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Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs

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Re: Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs

#231

Post by fomine3 »

freedomben wrote: post #183

Is this the end of Linux as the host OS on Mac hardware? It's been really difficult for many years anyway, so for essentially hasn't been practical for a long time. I know there are plenty of working ARM builds of Linux so if the new Mac chips are ARM compliant then the ARM linux builds should work. I would think Apple has their own proprietary extensions or something tho, otherwise why make their own? Just very high…

I believe that Apple won't provide its own GPU drivers for Linux and it looks like hard to implement OSS driver (the GPU is for Metal not OpenGL). So Linux on Mac Hardware looks hard unless RADEON equipped Mac.

Re: Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs

#232

Post by Xixi »

Cu3PO42 wrote: post #102

I'm surprised we didn't get any performance numbers. Either raw power or at least power efficiency and projected battery life improvements. Seeing as this is a major reason for the transition (according to them), it feels very weird. They're shipping a 'Development Transition Kit' Mac mini with an A12Z this week, so it's not like the numbers are going to stay private for a long time. Even if there's an NDA, someone's…

The A12Z is already shipping in the latest iPad Pro, so it's not like its performance is some unknown quantity: benchmarks are aplenty... Although I guess this dev kit could run at a different frequency, and have more/less memory bandwidth. Performance should still roughly be that of the iPad Pro.

The A12Z is itself only a small update on the A12X from 2018, so it's basically two years behind whatever will ship in actual ARM Macs this fall...

Re: Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs

#233

Post by rock_artist »

Cu3PO42 wrote: post #102

I'm surprised we didn't get any performance numbers. Either raw power or at least power efficiency and projected battery life improvements. Seeing as this is a major reason for the transition (according to them), it feels very weird. They're shipping a 'Development Transition Kit' Mac mini with an A12Z this week, so it's not like the numbers are going to stay private for a long time. Even if there's an NDA, someone's…

Don’t expect performance. The Intel DTK was Prescott based (while AMD had great dual cores and Intel were lagging). Then they’ve released their Core series that started from mobile and had great performance.

I guess they did some homework before ditching Intel. The big question Is if they have enough headroom for manufacturing reliable chips with sustained high power.

Re: Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs

#234

Post by Mindwipe »

bdz wrote: post #62
coldpie wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

macOS's gaming story has always been pretty abysmal. They nuked a ton of games when they dropped 32-bit support, and they refuse to implement the graphics API that the gaming industry is standardizing around. I don't foresee any improvements in Mac gaming from this announcement.

But now games like Fortnite, Minecraft, PUBG etc. that already exist on iOS can natively run on the Mac. So I think that's a pretty big thing

> But now games like Fortnite, Minecraft, PUBG etc. that already exist on iOS can natively run on the Mac. So I think that's a pretty big thing

With touch controls on non-touchscreen devices.

It isn't big.

I think the fact they chose to show off a fairly poorly running version of Tomb Raider as their demo goes to show that they still fundamentally do not understand the gaming market.

Re: Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs

#235

Post by ogre_codes »

Mindwipe wrote: post #46
monocasa wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IDK, "look how good our CPU support is by running a several year old GPU limited game" fell a bit flat for me.

Not even running it very well. All the graphics settings were turned down, the framerate looked choppy and it was only running in 1080p.

Again, people need to dial back their expectations here. You aren't going to see cutting edge games running well through emulation. There is a reason Apple made such a huge emphasis on native apps, native is always going to run much faster.

They didn't demo gaming to suggest this is a great machine for gaming, they demoed it to show that it was possible at all. The previous version of Rosetta during the PowerPC->Intel transition was not known for performance.

If gaming is important to you and you want a Mac then you want an Intel Mac or whatever games are released for Mac ARM. Emulated games are not going to compete with native.

Re: Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs

#236

Post by Corrado »

pathartl wrote: post #114

I think this is RIP to the Mac Pro for anyone that cares about extensibility. I can't see Apple making a board with a socketed CPU of their own silicon. I'd even say something like RAM would be a stretch.

Yea, I wonder what the Mac Pro is going to look like in a couple of years. Then again, they could stuff it with 100 A19z processors and have a 1024 thread machine (or something equally outrageous).

Re: Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs

#237

Post by sudosysgen »

bredren wrote: post #158
Cu3PO42 wrote: post #102

I'm surprised we didn't get any performance numbers. Either raw power or at least power efficiency and projected battery life improvements. Seeing as this is a major reason for the transition (according to them), it feels very weird. They're shipping a 'Development Transition Kit' Mac mini with an A12Z this week, so it's not like the numbers are going to stay private for a long time. Even if there's an NDA, someone's…

It wasn't just lack of performance numbers, there were no actual products announced. They would have had to tip their hand on a lot of info that is not helpful to customers or their ability to keep selling Intel stuff. One big question though will be how this devkit benchmarks against the current maxed Intel mac mini. I'm curious if GPU performance beats the current BlackMagic eGPU. (rx 580)

I can assure you that performance will not come anywhere close to an RX580, much less to a more modern Radeon 5700.

Re: Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs

#239

Post by freehunter »

snowwrestler wrote: post #122
valuearb wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dual CPUs never made any sense. That’s why they are doing emulation and binary conversion. Maybe Apple adds the i86 instruction set as a module in their SOCs, but they aren’t paying intel CPU prices on their ARM Macs.

Did I misinterpret today? Didn't Apple just release a machine with ARM and Intel?

It’s an ARM chip that can run x86 software using translation tools (Rosetta).

Re: Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs

#240

Post by gjsman-1000 »

Cu3PO42 wrote: post #102

I'm surprised we didn't get any performance numbers. Either raw power or at least power efficiency and projected battery life improvements. Seeing as this is a major reason for the transition (according to them), it feels very weird. They're shipping a 'Development Transition Kit' Mac mini with an A12Z this week, so it's not like the numbers are going to stay private for a long time. Even if there's an NDA, someone's…

I found in the Press release the cost of the Transition Kit: $500. Not bad at all.
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