Can someone please ELI5 why the M1 is so much faster than every other ARM chip?
Far from "like I'm 5", but here is a technical explanation: https://debugger.medium.com/why-is-apples-m1-chip-so-fast-32...
An excellent article.
M1 Macs: Truth and Truthiness
441–450 of 882 posts
Re: M1 Macs: Truth and Truthiness
#442Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you be a bit more specific about what section of the article you're referring to? The claim I read is that it runs fast and cool, as perceived by touching the outside case. I didn't find any claim that no heat was generated at all and didn't read anything about throttling in this article.
Can you be a bit more specific? I didn't find any claim "no heat was generated" wasn't stated anywhere. The first paragraph talks about "fast computers should run hot." In an article titled "truth and truthiness", it should be commended for "truth in labeling" because vague usage of "hot and fast" is one way to make the truth difficult to pin down.
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Re: M1 Macs: Truth and Truthiness
#443Earlier quoted context omitted.
The M1 as a computer is too locked down for me, and it seems like for you. But the M1 as a demonstration of the power of modern ARM chips is absolutely unmatched. I have seen a lot of people use the lockdown argument to justify a disregard of ARM overall without realizing that no, the open version of this technology will be incredible .
Oh I'm not against ARM at all. In fact I have many systems running it :) Raspberries but also a Pinebook. I'm also getting an M1 mini from work. I just don't like the almost-religious overhyping of everything Apple. They're doing a great job. They're not perfect. For example: Moorhead makes a good point IMO. Yes he's talking about software issues. But in the case of Apple, you can't separate those two. The OS doesn't…
> I just don't like the almost-religious overhyping of everything Apple. They're doing a great job. They're not perfect.
I'm in the same boat as you and the other OP up-thread. I'm amazed by what M1 has accomplished, but less so because of what it represents for itself (and for Apple) and more that it shows ARM is capable of.
As an architecture, ARM is impressing the Hell out of me as of late. Sure, it's not touching Intel and AMD in terms of raw performance, but once you start looking at the performance-per-watt, the story is absolutely different. x86's power budget is looking awfully bloated by comparison.
What happens if NVIDIA's acquisition of ARM goes through? Do they start producing their own CPUs?
Re: M1 Macs: Truth and Truthiness
#444The author is bashing another author for not doing measurements, yet himself declares that m1 beats all the other CPUs, without providing any measurements. With regards to the M1, I'm grateful for a good competition. As this will likely push premium laptop manufactures (Razer, Dell) towards ryzen CPUs, as opposed to using them in cheaper models. Loosening the grip that intel has on them. With Zen3 on mobile, giving a…
Yeah John Gruber has really become a shill over the last few years. His article reads like an Apple keynote transcript, everything is magical and amazing, a marvel and mindbogglingly great. No wonder they throw him so many exclusives ;) Yes M1 is great. But it's a closed system (no booting Linux or Windows at this time) and even under macOS you're having even less access to the system's internals than before. Also, A…
> Yeah John Gruber has really become a shill over the last few years
I remember reading sentiments to that effect since 2004. I doubt he's getting paid directly, so he could only be a shill in a very loose sense of the word. He does get paid in review units and access, though.
I think he's maybe overly enthusiastic about the good stuff, and skews toward the positive when matters are questionable but he has called out Apple's corporate malfeasance and pointed out technical shortcomings in the past. He's biased but that's a one man blog for a specific audience.
Re: M1 Macs: Truth and Truthiness
#445Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do they? Because i have yet to see any numbers that aren't clearly the result of a massively streamlined SoC. Yes the ARM chip is great, but the RAM is blazing, tiny, and more close to the ARM chip than anything out there for x86, right? I'll be interested to see if Apple can keep this up with 128GiB of RAM and a beefy GPU. So far to me M1 is great, ARM is great, but comparing a tiny amount of RAM soldered onto the C…
> RAM soldered onto the CPU It's just very close to the CPU, on the same package. It's not on the same die or anything. There are laptops that already have a shorter physical path to RAM than the M1 MacBooks, stacking the RAM right next to the CPU is common. So it's just a matter of time before >16GB is available with an M1. These are just entry level machines in the first round.
> It's just very close to the CPU, on the same package. It's not on the same die or anything.
Yea, i was just simplifying. Though in SoC i think that's a perfectly fine simplification lol.
> So it's just a matter of time before >16GB is available with an M1. These are just entry level machines in the first round.
Think there will be > 32GiB?
Re: M1 Macs: Truth and Truthiness
#446The author is bashing another author for not doing measurements, yet himself declares that m1 beats all the other CPUs, without providing any measurements. With regards to the M1, I'm grateful for a good competition. As this will likely push premium laptop manufactures (Razer, Dell) towards ryzen CPUs, as opposed to using them in cheaper models. Loosening the grip that intel has on them. With Zen3 on mobile, giving a…
Yeah John Gruber has really become a shill over the last few years. His article reads like an Apple keynote transcript, everything is magical and amazing, a marvel and mindbogglingly great. No wonder they throw him so many exclusives ;) Yes M1 is great. But it's a closed system (no booting Linux or Windows at this time) and even under macOS you're having even less access to the system's internals than before. Also, A…
> John Gruber has really become a shill over the last few years.
I think it's important to read Gruber and understand he's an Apple person. Not a shill, as much as his world is all Apple. Sure, he checks out an Android phone every couple of years, but for the most part he doesn't care what's going on outside the Apple ecosystem. And, that's fine. As a reader of Gruber, I read for his takes about Apple.
Re: M1 Macs: Truth and Truthiness
#447Earlier quoted context omitted.
Completely agree with regards the closed platform. I switched to Linux for my development machine for a few years now. And, using something else than i3(or any other tilling window managers) seems like a step down. I like instant switching between workspaces, splits, no animations. And I'll be looking for a good laptop next year, when everything returns back to normal, and I might have to travel. And will put Linux o…
I live a double life: Apple for laptops and Linux for desktops (and I'm mostly a Desktop user who manages a lot of Linux servers). Both platforms have their pluses and minuses. I like to carry ideas between them for my development and environments. Found this extremely fruitful for me over the years. We ordered a bunch of M1 airs for portability and power efficiency. Will see how it goes. I personally love both Linux…
> when a flawlessly running driver degrades after an update (cough, intel e1000e, cough), it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
Hah! I see I'm not alone. For me it was the iwlwifi drivers. In one kernel revision, they worked fine; in another, they'd randomly panic and bring down the interface. Downgrading the firmware packages didn't do anything. Kernel upgrades have worked as of late.
Though, it may be hardware-related in my case. I've had nothing but trouble with that particular card. I was going to replace it, but it seems that Lenovo really likes Loctite on their M.2 screws and it won't budge. Tempted to use a soldering iron to melt the thread locker...
Re: M1 Macs: Truth and Truthiness
#448Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah John Gruber has really become a shill over the last few years. His article reads like an Apple keynote transcript, everything is magical and amazing, a marvel and mindbogglingly great. No wonder they throw him so many exclusives ;) Yes M1 is great. But it's a closed system (no booting Linux or Windows at this time) and even under macOS you're having even less access to the system's internals than before. Also, A…
> Yes M1 is great. But it's a closed system It doesn't matter. Sure, that might mean that an Apple system is not for you. But the crux of the matter is: Apple did something truly revolutionary. How is the rest of the market going to respond? Specifically, how are Intel, AMD and Microsoft going to respond? Microsoft, at least, has Windows running on ARM, but it doesn't have Rosetta. Intel and AMD have nothing remotely…
You know I really wouldn't characterize this as "revolutionary" so much as moving to the front of the pack just using existing tech.
That is unless you're referring to them vertically integrating CPU design, which is pretty revolutionary.
Re: M1 Macs: Truth and Truthiness
#449Earlier quoted context omitted.
He's talking about the vast majority of PC chips sold today, who's power consumption / performance / thermal ratios just got marmalised. You're quite right, your machine and in fact everyone else's are still just as good as they were a few weeks ago. I got an Intel 5K iMac in the summer and I'm still very happy with it. I need to be able to run windows and Linux in VMs so M1 isn't for me right now. It's no for you ei…
I'm the other side. Vertical integration is a fast way to fall behind. This move is very Nintendo-like. Gimmick then don't even attempt to compete with the big dogs. The fanboys have their meat to chew on "it's not hot". And they will repeat it on command as Apple falls behind to a swath of competition. "It might be slow, but at least it doesn't warm my lap."
Nintendos profit forecast for FY2020 is 150% of Sony's gaming division.
Apple just dropped hardware which crushes every comparable competitor.
But to you, Nintendo is not competing by "making more money", and Apple is "falling behind" by ... jumping years ahead? This reads like personal axe-grinding that is detached from any objective link to the market.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/28/sonys-second-quarter-profit-...
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/05/nintendo-raises-switch-forec...
Re: M1 Macs: Truth and Truthiness
#450John Gruber isn't wrong, but he's still a fucking idiot ivory tower moron.