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Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

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Re: Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

#781

Post by jccalhoun »

zdw wrote: post #274

AMD's Zen 3 (Ryzen 5xxx series) are beating the Apple M1 in single core score: https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/singlecore As another datapoint Ian (of Anandtech) estimated that the M1 would need to be clocked at 3.25Ghz to match Zen 3, and these systems are showing a 3.2Ghz clock: https://twitter.com/IanCutress/status/1326516048309460992

Agreed. People are acting like this is some kind of record breaking performance when it isn't. It is impressive that the m1 chips can do it without a fan which shows that they do have a lot of headroom which is a sign of where things may go in the future.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

#783

Post by [deleted] »

satysin wrote: post #779
chungus_khan wrote: post #768

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not really true. Every modern Intel, AMD, and Nvidia GPU does actually include hardware to accelerate encoding video, it's just that software solutions end up being preferred in a lot of cases because they produce better output and can be continually improved. A large body of encoding software is however, perfectly capable of taking advantage of them. The comparison is kind of silly.

> The comparison is kind of silly. I disagree. Sure we have things like NVENC for accelerated H.265 encoding but that is an additional hardware expense and means only the machines you have that hardware in benefits. This will literally be all Macs from a $699 Mini and up. I don't know enough about Intel QuickSync to compare but it clearly isn't used on the iMac in that video for some reason (perhaps the software does…

[deleted]

Re: Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

#784

Post by eertami »

blunte wrote: post #702
Tepix wrote: post #592

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Macbook Air with 16GB RAM and 512GB isn't really priced competitively here in Germany. It's almost 1600€.

It's not trying to compete with German PCs (which have some nice options, but yet are Windows PCs, not Macs). I'm not an Apple fanboy, and I'm still very displeased with many of their decisions (touchbar being #1 on MBPs). But if you consider the packaging (small, light, sturdy, now-decent keyboard), and consider their performance, and then consider macOS, I think they are more than competitive. Even if you match eve…

>macOS is free

Oh wow, that's cool, I didn't know that. Do you have a link to where I can download the free edition of macOS? Google doesn't seem to be helping me.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

#785

Post by Aeolun »

satysin wrote: post #750

This is very interesting and in line with Apple's claims. I am looking forward to some real world numbers for different tasks in the next few weeks and months as native apps become available. Jonathan Morrison posted a video [0] comparing a 10-core Intel i9 2020 5K iMac with 64GB RAM against an iPhone 12 Mini for 10-bit H.265 HDR video exporting and the iPhone destroyed the iMac exporting the same video, to allegedly…

> This is the most excited I have been for general purpose computer performance gains in about a decade.

I think I would be excited if it were not built by Apple. That functionally means it’s only going to be in Apple products at a 300% markup.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

#786

Post by ralfd »

Reason077 wrote: post #703
moondev wrote: post #682

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would anyone (who is not forced) buy an Intel PC laptop when these are available and priced as competitive as they are? - locked bootloader - no bootcamp - can't install or boot linux or windows - virtualization limited to arm64 machines - no windows x86 or linux x86 virtual machines - only 2 thunderbolt ports - limited to 16GB RAM - no external gpu support/drivers - can't use nvidia or amd cards - no AAA gamin…

> "no AAA gaming" This is, arguably, a disadvantage of any Mac. But Apple Silicon may actually improve the situation over time, as having the same GPUs and APIs on Macs and iOS devices means there is now a much bigger market for game developers to target with the same codebase.

I agree. It is not without danger, the same as with Apps actually, that developers target only the iPad (touch interface) and don't care about optimizing for the Mac experience.

But on the whole I am optimistic.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

#787

Post by imtringued »

totalZero wrote: post #433
robertoandred wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say “still” as if Apple silicon Macs are more than a day old.

Developers were able to start working on Apple Silicon software several months ago. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/06/apple-announces-mac-t...

The DTK doesn't support virtualization. The final product might.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

#788

Post by enragedcacti »

blunte wrote: post #702
Tepix wrote: post #592

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Macbook Air with 16GB RAM and 512GB isn't really priced competitively here in Germany. It's almost 1600€.

It's not trying to compete with German PCs (which have some nice options, but yet are Windows PCs, not Macs). I'm not an Apple fanboy, and I'm still very displeased with many of their decisions (touchbar being #1 on MBPs). But if you consider the packaging (small, light, sturdy, now-decent keyboard), and consider their performance, and then consider macOS, I think they are more than competitive. Even if you match eve…

> macOS is free while Windows is not

what laptop are you buying where you need to purchase a Windows license?

Re: Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

#789

Post by danmaz74 »

satysin wrote: post #760
joefourier wrote: post #753

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your h265 example is due to the iPhone having a dedicated HW encoder while the iMac was rendering using the CPU. A hardware video encoder is almost always going to be faster and more power efficient than a CPU-based one by definition. However, a CPU encoder offers more flexibility and the possibility of being continually improved to offer better compression ratios. Generally, HW encoders offer worse quality at smalle…

Yes but that is kind of the point. Going forward all Apple Silicon machines will have this kind of hardware baked into the SoC at no extra cost whereas no Intel system (be it PC or Mac) will. That is a big deal as it means Adobe, Sony, BlackMagic, etc. will be able to optimise to levels impossible to do elsewhere. If that 8x speed up scales linearly to large video projects you would have to have a Mount Everest sized…

Specialised silicon is always going to be more efficient than general purpose silicon, but you lose in flexibility. Don't expect this kind of performance gains across the board.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

#790

Post by blunte »

fluffything wrote: post #755
blunte wrote: post #702

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not trying to compete with German PCs (which have some nice options, but yet are Windows PCs, not Macs). I'm not an Apple fanboy, and I'm still very displeased with many of their decisions (touchbar being #1 on MBPs). But if you consider the packaging (small, light, sturdy, now-decent keyboard), and consider their performance, and then consider macOS, I think they are more than competitive. Even if you match eve…

I have a MacBook Air 2012, and have been waiting to upgrade for... 2 years already. The laptop will probably end up being 10 years old by the time I upgrade... - crappy webcam, - no built-in SD card reader (a 1TB SD card is ~200$, and my music does not need to be stored on an expensive SSD) - magsafe.. if this was the only downgrade, I'd upgrade, but TBH I love magsafe on my mac and I would miss it if I upgrade.

Eliminating MagSafe for power ports was one of the Apple choices I hated. So many times something has happened and ripped my power cable off my 2014 MBP, and MagSafe saved the laptop from damage or a fall. And worse, Apple has now applied new and different meaning to the same name :(.
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