New Apple M1 range

digitalscream

Jez6345789 said:

As for the big beast machine is there really any reason why it can’t be designed with some sort of large ARM multi core that has the required hardware to access PCie hardware and the needs of the more advanced user. it won’t be an M1 but I have a gut feeling Apple once it has its bread and butter portable mobile devices up and running which is where it’s main revenue is will look to make the Flagship machine.

There's no reason this can't happen - there are plenty of ARM designs out there which have access to external PCIe lanes and tons of external memory; they're used in datacentres all over the place. I believe Facebook, Google and Amazon all use custom ARM hardware, and it stretches credibility to think they'd design those things without multiple 10GbE+ ports and modular RAM. The Ampere Altra, for example, has 128 PCIe lanes and 4TB of RAM per socket, and they're 80 core chips at 3GHz.

monquixote

Quite a bit of AWS runs on internally developed Graviton ARM processors and has resulted in a speedup in performance for certain workloads.

The only thing I haven't seen anyone do is a high end ARM workstation like a Mac Pro as that's quite a bit different to a server.

digitalscream

monquixote said:

Quite a bit of AWS runs on internally developed Graviton ARM processors and has resulted in a speedup in performance for certain workloads.

The only thing I haven't seen anyone do is a high end ARM workstation like a Mac Pro as that's quite a bit different to a server.

True...in terms of the chip, though, the architecture's not that different between servers and workstations. Most things are connected over the PCIe lanes anyway (the Ampere chip uses PCIe lanes for inter-socket communication, for example).

monquixote

The only thing that scares me about the new pro is that it's apparently much smaller.

That makes me worry they've regressed to thinking Darth Vader's Dustbin was a good design.

terada

https://www.macrumors.com/2020/11/16/m1-beats-geforce-gtx-1050-ti-and-radeon-rx-560/

I’m really intrigued to see these tested under sustained load. 

Axe_meister

terada said:

https://www.macrumors.com/2020/11/16/m1-beats-geforce-gtx-1050-ti-and-radeon-rx-560/

I’m really intrigued to see these tested under sustained load. 

As do the recent AMD APUs

WiresDreamDisasters

All I care about is how is ARM going to help audio processing and 3D modelling.

I can browse porn on my phone if I have to.

RaymondLin

Reviews are out now, and the claims by Apple stacks up.  In short, it seems by an large, the performance from the base model M1 is about on part as the 16" core i9.... It's single thread score beats all Intel Macs ever made according to MKBHD.  

All reviews have said that this is still Gen 1 so next one will always be better but overall, they are amazing and if you just want a laptop, just get it.

p.s. It also seems the MBA is the pick of the bunch, it takes about 10mins for the fan in the MBP to kick in so unless you are constantly exporting 4k video, performance will be the same.

monquixote

RaymondLin said:

Reviews are out now, and the claims by Apple stacks up.  In short, it seems by an large, the performance from the base model M1 is about on part as the 16" core i9.... It's single thread score beats all Intel Macs ever made according to MKBHD.  

All reviews have said that this is still Gen 1 so next one will always be better but overall, they are amazing and if you just want a laptop, just get it.

p.s. It also seems the MBA is the pick of the bunch, it takes about 10mins for the fan in the MBP to kick in so unless you are constantly exporting 4k video, performance will be the same.

Impressive.

I'd be more interested in the Air, but the comparison might not be quite fair as the MBP probably has the fan running low all the time and a bigger heatsink / vent.

monquixote

Ars Technica review: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/11/hands-on-with-the-apple-m1-a-seriously-fast-x86-competitor/

In addition to the eight CPU cores, the version of the M1 in the Mac mini has eight GPU cores, with a total of 128 Execution Units. Although it's extremely difficult to get accurate Apples-to-non-Apples benchmarks on this new architecture, I feel confident in saying that this truly is a world-leading design—you can get faster raw CPU performance, but only on power-is-no-object desktop or server CPUs. Similarly, you can beat the M1's GPU with high-end Nvidia or Radeon desktop cards—but only at a massive disparity in power, physical size, and heat.

RaymondLin

There are still apps that isn't supported and it seems Rosetta cost about 20% is speed.  Geekbench native vs Geekbench translated for example.  Even then, when it is through Rosetta the speed still beats the intel chips which is the amazing thing so when apps starts releasing native codes I would think you get a 20% speed bump.

But the best thing i think is for an average user, a travel laptop or a day to day laptop, review says it works great, battery life is amazing.  20hrs is not a lie (with Apple criteria inc brightness etc).  

I really want the MBA for travel, when travel is back on, I think that is the perfect laptop for that.

There is 1 downside, the part they said about you can run IOS apps, well you can but because iOS apps uses touch screen, you now have to adapt that with the touchpad so essentially they are crap and awkward to use.  This is a massive opening for them to release a touchscreen MBA so this can be utilised but then they need to protect the ipad sales so I guess we will see.

monquixote

They are releasing a new 14" MBP next year so I wonder if that will have a touch screen.

It seems archaic that they don't when my £500 Chromebook has one.

menamestom

I could be tempted for one of the Air's as my next  laptop.  When I got my Lenovo a few years ago it had a higher spec that MBP's but cost less than an air.  This changes things a little.

I would like to see the base models have 500gb SSD's but most entry level premiums still scrimp on storage.

menamestom

Also just seen a GPU comparison, the M1 is more capable that a GTX1050 TI, which has been great in the laptop I have, but does suffer from heat issues.  If they can get consistent performance without a dedicated GPU and associated thermal throttling in a small case, that's a big breakthrough.

I can keep the performance in mine acceptable, but only with fans underneath and on top keeping the temperature stable.

RaymondLin

menamestom said:

Also just seen a GPU comparison, the M1 is more capable that a GTX1050 TI, which has been great in the laptop I have, but does suffer from heat issues.  If they can get consistent performance without a dedicated GPU and associated thermal throttling in a small case, that's a big breakthrough.

I can keep the performance in mine acceptable, but only with fans underneath and on top keeping the temperature stable.

That’s the thing, the MBA is fanless with 18hr battery....

performance and battery, it’s the holy grail and it’s Gen 1.  I think this is a new breed of laptop, and the people who can afford the MBA, the casual users who doesn’t need a window machine, this will be amazing.

Edit, seeing these will be the worst Apple Silicon ever released, I’m pretty certain how I’m going to hold back getting a PC rig and wait for the iMac instead.  

guitarmangler

monquixote said:

They are releasing a new 14" MBP next year so I wonder if that will have a touch screen.

It seems archaic that they don't when my £500 Chromebook has one.

Seems likely, the new Mac OS has some iPad esque controls for volume etc. 

stratology

Reviews and benchmarks are starting to come in, looks like reviewers are blown away by performance - including graphics performance - and battery life across the board:

octatonic

Benchmarks are out.

I've just bought the top spec 13" MBP and will run it in parallel with my 2017 MBP.

RaymondLin

Tempted to get the MBA and add ram to 16G and 512SSD.  It will be fine for 5 years + for travel.

guitarmangler

octatonic said:

Benchmarks are out.

I've just bought the top spec 13" MBP and will run it in parallel with my 2017 MBP.

Noice. Do you use logic? If so, let us know how it gets on. All the reviews are using video as the benchmark (and everyone is saying its amazing), but no audio editing yet. I suspect it will be great. I might get an air, if it is.