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

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

#431

Post by mr_toad »

ebg13 wrote: post #413
fredsted wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Apple's current lineup is a little confusing. The 13" Pro and 13" Air are so similar, and almost the same weight. I still use a 12" MacBook, and it's just amazingly small and light. If Apple makes a 12" MacBook with a M1, it would be awesome. A dream machine for me.

> If Apple makes a 12" MacBook with a M1, it would be awesome. I wish Apple would make everything" MacBooks with M1. I hate that I have to wait another year or whatever for a 15/16" screen and will have to pay a measurable weight penalty to get it when nothing stops them from making a 15" ultralight model now that they don't need fans for stunning performance.

They might go with a processor bump for the 15”. And maybe more thermal headroom and an external GPU. Hard to predict.

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

#432

Post by dkersten »

kilburn wrote: post #403
dkersten wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Leaving aside the fact that process size is a marketing term these days There was a youtube video where the guy used a scanning electron microscope to compare gate sizes between 14nm intel and 7nm AMD and both were basically the exact same size. The conclusion was that the term is useful only to compare a single companies product line against other offerings in that line (eg comparing Intel's 14nm to Intel's 20nm m…

I think you are speaking of der8auer and this video in particular: https://youtu.be/1kQUXpZpLXI?t=716

Yes! That’s the one, thanks. It was a very interesting video.

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

#433

Post by mr_toad »

the_arun wrote: post #103
Aperocky wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have graviton, which is already more efficient by a huge margin (against intel per dollar).

True, but I believe graviton is still not like M1. Do they support i386 / backward compatible?

> Do they support i386

No. But for many use cases that’s not a big deal, since you’re likely to be running Linux & other open source software that already has ARM versions or can be recompiled.

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

#434

Post by mr_toad »

dmitriid wrote: post #297
seddin wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electron apps or worse.

Not just Electron apps. I've seen people on Twitter gushing about how seamless and flicker-free is switching between screens and resolutions on M1. And yet, there's literally no reason why it can't be done today, now, on the existing hardware. Instant waking from sleep was one of the key points in M1's presentation. Something my 2007 model Macbook Pro could do. But then the subsequent releases of MacOS just couldn't…

> But then the subsequent releases of MacOS just couldn't do that.

How instant? My late 2016 MBP wakes in around a second. My 2014 Mac mini usually takes only a few seconds.

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

#435

Post by freeAgent »

alexchantavy wrote: post #421
x87678r wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not wrong but the article is still a 9th gen laptop i9. A desktop i9 is quicker - https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i9-9880H-vs... .

But the Ryzen 3900X is a desktop processor, right? This is crazy - definitely was not expecting the M1 to be _better_ than the 3900X.

It’s a desktop processor, but also last generation. The latest Ryzens are the 5xxxx series, and the performance improvement is substantial.

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

#436

Post by chungus_khan »

tambourine_man wrote: post #427
chungus_khan wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There actually aren't really any benefits outside of manufacturing. Trace length is a marginal factor in memory performance/latency, and having the memory on-package versus only slightly further away doesn't mean much. I'm not sure exactly where the idea that having the memory on-package was so beneficial came from, especially considering the M1 actually has fairly poor memory latency (though within the expected norm…

This is not my area of expertise, but I’ve seen concerns of implementing the unified memory architecture off chip. But maybe it’s just that it hasn’t been done yet.

That doesn't have any impact. The memory isn't on-chip, it's just on-package. This makes it no different from if it was fully external.

This has also not been a problem for any other unified memory system (which typically also do not include memory on-package), and I can't see any reason why it would matter.

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

#437

Post by Redoubts »

kofejnik wrote: post #160
fredsted wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Apple's current lineup is a little confusing. The 13" Pro and 13" Air are so similar, and almost the same weight. I still use a 12" MacBook, and it's just amazingly small and light. If Apple makes a 12" MacBook with a M1, it would be awesome. A dream machine for me.

I am typing this on M1 Air, and it's noticeably smaller and lighter than our 2013 MB Air. I'd say that in terms of size it's quite close to 12" Mb which we owned previously, and maybe just a tiny bit heavier.

> I'd say that in terms of size it's quite close to 12" Mb which we owned previously

If true, then neither are close to the 2017 12" MB.

> and maybe just a tiny bit heavier.

It's almost a pound heavier.

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

#438

Post by sjs382 »

singhrac wrote: post #215
mbell wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorta - There is translation layer in software but the reason the M1 is so fast at executing x86 code is that it has hardware support for switching to the x86 memory model. This is something no other ARM processor I'm aware of has.

Is this true? I didn't see this detail anywhere I looked. If you have a source that would be interesting.

It was previously discussed here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25233554 but I can't find the primary source linked anywhere.

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

#439

Post by ebg13 »

mr_toad wrote: post #431
ebg13 wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If Apple makes a 12" MacBook with a M1, it would be awesome. I wish Apple would make everything" MacBooks with M1. I hate that I have to wait another year or whatever for a 15/16" screen and will have to pay a measurable weight penalty to get it when nothing stops them from making a 15" ultralight model now that they don't need fans for stunning performance.

They might go with a processor bump for the 15”. And maybe more thermal headroom and an external GPU. Hard to predict.

But most people don't need or even care about those things. Making the MB or Air body bigger (not thicker) and just increasing screen, battery, and heatsink size proportionally while keeping it fanless would knock everything else out today for like 99% of people.

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

#440

Post by pldr1234 »

kube-system wrote: post #429
cromka wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But we're not speculating about what would happen if Apple did that explicitly . We're trying to understand why did the existing M1 Mini perform worse in some of those tests than the M1 Air did, while there is no known reason for it. Some speculate that they inexplicitly sell subpar/low freq chips, which would mean that they were selling an official 7-core, an official 8-core and a faster but otherwise non-advertised…

There has to be some reason for it. If not thermals, then what else about the hardware could explain the difference?

This is why I love HN - this comment-to-comment dialogue and thought progression is always so riveting!
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