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Apple introduces M4 chip

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Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#231

Who would buy a MacBook Air or mini or studio today with its older chips?

Someone who needs a MacBook Air or mini or studio, not an iPad

I'm just venting that their processor strategy doesn't make much sense. The iPad gets the M4, but the Mini and Studio and Mac Pro are still on M2 and the MacBooks are on M3.

They've essentially undercut every Mac they currently sell by putting the M4 in the iPad and most people will never use that kind of power in an iPad.

If you are going to spend $4k on a Mac don't you expect it to have the latest processor?

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me it just feels like a soft launch. You probably have people (like myself) trying to keep up with the latest MacBook Air who get fatigued having to get a new laptop every year (I just upgraded to the M3 not too long ago, from the M2, and before that... the M1... is there any reason to? Not really...), so now they are trying to entice people who don't have iPads yet / who are waiting for a reason to do an iPad upg…

You get a new laptop every year?

It's not terribly expensive if you trade-in or otherwise sell or hand down the previous.

I went from M1 to M1 Pro just to get more displays.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#233
post #158

M2's Neural Engine had 15TOPS, M3's 18TOPS (+20%) vs. M4's 38TOPS (+111%). In transistor counts, M2 had 20BTr, M3 25BTr (+25%) and M4 has 28BTr (+12%). M2 used TSMC N5P (138MTr/mm2), M3 used TSMC N3 (197MTr/mm2, +43%) and M4 uses TSMC N3E (215MTr/mm2, +9%).[1][2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_nm_process#%225_nm%22_proces... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_nm_process#%223_nm%22_proces...

An NVIDIA RTX 4090 generates 73 TFLOPS. This iPad gives you nearly half that. The memory bandwidth of 120 GBps is roughly 1/10th of the NVIDIA hardware, but who’s counting!

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#235
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And here it is in an OS that can't even max out an M1! That said, the function keys make me think "and it runs macOS" is coming, and THAT would be extremely compelling.

We've seen a slow march over the last decade towards the unification of iOS and macOS. Maybe not a "it runs macOS", but an eventual "they share all the same apps" with adaptive UIs.

I think so too. Especially after the split from iOS to ipados. Hopefully they'll show something during this year's WWDC

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using the iPad Mini for years. I'd love to see them add something to that form factor. I do see a lot of iPad Minis out there, but usually, as part of dedicated systems (like PoS, and restaurant systems). On the other hand, I have heard rumblings that Apple may release an even bigger phone, which I think might be overkill (but what do I know. I see a lot of those monster Samsung beasts, out there). Not sure…

I loved my ipad mini. It's super long in the tooth now, and I was hoping to replace it today. oh well...

I wish they would stop doing this weird release cycle where some of their tablets don't get the updated chips. It's really frustrating. Makes me hesitant to buy a tablet if I feel like it could get an upgrade a week later or whatever.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#237

"With these improvements to the CPU and GPU, M4 maintains Apple silicon’s industry-leading performance per watt. M4 can deliver the same performance as M2 using just half the power. And compared with the latest PC chip in a thin and light laptop, M4 can deliver the same performance using just a fourth of the power." That's an incredible improvement in just a few years. I wonder how much of that is Apple engineering a…

Actually, TSMC's N3E process is somewhat of a regression on the first-generation 3nm process, N3. However, it is simpler and more cost-efficient, and everyone seems to want to get out of that N3 process as quickly as possible. That seems to be the biggest reason Apple released the A17(M3) generation and now the M4 the way they did.

The N3 process is in the A17 Pro, the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max. The A17 Pro name seems to imply you won't find it trickle down on the regular iPhones next year. So we'll see that processor only this year in phones, since Apple discontinues their Pro range of phones every year; only the regular phones trickle downrange lowering their prices. The M3 devices are all Macs that needed an upgrade due to their popularity: the Macbook Pro and Macbook Air. They made three chips for them, but they did not make an M3 Ultra for the lower volume desktops. With the announcement of an M4 chip in iPads today, we can expect to see the Macbook Air and Macbook Pro upgraded to M4 soon, with the introduction of an M4 Ultra to match later. We can now expect those M3 devices to be discontinued instead of going downrange in price.

That would leave one device with an N3 process chip: the iMac. At its sale level, I wouldn't be surprised if all the M3 chips that will go into it will be made this year, with the model staying around for a year or two running on fumes.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#239
post #43

The 256gb and 512gb models have 8gb of ram. The 1tb and 2tb models have 16gb. Not a fan of tying ram to storage. https://www.apple.com/ipad-pro/specs/

The economic reasoning behind this doesn't make sense to me. What do they lose by allowing slightly more freedom in configurations?

Because before you know it you're Dell and you're stocking 18 different variants of "Laptop, 15 inch screen, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD" and users are scratching their heads trying to figure out WTF the difference is between a "Latitude 3540" a "Latitude 5540" and a "New Latitude 3550"

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#240
post #158

M2's Neural Engine had 15TOPS, M3's 18TOPS (+20%) vs. M4's 38TOPS (+111%). In transistor counts, M2 had 20BTr, M3 25BTr (+25%) and M4 has 28BTr (+12%). M2 used TSMC N5P (138MTr/mm2), M3 used TSMC N3 (197MTr/mm2, +43%) and M4 uses TSMC N3E (215MTr/mm2, +9%).[1][2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_nm_process#%225_nm%22_proces... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_nm_process#%223_nm%22_proces...

We will have M4 laptops running 400B parameter models next year. Wild times.
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