[reaperman]

The MacBook Air and Pro have the same performance for just over 7 minutes of full power usage / compiling, FWIW. At that point the Air throttles and the Pro never never throttles.

That’s the entire and sole performance differentiator between the Air and the Pro.

[giantrobot]

I've got an old USB laptop "cooler" which is basically a laptop stand with some integrated fans. If I'm doing something intensive on my MBA it will keep it from throttling for a little while longer than the passive cooling.