No, the new manager does not affect the crunching at all - it only manages the WUs, sends and receives the WUs, keeps track of credits.
The crunching is done by a projcet-specific application - and those are updated now and then - ususally you do not even realise that has happened. 🙂
The new manager looks (IMO) better - in the graphic configuration - and has some bug-fixes. It is an evolutionary update, not revolutionary.