Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

anandtech.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

491–500 of 767 posts

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#491

Post by romanoderoma »

lostlogin wrote: post #422
romanoderoma wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm talking about Photoshop 6 That's why I said "MacOS Sierra can't even run CS6" Technically in Italy if you bought a license and the manufacturer won't support it anymore, you can use it on another platform even downloading an illegal copy. As long as you have the original license. That's the same reason why you can listen to mp3s if you own the original record, you have the right to keep a copy and the right to us…

> He owns a license for Photoshop 6, payed for it and has no need to uograde, especially to the new subscription based licensing Sounds like the friend has a need to upgrade, and that upgrade is going to require new software. I don’t think this situation is Adobe or Apple’s fault, old stuff stops working at some point.

The hardware, which is not the main tool in his craft

He draws by hand on paper and the final preparation on Photoshop is for printing

After almost 10 years he needed a new laptop (things wear out with time and he could not install more RAM) but not a new Photoshop version with a different and more costly license

The need to upgrade software is an artificial one and it's only needed because some platforms don't have a good backwards compatibility

Windows does

For many people the OS doesn't make any difference, as long as they can keep using the tools they already know

There is a limit on the improvements a new software will provide if your workflow is already good as it is and you already paid for the version that works for you

I know many small businesses that still use Office 2003

They can install it on new hardware on new Windows versions, it's simply not possible to do the same on Mac

It's not better or worse, backwards compatibility it's a feature and as any other feature some people value it a lot, some don't care at all

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#492

Post by jakear »

murukesh_s wrote: post #465
munificent wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's the right call, honestly. I need to recharge my own wetware at least once a day. So there is a nearly guaranteed several hour idle period where I'm not using any technology and where laptops and phones can be recharging too. I don't see much end user value in not taking advantage of that. It's like if you parked your car literally at a gas station every night anyway. Would you really care about a fuel…

I would want a 2, 3, even 7 day battery. Why not? I don't want to bother about charging every day. But my worry is that with more and more efficiency in computing and battery tech, if Apple instead decides to reduce the battery capacity? Especially with no competition in sight, or competitors trying to follow Apple, we may end up with smaller batteries instead of more battery life. They seems to be doing that with iP…

External battery for cases when you need it, ultralight for cases when you need it. The ancient carpet the world vs wear slippers debate.

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#493

Post by Synaesthesia »

jeswin wrote: post #162

This is as much a ringing endorsement of AMD Ryzen as it is of the M1. The 15W 4800U is just as impressive as the M1, and the performance per watt gap seems small enough to bridge with AMDs upcoming 5nm switch.

It is an awesome CPU. But Apple have put in a sick GPU too.

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#494

Post by Synaesthesia »

js2 wrote: post #339
tinus_hn wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have already stated they won’t: “We’re not direct booting an alternate operating system,” says Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering. “Purely virtualization is the route. [...]” https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/24/21302213/apple-silicon-ma...

I realize Federighi's reply seems to rule out Linux, but the context of the question seemed to be with respect to Boot Camp and Windows. My take is that Apple doesn't want to continue to invest in Boot Camp, especially since Microsoft apparently isn't willing to license ARM Windows for this use case. It's not clear to me that the new Macs won't allow booting Linux if the Linux community can figure out how to do it. T…

Getting drivers to work will be hard without Apple's help or blessing. And there are a lot of drivers.

For comparison you can check the progress of Linux on iPhones (which is actually a thing!)

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#495

Post by jb1991 »

AsyncAwait wrote: post #430
jb1991 wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But renting implies you are continuing to pay money and will some day need to return it.

No, not necessarily. Renting just implies you're not the owner and need to follow someone's rules, (that of the actual owner), in order to make use of the rented item. 'Purchasing' a Kindle book or video on Amazon is also renting for example and yet it does not mean you have to continue paying and yet you don't own the copy as Amazon's going to decide how you're allowed to consume it and if they're going to let you k…

I don’t think purchasing a computer is the same thing as buying a movie from Amazon. The computer is always gonna be yours, and you can do whatever you want with it, even if Apple has made it very difficult to do so. But there are lots of objects in my house that would fall under that category as well, but I consider myself as their owner.

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#496

Post by faitswulff »

nottorp wrote: post #437
faitswulff wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m still playing nearly decade old games. I just need some thing competitive in decade old gaming so that my wife and I can play together.

Not Apple then. They ditched 32 bit applications and in 2 years they'll ditch 64 bit x86 applications. You want your old games to run forever, you sadly have to do that on x86 Windows (or maybe Linux with more or less of a headache setting them up).

Rosetta 1 was around for 5 years, so I expect Rosetta 2 to last at least that long, but that's still a good point. Thanks!

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#497

Post by freehunter »

nwlieb wrote: post #345
em500 wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's one data point: a WebKit compile took 25min on the Air vs 20min on the Mini/Pro. That 25min is still a bit faster than the Intel 16-inch Pro, which took 27min and waaay faster than Intel 13-inch Pro at 46min. The crazy thing is that both M1 MacBooks still had 91% battery left after the compile, vs 61% on the 16-inch Pro and 24% on the 13-inch Intel Pro. [1] https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/17/yeah-apples-m1-macb…

Is this a 1-1 comparison? If the ARM compile is compiling to ARM binaries then there might be less work/optimizations since it is a newer architecture. Seems like a test with two variables that changed. Would be interesting to see them both cross-compile to their respective opposite archs.

If everything else is the same, that seems like a solid reason to prefer the ARM architecture even setting aside 1:1 comparisons. Isn't faster compilation and execution the whole point of a faster processor?

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#498

Post by faitswulff »

xuki wrote: post #92

Performance per watt of this thing is INSANE, take a look at the battery left after compiling WebKit, compared to older Mac: https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/WebKit-Com... https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/17/yeah-apples-m1-macbook-pro... IMO the all day battery will be THE killer feature of the new laptops.

The takeaway quote I've been sending people from the TC article is:

> And, most impressively, the M1 MacBook Pro used [just] 17% of the battery to output an 81GB 8k render. The 13” MacBook Pro could not even finish this render on one battery charge.

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#499

Post by read_if_gay_ »

amwelles wrote: post #222
dukeofdoom wrote: post #209

Macbook air: $999 (2 ports, no hdmi) vs $699 mac mini (2 ports + hdmi) + ipad $329 = $1029 Thinking of upgraing, my current macbook 2013 sits in a drawer 99% of the time connected to a monitor and keyboard. That 1% of the time when I travel, the macbook is too large to use comfortably on an airplane seat. The ipad would work better for this use. macbook air also only has two ports, so one would be used for external m…

I switched from a MBP to a Mac Mini and iPad Pro last winter for my personal setup. I absolutely love it. I spend roughly equal time on both, but I’m not doing a ton of programming these days outside of work. Taking the iPad traveling is way easier than taking a laptop.

Similar setup (desktop Mac plus iPad Pro with keyboard), and similarly happy with it, but I'm afraid once the COVID situation has been resolved I'll need a MacBook again. The iPad works surprisingly well as a laptop replacement, and I can get things done on it, but it's not an optimal environment for serious work.

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#500

Post by js2 »

Synaesthesia wrote: post #494
js2 wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realize Federighi's reply seems to rule out Linux, but the context of the question seemed to be with respect to Boot Camp and Windows. My take is that Apple doesn't want to continue to invest in Boot Camp, especially since Microsoft apparently isn't willing to license ARM Windows for this use case. It's not clear to me that the new Macs won't allow booting Linux if the Linux community can figure out how to do it. T…

Getting drivers to work will be hard without Apple's help or blessing. And there are a lot of drivers. For comparison you can check the progress of Linux on iPhones (which is actually a thing!)

Yeah, agreed, but my take isn't that Apple is going out of their way to prevent it, just that they have no interest in spending any resources on it. Some conjecture here about what will be possible:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/running-linux-on-apple-...

Post reply on HN