Don’t forget the SSD speed test. If I remember correctly the one shipping with Air (previous gen) was inferior to the Pro.
Also, a separate GPU test is warranted. The i5 should significantly outperform the i3.
2018 Retina MBA had three pads for flash chips. 2019 Retina MBA had two. 2018+ 13" MBP has four. 2018+ 15"/16" MBP has eight.
The number of flash chips correlates strongly to the peak read throughput. Peak write correlates with write cache on the controller (the T2 in these cases), then with the number of flash chips. We don't yet know how many the 2020 MBA has, but Apple started offering 1 TB chips in the 16" MBP. I bet the 2 TB option for the 2020 MBA is still two chips. Thus, the MBP will have significantly higher peak storage throughput. It shouldn't affect most uses, though.
I suspect the cooling will be the big differentiator. The 2018 and 2019 MBA had 7.5W chips. Looks like they've stepped up to 12W. The 13" 2TB3 MBP has 15W processors and the 13" 4TB3 MBP has 25W. With each power step comes an improved cooler. 2018-2019 MBA had a heatsink and a case fan. 2TB3 MBP has a heat pipe and a single fan. 4TB3 MBP has a heat pipe and two fans. The 2020 MBA has probably been upgraded to keep up with the 9W-12W processors, but how much thermal capacity does it actually have? The 4TB3 MBP can definitely dump more heat, so it can perform at a high level for longer. Not sure about the 2020 MBA versus the 2TB3 MBP, though.
Don’t forget the SSD speed test. If I remember correctly the one shipping with Air (previous gen) was inferior to the Pro.
Also, a separate GPU test is warranted. The i5 should significantly outperform the i3.
Very good question. We ran the Geekbench 5.1 GPU test with Metal and the new 2020 i3 earned a 5853. The 2019 with the i5 only pulled a 696.
The Metal results section of Geekbench browser has the UHD 617, the GPU in the 2018 MBA, scoring 3108. A score difference of 5800 and 3100 is much more sensible given what we know of the GPUs.
Is that 696 a typo?
Ran it three times.. I got it above 700, but that's it...
Comments
2019 Retina MBA had two.
2018+ 13" MBP has four.
2018+ 15"/16" MBP has eight.
The number of flash chips correlates strongly to the peak read throughput. Peak write correlates with write cache on the controller (the T2 in these cases), then with the number of flash chips. We don't yet know how many the 2020 MBA has, but Apple started offering 1 TB chips in the 16" MBP. I bet the 2 TB option for the 2020 MBA is still two chips. Thus, the MBP will have significantly higher peak storage throughput. It shouldn't affect most uses, though.
I suspect the cooling will be the big differentiator. The 2018 and 2019 MBA had 7.5W chips. Looks like they've stepped up to 12W. The 13" 2TB3 MBP has 15W processors and the 13" 4TB3 MBP has 25W. With each power step comes an improved cooler. 2018-2019 MBA had a heatsink and a case fan. 2TB3 MBP has a heat pipe and a single fan. 4TB3 MBP has a heat pipe and two fans. The 2020 MBA has probably been upgraded to keep up with the 9W-12W processors, but how much thermal capacity does it actually have? The 4TB3 MBP can definitely dump more heat, so it can perform at a high level for longer. Not sure about the 2020 MBA versus the 2TB3 MBP, though.