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

macrumors.com

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

#231

Post by stu2b50 »

mekster wrote: post #221

The bigger question is, will Windows also shift to ARM now that raw machine performance is miles behind Mac on similar pricing/weight/battery/loudness. Last time I read, Windows ARM version isn't ready for everyone yet not to mention there's no transition kit at all for everyone to move. Why would anyone use Windows anymore unless your infra site needs IE?

Well, yes. Microsoft has already announced they're working on an x86-64 to ARM emulator (i.e Rosetta 2 equivalent)[1] and they have partnered with Qualcomm to make ARM CPUs for their surface line up[2]

[1] https://www.extremetech.com/computing/315733-64-bit-x86-emul...

[2] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/business/surface-pro...

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

#232

Post by jackschultz »

colmvp wrote: post #150
bichiliad wrote: post #18

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.

Throwing in a comment in this thread to say same. Incredible how I've used mine for 7 years and it seems new still. Only issue is 8 gigs of ram makes things like docker or ides difficult, but I get hesitant to buy a replacement because of the year to year changes. I mean, why buy a new one if you have a machine that's been going strong for so long?

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

#234

Post by saagarjha »

PopePompus wrote: post #170
martinald wrote: post #155

What's actually more interesting to me than Intel vs ARM is how much further ahead Apple is vs the competition. The snapdragon 8cx is about 1/3rd the speed in both Single and Multicore performance of the M1. How is Apple so far ahead even with the same instruction set?

How certain can one be that the M1 uses nothing but the ARM instruction set? They certainly aren't advertising it as ARM. They aren't selling it to other OEMs. One way to really put the kabash on Hackintoshes would be to make Mac OS use nonstandard instructions. What's to keep them from adding instructions?

Nothing, and the chip does have a handful of proprietary instructions. But for the most part it's just standard ARMv8.5, which you can see because it runs ARM binaries generated using a standard compiler toolchain.

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

#236

Post by numpad0 »

stu2b50 wrote: post #187
alasdair_ wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ll take a stab at the problem: an “actual professional” in this context is someone who makes their money by using the computer.

That does include practically every white collar occupation at this point.

I’ve seen a screenshot of someone in consultancy roles, an obvious professional by dictionary definition, trash talking hard and mean on some software developers for demanding computers that can build software, that however has no tangible merit in their eyes, like PowerPoint or Excel performances. There might be something interesting in divisions across different types of “Pro”.

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

#237

Post by saagarjha »

Aperocky wrote: post #70
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #58

I am really looking forward to where this goes. That said, I am definitely waiting for at least one generation to pass before I jump on the train. I’ve been through this before. It will be great, but Apple is a master at smoke & mirrors. Things will not go as smoothly as the sizzle reels make it seem.

I'm hoping that at least the basics will be here (posix shell, vim, browser, etc), I won't need anything else for a long long time.

All of those are there.

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

#238

Post by jeffbee »

userbinator wrote: post #158

I wonder what Linus thinks of Geekbench's accuracy now: https://www.realworldtech.com/forum/?threadid=136526&curpost... https://www.realworldtech.com/forum/?threadid=185109&curpost... Personally I'm not convinced, until I see something like SPECint/SPECfp results.

He'd probably say it's garbage, since all the reasons it is garbage remain true. Getting yet another garbage result hardly changes the argument.

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

#239

Post by saagarjha »

rvz wrote: post #184
Aperocky wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm hoping that at least the basics will be here (posix shell, vim, browser, etc), I won't need anything else for a long long time.

Like the grandparent comment, I would avoid this M1 Macbook since the developer ecosystem is still unsupported by it. Take this for example: https://github.com/docker/for-mac/issues/4733 Docker still doesn't run on Apple Silicon Macs, so the migration path is already disrupted here.

Docker and Boot Camp like the only things that don't work, for fairly obvious reasons.

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

#240

Post by redisman »

grecy wrote: post #94
ip26 wrote: post #90

If the M1 mops the floor with everything else, why didn't they put it in the high-end 16-inch MBP too?

I think we have to assume something else is coming. Certainly something that supports >16GB of RAM, and something that has more I/O. While we're there we may as well a bunch more cores...

That must be it. They’re building a few bigger SoC’s
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