Insane performance and efficiency without fans - Apple MacBook Air 13 M5 Entry Review

[Redaktion]

The new MacBook Air 13 gets the blazing fast M5-SoC, twice the storage as well as Wi-Fi 7 for $1,099. We review the entry-level model with the 8-core GPU, 16 GB RAM and 512 GB storage, which is the best choice for most users.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Insane-performance-and-efficiency-without-fans-Apple-MacBook-Air-13-M5-Entry-Review.1242707.0.html

[good-iGPU could be faster]

I'm not an APPLE user (yet?), but on fan is nice. Tho it looks like the performance throttles to 1/3 (-66%) when stress-tested.

Compared to Air 13 M4 Entry in the table. the M5's pixel response times are much better.

If the Air was 0.44 lb lighter, it would deserve its Air name much more.

Nice display color coverage, 550 nits and clear, color-punchy pixels, nothing to complain.

Nice speakers is good to hear.

Wish the iGPU was faster:
Steel Nomad (Vulkan):

• Radeon 890M: Average score: 753
  
  • (89.6 GB/s = 128-bit * 5600 MT/s / 1000 / 8)
• Apple MacBook Air 13 M5: 941
• (153.6 GB/s = 128-bit * 9600 MT/s / 1000 / 8)
  
• 4050 Laptop: Average score: 1789

[good-iGPU could be faster]

Assuming the Radeon 890M' average 753 score is (closely) based on 5600 MT/s.

[Assple]

The good thing, Apple is predictable.

Pro:
 - M5

Cons:
 - everything else

[Frugal when gaming]

Wish the iGPU was faster

I want you to do something for me. Look at the power it takes when running Cyberpunk 2077 at ultra. It's around 19 watts. Then look at the average 890m laptop when running same game, it's around 60 watts (lunar lake does 45watts). Now look at a low power rtx 4050 laptop, that will take 60w alone just for the dgpu, not including CPU, ram and the rest of the other stuff. So total power on an rtx 4050 laptop will be much significantly higher.

While this GPU may not be the fastest, it is incredibly efficient and takes very little power. It kind of reminds me of switch 2 SoC vibes which only takes something like 8w except this has a much faster CPU.

What's somewhat odd, is if you look at the MBP w/ teh same M5 igpu, it seems to take much more wattage under same Cyberpunk test. Not sure what that could be about. Perhaps combination of spinning fans for cooling, high refresh 120 Hz miniled display, higher sustained clocks/wattage - or a combination of all of the above.

[dumb_oems]

There is not a single Windows laptop that comes even close to this level of performance while being completely silent.

In fact, there are no recent Windows laptops that are completely silent, period.

It is not even funny how much better than the competition this device is in most areas, and funnily enough even the price department.