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Apple introduces M4 chip

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Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#212

Post by greggsy »

KeplerBoy wrote: post #186
EduardoBautista wrote: post #13

The 256gb and 512gb models have 8gb of ram. The 1tb and 2tb models have 16gb. Not a fan of tying ram to storage. https://www.apple.com/ipad-pro/specs/

If these things will ever get MacOS support it will be useless with 8 GB of Ram. Such a waste of nice components.

This comes up frequently. 8GB is sufficient for most casual and light productivity use cases. Not everyone is a power user, in fact, most people aren’t.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#214

Post by eddieroger »

pantalaimon wrote: post #206
paulpan wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's strictly for price gouging/segmentation purposes. On the Macbooks (running MacOS), RAM has been used as data cache to speed up data read/write performance until the actual SSD storage operation completes. It makes sense for Apple to account for with higher RAM spec for the 1TB/2TB configurations.

> RAM has been used as data cache to speed up data read/write performance until the actual SSD storage operation completes. I'm pretty sure that's what all modern operating systems are doing.

Probably, but since we're talking about an Apple product, comparing it to macOS make sense, since they all share the same bottom layer.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#215

Post by Foobar8568 »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #42

Call me crazy, but I want all that power in a 7" tablet. I like 7" tablets most because they feel less clunky to carry around and take with you. Same with 13" laptops, I'm willing to sacrifice on screen real estate for saving myself from the back pain of carrying a 15" or larger laptop. Some of this is insanely impressive. I wonder how big the OS ROM (or whatever) is with all these models. For context, even if the en…

I am not a large person by any means, yet I have no problem to carry a MBP 16...But then I have a backpack and not a messenger like bag, which I would agree, would be a pain to carry.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#216

Post by a_vanderbilt »

mvkel wrote: post #117
praseodym wrote: post #10

"With these improvements to the CPU and GPU, M4 maintains Apple silicon’s industry-leading performance per watt. M4 can deliver the same performance as M2 using just half the power. And compared with the latest PC chip in a thin and light laptop, M4 can deliver the same performance using just a fourth of the power." That's an incredible improvement in just a few years. I wonder how much of that is Apple engineering a…

And here it is in an OS that can't even max out an M1! That said, the function keys make me think "and it runs macOS" is coming, and THAT would be extremely compelling.

We've seen a slow march over the last decade towards the unification of iOS and macOS. Maybe not a "it runs macOS", but an eventual "they share all the same apps" with adaptive UIs.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#217

Post by baq »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #114
simonbarker87 wrote: post #21

Seeing an M series chip launch first in an iPad must be result of some mad supply chain and manufacturing related hangovers from COVID. If the iPad had better software and could be considered a first class productivity machine then it would be less surprising but the one thing no one says about the iPads is “I wish this chip were faster”

To me it just feels like a soft launch. You probably have people (like myself) trying to keep up with the latest MacBook Air who get fatigued having to get a new laptop every year (I just upgraded to the M3 not too long ago, from the M2, and before that... the M1... is there any reason to? Not really...), so now they are trying to entice people who don't have iPads yet / who are waiting for a reason to do an iPad upg…

I feel like I bought the M1 air yesterday. Turns out it was ~4 years ago. Never felt the need to upgrade.
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