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M1 Macs Review

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Re: M1 Macs Review

#61

Post by [deleted] »

geokon wrote: post #56
em500 wrote: post #53

Copy-pasted the comment I left at another forum: The the M1 is Zen3 5600X performance in an ultra-portable form factor. Whether that's revolutionary or not particularly noteworthy depends on the individual use case. If you're don't care that much about power/heat/fan-noise, it's neat but not (yet) world shattering. Bit if you live your life on a small laptop, it may well be. According to rumors, we'll see Apple's 8 F…

"Linux native is not in the cards" Sorry I'm not in the loop.. but why is that? Does the hardware somehow preclude it?

[deleted]

Re: M1 Macs Review

#62

Post by bstar77 »

mikece wrote: post #10

Speed is still relative. Yes the benchmark numbers for the M1 are impressive, but I am curious to see non-benchmark, real-world workloads compared. I'm reminded of a YouTube video (link below) in which the comparison was made between an $11,000 Mac Pro and a PC kit that also cost $11,000. In this case the PC was rocking a Ryzen chip with 32 (or was it 64?) cores and smoked the Mac Pro on every benchmark. But when com…

I saw that (snazzy guy video?) as well. Thing is, that video was explaining how a highly integrated system can perform better when software optimizes for it. These Macs will only see better performance as more software is optimized over time.

Re: M1 Macs Review

#63

Post by niea_11 »

seqastian wrote: post #23
yhersk0vitz wrote: post #16

I feel like this may the first time that Macbooks might actually be worth their premium from a purely hardware perspective. Before people jump on this, I mean that for example the previous Intel MB Pro with i5 would cost like $1,500, which is far more than almost any windows laptop running the same specs.

People on the car forum comparing bmw with the same horse power as a fiat will agree with you.

I think it's more fair to say comparing a bmw 3 series and a toyota supra. Both are good cars but one is known for its premium finish and quality, and the other for the customization possibilities you can have. :)

Re: M1 Macs Review

#64

Post by neogodless »

jstummbillig wrote: post #31
yhersk0vitz wrote: post #16

I feel like this may the first time that Macbooks might actually be worth their premium from a purely hardware perspective. Before people jump on this, I mean that for example the previous Intel MB Pro with i5 would cost like $1,500, which is far more than almost any windows laptop running the same specs.

What you are looking at, tho, is not the pure hardware perspective, but the pure hardware numbers perspective, which excludes ergonomics, design, build quality and hardware/software integration as well as stuff like speakers and screens which might not be comparable because no other vendor does them exactly alike. I always found this strange, when looking at personal computers – or, in fact, most anything in life. As…

First, I appreciate the experience differential between macOS, Windows and Linux. I've enjoyed each, and have no major complaints about any.

With the right hardware, I've really enjoyed installing and using Linux, while I struggle when drivers for networking have to be procured - I'm not experienced enough in that area to figure it out (or rather, I'm not motivated enough.)

For me, Windows and macOS alike just work and while I've had more issues with Windows, it's because I've used it 100x more often and thoroughly; a price I pay for the ease of getting into games. (I am not speaking about right now, a moment in time, but the decades through which I gamed.)

In my career, I was largely a developer of Microsoft-focused technologies, and the support for tools was always sufficient or better.

Anyway, to my point, the parts of the software and experience that would pain me would be the things I couldn't control, and the things that were meddled with. I avoided pre-configured laptops if I could, and if I couldn't, I would do a clean install of the OS immediately. With desktops, I could select the best performance/experience/price (including reliability, features, etc) compromise for each compatible component, assemble it myself, and have not only a perfectly customized kit suited to my personal tastes and needs, but also the experience of learning and building on my own.

Now all of that is irrelevant if your preference is either just very strongly what comes from Apple, or you're only looking at complete systems and comparing them. Since I can be ambivalent about OS, except for gaming, and the experience was quite good (for me, not for everyone, obviously), I could pick a Windows-compatible laptop that gave me the best "features for the price", or rather, great hardware for the price without too much software meddling (or meddling I could remove.)

Now, does it sound like I don't consider the experience, or that I'm buying hardware because of insecurity? It certainly does not seem so from my perspective. To say a "feature list has no meaning" is to claim that the features do not contribute to the experience, but that isn't accurate. Of course you have to understand how an experience is derived from a feature, or that feature list can't be used to aid in your decision-making process.

Re: M1 Macs Review

#65

Post by coldtea »

em500 wrote: post #53

Copy-pasted the comment I left at another forum: The the M1 is Zen3 5600X performance in an ultra-portable form factor. Whether that's revolutionary or not particularly noteworthy depends on the individual use case. If you're don't care that much about power/heat/fan-noise, it's neat but not (yet) world shattering. Bit if you live your life on a small laptop, it may well be. According to rumors, we'll see Apple's 8 F…

>The the M1 is a Zen3 5600X in an ultra-portable form factor.

Well, also without x86 baggage, and with tons of SOC co-preccessors added, and a unified memory.

Re: M1 Macs Review

#66

Post by em500 »

geokon wrote: post #56
em500 wrote: post #53

Copy-pasted the comment I left at another forum: The the M1 is Zen3 5600X performance in an ultra-portable form factor. Whether that's revolutionary or not particularly noteworthy depends on the individual use case. If you're don't care that much about power/heat/fan-noise, it's neat but not (yet) world shattering. Bit if you live your life on a small laptop, it may well be. According to rumors, we'll see Apple's 8 F…

"Linux native is not in the cards" Sorry I'm not in the loop.. but why is that? Does the hardware somehow preclude it?

The locked bootloader will only run Apple signed operating systems (a la Chromebook, without the Chromebook Developer mode escape hatch).

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23640746

Re: M1 Macs Review

#67

Post by coldtea »

superkuh wrote: post #60
em500 wrote: post #53

Copy-pasted the comment I left at another forum: The the M1 is Zen3 5600X performance in an ultra-portable form factor. Whether that's revolutionary or not particularly noteworthy depends on the individual use case. If you're don't care that much about power/heat/fan-noise, it's neat but not (yet) world shattering. Bit if you live your life on a small laptop, it may well be. According to rumors, we'll see Apple's 8 F…

>If for some reason you insist on native linux, it's time to recognize that Apple hardware is not for you. And so, all the people that would provide support for their family and friends due to using the same hardware split paths. And now those Apple users have to go to Apple for support. A double win for the corporation.

>all the people that would provide support for their family and friends due to using the same hardware split paths

All 10 of them?

The subset of people that (a) had Apple laptops, (b) run Linux on them, (c) provided support for family, is probably irrelevant...

>And now those Apple users have to go to Apple for support. A double win for the corporation.

Yes, what a big lucrative market: relatives of people who run Linux on their Macs that dependent on them for support

/s

Re: M1 Macs Review

#68

Post by sgt101 »

em500 wrote: post #53

Copy-pasted the comment I left at another forum: The the M1 is Zen3 5600X performance in an ultra-portable form factor. Whether that's revolutionary or not particularly noteworthy depends on the individual use case. If you're don't care that much about power/heat/fan-noise, it's neat but not (yet) world shattering. Bit if you live your life on a small laptop, it may well be. According to rumors, we'll see Apple's 8 F…

I don't get this (sorry ignorant!) - isn't the Zen3 an AMD thing? What has this got to do with ARM?

Re: M1 Macs Review

#69

Post by jstummbillig »

Droobfest wrote: post #52
jstummbillig wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you are looking at, tho, is not the pure hardware perspective, but the pure hardware numbers perspective, which excludes ergonomics, design, build quality and hardware/software integration as well as stuff like speakers and screens which might not be comparable because no other vendor does them exactly alike. I always found this strange, when looking at personal computers – or, in fact, most anything in life. As…

If we’re talking about hardware ergonomics the lack of a del key and placement of the fn key alone make me never buy a macbook again. I also hate the difference in cmd, alt and ctrl keys from other keyboards.

To be clear, my comment did not relate to either Apple or MacBooks in particular.

Also, the value of each soft factor will differ from person to person. Good design highly relates to personal needs.

Re: M1 Macs Review

#70

Post by cujo »

shmoogy wrote: post #13
snazz wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The MacBook Air that GP mentioned doesn't even have a fan! That's certainly a nice benefit.

I really want the air for when I work outside in the summer. I worked from an iPad quite often with the magic keyboard, and it started throttling and sometimes overheated to the point of failure while outside in the sun. It's too cold in Chicago to test, but I would love to see if the MacBook Air can work while outside in direct hot sun - it's the only reason I'm considering the MBP.

Wouldn’t the air have the same problem? With no fan it’ll still heat up and have to throttle down.
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