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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

#411

Post by spoaceman7777 »

GeekyBear wrote: post #380
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…

just considering the number of simple calculations a CPU can compute isn't a very good comparison. apple's chips are using an ARM architecture, which is a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) setup, vs x86-64, which is a Complex-ISC (CISC).

The only good comparison is to judge a variety of real world programs compiled for each architecture, and run them.

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

#412

Post by pier25 »

mortenjorck wrote: post #27
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.

Indeed, the $1599 M4 Pro Mac mini beats the current $3999 M2 Ultra Mac Studio on GeekBench 6 multi-core: https://www.macrumors.com/2024/10/31/m4-pro-chip-benchmark-r...

And both those machines are way faster than the last Intel Mac Pro which started at around $7000 iirc

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

#413

Post by wmf »

brigade wrote: post #320
SamAsEnd wrote: post #274

Am I missing something? I don't know where this informations came from, but you can check out GeekBench v6 single-core benchmarks here. https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/singlecore

The better chart is https://browser.geekbench.com/processor-benchmarks/ which tries to discount outliers that might be liquid nitrogen cooled and/or faked

Even thought that was updated hours ago it doesn't list Zen 5 or Arrow Lake.

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

#414

Post by Dylan16807 »

grecy wrote: post #174
Refusing23 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AMDs upcoming flagship desktop CPU (9800 X3D) reaches about 3300 points on singlecore (the previous X3D hit 2700ish)

Are you saying a product that has not been released yet will be faster than a product that is? And that a desktop part is going to outperform a laptop part?

No, neither of those.

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

#415

Post by JohnBooty »

jihadjihad wrote: post #98
carlgreene wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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…

That was what finally got me to spend the cash and go with Apple Silicon - we switched to a Docker workflow and it was just doooooog slow on the Intel Macs.

But this M1 Max MBP is just insane. I'm nearly 50 and it's the best machine I've ever owned; nothing is even close.

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

#416

Post by jeswin »

carlgreene wrote: post #5

I have been out of the PC world for a long time, but in terms of performance efficiency, is Apple running away from the competition? Or are AMD and Intel producing similar performing chips at the same wattage?

> is Apple running away from the competition?

No.

On the same node, the performance is quite similar. Apple's previous CPU (M3) has been a 3nm part, while AMD's latest and greatest Zen 5 is still on TSMC's 4nm.

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

#417

Post by thejazzman »

bscphil wrote: post #389
thejazzman wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's my plex server and nas (m1). I've abandoned all the complicated complications and just have an 8 bay thunderbolt enclosure full of drives (JBOD) And pg server. And a few web sites server. And something running in orb stack. It's the 8gb model and I have around 2gb free most of the time

What enclosure do you have? Do you like it?

Owc thunderbay 8

I like it in every way except price. It just works, comes back online after a power outage, etc. I don't recall any unscheduled disconnects.

--

Additional thoughts: I think there are complaints about the fan being loud so I swapped it out when I first got it. I also have it in my basement so I don't hear anything anyway -- HDDs are loud, especially the gold ones

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

#418

Post by erik_seaberg »

spoaceman7777 wrote: post #411
GeekyBear wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

just considering the number of simple calculations a CPU can compute isn't a very good comparison. apple's chips are using an ARM architecture, which is a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) setup, vs x86-64, which is a Complex-ISC (CISC). The only good comparison is to judge a variety of real world programs compiled for each architecture, and run them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPECint talks about a dozen programs they selected for single-core logic and discrete math, including gcc and bzip2 (there are more than a dozen others using floats).

Over time, RISC and CISC borrowed from each other: https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/soco/project...

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

#419

Post by wmf »

bhouston wrote: post #61

This confuses me because I thought all of the Mx series chips in the same generation ran at the same speed and has the same single-core capabilities? The main thing that caused differential single-core CPU performance was just throttling under load for the devices that didn't have active cooling, such as the MacBook Air and iPad Pros. Based on this reasoning, the M4, M4 Pro and M4 Max in active cooled devices, the Ma…

The Pro and Max have more cache and more memory bandwidth. Apple also appears to be crippling the frequency by a percent or two so that the Max can be the top.

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

#420

Post by taftster »

thfuran wrote: post #216
philistine wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in the early 90s, when Apple was literally building their first product line with the Mac, they would come out with their second big honking powerhouse Mac: the Macintosh IIx. It blew everything out of the water. Then they would come out with their next budget all-in-one machine. But computing was improving so fast, with prices for components dropping so quickly, that the Macintosh SE/30 ended up as impressive a…

In the 90s, you probably wouldn't want to be using a desktop from 4 years ago, but the M1 is already 4 years old and will probably be fine for most people for years yet.

So long as Apple is willing to keep operating system updates available for the platform. This is by far the most frustrating thing. Apple hardware, amazing and can last for years and even decades. Supported operating system updates, only a couple of years.

I'm typing this from my mid-2012 retina mac book pro. I'm on Mojave and I'm well out of support for the operating system patches. But the hardware keeps running like a champ.

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