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

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

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 551 posts

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

#201

Post by thomassmith65 »

post_break wrote: post #8

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.

Does anyone know if this Mac Mini can survive longer than a year? Apple's approach to hardware design doesn't prioritize thermal issues*.

In fact, the form factor is why I'm leaning toward taking a pass - I don't want a Mac Mini I would have to replace every 12 months.

* or rather, Apple doesn't target low enough temperatures to keep machines healthy beyond warranty

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

#202

Post by ezfe »

thomassmith65 wrote: post #201
post_break wrote: post #8

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.

Does anyone know if this Mac Mini can survive longer than a year? Apple's approach to hardware design doesn't prioritize thermal issues*. In fact, the form factor is why I'm leaning toward taking a pass - I don't want a Mac Mini I would have to replace every 12 months. * or rather, Apple doesn't target low enough temperatures to keep machines healthy beyond warranty

I'm not sure why you think it would be worse than a MacBook Air which literally has no fan

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

#203

Post by tiltowait »

thomassmith65 wrote: post #201
post_break wrote: post #8

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.

Does anyone know if this Mac Mini can survive longer than a year? Apple's approach to hardware design doesn't prioritize thermal issues*. In fact, the form factor is why I'm leaning toward taking a pass - I don't want a Mac Mini I would have to replace every 12 months. * or rather, Apple doesn't target low enough temperatures to keep machines healthy beyond warranty

Do you have any source on this?

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

#204

Post by kimixa »

fioan89 wrote: post #148
evilduck wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That depends on what you want to play and what other things that suck that you’re willing to tolerate. The GPUs in previous M chips aren’t beating AMD or NVidia’s top offerings on anything except VRAM but you can definitely play games with them. Apple has released their Game Porting Toolkit a couple years ago which is basically like Wine/Proton in Linux and if you’re comfortable with Wine and approximately what a Ste…

With Thunderbolt 5 it should be fairly reasonable to use an external GPU for more power.

Apple no longer has drivers for anything newer than AMD RDNA2 and have completely dismantled the driver team.

Unless you're running bootcamp you're extremely limited by driver support.

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

#206

Post by [deleted] »

ezfe wrote: post #202
thomassmith65 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone know if this Mac Mini can survive longer than a year? Apple's approach to hardware design doesn't prioritize thermal issues*. In fact, the form factor is why I'm leaning toward taking a pass - I don't want a Mac Mini I would have to replace every 12 months. * or rather, Apple doesn't target low enough temperatures to keep machines healthy beyond warranty

I'm not sure why you think it would be worse than a MacBook Air which literally has no fan

[deleted]

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

#207

Post by reaperducer »

thomassmith65 wrote: post #201
post_break wrote: post #8

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.

Does anyone know if this Mac Mini can survive longer than a year? Apple's approach to hardware design doesn't prioritize thermal issues*. In fact, the form factor is why I'm leaning toward taking a pass - I don't want a Mac Mini I would have to replace every 12 months. * or rather, Apple doesn't target low enough temperatures to keep machines healthy beyond warranty

Does anyone know if this Mac Mini can survive longer than a year? Apple's approach to hardware design doesn't prioritize thermal issues.

I've had an M1 Mac Mini inside a hot dresser drawer with a TV on top since 2020.

It doesn't do much other than act as a media server. But it's jammed pretty tight in there with an eero wifi router, an OTA ATSC DVR, a box that records HDMI, a 4K AppleTV, a couple of external drives, and a full power strip. That's why it's hot.

So far, no problems. Except for once when I moved, it's been completely hands-off. Software updates are done over VNC.

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

#208

Post by varispeed »

carlgreene wrote: post #11
post_break wrote: post #8

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.

On extremely heavy workloads the fans do engage on my M1 Max, but I need to get my ear close to the machine to hear them.

Recently my friend bought a laptop with Intel Ultra 9 185h. It roared fans even when opening Word. That was extraordinary and if it was me making the purchase I would have sent it back straight away.

My friend did fiddle a lot with settings, had to update BIOS and eventually the fan situation was somewhat contained, but man I am never going to buy Intel / AMD laptop. You don't know how annoying fan noise is until you get a laptop that is fast and doesn't make any noise. With Intel is like having a drill pointed to your head that can goes off at any moment and let's not mention phantom fan noise, where it gets imprinted in your head that your brain makes you think the fans are on, but they are not.

Apple has achieved something extraordinary. I don't like MacOS, but I am getting used to it. I hope one day this Asahi effort will let us replace it.

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

#209

Post by lomase »

nottorp wrote: post #87
LorenDB wrote: post #40

How many people does this actually affect? Gamers are better off with AMD X3D chips, and most productivity workloads need good multicore performance. Obviously MR is great silicon and I don't want to downplay that, but I'm not sure that best singlecore performance is an overly useful metric for the people who need performance.

> Gamers are better off with AMD X3D chips Yeah but then you'd have to use Windows. I'd rather just play whatever games can be emulated and take the performance penalty. It helps that most AAAs put me to sleep...

Mac OS is amazing, using a Mac for games is not a good idea. Most AAA, AA, and indie games don't run on Mac.
Post reply on HN