MacBook Air's New CPUs Detailed in Geekbench Results

MacBook Air 2020
(Image credit: Apple)

Apple announced a new MacBook Air last week, and now we might know which chips will be powering the laptop. Geekbench results spotted by Twitter user TUM_APISAK point to two Intel Ice Lake processors.  

When Apple revealed its new MacBook Air, it said it updated it with a new keyboard, additional storage and Intel's 10th Gen Core processors. It didn't offer many details about those CPUs, but based on their LPDDR4X RAM support and Iris Plus graphics, we deduced that the chips are part of the Ice Lake family.

Now, newly discovered Geekbench results point to MacBook Airs equipping the Intel Core i3-1000NG4 and Intel Core i5-1030NG7.  There don't appear to be any results for the i7 model, but Apple has an i7 configuration listed, so it stands to reason that Apple would use the Intel Core i7-1060NG7

Intel's official comparison of these chips reveals a few differences between the "N" model processors and their N-less counterparts. The i5-1030G7's base clock speed is 800 MHz, for example, while the i5-1030NG7's is 1.1 GHz. The two chips also have smaller package sizes but slightly higher TDPs than their predecessors.

The new MacBook Air is available now from Apple's website starting at $999 . Orders are expected to arrive between March 31 and April 7 in the U.S.

Nathaniel Mott
Freelance News & Features Writer

Nathaniel Mott is a freelance news and features writer for Tom's Hardware US, covering breaking news, security, and the silliest aspects of the tech industry.

  • rklaver
    I ordered the i7 model, should be here on the 27th - Apr 3rd. Kinda surprised non of the reviewers got an i7. Anxious to see the processor as well.
    Reply
  • orthorim
    The i7 seems to have really high scores of 1130 and 2870 in geekbench 5!

    The Single core is on par with the highest end MacBook Pro 16 (i9 HK)

    https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/1648798

    I am having a feeling Intel is basically just kidding, it's all the same processor, just put in different thermal envelopes and base speeds - but it's actually the same thing. 1.2 GHz and 2.4Ghz (16") sounds really different but... whoops, same score! Intel is a marketing company primarily.

    Here's a chart with geekbench 5 score s with my old min 2012 MacBook Pro, the two i9 MacBook Pro 16s, and the new MacBook Air.

    MacBook Pro 2012 2.6
    716
    2786MacBook Air 2020 i7
    11302870MacBook Pro 16 2019 i9HK TOP MODEL
    11206989MacBook Pro 16 2019 i9H
    10816661
    Reply