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2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

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

#681

Post by Aperocky »

faitswulff wrote: post #498
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.

It's insane, I've been playing games where on the previous Macs it would go full jet engine, but now it doesn't even heat up.

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

#682

Post by dmix »

car wrote: post #617
paulpan wrote: post #586

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unsung hero here is TSMC and their industry-leading 5nm fabrication node. Apple deserves praise for its SOC architecture on the M1 and putting it together, but the manufacturing advantage is worth noting. Apple is essentially combining the tick (die/node shrink) and tock (microarchitecture) cadences together each year, at least the past 2-3 years. The question, perhaps a moot one, is how much the performance gains ca…

Worth mentioning is the insane and disruptive technology making TSMC's 5nm possible. ASML and it's suppliers have built a machine[1] that has a sci-fi feel to it. It took decades to get it all right, from the continous laser source to the projection optics for the extreme ultraviolet light[2]. This allowed photolithography to jump from 193nm light to 13.5nm, very close to x-rays. The CO2 laser powering the EUV light…

Thanks for the great links / resources. Those machines look insanely complicated. I can just imagine how they get shipped to Taiwan and elsewhere (they apparently cost $120M each in 2010 [1]).

A bit offtopic but I've always found it amusing that a form of lithography, of all things, is fundamentally powering our tech revolution for decades. Especially after a girl I knew learned lithography in an art class, watching her do it in a primitive form, which inspired me to read about it's history in art and professional uses (signage, etc).

That combined with vacuum tubes (which also rank high up there in the revolution thing) are the two things I one day wish to learn how they really work. Not just surface level nodding along.

[1] https://www.eetimes.com/euv-tool-costs-hit-120-million/

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

#683

Post by Aperocky »

SulfurHexaFluri wrote: post #583
stevehawk wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

will it? do people really spend that much time away from an outlet while on their laptop?

My school had a policy of no chargers at school due to safety regulations (Fires/tripping) so the macbook air made an excellent choice.

no charger at school but you're expected to use a computer to learn..

That's kind of weird.

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

#684

Post by et2o »

nickpeterson wrote: post #501
read_if_gay_ wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple markets this as a "Pro" device for professional video editing. That's why I believe it is fair to take their word and compare it against my other options for a professional video editing rig. That's ridiculous. Threadripper has 8 to 16 times as many cores, runs on hundreds of watts of power and such a CPU alone costs the same as several Mac Minis. Them claiming you can use it for video editing doesn't mean yo…

He knows it’s ridiculous, but you’re going to see a large group of people who hate macs take this turn of fortune quite poorly. My hope is that it really puts pressure on intel to start firing on all cylinders but who knows? A MacBook Pro 16 with higher clocks and more gpu cores would be a really hard system to not buy.

I wonder what is going on at Intel. A resurgent AMD has more or less surpassed them in COU offerings already, and now so has Apple. They have fallen so far. Can it just be institutional complacency? I don’t get it.

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

#685

Post by geerlingguy »

grovellogic wrote: post #316
molszanski wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best of both of worlds is: - active cooling - lack of a touchbar

I've been wondering if someone could make an active cooling dock for the Mac Book Air. I was even thinking the M1 wattage is low enough that you could have a thermoelectric cooler lowering case temp down to room temp.

Got $300 to spare? https://svalt.com/products/cooling-dock

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

#686

Post by et2o »

munificent wrote: post #342
xuki wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is the kind of company that will choose to slim down the laptop instead of making it 2 day battery life.

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…

It is really only charge my AirPods Pro every week or so. I much prefer having a bulkier case with battery I can forget about to a smaller case but more frequent need for charging.

It’s actually revolutionary for how I use a computing product. If i had to charge them everyday I assume they’d be dead 1/2 the time because it’s annoying to have yet another thing to plug in.

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

#688

Post by et2o »

ogre_codes wrote: post #548
xuki wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is the kind of company that will choose to slim down the laptop instead of making it 2 day battery life.

Apple just increased battery life on the MacBook Pro from ~12 hours to 20 hours and kept the form factor the same. Likewise the MacBook Air. Feedback from people using them suggests gains are even bigger for people who use them on battery under load.

But they decreased the batter size on the iPhone 12 due to power efficiency gains, so battery life is approximately the same unfortunately.

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

#689

Post by bobobob420 »

thekyle wrote: post #606
threeseed wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ive doesn't unilaterally decide how thin the laptop is. It's a joint decision made by Hardware Engineering, Product Management, Design, Operations etc. And frankly everyone wants thin laptops just with top tier performance which it looks like we will get.

I believe some of Apple's laptops have gotten thicker since Ive left. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/13/apple-is-finally-willing-to-...

lol I thought that said "since you have left"

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

#690

Post by arvinsim »

et2o wrote: post #679
ytch wrote: post #622

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has built many second-source partners for cost-reduction for a long time. But most of their CPUs are made by TSMC right now. I'm wondering will Apple find another semiconductor factory partner (they tried to build A9 by both Samsung and TSMC, but Samsung one seems like has heat issues)or stick with TSMC?

Wonder if Apple would buy TSMC

Taiwan would never let go of their golden goose.
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