OK, 8 cores, but big little config, so probably 4x A53 + 4x A72. So nothing revolutionary new here IMHO. Where is the 16 core A72 SoC we all want?
Apple designs their own cores.
really, do you have a reference?
Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers
841–850 of 1001 posts
Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers
#842Completely unconfirmed speculation incoming: There's a solid chance that the logic board is exactly the same on all of the Macs announced today and the only difference is the cooling solution. If you play around with the Apple Store configurator, the specs are all suspiciously similar between every new Mac. https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-air https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/13-inch https://w…
If you compare the M1 Air and Pro, the only difference seems to be the addition of the Touchbar, 10% better battery life, and a "studio" speaker/mic on the Pro. https://www.apple.com/mac/compare/ I assume the addition of a fan on the Pro gives it better performance under load, but there doesn't seem to be a hugely compelling reason to not just get the Air.
The Pro screen is 500 nits vs 400 nits on the air.
Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers
#843Earlier quoted context omitted.
> why do developers end up using macs To develop apps for macOS and iOS.
Agreed but besides developing apps for macOS or iOS
I’m about to build a new Linux desktop. I came dangerously close to pre-ordering a mini instead - RAM and I/O is what held me back from that impulse buy.
Reasons to not use Linux: getting hardware working right is a PITA - note that I already have a powerful desktop PC, but I haven’t been successful in making it work reliably with Linux after several attempts. I’m going to build a new one, specifically researching user experience with Linux for each part because it really is a minefield. I’m also going to have to buy a new 4K monitor, because while Linux DEs can handle high DPI, they really struggle with mixed DPI.
The desktop experience on macOS is quite nice, and you don’t need to worry about whether apps will work most of the time. It handles mixed and high DPI beautifully - you don’t have to think about it and you don’t have to mess with X.Org configs.
I like the idea of Linux, and I am going to move forward with it, but I do that knowing I’m paying a heavy price in my time to do so.
Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers
#844"Testing conducted by Apple in October 2020 using preproduction MacBook Air systems with Apple M1 chip and 8-core GPU, as well as production 1.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-based MacBook Air systems, all configured with 16GB RAM and 2TB SSD. Tested with prerelease Final Cut Pro 10.5 using a 55-second clip with 4K Apple ProRes RAW media, at 4096x2160 resolution and 59.94 frames per second, transcoded to Apple ProRes 42…
According to the Anandtech benchmark the A14 (what's in the latest iPhone) is 8% below the Ryzen 5950X. M1 is likely faster than that. https://www.anandtech.com/show/16226/apple-silicon-m1-a14-de... Quote: "In the overall SPEC2006 chart, the A14 is performing absolutely fantastic, taking the lead in absolute performance only falling short of AMD’s recent Ryzen 5000 series. The fact that Apple is able to achieve this…
this is what that boggles my mind. Like are those benchmarks really comparable? I mean Intel and AMD have been doing this far longer than Apple and it seemed as if Apple just came in and bend the laws of physics that Intel and AMD have been limited by
Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers
#845Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually that was what I notice in the video as well. Mac mini has huge amount of empty space. And the only difference was the cooling unit fitted on top.
There used to be a DVD player and a hard drive in there, there has to be spare room. When comparing the mini to other SFF computers be sure to note that the mini has the power supply built in though where most of the others have it external.
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Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers
#846For MacBook Air and MacBook Pro "Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display in millions of colours and: (Only) One external display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz". Mac Mini supports 2 displays, one via thunderbolt the same as above plus a second 4K display on the HDMI port only which I'm guessing internally uses the same output as the laptop displays.
That’s a little disappointing - probably won’t be getting this first generation model :/ Apparently eGPUs are not supported either (https://9to5mac.com/2020/11/10/new-apple-silicon-macs-with-m...) although perhaps there will be some "traditional" USB display adapters that would work?
Use case being docking the machine to my desk the majority of the time. I'd like at least 2 and preferably 3 display outputs to match my current setup.
Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers
#847I didn't see any units for their "the GPU has 2.6 TFLOP/s of throughput". 2.6 TFLOPS/s at what precision? FP16, FP32, something else? Nvidia labels their Tegra AGX Xavier part as 5.5 TFLOP/s (FP16) and AMD's APUs say 1.8 TFLOP/s (FP32). They also say "up to" 3.5x CPU performance (total performance) of previous generation macs, then make references to a Mac with a 1.2 GHz quad core Core i7 (MacBook Air) and a quad cor…
If you go to the MacBook Pro 13" page (https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-13/) and click on "See how M1 redefines speed" there are some more numbers for specific use cases (Xcode project build, Final Cut Pro ProRes transcode, etc). The footnotes for these numbers say the tests were done with the maxed-out previous-generation 2-port MacBook Pro:
> Testing conducted by Apple in October 2020 using preproduction 13-inch MacBook Pro systems with Apple M1 chip, as well as production 1.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-based 13-inch MacBook Pro systems, all configured with 16GB RAM and 2TB SSD.
I think it's a fair comparison, since the new M1 MacBook Pro 13" is a 2-port model that replaces the existing 2-port models, while Apple still sells Intel 4-port models.
Similar situation on the MacBook Air page. The tests are done with the maxed-out previous-generation MacBook Air:
> Testing conducted by Apple in October 2020 using preproduction MacBook Air systems with Apple M1 chip and 8-core GPU, as well as production 1.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-based MacBook Air systems, all configured with 16GB RAM and 2TB SSD.
Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers
#848i don't understand how you're supposed to develop server-side x86 code on this machine. isnt this an important market for the mac?
Cross compilation is a thing, JFYI. You don't need to be on an arm64e system to generate an arm binary today. This is the case for xcode, gcc, go, etc etc
Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers
#849The M1 is basically what would Apple would call A14X / A14Z if it was on iPad Pro. So they decided to reuse the A14X / M1 across all three products. And the only differentiation are their TDP cooling. The MacBook Air is 10W TDP, and both Mac Mini and MacBook Pro are likely ~35W range. The did mention MacBook Air's SSD performances is now twice as fast, so this isn't exactly an iPad Pro with Keyboard. That is great ex…
I was hopeful they'd weigh less. An iPad Pro 12.9 inches weighs 1.4lbs. The 13.3 inch MacBook Air M1 is 2.8lbs. I'm sure there are reasons but there are companies, LG for instance, that make 2 lbs 13.3 inch notebooks and 3 lbs 16 inch notebooks. No I don't want an LG but I was hopeful for a 16" Arm Macbook Pro that weight 3 lbs. Now I'm pretty confident it will be the same as an Intel Macbook Pro 16" at 4.4lbs (heavy…
The LG grams go out of their way to be lightweight and they prioritize it above just about everything else. What you get is a magnesium alloy (?) chassis that feels very flimsy, a screen that flexes a LOT, and a battery that is far smaller than the chassis can support [1] to meet their weight goals.
Apple isn't really hellbent on making the lightest laptop and don't really have the luxury of creating SKUs just for these niche needs.
[1] https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/LG+Gram+15-Inch+Repairability+A...
Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers
#850I am somewhat skeptical about total performance claims as many notebook manufacturers have been moving to ARM for efficiency and not total performance. Current top of the line for notebooks would be the Qualcomm 8cx (ARM, 7? Watts) and AMD 4800U (x86-64, 15 Watts TDP) from quick search around. Would be interesting to see independent reviewers benchmarking those 2 in comparison to Apple's first in-house processor. Her…
Perhaps it is due to less data copying and configuring the right processor for the job in Apple's benchmarks? Most CPU benchmarks wouldn't be testing the performance characteristics if the matrix heavy computations were done by the GPU, etc.?
Both the Qualcomm 8cx and AMD Ryzen 4800U have integrated graphics.