experiences or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Kindest regards,

Aleksandar

[owen]

I highly recommend the Macbook Airs .. should be perfectly capable of running medium sized projects, even large. I use an Air either docked in Target Disk mode to a MacPro or iMac when I need to run multiple sessions of ArchiCAD and other apps (e.g Revit via Parallels) however also use the Air 'normally' attached to a Cinema display and it is very snappy indeed.

The only real limit you may find will be the number of applications you can run simultaneously due to the 8GB RAM (machines i dock to have 16-32GB). This downside is somewhat reduced by the super fast application starts due to the SSDs … closing an app to start another doesn't involve much waiting 😉

os

P.S I run a 3.5GB 50,000m2 Teamwork project on my Air quite regularly and never had any performance issues. Actually i find it faster for most things than my other (non-SSD) machines except for activities helped by multi-core processors (e.g section rebuilds)

[Anonymous]

Owen, thank you very much on your detailed reply!

That was exactly what I was hoping to hear. These little Airs got so powerful lately, a Pro laptop would be a complete overkill for my needs (not to mention the price).

Once again, thanks a lot!

Regards,

Aleksandar