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Not the Mac mini but I bought the M1 MacBook Air (with 8-core GPU and 16GB RAM). I watched the unveiling of the new M1 Macs live and was so impressed I brought
by lastofthemojito 6y ago
Not the Mac mini but I bought the M1 MacBook Air (with 8-core GPU and 16GB RAM).
I watched the unveiling of the new M1 Macs live and was so impressed I brought up the Apple Store immediately afterwards to buy one ... until I saw the 16GB memory limit, then I decided to wait until whatever comes next.
A couple of weeks later my wife crunched her laptop screen, so (after seeing tons of glowing reviews in the meantime) I decided what the hell, I'll buy one of these M1 things and give her my 2014 MacBook Pro.
I'm generally doing everything "server-y" or "Linux-y" on AWS these days anyhow, so my laptop usage has actually become less demanding over the past few years. I've read that Docker support is coming along, but I haven't bothered trying that locally (and probably hadn't used Docker on my previous Mac in over a year). So yeah, for me usage is generally Firefox and/or Safari and/or Chrome with dozens of tabs, Terminal windows, AWS Workspaces client and Messages app. Everything flies, as you'd expect.
I got a cheap Choetech USB-C dock from Amazon to do HDMI, Ethernet and USB-A, and that worked for a couple of weeks until it flaked out and the dock's USB ports stopped working. Now I'm stuck on the laptop screen until the new Thunderbolt dock I ordered arrives tomorrow (and hopefully works more reliably). But while I had them connected, the Mac seemed to have no problem driving my 4K monitor - my old MacBook Pro could do 4K at 30hz and it felt like it was struggling - this machine makes it feel like a breeze as I bounce between workspaces and apps.
In the 5 weeks I've been using the machine I have had 2 random-seeming hard crashes - the screen went purple for a moment and then the laptop turned off. When it restarted, it wanted to report a kernel panic to Apple. Not sure of the cause of the issue and haven't been able to replicate on demand.
So far I like the machine and am happy with it - it makes my (admittedly pedestrian) workflow feel much snappier, although I would have also been OK waiting for something even better if I didn't suddenly need to buy another laptop for the household.
- jherdman 6y agoI'm more or less in the same boat, but haven't made the plunge on an M1 device. I farmed out all of my development work to a NUC, interestingly because the current Macbook Pro line is so bloody awful. I have a 13" MBP it's by far the worst machine I've owned since my last Windows machine (a Dell the better part of 15 years ago). I'm going to wait and see how the MBP line turns out, but I'm nearly at the point where I'm ready to jump ship and just deal with the pain of Linux.
- mey 6y agoEdit: My understanding is WRONG, the RAM is separate but on the same package, not on the die. The very nature of the chip package (RAM in the SOC) limits how much more RAM they can package. It increases the cost per chip because it significantly decreases the yield per wafer of the monolithic chip. I will be really curious if they can get much more RAM onto a M1 chip without charging astronomical prices (even by Apple standards). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgvVXGWJSiE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgvVXGWJSiE Talks about this in detail of chiplet vs monolithic chips in the AMD context back in the Zen 2 days.
- localhost 6y agoPretty sure that the RAM is not part of the same wafer, i.e., the RAM is a chiplet that is subsequently integrated into the SOC. So yield shouldn’t be an issue here.
- mey 6y agoHuh, you are correct! https://www.apple.com/mac/m1/ https://www.apple.com/mac/m1/
- zamadatix 6y agoI wonder if for the larger use cases they'll target a hybrid approach, similar to what Broadwell did but from the reverse perspective.
- myelin 6y agoNot super useful for you now that you have the new machine, but if your old MBP is the Mid-2014 15" model, it can drive up to two 4K displays at 60Hz, but only over DisplayPort. I have the same laptop and recently upgraded to a pair of 4K displays, and to get 60Hz I had to use mini-DP-to-DP cables rather than HDMI.
- martinald 6y agoOut of interest; what dock are you using with it? I just want something that outputs HDMI 4K@60Hz but have struggled to find one.
- lastofthemojito 6y agoI wanted USB-C power delivery, Gig-E, 4K HDMI @ 60Hz, an SD card reader and a few USB-A ports so I ended up ordering this Cable Matters Thunderbolt Dock: https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Cable-Matters-Thunderbolt-Compatible/dp/B074G4X7CL/ https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Cable-Matters-Thunderbolt-C... I haven't received it yet so I can't say how well it works. There seem to be simple (and much cheaper) USB-C to HDMI adapters that support 4K@60Hz if that's all you're after: https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Aluminum-Pixelbook-Compatible-Thunderbolt/dp/B07THJGZ9Z https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Aluminum-Pixelbook-Compatible-T...
- martinald 6y agoI just want USB PD, 4K HDMI @ 60Hz and USB C. You can get loads of cheap ones that do this for not much money, apart from the 4K @ 60Hz where suddenly they jump up to $200+, which seems a bit excessive to avoid plugging in two extra cables at my desk, but maybe I should bite the bullet.