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Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

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Re: Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

#143

So... I'd be feeling pretty silly right now if I bought the Mac Pro in 2019 for like $7,000. (Which I almost did!) https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/457 M1 is comparable to baseline Mac Pro on multicore performance and better on single core performance. And several thousand dollars cheaper (and smaller).

There's still a lot to be said for software support, IO, RAM, etc.

Yeah, the Mac Pro supports up to 1.5TB of DRAM (vs. 16GB), it's got a bunch of slots and discrete GPUs, and it can run Windows and Windows VMs. I hope it doesn't end up as an orphan system like the 2013 "trash can" Mac Pro, which was an interesting system that got zero upgrades. Perhaps Apple will offer Apple Silicon upgrades to Mac Pro buyers.

Assuming they can build it (and they have implied that they can scale their silicon designs up in terms of cores, power, and clock rate), an Apple Silicon Mac Pro will be a pretty interesting machine.

If they wanted to, Apple could even bring back an Apple Silicon powered Xserve, or the legendary, mythical, modular desktop Mac (I know, now we're in the realm of pure fantasy, but one can dream.)

Re: Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a mobile CPU with many silicon advantages (widest decoder in industry, memory closer, deepest re-order buffer of any CPU and much more) plus a sane ISA and optimized OS. So yeah, you're seeing the benefit of Apples integration. That's why even the Anandtech page calls that graph "absurd", because it seems unreal, but it's real.

Gotta be frank because it's not getting through: you're jumping way ahead here. Every time one of these threads has happened, there's an ever-increasing # of people who vaguely remember reading a story about Apple GeekBench numbers, so therefore this one is credible too - I used to be one of those people. This has been going regularly for 3-4 years now, and your interlocutor as well as other comments on this article…

Well, we have this evidence so far, on a phone that has no active cooling: https://twitter.com/tldtoday/status/1326610187529023488

Re: Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I had almost the same configuration (2tb/32gb/2.4 ghz). I’m literally getting the new Air for half of what I’m selling it for.

Where are you selling it? I want to know where to buy a used 16” MBP.

eBay-you’re welcome to buy it if you want: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-MacBook-Pro-16-2-4-Ghz-i9-32-...

Re: Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

#148
post #48

This is pretty crazy to see, even if the full story isn't clear yet. A base level MacBook Air is taking the crown of the best MacBook Pro. Wow. SVP Johny Srouji and all of the Apple hardware + silicon team have been smashing it for the past many years. For what it's worth, I have a fully specced out 16 inch MacBook Pro with the AMD Radeon Pro 5600m and even with that I'm regularly hitting 100% usage of the card, and…

Laptop Macs of late are known for heavy throttling due to inadequate cooling, which cannot have been unnoticed in simulations

Re: Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

#149
Reposting from other thread:

So can anyone comment on how we should interpret these benchmarks:

a) Across the various Mac models (i.e. why buy a pro vs the air vs the mini). If they all benchmark the same, what am I paying the difference for?

b) The M1 chip vs a ryzen desktop (naively interpreting this its punching up near a 5950X, which seems TGTBT?). How do these chips compare against the larger TDP competitors if portability and batteries aren't an issue?

b2) Compared to the AMD mobile chips? (i don't have much insight into these)

c) someone else on here posted a Tiger-lake intel chip benchmark beating the M1. Now that makes even less sense to me now, because now there's an intel mobile chip beating the top of the line Ryzen desktop?

Help out an honestly confused individual.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

#150

I've been holding onto my late 2013 15" MacBook Pro for almost 7 years now and it's wild to see it get absolutely out-spec'd by the MacBook Air. It's been a long time, but I've always convinced myself that I'm not missing out on that big of a processor improvement. I do a lot of audio work with it, but even then it doesn't always feel like a slow experience.

That MacBook has to be one of the best computers Apple has ever created. Mine has lasted this long with non-stop daily usage for years and travel around different countries.
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