M1 Macs Review • Hacker News Board

Re: M1 Macs Review

#151

Post by Siira » Thu, Nov 19, 2020, 4:07 PM UTC

mtgx wrote: post #21

mojzu wrote: post #6

Although I’m definitely not convinced enough to make the jump yet, those emulation benchmarks are impressive (and seem to also apply somewhat to general use based on another review I read). Running x86 code faster than native equivalents, using an ARM chip, that will probably be consuming significantly less power doing it is something I did not expect to see in gen 1 of this switch.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is mainly because Apple does mostly translation, while Windows on Arm is pure emulation. This combined with the fact that Arm-based Windows PCs have mostly used mobile chips not optimized for the desktop use-case and form factor, is why the new Arm-based Macbooks leave any Arm-based Windows PCs in the dust in terms of performance.

I’ve heard Windows emulation is also cached JIT.

Re: M1 Macs Review

#152

Post by torginus » Thu, Nov 19, 2020, 4:09 PM UTC

cuillevel3 wrote: post #100

torginus wrote: post #76

I just bought a MacBook Air. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that this redefines how we think about a laptop. Whereas previously a laptop was something that spent the bulk of its time plugged in, and only capable of short bursts of number-crunching/gaming due to thermal and battery limitations, I can literally get a good few hours of gaming untethered on this machine. And this is a base-level MacBook Air, I…

I wondered about that, doesn't it get hot and throttle performance?

It does get kind of warm, but it's not uncomfortable, and the throttling is not too bad, after 10 minutes you lose like 10% performance, after which it's solid. Probably the Pro doesn't have that issue.

Re: M1 Macs Review

#153

Post by rimliu » Thu, Nov 19, 2020, 4:09 PM UTC

superhuzza wrote: post #103

m0zg wrote: post #38

Reviews (including this one) all say webcam sucks pretty bad though. Why Apple chose to release a laptop with a subpar webcam in 2020 is a mystery to me. This isn't even hard or expensive. Spend a couple dollars more on that webcam, Apple, don't be so greedy.

Here's an actual sample of the webcam and mic array. https://youtu.be/sV7CLgTMXio?t=344 It's aggressively okay. I wouldn't have any issues with this, but it is a bit disappointing, especially considering how important WFH has become recently.

One might argue that they had priorities in order: "pro grade" microphones and a camera which… shows something? Audio is way more important for WFH, but so far I did not see any tests done on the mic quality and how true to the claim they are. Though "pro-grade" should be impossible at these dimensions, so I am not sure what they meant by "pro-grade" either.

Re: M1 Macs Review

#154

Post by tpush » Thu, Nov 19, 2020, 4:10 PM UTC

FireBeyond wrote: post #135

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #91

The benchmark that's blown me away most so far: Marco Arment on Accidental Tech Podcast says the new Macbook Air is significantly faster to compile Overcast (a pretty big iOS app) than his 10 core $6000+ iMac Pro with 64GB RAM and a 160W CPU. https://overcast.fm/+R7DWXqqm0/1:08:11

One thing to factor in here is that the MBA isn't cross-compiling. It's a RISC compiler writing RISC code. To be clear though, it doesn't matter in the end if the _result_ is more productivity. But it is worth noting that under the hood, the comparison is not entirely apples to apples.

Why would it matter whether you emit x86 code or ARM64 code? That code that produces either doesn't get magically faster when executed on their respective archs.

Re: M1 Macs Review

#155

Post by mcphage » Thu, Nov 19, 2020, 4:11 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #33

tobyhinloopen wrote: post #2

Well done Apple. You’re innovative again on the PC market.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s01yqqbpuI0

John Hodgman was really great in / for those commercials.

Re: M1 Macs Review

#156

Post by alex_duf » Thu, Nov 19, 2020, 4:11 PM UTC

unix_fan wrote: post #108

em500 wrote: post #53

Copy-pasted the comment I left at another forum: The the M1 is Zen3 5600X performance in an ultra-portable form factor. Whether that's revolutionary or not particularly noteworthy depends on the individual use case. If you're don't care that much about power/heat/fan-noise, it's neat but not (yet) world shattering. Bit if you live your life on a small laptop, it may well be. According to rumors, we'll see Apple's 8 F…

Native linux could actually be a thing… https://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/comments/jtrt2l/upcoming_...

Does that mean you have to jailbreak your own machine to install linux or is it just a coincidence and it's just the same team?

Re: M1 Macs Review

#157

Post by nsxwolf » Thu, Nov 19, 2020, 4:12 PM UTC

bnt wrote: post #42

hart_russell wrote: post #12

I received an M1 mini 2 days ago. I noticed the Steam client seems to be a bit laggy in UI responsiveness, but besides that I have no complaints. I got it for use as a server, so I was a bit dismayed to hear that M1 Docker support has hit a roadblock, but hopeful that they figure it out soon.

I have a maxxed out 16” and Steam is still laggy for me.

It's a big terrible WebKit browser with a whole bunch of crap glued on, it performs about how I'd expect it to.

Re: M1 Macs Review

#158

Post by Siira » Thu, Nov 19, 2020, 4:13 PM UTC

longnguyen wrote: post #147

I want M1 MacBook Pro _without_ TouchBar

The touchbar can be pretty good if you reprogram it, using, e.g., Bettertouchtool. I now put use it as a combination of information dashboard and system-level control switches (audio volume, internet proxy, my own low-power mode, ...). BTT’s touchbar clipboard manager is also phenomenal.

Re: M1 Macs Review

#159

Post by The_rationalist » Thu, Nov 19, 2020, 4:15 PM UTC

Not a buy for me since they lost Windows bootcamp

Re: M1 Macs Review

#160

Post by simonh » Thu, Nov 19, 2020, 4:15 PM UTC

CraigJPerry wrote: post #96

sgillen wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mind sharing what battery life you are seeing for your real life workloads? And also an idea of what those work loads are?

It arrived with 69% charge, by this morning 11am i had reached 21%. I left the screen brightness on the default setting and usage was a mix of installing software (mostly I/O i suppose), a lot of safari, around 4 hours of Citrix remote desktop, around 90 minutes of zoom, some light gaming last night to see if it works. If you do anything that's heavy on I/O (packaging jar files in my case), this laptop is faster than…

>the I/O is crazy fast

I seem to remember watching a real time video transcoding demo, or something like that, on an iPad Pro and the dev demoing it saying it was the I/O that made it possible. Desktop machines with much faster processors would choke due to bandwidth limitations, but Apple can custom tune every aspect of the iPad architecture and aren't limited to standard, generic interfaces between components.

The original 5k iMacs were a similar case in some ways. It was only possible in an all-in-one design, because there wasn't a standard video connection at the time that was capable of the throughput.