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Apple introduces M4 chip

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Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#351

Post by owenpalmer »

andrewmunsell wrote: post #226
simonbarker87 wrote: post #21

Seeing an M series chip launch first in an iPad must be result of some mad supply chain and manufacturing related hangovers from COVID. If the iPad had better software and could be considered a first class productivity machine then it would be less surprising but the one thing no one says about the iPads is “I wish this chip were faster”

My current assumption is that this has to do with whatever "AI" Apple is planning to launch at WWDC. If they launched a new iPad with an M3 that wasn't able to sufficiently run on-device LLMs or whatever new models they are going to announce in a month, it would be a bad move. The iPhones in the fall will certainly run some new chip capable of on-device models, but the iPads (being announced in the Spring just before…

interesting theory, we'll see what happens!

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#352

Post by wvenable »

greggsy wrote: post #212
KeplerBoy wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If these things will ever get MacOS support it will be useless with 8 GB of Ram. Such a waste of nice components.

This comes up frequently. 8GB is sufficient for most casual and light productivity use cases. Not everyone is a power user, in fact, most people aren’t.

Isn't this the "Pro" model?

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#353

Post by Toutouxc »

baq wrote: post #217
MuffinFlavored wrote: post #114

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…

I feel like I bought the M1 air yesterday. Turns out it was ~4 years ago. Never felt the need to upgrade.

Same here, my M1 Air still looks and feels like a brand new computer. Like, I still think of it as "my new MacBook". It's my main machine for dev work and some hobby photography and I'm just so happy with it.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#354

Post by skeaker »

michaelt wrote: post #239
Laaas wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"

Yes, the additional $600 they make off of users who just want extra RAM is just an unfortunate side effect of the unavoidable process of not being Dell. Couldn't be any other reason.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#355

Post by tuckerpo »

praseodym wrote: post #10

"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…

It is almost certainly half as much power in the RMS sense, not absolute.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#356

Post by [deleted] »

mort96 wrote: post #281
simonbarker87 wrote: post #21

Seeing an M series chip launch first in an iPad must be result of some mad supply chain and manufacturing related hangovers from COVID. If the iPad had better software and could be considered a first class productivity machine then it would be less surprising but the one thing no one says about the iPads is “I wish this chip were faster”

To be honest, I wish my iPad's chip was slower! I can't do anything other than watch videos and use drawing programs on an iPad, why does it need a big expensive power hungry and environmentally impactful CPU when one 1/10 the speed would do? If I could actually do something with an iPad there would be a different discussion, but the operating system is so incredibly gimped that the most demanding task it's really su…

[deleted]

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#358

Post by michaelmior »

izacus wrote: post #84
praseodym wrote: post #10

"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…

Apple usually massively exaggerates their tech spec comparison - is it REALLY half the power use of all times (so we'll get double the battery life) or is it half the power use in some scenarios (so we'll get like... 15% more battery life total) ?

> is it REALLY half the power use of all times (so we'll get double the battery life)

I'm not sure what you mean by "of all times" but half the battery usage of the processor definitely doesn't translate into double the battery life since the processor is not the only thing consuming power.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#359

Post by dehrmann »

GeekyBear wrote: post #279
philistine wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

The signs certainly all point to the initial version of N3 having issues. For instance, Apple supposedly required a deal where they only paid TSMC for usable chips per N3 wafer, and not for the entire wafer. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/08/report-apple-is-savi...

My read on the absurd number of Macbook M3 SKUs was that they had yield issues.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#360

Post by arecurrence »

reustle wrote: post #246
KeplerBoy wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If these things will ever get MacOS support it will be useless with 8 GB of Ram. Such a waste of nice components.

> If these things will ever get MacOS support The Macbook line will get iPadOS support long before they allow MacOS on this line. Full steam ahead towards the walled garden.

If the iPad could run Mac apps when docked to Magic Keyboard like the Mac can run iPad apps then there may be a worthwhile middle ground that mostly achieves what people want.

The multitasking will still be poor but perhaps Apple can do something about that when in docked mode.

That said, development likely remains a non-starter given the lack of unix tooling.

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