What is it about the M1 architecture that makes it so speedy compared to x86 chips? Is it the Risc instruction set? The newer node process? Something else?
RISC is a big part of it, and enabled the biggest part, which is Apple got to design their own SoC. And they have their own OS, so they can cause a complete paradigm shift without having to wait for the OS company/collective to come around.
Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors
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Re: Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors
#742Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems reasonable. They still sell the Intel Mac mini, despite having an M1 powered Mac mini already. The Intel one uses the old “black aluminum means pro” design language of the iMac Pro. Feels like they are keeping it as a placeholder in their line up and will end up with two Apple silicon powered Mac mini’s, One consumer and one pro
I doubt that we'll see a really powerful Mac Mini anytime soon. Why? Because it would cannibalize the MacBook Pro when combined with an iPad (sidecar). Most professionals needing pro laptops use the portability to move between studio environments or sets (e.g home and work). The Mini is still portable enough to be carried in a backpack, and the iPad can do enough on it's own to be viable for lighter coffee shop based…
Re: Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors
#743Re: Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors
#744Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're talking about selling working devices but parent was also talking about repairing them. Seems like a huge waste to throw away a $2000+ machine when it's out of warranty because some $5 part on it dies and Apple not only doesn't provide a spare but actively fights anyone trying to repare them, while the options they realistically will give you out of warranty being having your motherboard replaced for some insa…
> Or what if you're a klutz and spill your grape juice glass over your keyboard? Congrats, now you're -$2000 lighter since there's no way to take it apart and clean the sticky mess inside. Thanks to the Right To Repair, you can take the laptop to pretty much any repair shop and they can replace anything you damaged with OEM or third-party parts. They even have schematics, so they can just desolder and resolder failed…
/s
Re: Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors
#745Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, especially if it could run Linux. This would be a powerful little server. I decked out my workstation with a 16 core Ryzen & 96GB RAM and it didn't cost anywhere near the price of this new 64GB M1 Max combo. (But it may very well be less powerful, which is astonishing. It would be great to at least have the choice.)
Ubuntu already has an ARM build. Is there a reason you wouldn't be able to run linux?
Linux 5.13 was the first with M1 support. Dunno if that's enough for M1 Pro/Max.
Re: Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors
#746Earlier quoted context omitted.
This exact question was asked a year ago when the M1 was announced. In the year since, their laptop market share increased about 2% from 14 to 16%[0]. The reasons for this are: 1. When deciding on a computer, you often have to decide based on use case, software/games used, and what operating system will work best for those use cases. For Windows users, it doesn't matter if you can get similar performance from a Macbo…
All good points but: 1) In the pro market (audio, video, 3d, etc) performance is very relevant. 2) Battery time is important to all types of laptop users. 3) Apple is certainly working on more desktop alternatives. 4) You don't need move all your devices into the closed ecosystem just because you use a Mac. Also, some people just don't want to use macOS on principle, but I'm guessing this is a minority. > AMD's produ…
For these users, you’re not comparing M1 max to laptop CPUs/GPUs, but to the flagship AMD/Intel CPUs. Based on early results from the M1 max on geekbench, the 11900K and 5950X are still better. And the best GPUS for pro are absolutely still significantly more powerful than M1 Max.
This makes sense, because you have to dedicate a lot of power to desktop PCs, which you just can’t do in a laptop. But I think the pro question is still often “what gives me the most performance regardless of power usage,” and the answer is still a custom built computer with the latest high-end parts from Intel/amd/Nvidia, not apple.
Obviously Apple is basically offering the best performance hands down in a portable form factor. But Apple also isn’t releasing parts like the 3090 which draws like 400W, so it’s not yet competing for super high end performance.
Point being, I think Intel and AMD aren’t really left in the dust yet.
Re: Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors
#747Kind of surprising to me they’re not making more effort towards game support - maybe someone can explain what the barriers are towards mac support - is it lack of shared libraries, x64 only, sheer number of compute cores? When I see the spec sheet and “16x graphics improvement” I go okay what could it handle in terms of game rendering? Is it really only for video production and GPU compute tasks?
I've answered this a few times, so I'll just give a bog-standard answer here. Apple had really good game support 3 years ago. Mojave was really among the best when it had Valve Proton natively supported, and it was starting to seem like there might be some level of gaming parity across MacOS, Linux and Windows. Apple broke compatibility with 32-bit libraries in Catalina though, which completely nixed a good 95% of th…
Re: Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors
#748This is about the processors, not the laptops, so commenting on the chips instead. They look great, but they look like they're the M1 design, just more of it. Which is plenty for a laptop! But it'll be interesting to see what they'll do for their desktops. Most of the additional chip area went into more GPUs and special-purpose video codec hardware. It's "just" two more cores than the vanilla M1, and some of the effi…
Re: Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors
#749"Apple’s Commitment to the Environment" > Today, Apple is carbon neutral for global corporate operations, and by 2030, plans to have net-zero climate impact across the entire business, which includes manufacturing supply chains and all product life cycles. This also means that every chip Apple creates, from design to manufacturing, will be 100 percent carbon neutral. But what they won't do is put the chip in an expan…
Who are you calling stupid? If you're going to call someone or something stupid, don't do it in a stupid way.
Re: Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors
#750This is about the processors, not the laptops, so commenting on the chips instead. They look great, but they look like they're the M1 design, just more of it. Which is plenty for a laptop! But it'll be interesting to see what they'll do for their desktops. Most of the additional chip area went into more GPUs and special-purpose video codec hardware. It's "just" two more cores than the vanilla M1, and some of the effi…
I know nothing about hardware, basically. Do Apple’s new GPU cores come close to the capabilities of discrete GPUs like what are used for gaming/scientific applications? Or are those cards a whole different thing ?
2. If you're a ML researcher you use CUDA (which only works on NVIDIA cards), they have basically a complete software lock unless you want to spend an undefined number of X hundreds of hours fixing and troubleshooting compatibility issues.