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

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

#371

Post by m00x »

eigenspace wrote: post #4

I'll admit to some reflexive skepticism here. I know GeekBench at least used to be considered an entirely unserious indicator of performance and any discussion relating to its scores used to be drowned out by people explaining why it was so bad. Do those criticisms still hold? Are serious people nowadays taking Geekbench to be a reasonably okay (though obviously imperfect) performance metric?

Did no one check the scores? They're not the top consumer CPU by quite a range. It's probably the best power per watt, but not the most powerful CPU.

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

#372

Post by m00x »

qeternity wrote: post #272
stogot wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious how you verified that? I should possibly do thesame

Run Geekbench on a sample of hardware. Run your workload along same hardware. Regress.

That's not very scientific at all. With how close the CPUs are, how would you compare the tiny differences?

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

#373

Post by m00x »

wtallis wrote: post #342
ThatMedicIsASpy wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are 8000MT/s CUDIMMs for the new Intel Chips now...

They've been announced , within the past two weeks, and as far as I can tell aren't actually available for purchase from retailers yet: the only thing I've seen actually purchasable is Crucial's 6400MT/s CUDIMMs, and Newegg has an out-of-stock listing for a G.Skill kit rated for 9600MT/s. The linked Geekbench result from August running at 7614 MT/s clearly wasn't using CUDIMMs; it was a highly-overclocked system runn…

Geekbench is run pre-release by the manufacturers.

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

#374

Post by sixothree »

eastbound wrote: post #197
spiderfarmer wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My best Apple purchases in 20 years of being their customer: The Macbook M1 Pro 16 inch and the Pro Display XDR. When Steve Jobs died I really thought Apple was done, but their most flawless products (imho) came much later.

Yeah, don’t forget the 10 dark years between the Butterfly Keyboard Macbook Pro 2016, the Emoji Macbook Air, until the restoration of the USB ports… around 2022. That was truely the dark age of Apple.

2008 mbp was my last apple laptop. Still feel quite slighted by Apple's treatment on that one.

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

#375

Post by MBCook »

grahamj wrote: post #195
jihadjihad wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got a coworker who still has an Intel MacBook Pro, 8-core i9 and all that, and I've been on M chips since they launched. The other day he was building some Docker images while we were screensharing and I was dumbfounded at how long it took. I don't think I can even remember a recent time when building images, even ones pushed to CDK etc., takes more than a minute or so. We waited and waited and finally after 8 m…

For sure. I had one of those for work when I got my personal M1 Air and I couldn't believe how much faster it was. A fanless ultraportable faster than an 8-core i9! I was so happy when I finally got an M1 MBP for work because as you say Docker is so much faster on it. I feel like I don't wait for anything anymore. Can't even imagine these new chips.

Same situation for me.

I’m going to be very happy when it’s time to replace my Intel MBP at work.

It’s rarely loud, but boy it likes to be warm/toasty at the stupidest things.

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

#376

Post by hcarvalhoalves »

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.

Last year I bought an M1 Pro used, but the last MPB I had was an early 2015. I just didn't bothered upgrading, in fact the later Intel models were markedly worse (keyboard, battery life, quality control). The Apple Silicon era is going to be the PowerPC prime over again.

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

#377

Post by geerlingguy »

burnerthrow008 wrote: post #241
eastbound wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it? What can it do better than M4 / 128GB…

Well, judging by the M1 and M2, the M4 Ultra will support 256GB of memory, so there's that. And it will have 2x the GPU and 2x the CPU cores...

And the port assortment is overall nicer in terms of not requiring an External TB4 hub for production environments (I literally have something plugged into every port on my M1 Max Mac Studio, even on the front!)

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

#378

Post by MBCook »

ddingus wrote: post #185
_hyn3 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ARM processors have always been good at handling heat and low power (like AWS Graviton), but what laptop did you have before that would overheat that much during normal usage? That seems like a very poor design.

My 2010 i7 MBP would do that under heavy loads. All aluminum body, with fans, and when that CPU really had to work it put out a lot of heat. Compiling gcc multi thread a few times would be enough.

Not only that, they seemed to get hotter with each subsequent generation.

My 2015 could get hotter than my 2010. I think my work 2019 gets hotter still.

I think the Intels were hotter than my G4, but it’s been too long and the performance jump was worth it.

Got an M1 Air, it blows them all out of the water (even 2019, others aren’t a surprise). And it does it fanless, as opposed to emulating a jet engine.

And if you really push it, it gets pleasantly warm. Not possibly-burn-inducingly hot.

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

#379

Post by whynotminot »

fragmede wrote: post #370
stouset wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s more like Apple fronts the cash for TSMC’s latest node. But regardless, in what way does that detract from their chips being class-leading at release?

Because the others can't use that node, there are no others in that same class. If there was a race, but one person is on foot, and the other is in a car, it's not surprising if the person in the car finishes first.

Eventually Apple moves off a node and the others move on.

People pretend like this isn’t a thing that’s already happened, and that there aren’t fair comparisons. But there are. And even when you compare like for like Apple Silicon tends to win.

Line up the node, check the wattages, compare the parts. I trust you can handle the assignment.

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

#380

Post by GeekyBear »

jchw wrote: post #366

Well, firstly, it isn't. There are higher Geekbench 6 CPU scores, even forgetting the ones that appear to be fake or at least broken. But secondly, that would absolutely not indicate that it is the "fastest single-core performer in consumer computing". That would indicate that it is the highest scoring Geekbench 6 CPU in consumer computing. Whether or not that's actually a good proxy for the former statement is up to…

SPEC has been the industry standard benchmark for comparing the performance of systems using different instruction sets for decades now.

Traditionally, Anandtech would have been the first media outlet to publish the single core and multicore integer and floating point SPEC test results for a new architecture, but hopefully some trusted outlet will take up the burden.

For instance, Anandtech's Zen 5 laptop SKU results vs the M3 from the end of July:

> Even Apple's M3 SoC gets edged out here in terms of floating point performance, which, given that Apple is on a newer process node (TSMC N3B), is no small feat. Still, there is a sizable deficit in integer performance versus the M3, so while AMD has narrowed the gap with Apple overall, they haven't closed it with the Ryzan AI 300 series.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/21485/the-amd-ryzen-ai-hx-370...

Zen 5 beat Core Ultra, but given that Zen 5 only edged out the M3 in floating point workloads, I wouldn't be so quick to claim the M4 doesn't outperform Zen 5 single core scores before the test results come out.

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