Apple M1 vs. Ryzen 3900X vs. Intel I9 in Software Development

Post by entropicdrifter » Mon, Dec 14, 2020, 9:08 PM UTC

formerly_proven wrote: post #53

entropicdrifter wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or if the bottleneck in your workflow is RAM read/write speed as opposed to RAM capacity. The RAM being on the same chip as the CPU/GPU gives it tremendously low RAM latency, which seems to be where it's getting much of its edge in these tests

The M1 has pretty high memory latency at around 100 ns [1], which is significantly higher than either AMD or Intel for typical systems. Note that physical distance between CPU and memory is rather less important for latency, as DRAM is high latency in itself, so adding a few ns at most due to wiring is not going to matter. [1] https://www.anandtech.com/show/16252/mac-mini-apple-m1-teste...

Post by gpderetta » Mon, Dec 14, 2020, 9:09 PM UTC

Reason077 wrote: post #322

GeekyBear wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are several theories as to why the M1 does so well on on JavaScript benchmarks. >Firestorm can do 4 FADDs and 4 FMULs per cycle with respectively 3 and 4 cycles latency. That’s quadruple the per-cycle throughput of Intel CPUs and previous AMD CPUs, and still double that of the recent Zen3, of course, still running at lower frequency. This might be one reason why Apples does so well in browser benchmarks (JavaSc…

> "There are several theories as to why the M1 does so well on on JavaScript benchmarks." A major reason it does so well is the native Javascript support added in ARMv8.3-A. Specifically, FJCVTZS (Floating-point Javascript Convert to Signed fixed-point, rounding toward Zero)[1] which is a Javascript-specific variant of FCVTZS implementing the overflow and exception handling behaviour that Javascript wants. Javascript…

Post by Geminidog » Mon, Dec 14, 2020, 9:16 PM UTC

BatteryMountain wrote: post #349

sdflhasjd wrote: post #71

I'm still extremely suspicious of all these benchmarks, because they don't seem to correlate with my real-world experience. All these benchmarks claim to be comparing real-world applications, but I don't trust them because of what they always show with regards to mobile i9 and desktop Ryzen. I've got a Intel Macbook Pro, and a Ryzen desktop. When I'm using them for development, my Ryzen is absolutely wiping the floor…

Same for me. I have a Ryzen 5 and it feels about 3x faster than anything else in the house, and it's not even the most expensive chip in the house. Next year definitely getting another Amd chip to upgrade my now old ryzen 5. Not touching Intel again in a long time.

Post by tambourine_man » Mon, Dec 14, 2020, 9:23 PM UTC

chungus_khan wrote: post #335

tambourine_man wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you’re describing is the iMac, iMac Pro, Mac mini pro, etc. But I think they’ll have the Mac Pro continue to be RAM, GPU and PCI upgradable. How they are doing that is the most interesting secret in the industry.

There's not really any magic to it, they just need to implement PCIe and include memory slots instead of hardwired chips on the package. There are other ARM systems that already do this.

Post by josephg » Mon, Dec 14, 2020, 9:27 PM UTC

BatteryMountain wrote: post #349

sdflhasjd wrote: post #71

I'm still extremely suspicious of all these benchmarks, because they don't seem to correlate with my real-world experience. All these benchmarks claim to be comparing real-world applications, but I don't trust them because of what they always show with regards to mobile i9 and desktop Ryzen. I've got a Intel Macbook Pro, and a Ryzen desktop. When I'm using them for development, my Ryzen is absolutely wiping the floor…

Same for me. I have a Ryzen 5 and it feels about 3x faster than anything else in the house, and it's not even the most expensive chip in the house. Next year definitely getting another Amd chip to upgrade my now old ryzen 5. Not touching Intel again in a long time.