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Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Pro Review: This Changes Everything

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Re: Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Pro Review: This Changes Everything

#21

Post by nr2x »

m12k wrote: post #14

I think a lot of people who have been reflexively buying new MacBook Pros every couple years should do themselves a favor and seriously consider a MacBook Air this time around. It's the same performance most of the time, and for tasks longer than 5 minutes, thermal throttling will only reduce performance by ~20% or so - for many that's still, plenty, plenty fast, when the baseline is a super fast machine. And in retu…

The unfortunate catch is only two thunderbolt ports, otherwise agree. I absolutely loathe the Touch Bar, and would pay extra for a pro without one.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Pro Review: This Changes Everything

#22

Post by aborsy »

neogodless wrote: post #6

I'm not sure this review gives us anything new. To sum up: * The comparably priced Dell XPS 17 actually wins in most benchmarks (but the M1 is using Rosetta 2 translation for each of these!) * The battery life is really amazing. * The lack of cooling necessary is amazing. * Software compatibility with ARM through Rosetta 2 is mind-blowing. No one expected it to work this well. * Don't buy Intel-based Macs any more! *…

Do MacBook Pro 13 and xps17 have the same weight? Doesn’t seem pound to pound.

Comparison with xps13 would make more sense.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Pro Review: This Changes Everything

#23

Post by akmarinov »

Guthur wrote: post #16
have_faith wrote: post #4

> this changes everything > As you can see, M1 Mac beats Intel Mac in every Lightroom benchmark across the board Yeah, by a relatively small amount according to your own charts... It's still impressive, not exactly earth shattering.

I've mentioned this a few times but it does seem to be completely glossed over. Intel has for the most part been stuck on 6 year old 14nm and it's positively ancient compared to TSMC 5nm upon which the M1 is manufactured, it's to all intends and purposes two generations ahead. This is big card Apple got to play. Intel have managed to squeeze an incredible amount of performance out of their 14nm (+++...) but it's at a…

True, though Intel isn't looking like it's going to catch up in the next 5 years, so it seems that it'll be generations behind for the foreseeable future.

Basically the reason why Apple abandoned them.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Pro Review: This Changes Everything

#24

Post by matwood »

m12k wrote: post #14

I think a lot of people who have been reflexively buying new MacBook Pros every couple years should do themselves a favor and seriously consider a MacBook Air this time around. It's the same performance most of the time, and for tasks longer than 5 minutes, thermal throttling will only reduce performance by ~20% or so - for many that's still, plenty, plenty fast, when the baseline is a super fast machine. And in retu…

I replaced a 2017 MBP with an M1 Air (until the 16" Apple Silicons come out), and agree completely. IMO, the MBA best showcases what this initial M1 rev can do. No fan, completely silent, cool running, thin, light, long battery life and fast. It's pretty amazing really. And, coming from a 2017 MBP, everything is much faster.

For example, a large java app's test suite takes ~7 mins on the 2017 MBP and ~3 mins on the M1 Air. I never thought an MBA could work for me day and day out, but here we are.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Pro Review: This Changes Everything

#25

Post by neogodless »

akmarinov wrote: post #23
Guthur wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've mentioned this a few times but it does seem to be completely glossed over. Intel has for the most part been stuck on 6 year old 14nm and it's positively ancient compared to TSMC 5nm upon which the M1 is manufactured, it's to all intends and purposes two generations ahead. This is big card Apple got to play. Intel have managed to squeeze an incredible amount of performance out of their 14nm (+++...) but it's at a…

True, though Intel isn't looking like it's going to catch up in the next 5 years, so it seems that it'll be generations behind for the foreseeable future. Basically the reason why Apple abandoned them.

I'm pretty much anti-Intel because I lost 10 years of my life waiting for CPUs to advance (hyperbole!), and it took a swift kick from AMD to get any traction there.

But I also think it's a little short-sighted to predict the next 5 years based on the past 5 years. Intel's Tiger Lake is remarkably good, albeit limited by production capacity (tops out at 4 cores and not found in many products). As an indication of what Intel is capable of, if they start producing CPUs on better processes (before your 5 year prediction), they are very likely to regain the status of at least competitive.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Pro Review: This Changes Everything

#26

Post by _ph_ »

api wrote: post #18

Why would you buy this and not the Air? Same max RAM, same CPU, just slightly more battery. The Touch Bar is the only thing and I personally never found it that useful. I guess this has more ports too? Or am I missing something? If this chip had more cores or was a variant with all 8 performance cores that would be a thing.

The better battery, the touchbar and a fan. The pro will sustain full loads longer. So most people will be better off with the Air, some will prefer the pro.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Pro Review: This Changes Everything

#27

Post by ubermonkey »

gspr wrote: post #13
have_faith wrote: post #4

> this changes everything > As you can see, M1 Mac beats Intel Mac in every Lightroom benchmark across the board Yeah, by a relatively small amount according to your own charts... It's still impressive, not exactly earth shattering.

… while consuming far less power, while being passively cooled, and while not even running native code! I think Apple is a huge threat to general purpose computing freedom, and I refuse to use their products. But hats off to their M1!

"I think Apple is a huge threat to general purpose computing freedom"

I don't see how, unless you see literally all proprietary operating systems as such.

Remember, iOS MacOS.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Pro Review: This Changes Everything

#28

Post by xiphias2 »

Why is 13 inch such a popular form factor still now when bigger laptops can be made lightweight and thin as well? Is it because women have smaller hands?

It took a lot of time to convince my girlfriend to finally switch to at least 14 inch, and she loves it (AMD Zen 2, so it's not 5nm tech of course)

Re: Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Pro Review: This Changes Everything

#29

Post by akmarinov »

neogodless wrote: post #25
akmarinov wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, though Intel isn't looking like it's going to catch up in the next 5 years, so it seems that it'll be generations behind for the foreseeable future. Basically the reason why Apple abandoned them.

I'm pretty much anti-Intel because I lost 10 years of my life waiting for CPUs to advance (hyperbole!), and it took a swift kick from AMD to get any traction there. But I also think it's a little short-sighted to predict the next 5 years based on the past 5 years. Intel's Tiger Lake is remarkably good, albeit limited by production capacity (tops out at 4 cores and not found in many products). As an indication of what…

I'm not basing the prediction on the past 5 years.

Intel themselves have said that they'll do 7nm around 2022-2023 - https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-announces-delay-to-7...

5nm is probably going to be 2024-2025 at this cadence.

And true, Intel's 7nm process might be somewhat equivalent to TSMC's 5nm process as far as performance goes, but at that point in 2022 TSMC will be doing 3nm, according to them.

https://www.imore.com/tsmc-lands-first-3nm-contract-apple-co...

So at the start of 2023, Intel might be at 7nm where TSMC will be at 3nm.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Pro Review: This Changes Everything

#30

Post by akmarinov »

temp wrote: post #12
outoftheabyss wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Running through emulation and on an entry level first generation machine that is significantly cheaper

I wouldn't call a $2,300 device "entry level".

It is the entry level laptop in the Apple ecosystem, though.
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