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Topic Title: Apple's new M1 silicon
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Created On: 12/02/2020 06:34 AM
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 12/02/2020 06:34 AM
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dingpatch

Posts: 19032
Joined Forum: 07/24/2003

Ya, ya, I know, we always want to revert to the age old "Mac versus Intel" debate but, , , ,

The M1 is something completely new and, perhaps, Groundbreaking. Not really "new" but, certainly new in a "desktop" machine.

Plenty of benchmarks showing just how fast the M1 is, etc. It probably really is better/faster that 90+ percent of the "PC" market.

But, the one, main and usual, complaint from Joe Public is that they don't want to buy one until all the "bugs" are worked out with the new "processor". Sure, that is usually a pretty good point But, , , ,

The "M1" is not "new"; it is the 11th or 14th (I'm not sure) generation of the same ARM family of processors that Apple has used since the introduction of the iPhone 4! Now, if Intel came out and said that they were dumping the old "X86" chip architecture and going with a new design, that would be new and otherwise worthy of some hesitancy to buy.

I'll keep you posted as best as I can; my ex-neighbor is a Real Live computer geek and he just got the M1 Mac Mini. He interned on the original Sperry Univac (the workstation he used is the very one that is on display at the Smithsonian).

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Edited: 12/02/2020 at 10:37 AM by dingpatch
 12/02/2020 07:29 AM
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Central Floridave

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My wife (santa) got me a new macbook pro for christmas. I haven't gotten it yet but looking forward to it. I'm still using my 2012 macbook pro and still works and is very fast. I guess I'm getting an upgrade finally! I think it is still intel cpu though.
 12/02/2020 08:33 AM
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dingpatch

Posts: 19032
Joined Forum: 07/24/2003

Ya, the 16 inch MacBook Pro is still Intel. The "new" 13 incher is M1.

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Edited: 12/02/2020 at 08:35 AM by dingpatch
 12/02/2020 08:41 AM
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dingpatch

Posts: 19032
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And remember, Apple gives a 10% discount to Military and Vets, even on Apple Care and refurbs.

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 12/02/2020 09:46 AM
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CurtisEflush

Posts: 841
Joined Forum: 09/28/2012

Silicon, not silicone, but yeah...

68000 -> Power PC -> x86 -> ARM + dedicated coprocessors = ballsy move.

They've revived the Rosetta emulation software to Rosetta2 with capability of emulating x86 code very well:

Benchmark

The new Rosetta 2 Geekbench results uploaded show that the ?M1? chip running on a MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM has single-core and multi-core scores of 1,313 and 5,888 respectively. Since this version of Geekbench is running through Apple's translation layer Rosetta 2, an impact on performance is to be expected. Rosetta 2 running x86 code appears to be achieving 78%-79% of the performance of native Apple Silicon code.

Despite the impact on performance, the single-core Rosetta 2 score results still outperforms any other Intel Mac, including the 2020 27-inch iMac with Intel Core i9-10910 @ 3.6GHz.


 12/03/2020 01:09 PM
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dingpatch

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"Official" rumors are dropping in regard to next years "M1X". 12 cores; 8 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores. Looks to be going into the iMac Pro line.

"If you think the M1 is fast, you have not seen the M1X!"

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Edited: 12/03/2020 at 02:30 PM by dingpatch
 12/03/2020 01:31 PM
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CurtisEflush

Posts: 841
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They're gonna have to address the memory expansion issue. Current ones are limited to 8 GB and 16 GB, not supporting expansion (yet).

It appears they've packed all that memory onto the same chip as the processor to get their "uniform" memory profile. When/if they go off-chip, it won't be "uniform" anymore.

I'd love the faster processor, but I'm well past 16 GB most days. Might get a mini just to play with. Nice that they can actually run iPhone/iPad apps (natively) now.

 12/10/2020 12:17 PM
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dingpatch

Posts: 19032
Joined Forum: 07/24/2003

The M1's have been getting very good reviews, especially in regard to their speed.

What's funny is that a few PC Fan Boys have brought forth that the M1's are only as fast, or slower, than the top-of-the-line "XYC123 Intel laptop", etc. Well sure, maybe so. BUT, the XYC123 Intel laptops they reference are in fact in the top 2% of Intel performance. BUT, the PC Fan Boys get pretty upset when they are reminded that the new Apple M1 devices are the new "normal" in regard to Mac performance, across the board, so that 98% of the new Macs are just as fast as the top 2% of the Intel PC world.

One reviewer was saying that Intel knew what was coming in regard to Apple's "AMD" efforts and they just sat on their hands, but now, Intel is sitting on the floor wondering what to do. The X86 product line has just about hit the end of it's rope.

The "speed" of the M1's is one thing but, their very low power consumption is a whole other Ball Game. There are reviews where the "old" Intel MacBook Pro has runn a bunch of apps and routines, etc, and ends up with 5% battery left, while the M1 has run all of the same stuff and has 67% battery left!

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Dora Hates You
 12/14/2020 04:23 PM
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Central Floridave

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I got my new macbook today. Am I bummed I should have waited for the M1? Ask me in a few months. I'll still have my macbook 2012 running until I figure this new one out. Updating to Big Sur now.
 12/16/2020 04:54 AM
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Central Floridave

Posts: 52249
Joined Forum: 07/22/2003

Strike One against new macbook...no built in SD chip reader. I use a SD chip everyday. 40 buck adapter. Ah, gonna nickel and dime me and now i gotta carry an adapter with me everywhere. I remember hearing the gripes about it when Apple did away with it. Still using my 2012 macbook...

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