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Pretty much as the title says, using bootcamp.

WDDM1.1 compliance and GPU recognition confirmed by the WP7 emulator running with EnableFrameRateCounters showing.

I'm considering a Macbook air as a compromise to resolve a need to access iphone dev tools and upgrade my Win7 mobile capability to something reasonably performant with one device.

My current laptop barely runs Win7 and borders on unusable for WP7 tooling hence the interest to try and solve two problems with one device - if realistic.

I assume if the device can run WP7 tools satisfactorily, it would be capable of anything else I might want to do when booted under Win7.

Kara
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Mick N
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    I'd love to know as well, my MBP is great for it, but I've been looking into the Air as well. 10% restocking fee feels like a little too much effort. – Jeff Wilcox Dec 14 '10 at 09:09
  • @Jeff I thought you worked at microsoft :P – Amr H. Abd Elmajeed Dec 14 '10 at 15:31
  • I do, my current MacBook Pro is owned by them! – Jeff Wilcox Dec 14 '10 at 18:23
  • Which MBP model are you using Jeff? I'm assuming it's GPU recognition is all good running the WP7 emulator if you're developing on it? I know some people have had problems with MBPs and GPU recognition, but I don't know their models.. possibly they were older. I may yet consider an MBP. – Mick N Dec 14 '10 at 22:52
  • I have an old late 08 unibody. GPU isn't super great but I do get frame rate counters and good XDE experiences (much slower than my Core i7 desktops though). I'll bounty the question and see where it goes... – Jeff Wilcox Dec 17 '10 at 09:42

3 Answers3

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The new MacBook Airs do not have very powerful processors. The 11" maxes at 1.66 Ghz, while the 13" maxes at 2.13 Ghz. However, they do have the same GPU as the current 13" MacBook Pro. Also, since they use solid state drives, data access is significantly faster. Overall, it will not be the fastest computer you've used, but it should be enough to work.

ughoavgfhw
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  • Hi, thanks for the feedback. This is possibly a positive indication. – Mick N Dec 20 '10 at 22:27
  • Given latest MBP gpu detection is working and this report that they're using the same hardware, this is the best indication at the moment that all things being equal the answer will be yes. Marking this as the Answer until such time as someone confirms it by executing the WP7 emulator under bootcamp in a current Macbook Air. – Mick N Dec 23 '10 at 09:31
  • Thanks, bounty ends in a bit, sure would be nice if we had super clear confirmation. – Jeff Wilcox Dec 23 '10 at 10:04
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I've bought one, but since it's going to the wife, I won't be able to test it in depth.

Instead, the MacbookPro 13" from '09 works fine (monoTouch+iOS dev and bootcamp to vstudio+wp7 dev). I upgraded to 4 gigs memory and that helped, also the disk is slower than I'd like. It responds like a mid-grade desktop, imo.

The problem I see is that the processor on the air's is ULV with a really slow clock, also the sdd in the base version is only 64g which is going to be cramped, I think.

dethSwatch
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  • Hi, thanks for your comments. If you get a chance to install the tools and run a blank project I'd be interested if you could confirm if the FrameRateCounters display. I can drop you a link if needed to demonstrate what to look for. No need to test extensively. – Mick N Dec 15 '10 at 11:51
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Consider this: many Mac gamers install Windows with bootcamp just to have better gameplay experience.

That's because Windows have native access to the GPU through bootcamp.

http://www.mth.kcl.ac.uk/~shaww/web_page/grid/macgpu.htm (2009 article)

http://www.gpgpu.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3766&highlight=bootcamp (2007 article)

So the answer is yes.

karlphillip
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  • Hi Karl, thanks for the feedback. This may be true wrt gpu detection in general, but the question is specifically whether the WP7 emulator detects the GPU. There have been reports on some configurations that this isn't the case, hence the question for this model. – Mick N Dec 22 '10 at 04:16
  • @Mick First, use the newest version of bootcamp along with the newest GPU drivers available. If other programs can harness the GPU power there's no reason why WP7 emulator can't. Second, there are so many ppl interested in this that it will become a stable procedure eventually. These threads are interesting: http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/t/62633.aspx and http://www.ms-windows.info/Help/wp7-emulator-performance-10175.aspx – karlphillip Dec 22 '10 at 12:20
  • Yea, I agree it will probably settle down with time.. just trying to get a sense of where it's up to now on current hardware. ps - I am the "Mick" in both of those forum posts hehe.... interesting how the second link appears to have ripped the discussion I had with Özden on MSDN. I didn't realise that was where the ms-windows.info content has been coming from.. I've seen one or two links to answers on that site. – Mick N Dec 23 '10 at 05:28