4 ms·

While it's true optimizing the software could increase render times, the fact that the CPU does run regularly below the base clock with heavy workloads (ie: thr

While it's true optimizing the software could increase render times, the fact that the CPU does run regularly below the base clock with heavy workloads (ie: throttles) remains true. I know everyone likes to bash Apple at every opportunity but stating the fact that the i9 model throttles is _not_ inflammatory. The better question is, how much does it matter? The machine still has 6-cores. MKBHD was still noticing a 15% performance increase (vs. last gen) without new, updated builds of Final cut etc.

simcop2387 8y ago
Exactly, and that's why the freezer test mentioned in the article the grandparent linked to was done. To try to get an idea of how much the throttling was affecting.
- Jnr 8y ago
  It doesn't matter if it is faster until it starts throttling. i9 is intended for pros who need that CPU power for longer periods of time. And if the issue appears after a minute of usage and performance becomes worse than i7 (as shown in initial Dave's video), then it's a bad product (Macbook, because of not being able to cool it, not the i9 itself). And benchmarks should be changed to run for longer time periods or else it's not showing actual performance indication.
  - matthewmacleod 8y ago
    It doesn't matter if it is faster until it starts throttling. i9 is intended for pros who need that CPU power for longer periods of time What's the evidence for this? I'd love a faster multi-core processor, but only to accelerate tasks which complete in a relatively small amount of time already.
    - simcop2387 8y ago
      Intel's own marketing talks about it being used by these kinds of people https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-core-i9-processor-comes-mobile-best-gaming-creation-laptop-processor-intel-ever-built/ https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-core-i9-processor-come...
  - seabrookmx 8y ago
    The optimization argument is that even after throttling, if the software was optimized for the 6core machines it would no longer be slower than the i7 after one minute. But that's yet to be seen. As of this moment in time you're correct.. buying the i9 model makes zero sense.
threeseed 8y ago
This doesn't get posted enough. But the issue seems to be that Apple favours a quieter and cooler machine over performance. As such they run the fans a lot slower and later than they could. So if you manually adjust the fan speeds (plenty of apps that do this) you can get significantly (10-15%) better performance.

simcop2387 8y ago

Exactly, and that's why the freezer test mentioned in the article the grandparent linked to was done. To try to get an idea of how much the throttling was affecting.

Jnr 8y ago
It doesn't matter if it is faster until it starts throttling. i9 is intended for pros who need that CPU power for longer periods of time. And if the issue appears after a minute of usage and performance becomes worse than i7 (as shown in initial Dave's video), then it's a bad product (Macbook, because of not being able to cool it, not the i9 itself). And benchmarks should be changed to run for longer time periods or else it's not showing actual performance indication.
- matthewmacleod 8y ago
  It doesn't matter if it is faster until it starts throttling. i9 is intended for pros who need that CPU power for longer periods of time What's the evidence for this? I'd love a faster multi-core processor, but only to accelerate tasks which complete in a relatively small amount of time already.
  - simcop2387 8y ago
    Intel's own marketing talks about it being used by these kinds of people https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-core-i9-processor-comes-mobile-best-gaming-creation-laptop-processor-intel-ever-built/ https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-core-i9-processor-come...
- seabrookmx 8y ago
  The optimization argument is that even after throttling, if the software was optimized for the 6core machines it would no longer be slower than the i7 after one minute. But that's yet to be seen. As of this moment in time you're correct.. buying the i9 model makes zero sense.

threeseed 8y ago

This doesn't get posted enough. But the issue seems to be that Apple favours a quieter and cooler machine over performance. As such they run the fans a lot slower and later than they could. So if you manually adjust the fan speeds (plenty of apps that do this) you can get significantly (10-15%) better performance.