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2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

anandtech.com

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

#61

Post by TwoNineA »

HatchedLake721 wrote: post #49
itg wrote: post #16

Another source: https://wccftech.com/intel-and-amd-x86-mobility-cpus-destroy... At least in multicore, all of the Ryzen CPUs beat the M1.

Those are only Cinebench benchmarks. Have a look at SPEC2006 and 2017 benchmarks, M1 beating desktop class Ryzen 9 5950x, or just trailing behind (edit: in single threaded performance), keeping in mind cost of each and that: > While AMD’s Zen3 still holds the leads in several workloads, we need to remind ourselves that this comes at a great cost in power consumption in the +49W range while the Apple M1 here is using…

> the Apple M1 here is using 7-8W total device active power.

Anandtech showed almost 27W power draw under full load for the M1 Mini.

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

#62

Post by Findeton »

GiorgioG wrote: post #38

I'm not buying into Apple's eventually-closed desktop computer systems - I don't care what the performance is. They've been slowly marching towards iOS's closed ecosystem model on the Mac and with an in-house CPU, they can effectively lock users out of alternate OS choices on their hardware. Buyer beware.

Exactly, I don't care whatever they do, I'm not buying into their closed garden of eden. I've already replaced Spotify with Funkwhale, and I'm using Linux, I'm not their target and I'll never be.

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

#64

Post by Deukhoofd »

d3nj4l wrote: post #59
fxtentacle wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In multi-threaded mode - which is what Zen3 are optimized for - the M1 barely reaches 30% of the Zen's performance. I mean that's kind of expected if you compare a low-power CPU with fewer cores against an unlimited-cooling desktop monster with much more cores. The M1 will likely be an amazing laptop chip, but still unusable for demanding desktop work, e.g. CGI.

I've posted this elsewhere in this thread, but the M1 on SPEC reaches Desktop-tier performance, going toe to toe with the 5950X: https://www.anandtech.com/show/16252/mac-mini-apple-m1-teste...

In single core performance, yes, but as the next page on the article shows, it's more comparable to the 4900HS, AMDs mobile CPU in multithreaded performance.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/16252/mac-mini-apple-m1-teste...

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

#65

Post by fxtentacle »

danaris wrote: post #48
Deukhoofd wrote: post #37

Interesting that it is not able to outperform the Zen3 CPUs. I had expected it to do somewhat better, especially it being a 5nm processor, and with all the hype around ARM processors. I don't know how well it will hold up to its x86 competitors like this, especially once they launch their 5nm CPUs next year.

Interesting that your takeaway from all this is "oh, it can't beat some of the top x86 chips in existence—it can only meet them on even footing. Guess it'll be falling behind next year." This is Apple's first non-mobile chip ever. You think this is the best they can do, ever?

I'd expect NVIDIA to join the ARM CPU race, too. And they have experience with the tooling for lots and lots of cores from CUDA. So I'd expect to have 5x to 10x the M1's performance available for desktops in 1-2 years. In fact, AMD's MI100 accelerator already has roughly 10x the FLOPS on 64bit.

That said, it's an amazing notebook CPU.

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

#66

Post by piyh »

fxtentacle wrote: post #54
CapriciousCptl wrote: post #4

From the article's conclusion... "The M1 undisputedly outperforms the core performance of everything Intel has to offer, and battles it with AMD’s new Zen3, winning some, losing some. And in the mobile space in particular, there doesn’t seem to be an equivalent in either ST or MT performance – at least within the same power budgets." This is the first in-depth review validating all the hype. Assuming the user experie…

That conclusion is quite misleading, in my opinion. They write "outperforms the core performance" and the keyword here is "core". What they mean is that if one had a single-core Zen3 and a single-core M1, then the M1 would win some and lose some. But in the real world, most Zen3 CPUs will have 2x or more cores, thus they'll be 2x to 4x faster. So what they mean to say is that they praise Apple for having amazing per-…

It bodes really well for future chips with higher power budgets. The Pro seems a bit underwhelming for what it could be though.

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

#67

Post by d3nj4l »

fxtentacle wrote: post #54
CapriciousCptl wrote: post #4

From the article's conclusion... "The M1 undisputedly outperforms the core performance of everything Intel has to offer, and battles it with AMD’s new Zen3, winning some, losing some. And in the mobile space in particular, there doesn’t seem to be an equivalent in either ST or MT performance – at least within the same power budgets." This is the first in-depth review validating all the hype. Assuming the user experie…

That conclusion is quite misleading, in my opinion. They write "outperforms the core performance" and the keyword here is "core". What they mean is that if one had a single-core Zen3 and a single-core M1, then the M1 would win some and lose some. But in the real world, most Zen3 CPUs will have 2x or more cores, thus they'll be 2x to 4x faster. So what they mean to say is that they praise Apple for having amazing per-…

I feel like most people here haven't seen the SPEC benchmarks AnandTech performed (and they're partly to blame for that; their UX is awful). But the M1 is toe-to-toe with desktop Ryzen: https://www.anandtech.com/show/16252/mac-mini-apple-m1-teste...

E: And multi-core SPEC: https://www.anandtech.com/show/16252/mac-mini-apple-m1-teste..., where they're on par with mobile Ryzen.

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

#68

Post by singemonkey »

Findeton wrote: post #62
GiorgioG wrote: post #38

I'm not buying into Apple's eventually-closed desktop computer systems - I don't care what the performance is. They've been slowly marching towards iOS's closed ecosystem model on the Mac and with an in-house CPU, they can effectively lock users out of alternate OS choices on their hardware. Buyer beware.

Exactly, I don't care whatever they do, I'm not buying into their closed garden of eden. I've already replaced Spotify with Funkwhale, and I'm using Linux, I'm not their target and I'll never be.

Appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day to let us know that.

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

#69

Post by HatchedLake721 »

vbezhenar wrote: post #3

Not very impressive considering 5nm process. But a good start. I expect impressive CPUs in the coming years with more cores and more TDP. Hopefully Mac Pro Mini rumours will be true. That will be strong candidate for my next computer.

Not very impressive a CPU at 7-8W power drain beats or just trails behind a desktop class $799 Ryzen 9 5950x at +49W consumption in single threaded performance?

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

#70

Post by gruez »

fxtentacle wrote: post #45
Deukhoofd wrote: post #37

Interesting that it is not able to outperform the Zen3 CPUs. I had expected it to do somewhat better, especially it being a 5nm processor, and with all the hype around ARM processors. I don't know how well it will hold up to its x86 competitors like this, especially once they launch their 5nm CPUs next year.

In multi-threaded mode - which is what Zen3 are optimized for - the M1 barely reaches 30% of the Zen's performance. I mean that's kind of expected if you compare a low-power CPU with fewer cores against an unlimited-cooling desktop monster with much more cores. The M1 will likely be an amazing laptop chip, but still unusable for demanding desktop work, e.g. CGI.

>I mean that's kind of expected if you compare a low-power CPU with fewer cores against an unlimited-cooling desktop monster with much more cores.

Are we looking at the same charts here? For cinebench multithreaded, the AMD 4xxx series CPUs are zen 2 parts with 15/35W TDP, hardly "unlimited-cooling desktop monster" like you described.

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