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Apple's M4 Max chip is the fastest single-core performer in consumer computing

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Re: Apple's M4 Max chip is the fastest single-core performer in consumer computing

#171

What's crazy is that the M4 Pro is in the Mac mini, something so tiny can handle that chip. The Mac Studio with the M4 Max will be awesome but the Mini is remarkable.

I am still astounded the huge change moving from an Intel Mac to an Apple Silicon Mac (M1) has had in terms of battery performance and heat. I don't think i've heard the fans a single time I've had this machine and it's been several years. Nor have I had any desire to upgrade.

> I am still astounded the huge change moving from an Intel Mac to an Apple Silicon Mac (M1) has had in terms of battery performance and heat

The battery life improvements are great. Apple really did a terrible job with the thermal management on their last few Intel laptops. My M1 Max can consume (and therefore dissipate) more power than my Intel MBP did, but the M1 thermal solution handles it quietly.

The thermal solution on those Intel MacBooks was really bad.

Re: Apple's M4 Max chip is the fastest single-core performer in consumer computing

#172
post #165

> Apple's M4 Max chip is the fastest single-core performer in consumer computing Single taskink OSs are long gone. Single core performance is irrelevant in the world of multitasking/multithreading/ preemtible threads.

If that were true, why isn't my GPU running my UI loop or running my JS event-loop?

Single-core performance is still king for UI latency and CPU-bound tasks.

Re: Apple's M4 Max chip is the fastest single-core performer in consumer computing

#173

I have been out of the PC world for a long time, but in terms of performance efficiency, is Apple running away from the competition? Or are AMD and Intel producing similar performing chips at the same wattage?

Apple is slightly pulling away. AMD's top desktop chips were on par with M1/M2/M3 1T but now they cannot match even M4 despite releasing a new design (Zen 5) this year.

It's partially because AMD is on a two year cadence while Apple is on approximately a yearly cadence. And AMD has no plans to increase the cadence of their Zen releases.

2020 - M1, Zen 3

2021 - ...

2022 - M2, Zen 4

2023 - M3

2024 - M4, Zen 5

Edit: I am looking at peak 1T performance, not efficiency. In that regard I don't think anyone has been close.

Re: Apple's M4 Max chip is the fastest single-core performer in consumer computing

#174
post #12

I'm confused. They're claiming "Apple’s M4 Max is the first production CPU to pass 4000 Single-Core score in Geekbench 6." yet I can see hundreds of other test results for single core performance above 4000 in the last 2 years?

AMDs upcoming flagship desktop CPU (9800 X3D) reaches about 3300 points on singlecore (the previous X3D hit 2700ish)

Are you saying a product that has not been released yet will be faster than a product that is?

And that a desktop part is going to outperform a laptop part?

Re: Apple's M4 Max chip is the fastest single-core performer in consumer computing

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am still astounded the huge change moving from an Intel Mac to an Apple Silicon Mac (M1) has had in terms of battery performance and heat. I don't think i've heard the fans a single time I've had this machine and it's been several years. Nor have I had any desire to upgrade.

> I am still astounded the huge change moving from an Intel Mac to an Apple Silicon Mac (M1) has had in terms of battery performance and heat The battery life improvements are great. Apple really did a terrible job with the thermal management on their last few Intel laptops. My M1 Max can consume (and therefore dissipate) more power than my Intel MBP did, but the M1 thermal solution handles it quietly. The thermal so…

Those MacBooks were designed when Intel was promising new, more efficient chips and they didn’t materialize. Apple was forced to use the older and hotter chips. It was not a good combination.

Re: Apple's M4 Max chip is the fastest single-core performer in consumer computing

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in the early 90s, when Apple was literally building their first product line with the Mac, they would come out with their second big honking powerhouse Mac: the Macintosh IIx. It blew everything out of the water. Then they would come out with their next budget all-in-one machine. But computing was improving so fast, with prices for components dropping so quickly, that the Macintosh SE/30 ended up as impressive a…

I think that machine is this M1 Pro MBP I'm using right now, and will probably still be using in 20 years.

I look forward to seeing you at a conference in 20 years' time where we'll both be running Fedora 100 on our M1 MacBook Pros.

Re: Apple's M4 Max chip is the fastest single-core performer in consumer computing

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am still astounded the huge change moving from an Intel Mac to an Apple Silicon Mac (M1) has had in terms of battery performance and heat. I don't think i've heard the fans a single time I've had this machine and it's been several years. Nor have I had any desire to upgrade.

> I am still astounded the huge change moving from an Intel Mac to an Apple Silicon Mac (M1) has had in terms of battery performance and heat The battery life improvements are great. Apple really did a terrible job with the thermal management on their last few Intel laptops. My M1 Max can consume (and therefore dissipate) more power than my Intel MBP did, but the M1 thermal solution handles it quietly. The thermal so…

> My M1 Max can consume (and therefore dissipate) more power than my Intel MBP did, but the M1 thermal solution handles it quietly.

You have to really, REALLY put in effort to make it operate at rated power. My M2 MBA idles at around 5 watts, my work 2019 16-inch i9 is around 30 watts in idle.

Re: Apple's M4 Max chip is the fastest single-core performer in consumer computing

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in the early 90s, when Apple was literally building their first product line with the Mac, they would come out with their second big honking powerhouse Mac: the Macintosh IIx. It blew everything out of the water. Then they would come out with their next budget all-in-one machine. But computing was improving so fast, with prices for components dropping so quickly, that the Macintosh SE/30 ended up as impressive a…

I think that machine is this M1 Pro MBP I'm using right now, and will probably still be using in 20 years.

[deleted]

Re: Apple's M4 Max chip is the fastest single-core performer in consumer computing

#180
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has gotten into Windows and PC territory with their naming for chips and models. Kind of funny to see the evolution of a compact product line and naming convention slowly turn into spreadsheet worthy comparison charts. That all said, I only have an M1 and it's still impressive to me.

I think they're still keeping it somewhat together, agree it got ever more confusing with the introduction of more performance tiers but after 3 generations it's been easy to keep track of: Mx (base) -> Pro -> Max -> Ultra. Think it's still quite far away from naming conventions of PC territory. Now I got curious on what naming scheme could be clearer for Apple's performance tiers.

yeah, as I was jokingly implying the names themselves aren't what I would have went with, but overall sticking to generation + t-shirt size + 2 bins is about as simple as it gets.
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