Just curious on how El Capitan is running on a Late-2010 MacBook Air? I am considering running the beta once it is released on my Late-2010 MBA and am just wondering how DP1 is running on them now? Thanks in advance for any information!
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How is performance on Late-2010 MBA?
- Thread starter SRLMJ23
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It definitely runs better than Yosemite on my late 2008 MBA
Appreciate your reply, and glad to hear it is running better than Yosemite on your Late-2008 MBA...encouraging news as your machine is two years earlier than mine! I am hoping to hear back from people with Late-2010 MBA's as well. Once again though, thank you for your reply!
Appreciate your reply, and glad to hear it is running better than Yosemite on your Late-2008 MBA...encouraging news as your machine is two years earlier than mine! I am hoping to hear back from people with Late-2010 MBA's as well. Once again though, thank you for your reply!
Just curious on how El Capitan is running on a Late-2010 MacBook Air? I am considering running the beta once it is released on my Late-2010 MBA and am just wondering how DP1 is running on them now? Thanks in advance for any information!
Just curious on how El Capitan is running on a Late-2010 MacBook Air? I am considering running the beta once it is released on my Late-2010 MBA and am just wondering how DP1 is running on them now? Thanks in advance for any information!
I'm running 10.11 on my Mid-2011 MBA
Waaaay better than the Yosemite.
The only downside is that it's not recognizing my external drives (HDD) I've seen here that there is a way to correct that, but as i'm not in need to use them , Ill wait for the 2nd preview. It works just fine with my iphone and ipad by the way.
I don't see any real performance differences (in fact the latest yosemite beta before El Capitan was a bit faster if we were to seperate them on this), it's entirely possible that it's faster for you only because it's not recognizing those HDDs and doesn't have to waste the time on them (which would be especially noticeable using finder and browsing catalogs).
Bottom line, everything what works with Yosemite should work with El Capitan just as well. We've yet to see any worth mentioning performance improvements, but 'worst case scenario' performance should be on pair with Yosemite for the final release, while now it's subjectively slightly behind.
Well in my case, safari is waaaay faster in opening/switching tabs.
The system as a whole seems smoother. I know what I see, I'm very aware of the transitions and stuff.
I dont think the HDD thing is related, because they don't get conected all the time. I only use them like a few minutes per week just to backup some files, and for only the time to transfer, then I plug them off.
Not sure I noticed any speed difference. It certainly didn't feel slow on my 13" 4GB 2010 MBA.Just curious on how El Capitan is running on a Late-2010 MacBook Air? I am considering running the beta once it is released on my Late-2010 MBA and am just wondering how DP1 is running on them now? Thanks in advance for any information!
I don't have a MBA, but I do have a 2010 MBP that uses the same era of hardware (well, at least what Apple was putting in their computers in 2010 *cough*) and it runs very well. I have a third party SSD and a C2D so I would imagine you would experience about the same fluidity.
Yeah we have similar hardware, accept I only have 2gb of RAM, however, I have to say that even with just the 2GB of RAM Yosemite ran extremely well for me. I have never had any issues. People say things about the slow transition of Mission Control but I rarely do. OS X is such a superior OS than Windows when it comes to many things ESPECIALLY how it manages RAM. I think part of the reason that my machine runs great is obviously the SSD, but also the Nvidia 320M GPU. Even though it is not what you would call a powerful GPU it is certainly better than the Integrated GPU's back then. I probably do not have to explain any of this to you, haha. I just cannot believe how well Yosemite performs on my MBA. In my opinion MBA's are excellent machines!
I literally wrote Tim Cook an email basically begging him (in a very professional way) to support Metal on the 2010 GPU's, especially my 320M, haha. I have heard that he responds to all emails he gets, but I have yet to get a response and do not expect to get one.
My question to you guys is, will the Nvidia 320M be supported by Metal? Second question is, if not is it because it simply cannot support it or is Apple just cutting some of us off? Last I heard was that all 2011 and above Mac's will support Metal. I know quite a bit about Mac's and what not but when it comes to the technical limitations of the 320m's and the other 2010 GPU's used I really have no clue what the limitations are.
Any info would be great! Thanks in advance!
I am not sure about Metal but I had to post back because you made me a bit nostalgic about the 320M in my MBP.
I purchased the laptop when I was young and not as informed, and it was my first laptop, first OS X experience, first large purchase, etc. I didn't know much about what and when Apple typically releases new or spec bumped models, so I when I purchased it in Dec 2010 as a Christmas gift for myself and saw that 2-3 months later the Early 2011 models rolled out I was a bit upset with myself, but I didn't have much of a reason to be because I wasn't aware at the time. In any case, the 320M came out ahead of the the Intel GPU that those 2011 shipped with, it wasn't much on paper, but especially in Windows under Boot Camp, it made quite a decent (10-15 FPS) framerate difference when gaming. I remember it being a pretty hot topic of the time.
This was perceived by most to be negligible but to me it came in handy! This was around the same time that my first gaming PC had died and I didn't have the money for anything so in order to continue gaming I used the MBP with the 320M and was able to squeeze out more than acceptable framerates in every title that I was interested at the time. 10-15 FPS may not seem like a big deal but it can make the difference between playable and non-playable in some cases.
Still have that laptop with its 320M about 4 and half years later now. It can't do much as far as modern AAA games, but it can still handle some older titles that still are worth playing with solid player bases. I hope Metal can support this GPU - I quite like it a lot and have a pretty nice bias towards it. It's a nice chip, and in a way it is a gem because it is basically one of the last NVIDIA GPUs in Apple notebooks.
I purchased the laptop when I was young and not as informed, and it was my first laptop, first OS X experience, first large purchase, etc. I didn't know much about what and when Apple typically releases new or spec bumped models, so I when I purchased it in Dec 2010 as a Christmas gift for myself and saw that 2-3 months later the Early 2011 models rolled out I was a bit upset with myself, but I didn't have much of a reason to be because I wasn't aware at the time. In any case, the 320M came out ahead of the the Intel GPU that those 2011 shipped with, it wasn't much on paper, but especially in Windows under Boot Camp, it made quite a decent (10-15 FPS) framerate difference when gaming. I remember it being a pretty hot topic of the time.
This was perceived by most to be negligible but to me it came in handy! This was around the same time that my first gaming PC had died and I didn't have the money for anything so in order to continue gaming I used the MBP with the 320M and was able to squeeze out more than acceptable framerates in every title that I was interested at the time. 10-15 FPS may not seem like a big deal but it can make the difference between playable and non-playable in some cases.
Still have that laptop with its 320M about 4 and half years later now. It can't do much as far as modern AAA games, but it can still handle some older titles that still are worth playing with solid player bases. I hope Metal can support this GPU - I quite like it a lot and have a pretty nice bias towards it. It's a nice chip, and in a way it is a gem because it is basically one of the last NVIDIA GPUs in Apple notebooks.
So the 320M is quite capable technically? I mean obviously I know it is a good chip because as I said before this MBA is quite capable of anything I throw at it. I have never gamed with this Mac, but I can have tons of tabs open in Safari, Mail open, and even the new Photo's App open and watching a video and it does not slow down at all. The SSD obviously helps a lot, and sometimes I will open Terminal and run the "Sudo Purge" command then restart if I am going to do something intense. I do not do it much, but sometimes it really helps. In my opinion the Late-2010 MBA is a GREAT Mac that to this day handles anything I can throw at it. Even though it is not a Retina screen, it is still a beautiful display!
For you, since you game...if they supported Metal on the 320M you could probably squeeze another 10 fps out of it. Write Tim Cook an email telling him you think the 320M should be supported and maybe they will support it? What do we have to lose?
One question for you, what games do you play? I like to game but I just never thought I would be able too! We might not have the the same taste in games but I am just curious what you play?
Thanks for the response bro!
If you are concerned with anything specific, NotebookCheck is a great resource for notebook hardware in general - and specifically GPUs. They provide dozens or more application benchmarks as well as real-world game benchmarks for many titles at various resolutions.
I do not game anymore actually. I'm older now and have sort of moved on from investing so much in PC gaming, and at this point I am more of a filthy console casual.
I don't play PC games anymore as I said, but at the time of the 320M shipping in these Apple notebooks I was primarily into World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, and Guild Wars. I also played some CoD2 and 4 casually, but was more serious about MMORPGs. I moved from FPS games to RPGs, I used to be into early CoD and early Battlefield (1942 and 2). Those two franchises are quite popular now of course but I can't really say what has become of it - it just looks sad compared to the good ol' days.
I would definitely not recommend a Mac if gaming is your primary concern, but for me, at the time when my Desktop experienced multiple hardware failures and my only other computer was the 320M notebook - I was able to squeeze out your typical 60 FPS at native resolution with compromising some of the more unnecessary settings such as shadows, terrain and water detail. With the correct drivers and proper setting adjustment (some titles even included "shared memory" settings that were specifically geared towards improving performance on notebooks with integrated GPUs), it was very enjoyable and definitely kept me occupied throughout my years as a student.
Of course, I continued to use it for what I originally purchased it for as well - and it acted as an adequate substitute for a gaming notebook at the time as well. If anything, it was a right place, right time sort of occurrence. It made me even more happy about my purchase - and again, I still have that laptop 4 and a half years later and it still runs like new thanks to a SSD. If I failed to mention in either of my posts - I gamed on it heavily. I played for about 2-4 hours each day for a solid year and half before I could justify purchasing anything else later on to take over my gaming needs. The 320M is still alive and thriving, and it has been tasked quite a bit during its lifespan. I do love this notebook quite a bit.
I am like you then, I am older now and if I game at all it is on my Xbox 360. I am just not into gaming anymore...obviously you and I grew out of it. When I was a lot younger I built my own Windows gaming rig and would play the Battlefield games. I used to be a hardcore Windows guy, and then I purchased my first Mac, which is the Mac I am typing on now (Late-2010 MBA) and I absolutely fell in love with OS X. Obviously it helped that I was in the Apple Eco-System, with iPhones, iPads, Apple TV's etc..so it just made sense. Like you when I bought this MBA and then they released the Early-2011's I was kind of mad but when a friend got one and I used it to compare I noticed basically zero difference. I read a post on here that the 2011 boards fit in the 2010's so if true I could technically "upgrade" but I doubt that is true. Plus, I am happy with this machine! My next purchase will definitely be a MacBook Air, but as long as they continue to support this machine, I am not dropping $1,200 or more on a new one when not needed. I also want to wait until Apple releases a Retina MacBook Air, if they do that I might jump on that...I also want to wait for Intel's SkyLake CPU's.
Anyway bro, just curious...what do you prefer, Windows or OS X? I am Beta Testing Windows 10 and I have to say it is pretty damn good, however, I will never leave OS X as my main OS, especially with El Capitan coming out. I just keep a Windows laptop around for the hell of out if.
Anyway, hope I am not bothering you or anything. Just trying to have a little conversation, AND you educated me on how good of a GPU the 320M actually is (for its time.)
Don't take my word for granted, but I see no reason for motherboards not to fit since from 2010 all the way to current days MBA had basically the same chassis with only minor changes.