Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors

#811

Post by ajyotirmay » Tue, Oct 19, 2021, 5:35 AM UTC

stirlo wrote: post #571

zelon88 wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple does nothing to improve front line technician procedures. They aren't even an engineering factor. If you happen to be able to replace something on an Apple product, it's only because the cost-benefit ratio wasn't in favor of making that part hostile to work with. Apple puts 56 screws in the Unibody MBP keyboards. They were practically the pioneer of gluing components in permanently. They don't care about techni…

> Apple does nothing to improve front line technician procedures. I’m not a fan of planned obselence and waste but this is clearly wrong. They’ve spent loads of engineering effort designing a machine for their store that can replace and reseal and test iPhone screen replacements out back.

Sounds more like using a sword where a knife is needed.

Re: Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors

#812

Post by ajyotirmay » Tue, Oct 19, 2021, 5:36 AM UTC

schleck8 wrote: post #435

rdw wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because you're not getting that panel back doesn't mean it's destroyed and wasted. I figure that these policies simplify their front-line technician jobs, getting faster turnaround times and higher success rates. Then they have a different department that sorts through all the removed/broken parts, repairing and using parts from them. No idea if this is what they actually do, but it would be the smart way to han…

The reasoning was to make the device as thin as possible according to Verge iirc. The cable degrades because it's too short and can't be replaced. Says it all pretty much.

Yes, I want a device as thin as what my wallet is going to be after its repairs

Re: Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors

#813

Post by kmonsen » Tue, Oct 19, 2021, 5:37 AM UTC

sulam wrote: post #626

bla3 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the memory was one of the more interesting bits here. My 2-year-old Intel MBP has 64 GB, and 8 GB of additional memory on the GPU. True, on the M1 Max you don't have to copy back and forth between CPU and GPU thanks to integrated memory, but the new MBP still has less total memory than my 2-year-old Intel MBP. And it seems they just barely managed to get to 64 GiB. The whole processor chip is surrounded by…

So, M1 has been out for a while now, with HN doom and gloom about not being able to put enough memory into them. Real world usage has demonstrated far less memory usage than people expected (I don't know why, maybe someone paid attention and can say). The result is that 32G is a LOT of memory for an M1-based laptop, and 64G is only needed for very specific workloads I would expect.

Or like games, even semi-casual ones. Civ6 would not load at all on my mac mini. Also had to fairly frequently close browser windows as I ran out of memory.

Re: Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors

#814

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Oct 19, 2021, 5:37 AM UTC

kllrnohj wrote: post #630

sounds wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to underscore this, memory physically closer to the cores has improved tRAS times measured in nanoseconds. This has the secondary effect of boosting the performance of the last-level cache since it can fill lines on a cache miss much faster. The step up from DDR4 to DDR5 will help fill cache misses that are predictable, but everybody uses a prefetcher already, the net effect of DDR5 is mostly just better efficie…

The physically shorter wiring is doing basically nothing. That's not where any of the latency bottlenecks are for RAM. If it was physically on-die, like HBM, that'd be maybe different. But we're still talking regular LPDDR5 using off the shelf dram modules. The shorter wiring would potentially improve signal quality, but ground shields do that, too. And Apple isn't exceeding any specs on this (ie, it's not overclocke…

[deleted]

Re: Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors

#815

Post by ece » Tue, Oct 19, 2021, 5:40 AM UTC

bla3 wrote: post #82

This 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…

If we're going to keep freedom in computing, let's hope "general purpose computing" is the distinction that remains for exactly that purpose.

Accelerators/Memory are just being brought on die/package here, which has been happening for a while. Integrated memory controllers come to mind.

Re: Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors

#816

Post by ajyotirmay » Tue, Oct 19, 2021, 5:41 AM UTC

kkjjkgjjgg wrote: post #525

schleck8 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple, the company that requires the entire panel to be replaced by design when a 6 dollar display cable malfunctions, is proud to announce its latest marketing slogan for a better environment.

As long as they plant a tree every time they replace a panel, it should be fine?

We'll be able to undo most of our damage to environment this way, as it's always replacements

Re: Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors

#817

Post by kube-system » Tue, Oct 19, 2021, 5:46 AM UTC

andrekandre wrote: post #670

partiallypro wrote: post #542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird that they leave out the parts about the battery and casing waste; and are design to only last on average of 18 months to force you to buy new ones. https://www.vice.com/en/article/neaz3d/airpods-are-a-tragedy

absolutely, the worst part of the airpods is the degrading non-replaceable battery... it really left a bad impression.

Does anyone have a comparable product that doesn't have this issue?

Re: Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors

#818

Post by kube-system » Tue, Oct 19, 2021, 5:52 AM UTC

the_jeremy wrote: post #208

Grustaf wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This only makes sense if you presume people throw away their laptops when they replace them after "a few years". Given the incredibly high second hand value of macbooks, I think most people sell them or hand them down.

My F500 company has a 5 year tech refresh policy, and old laptops are trashed, not donated or resold.

I suspect the disposal company your company contracts with parts them out and resells them. Although if you're literally throwing them in the dumpster, that's not even legal in many jurisdictions.

Re: Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors

#819

Post by kube-system » Tue, Oct 19, 2021, 6:03 AM UTC

dan1234 wrote: post #297

maxekman wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking the exact same thing! The fanless M1 Air is a dev monster in a mouse package. Couldn’t be happier with that combo.

If the M1 supported 3 displays I would’ve bought an air last year. Feels like I’ll have to pay a lot for that 3rd monitor!

You could always get a big 4k display, install a window docking utility, and pretend that it's four 1080p monitors with no bezel.

Re: Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors

#820

Post by DeathArrow » Tue, Oct 19, 2021, 6:04 AM UTC

I am not interested in Apple's ecosystem. While I stay with X86 I wonder if and when AMD and Intel will catch up. Or if another ARM chip maker will release a chip as good but without tying it to a proprietary system.