Hi, It kind of all depends on your needs. The i3 processor is considerably slower than the i5 and vastly slower than the i7. Yes, the speed is deceiving. The i7 processor with the slower noted speed will likely perform faster than the i5 processor at 3.6 GHz. Most of the MacBook Airs come with the i3 process and many people find them fast enough for their needs. The faster the processor and the more RAM that you have, the longer your machine will be practical for you, as long as its hardware doesn't fail. Why I say this, is that as new apps and even more importantly, new MacOS's are released, they tend to require more power to perform well. So, if you have the better processor and more RAM, the machine should last you longer before you need to spend again on a new computer. You also require better processing power when your machine has a more powerful video card. All these components talk to each other and there are numerous processors within the computer, so, more graphics processing means more info to the main CPU thus better processing power is recommended.
HTH. Later... Tim Kilburn Fort McMurray, AB Canada On Aug 3, 2014, at 9:56 AM, Traci Duncan <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > > I'm reading used iMac listings, and I'd like some help figuring out specs. > > Intel Core I5/3.6 GHz, 4 GB of Ram > Intel Core I5/2.7 GHz, 16 GB of Ram > Intel Core I3/3.2 GHz, 16 GB of Ram > > That is just a very small sampling. In which order of importance should I > pay attention to the numbers? Is the Core iNumber the most important? How > about the GHz number? It is hard to believe we now have machines with 12&16 > GB of Ram. > > I haven't even given you guys the video specs. Maybe you can offer up some > guidance on those. > > It is confusing when the Core iNumber goes down, but the GHz number goes up. > What is a good balance? > > Thanks for any help, > Traci > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
