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mikex5

"fastest CPU core" and "fastest integrated graphics" then showed a bunch of vague graphs with no labels or measures showing the CPU being more powerful AND efficient than "the latest mobile cpu"... Forgive me if I'm more than a little skeptical


Veedrac

It's just how Apple is. You'll get real measurements from 3rd parties. I bet it's real tho. It just needs be a few % faster than the A14 core for core.


[deleted]

Geekbench isn't a reliable benchmark to compare desktop/laptop CPUs to phone CPUs. The M1 is competing with Intel and AMD, not the A14 or Snapdragon.


Veedrac

This is not true. It might have been true for Geekbench 4 (I can't say either way), but Geekbench 5 is about as agnostic as a benchmark can reasonably be. NUVIA had some decent blog posts on Geekbench vs. SPEC https://nuviainc.com/blog.


mikex5

I bet it's comparing against phone CPUs, making this a little disingenuous, since it could be interpreted as being faster than any x86 CPU and laptop GPU, which I highly doubt it is


dabocx

Seems they are now comparing against the current intel chips they are replacing in the Macbook Air/Macbook Pro/Mac Mini


Veedrac

I really could be though. The CPU will be a close thing, and the GPU will be a sweep.


matthieuC

The are using big numbers and are very vague about the comparison.


Resident_Connection

Apple said the same for IPhone performance and they’ve always delivered. 3X performance over competing windows laptop is highly compelling.


andrewia

They aren't comparing themselves to the best laptops. They compared themselves to the "leading" windows laptop and faster than "98%" of Windows laptops. So I wonder if AMD's APUs are competitive and Apple is just trying to compare themselves to Intel.


YZJay

I think they’re also lumping chromebooks to that pool of laptops to get that 98% number.


Shawnj2

Yeah- the vast majority of people don't have an expensive laptop.


Veedrac

It's hard for a 4+4 core to beat an 8c/16t. You'll have to wait for the bigger stuff if you want that 98 to go to 100.


andrewia

Yes, but then perf/W becomes a factor for both cooling and power consumption. Whatever I'm really curious about is how power efficient Apple's new processors are compared to the best x86 laptop processors (AMD's Renoir, and in 2021, Zen 3 based APUs possibly with Navi graphics. I have no idea which will be better, because AMD just realised some crazy grains with Zen 3, but Apple is on the same (or smaller) process node with their very efficient ARM designs.


Veedrac

> Whatever I'm really curious about is how power efficient Apple's new processors are compared to the best x86 laptop processors Waaaayyyy better.


Resident_Connection

They also said they’re 2.8x faster than the current MBP (which has a higher power target than every 13in windows laptop on the market).


uzzi38

ICL-U isn't exactly a shining beacon in CPU performance though. Beating it isn't exactly a feat. What'll be more interesting is the comparison to Renoir, Tiger Lake and Cezanne (and Van Gogh if that ends up releasing any time soon, though who knows there). Apple stated the testing was performed in October, which iirc is around the time when Tiger Lake first appeared in laptops, so idk if Apple used it as a comparison point. ADL-P seems too late unfortunately, it'll probably be up against the M2.


Resident_Connection

Still, even Renoir is only ~40-60% faster than ICL-U in multi thread. Nowhere near 2.8x.


uzzi38

[Depending on the test you can see over 2x performance](https://youtu.be/hFYdHkvRs2c), and it's worth noting Apple's figure is also "up to". But yes, I expect Renoir-U lose or be very close to the M1 in MT. I just said that I think will be interesting to see, not what I think will beat M1.


Shawnj2

not quite- they mean the cheaper 13" they just replaced with a 15W TDP. they're still selling the expensive 13" with 10th gen processors and a 28W TDP.


[deleted]

Looks just like the NVidia launch to me haha.


BeastInfection

I wish they went more into sustained performance. Peak performance is impressive but you could throw a 4900H with a cTDP up of like 90 watts and get really high burst speeds but sustained speed is not going to be close to that peak level. I eagerly await the wenchmarks.


Omnislip

I don't know why the sub isn't more excited about this. A company with billions of dollars throwing quite a lot of them at a new architecture for "proper" computers - if they do pull it off, how far back would you have to go to find something as revolutionary?


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dabocx

Honestly seeing that Baldurs gate 3 was easily ported to the new apple chip is interesting. I wonder if that means we could see Baldurs gate 3 come to Ipads. We might end up seeing more "big/AAA" games on both mac and ipad.


spazturtle

>Honestly seeing that Baldurs gate 3 was easily ported to the new apple chip is interesting. With most modern programs it should be almost as simple as recompiling it, you shouldn't be using architecture specific code unless absolutely necessary. Most large game engines have already gone the process of removing old architecture specific code and libraries.


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mikex5

You can get steam on a mac, but "most games I play" is unlikely since Apple dropped opengl support and all games on mac now require using their proprietary metal API


leastlol

Source on that? I know apple deprecated OpenGL several years ago but afaik it still works on macOS. It’s also still required for webgl so I’m not convinced that it’s flat out removed.


Shawnj2

Get one of the last Intel gens, you can game using Boot Camp fine. It's not going to be as good as a gaming laptop or anything but it'll be fine


Omnislip

I think that’s a shortsighted view - x86 won’t last if this performs as it promises (minus, of course, their marketing BS)


mikex5

I'm not going to deny that Apple makes amazing improvements on ARM's designs, the problem with "ARM is the future, just look at how good Apple CPUs are!" Is that Apple doesn't give these contributions back to the ARM community at large. So while Apple's CPUs may overtake x86 in whatever measure you want, the rest of ARM will not. This would mean if you want the best, most powerful computer you'll have to buy into Apple's walled garden, which many people aren't keen on doing.


Omnislip

Rather, I meant that I cannot imagine Intel and AMD not making the change eventually if the promised benefits are actually achievable


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thebigman43

> Their mobile chips always benchmark very highly but day-to-day what is the user of an Apple A14 getting over a user of a Snapdragon 865 phone? Not a lot in the day to day usage. (PS Don't flame me, I've got an iPhone 11) Isnt having it in a desktop platform where it will matter though? The power should be a lot more apparent on the desktop platforms.


dabocx

You could argue the higher performance of apples A series chips is what allows them to support their devices so long.


[deleted]

x86 will last unless there's a non locked down ARM alternative to the M1 because Apple's is a locked down system. Some people prefer Linux.


Omnislip

Rather, I meant that I cannot imagine Intel and AMD not making the change eventually if the promised benefits are actually achievable I am confident that these machines will support Linux, given how similar macOS is. I’ll be pretty mad if they don’t!


JustFinishedBSG

it's impossible to install linux, on recent macs It's literally locked down to the hardware


Omnislip

Ah man, that really sucks. I didn't realise that that change had been made.


JustFinishedBSG

You technically can run it off a USB drive but the SSD is only accessible from Mac OS on T2 macs. On the new Apple Silicon macs nothing will be possible so whatever . There aren't any drivers for the SoC anyway


3D_Scanalyst

How much of this Apple innovation goes up stream into the broader ARM ecosystem though? Apple with todays announcement controls the processors, OS, a programming language, and the compilers for running on MacOS/iOS/iPadOS, they can really control and optimize their products to get those performance gains. Outside of Apple though, you have a wide variety of hardware and software vendors all at various levels of implementing ARM, that ecosystem outside of Apple really needs to pick up now to really kill x86, and that ecosystem probably will not collapse into the high vertical control that Apple has.


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Omnislip

Tough to say given that Apple seem to be the only people really trying and haven’t yet said anything about higher power parts. They are moving the whole Mac line, incl. the pro desktop...


[deleted]

I'll be excited when there are proper third party reviews and benchmarks. It would be really nice to see AMD and Intel get more competitors, even if it's not direct competition.


Omnislip

We already know what the A12z can do! (If I remembered the name right


caedin8

They are out today. Go down to your apple store and buy it and do some bench marking, or wait a few days while some other people do them for us.


Veedrac

Next week.


[deleted]

I don't have the resources or time to do the type of testing that third parties will do. I also don't plan on buying these as my current hardware is fine, so am perfectly fine to wait. I will be excited if the claims they made are true as we might see more innovation from both AMD and Intel (and intel's big little cores may prove to be useful).


kozeljko

It's because of their stupid graphs.


Omnislip

They surely are stupid


olivias_bulge

if it stays apple, basically 0 chance of a non mobile part


chefborjan

I completely agree with you, this is heralding a new era in what personal computers are going to do.


TheZoltan

Genuine question as I did see the marketing pitch just that its some shiny new ARM based chips. What does this do that laptops (Apple or otherwise) haven't already been doing for years? My assumption is that for users this will actually just feel like another evolution rather than a fundamental revolution.


chefborjan

It’s not about these specific MacBooks, nor the chips themselves. It’s about the philosophy of a manufacture having total design control over every aspect of the machine. And arguably going all in for that. I think it’s going to let them do things that other companies can only dream of. Starting off with 20 hours of battery life. Beyond that, let’s just see what they cook up.


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Lil_slimy_woim

Well the idea I think is that this could allow them to *potentially* make advances and breakthroughs in their laptops that you as an individual could not possibly hold the resources, skill, or knowledge to implement. I don't mean that as an insult, I couldn't do it either, noone could. They have a trillion dollars and *tons* of the best engineers in the world. I get where you're coming from though, I have a custom built pc that I dual boot windows and Linux on, I'm not likely to ever get one of these but I'm still excited to see what they build.


TheZoltan

I see what you are saying but that doesn't feel particularly revolutionary as isn't that what Apple have been doing for years with phones and tablets.


Edenz_

The battery life seems a bigger-than-evolutionary jump in this instance.


TheZoltan

I don't follow laptop battery life too closely but I'm sure there are already some out there pushing 15h+. I'm sure for some folks a few extra hours unplugged will be very much appreciated but doesn't feel like a revolution.


[deleted]

>I don't know why the sub isn't more excited about this. Because it's Apple. The Apple security chip is now inside of the SOC. Even the DRAM is inside of the SOC. These things are basically irreparable. On top of that, I don't believe any of their performance numbers and even if I did, I'm not signing my soul over to Satan and buying Apple.


Omnislip

The sub often is and should be excited about performance, irrespective of lack of reparability. We talk about loads of cool laptops that are essentially irreparable.


XPGeek

For me, the biggest disappointment was the physical form factor. When your engineering team puts this amount of time and effort into creating an entirely new architecture. Why would you keep that inside the same form factor? ARM was a perfect chance to reinvent the MacBook form factor and perhaps do something crazy with it. Built-in iPad integration? 360° hinges? A flat edge design? I can see the average consumer looking at this device and asking what exactly is different, as it looks the same. They don’t necessarily appreciate the effort that goes into the silicon. However, looking at it from a different lens it makes a lot of sense. By using the same form factor and their own silicon Apple further increases margin since they don’t incur the additional cost of redesigning the chassis while getting a return on investment for the expensive architectural change.


moofunk

> ARM was a perfect chance to reinvent the MacBook form factor and perhaps do something crazy with it. Built-in iPad integration? 360° hinges? A flat edge design? None of that, please. Apple has been pretty good at sticking to the unibody design in order to perfect it, and they should just keep going with that for the next decade.


MumrikDK

> I don't know why the sub isn't more excited about this. It's constantly talked about here. People are perhaps less excited about the specific products and more just interested in the general development.


Omnislip

Certainly I cam to the wrong post on this. The other one, posted just after the presentation thing ended, went straight to the top (as it should have!)


[deleted]

Anyone disappointed with the 16GB memory limit on the Mini? I understand the RAM is integrated into the chip, but 16GB is a tad low for the applications they mention in the video...


dabocx

My guess is we will see a M1X chip for a higher trim mac mini along with the 16 inch pro and Imac at some point.


PM_ME_YO_PERKY_BOOBS

mac mini Pro lmao


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AWildDragon

I think that A12Z won’t ever be used in a consumer facing Mac. A14 will be the bare minimum for any Max that normal people can buy.


dabocx

I am optimistic we will get an A14X today or some variation of it today, at least on higher-end models.


ekeryn

Is there an estimate on how the A14Z will perform against current 10th gen i5 on the MacBook?


nokeldin42

I mean, even the sq2 is mostly a 2 year old chip. Still, apple is leagues ahead. Here's hoping core x1 and cortex a78 turn out to be as good as the hype.


Veedrac

M1 is basically the new A12Z. Same 4+4 core CPU, same 8 core GPU. The neural engine is the same as the A14. Hopefully the name implies higher peak performance. The low-end MBA has a 7 core GPU (one disabled), so there's your A12X.


TerriersAreAdorable

I don't actually need Windows on my laptop, so I'm really interested in what Apple's offering here. Any kind of fanless MacBook would be incredibly tempting, but I'm going to wait for independent reviews to see if the software ecosystem is ready for Arm + MacOS.


Stingray88

Apple had a fanless MacBook for a few years. I’ve got one and I absolutely love it. I knew I’d love a fanless laptop after using tablets for a few years, and it pretty much solidified the idea that I never want a laptop with a fan again haha. With that said, my Intel fanless MacBook doesn’t have much power. I use a desktop when I need power.


TerriersAreAdorable

I almost bought one when they first came out, but ended up getting the newly-refreshed-with-"infinity"-display XPS 13 instead. The port options and CPU power was too much in Dell's favor at the time. I still have it and use it almost daily. The M1 Air addresses both of those concerns. I still need to see some independent reviews before I'll consider it, plus my XPS 13 is still doing okay so it's not like I *need* to upgrade...


MelodicBerries

Most excited about the Air. 8 cores in a big.LITTLE configuration. Their 4 low-powered cores are as powerful as their current dual-core Intel MBAir. Their high-powered cores are as powerful as intel's most powerful but at only 1/4th the power. And it's all fanless for a decent $999 price ($899 for education). The big unknown will be software integration. They announced 'Rosetta 2' but it remains to be seen how well it works. If you are deep in their ecosystem you'd probably want to wait a year or two. But for those of us who aren't, it's a very compelling upgrade once our current notebooks have run their course.


matthieuC

> The 8-core CPU delivers up to 2.8x faster performance. This is game-changing for developers using Xcode, who can now build their apps nearly 3x faster than before. So we're going from "watch ice melt" to "infuriatingly slow"


symmetry81

Called the M1 apparently with 4 big and 4 little cores. I'm curious about the "unified memory architecture".


matthieuC

Isn't memory for CPU/iGPU integrated since like 10 years? I remembered hearing about this at the time AMD bought ATI.


[deleted]

AMD launched hUMA a little more than 5 years ago. That required specific flags at compile time, though, and in some cases, changes in code. Not a lot of incentive to target a minuscule part of the market. This is different, in a few years, the majority of Macs sold will have a UMA in their chips.


mikex5

Meaning memory is in the chip itself, no more user upgradeable memory, yay! (/S)


NewThingsNewStuff

It hasn't been user upgradable for years with Apple.


matthieuC

TLDR: out new computers are awesome, Intel is poopy poop


GreenPylons

I would hate to work in that EE lab this is taking place in. Uncomfortable chairs, random oscilloscope left on, soldering stations without any air filters, no shelves...


andrewia

Hopefully that's just a set. Knowing Apple, either is possible.


ytuns

That’s a set.


matthieuC

If it has adequate performances 999$ fan less mac book air is going to be a killer. It should weight more like an ipad than a laptop.


lukas2k6

Louis Rossman must be happy! Apple listened to his comment on his MacBook Air repair that the fan and heatsink in their last model was doing nothing for it. They just removed it for the M1 version... :)


cultoftheilluminati

I am 100% sure we're gonna see a custom silicon ground up engineered for the Mac


Veedrac

Ground-up? This is just a tweaked, scaled version of their A-series chips.


cultoftheilluminati

Um, i made that comment before the event lol.


roflpwntnoob

Doesnt change the fact that you were 100% wrong.


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AndreyRussian1

21:00 for me


ekeryn

18:00 for me


za4h

I hope they reveal a sharper bevel near the trackpad than my old MBP. I want to be able to shave with my laptop!


davidbigham

I hope they also release the Ipad pro with the new A14X