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Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

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Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#821
post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal opinion, no insider info I think it's a good CPU, but I don't think it'll be a great CPU. Judging by how heavily they leaned on the efficiency, I am pretty sure that it will be just good enough to not be noticeable to most Mac users. Can't wait to see actual benchmarks, these are interesting times.

You skipped the keynote parts where they say faster 2x, 4x, 8x... and they say faster than every other laptop CPU and faster than 98% of laptops/PCs in their class sold last year? They said it several times. But I agree... let's wait for the benchmarks (btw. iPads already overturns nearly all laptop CPUs)

Never rely on first party claims. Always wait for 3rd party benchmarks.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#822

The pricing is pretty impressive. Shame no 16 inch pro though. Surely they need to update that quick because who is going to want a 16 inch intel Mac now?

After seeing how big a downgrade these machines are over their intel counterparts (16 GB max RAM, max 2x thunderbolt, max 1 external display on the laptops, no 10 GbE on the mini), I'd absolutely buy an Intel machine now to tide me over until Apple can catch up in a generation or two

I'm also disappointed by 16g when my current laptop has 64g. However, Apple mobile devices have a history of being way underpowered on RAM specs and outperforming in real usage.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#823

Wait, they pulled out the FAN?

For sure this was expected, but the fan was actually pulled out in the 12" MacBook 2015 edition (dual-core Intel Core M processor). https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/176391/which-macbook-doesnt-have-any-fans/176393

I was hoping they'd bring this form factor back with the ARM chips, it was one of my favorite machines.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#824

I'm totally underwhelmed but maybe if they really are extremely fast I'd consider one. I guess we'll have to wait for the pro machines next year.

Same. Specs are underwhelming, but performance may be better than expected.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#825

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If every model had the 16 GB I'd say it's a really good feature set for ordinary consumers but a new MacBook Pro having 8 GB of shared memory seems quite limiting even just for ordinary browsing. It's a great step but I think the 2nd gen of this is going to be what knocks it out of the park.

Seems like Apple is relying on MacOS's (arguably good) memory compression and fast ssd swap performance to get high margins from the 8gb ram while still not cripping regular users' light workloads.

I definitely feel like that's the case. I'm still on an 8GB 2015 MBP and it still works pretty well for multiple windows of Chrome + VSCode + node servers + spotify etc even at 1-4GB swap. The only thing that really bothers me is 4k performance and not being able to run multiple Docker containers (especially ones that needs a lot of RAM).

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#828
post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While compute performance and power efficiency seems to be really good, the M1 chip is apparently limited to 16GB RAM, 2TB storage and 2 Thunderbolt/USB4 controllers. In other words, M1 is for the majority of consumers. - power efficiency - 16GB RAM - 2TB storage - 2 Thunderbolt/USB4 That looks like a really good feature set for ordinary consumers. My guess is that there's going to be 2 "Pro" variants for a high powe…

Lets be honest - Apple has not really expanded its share of PC/Laptop market in a long time. Ordinary consumers are not going to care about this, especially with the Apple premium tacked on. I think combined it runs 10% +/- year to year variation.

Be interesting to see what market share actually is now.

Tim said at the beginning that 50% of Mac buyers were buying their first Mac. Apple’s quarter that just concluded at the end of Oct was massive for the Mac. $7.1B which is a 22% YoY growth. And 50% of those macs went to first time Mac buyers. That is insane growth in new users for a 36 year old product

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#830
post #601

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They only launched their lower performance machines today. Air, mini, two port Pro. So that’s the context to interpret the Ram they offer.

The context is the Mac Mini previously supported 64GB of RAM. In fact it was a pretty powerful machine, with options for a six core i7, 10Gb Ethernet, and as I said 64GB RAM. Now it's neutered with GigE and 16GB RAM, despite having much better CPU and GPU performance.

You can still buy an Intel iMac Mini with 64GB RAM and 10GB ethernet. If you don’t like the M1 mini, buy the Intel one.
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