Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

anandtech.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 767 posts

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#181

Post by dtech »

danaris wrote: post #48
Deukhoofd wrote: post #37

Interesting that it is not able to outperform the Zen3 CPUs. I had expected it to do somewhat better, especially it being a 5nm processor, and with all the hype around ARM processors. I don't know how well it will hold up to its x86 competitors like this, especially once they launch their 5nm CPUs next year.

Interesting that your takeaway from all this is "oh, it can't beat some of the top x86 chips in existence—it can only meet them on even footing. Guess it'll be falling behind next year." This is Apple's first non-mobile chip ever. You think this is the best they can do, ever?

> This is Apple's first non-mobile chip ever. You think this is the best they can do, ever?

They have been making mobile ARM chips for quite some time, so it's not like they are inexperienced.

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#182

Post by rowanG077 »

rvense wrote: post #128
GiorgioG wrote: post #38

I'm not buying into Apple's eventually-closed desktop computer systems - I don't care what the performance is. They've been slowly marching towards iOS's closed ecosystem model on the Mac and with an in-house CPU, they can effectively lock users out of alternate OS choices on their hardware. Buyer beware.

I feel exactly the same way, but I do wonder how this gap is going to close. If Microsoft team up with another ARM vendor and make similarly closed-off, proprietary glue sandwiches as a response, where does that leave Linux? I doubt PC-compatible, x86 laptops are going to disappear off the face of the Earth anytime soon, but... if there's basically two types of machines, and ours have worse performance and half the b…

I'm guessing we are moving towards the same system as embedded vendors use. Patch the Linux kernel so it runs. But never upstream anything so you will run around with an old os never to be updates again.

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#183

Post by Tagbert »

piyh wrote: post #66
fxtentacle wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That conclusion is quite misleading, in my opinion. They write "outperforms the core performance" and the keyword here is "core". What they mean is that if one had a single-core Zen3 and a single-core M1, then the M1 would win some and lose some. But in the real world, most Zen3 CPUs will have 2x or more cores, thus they'll be 2x to 4x faster. So what they mean to say is that they praise Apple for having amazing per-…

It bodes really well for future chips with higher power budgets. The Pro seems a bit underwhelming for what it could be though.

That new MacBook Pro replaces the low end of the Pro line which had a slower CPU and only 2 ports.

I would expect that, when Apple brings out their next iteration of chips, they would target the higher end of the Pro line with more cores and ports along with higher RAM capacities.

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#184

Post by Aperocky »

stuff4ben wrote: post #93
mattlondon wrote: post #33

Wow it must suck to be Intel right now. It wasn't so long ago that the trope was while others had better multi-core performance "...Intel still holds the lead for single core performance" Now not only do AMD have a better product, but also Apple now offer equal or better performance than the best that Intel can offer. I wonder what is next for Intel now their £1000+ CPUs are firmly in third place. Looking forward to…

At some point one wonders if Intel will just cede the desktop and enthusiast markets to AMD and/or Apple and just focus on server and high-end computing? As an IBMer this feels familiar for some reason...

No reason why servers will always stick with Intel.

Amazon already has their own Graviton ARM chips - And that's EC2, cloud native workflows might have already migrated.

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#185

Post by [deleted] »

Aperocky wrote: post #157
d3nj4l wrote: post #13

Dave2D found the air to be on par with the Pro, at least for tasks that took under ~8.5 minutes. It only really throttled after that point, according to him.

So.. if I place it on a slab of ice, it would work the same as Pro? Tbh, the only reason I didn't even think of buying a pro is because I don't want the touch bar. I might still buy an air if there's no touch bar on the pro, but the decision will be a lot harder.

[deleted]

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#186

Post by dogma1138 »

murukesh_s wrote: post #113
ghaff wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's one data point that's particularly interesting to me. As someone who (normally) travels a great deal, I'd probably go with the Air unless there were real throttling compromises, especially given that I use a different computer for multimedia editing at home.

Wish they re-introduce the discontinued Macbook 12 inch with the same specs as air. It weighed only 970grams vs 1.29 kg for air. In fact air feels bulky compared to other light weight laptops like LG Gram, not to mention the design is outdated. Always wondered why Apple killed the smaller model. Perhaps they want to push the iPad pro so killed off the netbook line. The wannabe traveller inside me keep drooling at 12…

They should probably release an 11" version of the air, I'm not sure a 12" having the same specs as the Air would be viable.

However the interesting part would be what are they gonna do with their iPad Pro line at this point I don't see a reason for it not to run Big Sur or the Bigger Sur they'll release next year and compete directly with the surface.

What I see Apple doing is the following:

iPhone/iPad non-pro continuing to use A series SoCs and run iOS

iPad Pro migrate to M series SoCs and become what is essentially Apple's Surface Pro

Macbook Air 13" and 11" (possibly drop to a single 12" model) with M series SoCs this essentially will be the Surface Laptop/Book competitor

Macbook Pro's will continue as they are 13" and 16" models, if Apple goes for 11" and 13" MBAs they might move the MBP to 14" and 16".

Without discrete GPUs and essentially no way to "upgrade" the CPU to a higher model I don't really see the MBP 13" being viable in the long term tbh, I think they'll need a model that will differentiate it much more from the MBA and unless Apple starts binning their future M series SoCs much more in line with Intel and AMD I don't see them having too much of a range here for upgrades.

So alternatively I also see them dropping the 13" MBP altogether and having only a 15" or 16" on whilst the Air will occupy the smaller form factors.

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#187

Post by millzlane »

rimliu wrote: post #127
davidhyde wrote: post #102

> "Whilst the software doesn’t offer the best the hardware can offer, with time, as developers migrate their applications to native Apple Silicon support, the ecosystem will flourish." I think that more developers would be excited about migrating their apps to support native apple silicon if Apple wasn't so developer hostile at the moment. I am referring to stuff like Apple's Online Certificate Status Protocol ( http…

You should quit HN for a day or two. The stuff echo-chamber of HN repeats often has very little to do with reality. Apple has many thousands of developers. It is not hostile to them in any way, shape or form. For some reason this cliche is most often repeated by the people who never wrote a single line of code for iOS or MacOS

>It is not hostile to them in any way, shape or form. For some reason this cliche is most often repeated by the people who never wrote a single line of code for iOS or MacOS.

Maybe the word "hostile" is the wrong word. But I have apps on windows that ran on 95 that still work to this day without having to be "rewritten". It's no surprise it's often repeated by people who never wrote a single line code for an OS that they have come to expect will change things so dramatically that they will have to spend more time and effort supporting those OS changes and not creating software.

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#188

Post by rowanG077 »

foldr wrote: post #179
rowanG077 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hardware is the only good part unfortunately. I would have clicked buy faster then the flash could if the M1 could run Linux.

Isn't this pretty much an impossible ask, though? The hardware is great largely because Apple have invested so much in developing a custom SoC. But as a result, you can't easily run a generic OS on it. It's not like Apple just need to bridge the Linux jumper on the motherboard. Supporting Linux would require Apple to maintain millions of additional lines of code, and either hold themselves hostage to decisions made b…

Actually it would only require Apple to release internal documentation. There are enough Linux nerds to write all the drivers. Graphics will probably be the hardest.

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#190

Post by oefrha »

alwillis wrote: post #180
oefrha wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention 5950X alone without cooling ($799) costs almost as much as an entry level MacBook Air.

Not to mention 5950X alone without cooling ($799) costs almost as much as an entry level MacBook Air The M1-based Mac mini starts at $699.

Yeah, forgot about that. Everything else being equal (ostensibly), the M1 Mac Mini is $200 cheaper than the crappy Intel i5 Mac Mini, more if you upgrade the Intel CPU.

As an owner of a decked out 2019 Mac Mini, in hindsight I made a shitty purchase decision.

Post reply on HN