4 ms·

The only thing that upsets me about Apple's M1 performance is that I don't think it's going to get any better from here in terms of real everyday speed. The ph

The only thing that upsets me about Apple's M1 performance is that I don't think it's going to get any better from here in terms of real everyday speed. The phenomenon of everyone being blown away by the M1's performance is based so much on the fact that developers haven't built a lot of software on it yet. Engineers all over the world will "figure out" how to take this fast hardware and make it feel slow again.

leokennis 6y ago
In general, yes, a new laptop hits its peak performance on day one. Software is most often written to perform well on the “median machine”, and today’s top performing computer is tomorrow’s bargain bin underachiever. However, the M1 is a huge leap forward. It gives you a maybe 3 year head start on all other computers. So no, in a few years it won’t be as revolutionary and fast as it is today. But I think it’s safe to say you can expect an M1 to last you a good few years longer than a similarly priced Intel based laptop you can purchase today.
- shakezula 6y ago
  Yeah I don't really understand what the parent comment is trying to say. They wouldn't have this argument if it was a new processor from Intel or AMD, just seems like the point is moot - developers will _always_ utilize available resources, it doesn't mean that the pursuit of more efficient resources is not worthwhile.
uyt 6y ago
This is just the unfortunate consequence of devs not bothering to optimize something if it runs fast enough on their own machine. Stuff that is just on the edge of human perception (100ms or so?) might become a few times slower on an older machine and become noticeably laggy. I think there are now more tools to help with phenomenon. For example for web dev, chrome has a built-in cpu/network throttler so you can simulate a low-end device.
tdsamardzhiev 6y ago
Electron blows my mind every time I open Activity Monitor. How on the Earth does Spotify manage to use 2GB RAM and 48 threads for a music player?!
- vially 6y ago
  Spotify is using the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) [1] which is similar to Electron in the sense that they are both based on Chromium but it's not quite the same thing. [1] - https://community.spotify.com/t5/Closed-Ideas/Revert-to-native-app-or-at-least-provide-an-option-for-one/idi-p/336136 https://community.spotify.com/t5/Closed-Ideas/Revert-to-nati...
  - kergonath 6y ago
    Still rubbish, though.
- Shadonototro 6y ago
  it's the typical management that is computer illeterate and push useless tech to everyone.. the spotify devs are quite capable, look at this ImGui port of the Spotify client: https://twitter.com/rogueops/status/1243269640815509504 https://twitter.com/rogueops/status/1243269640815509504
crazygringo 6y ago
I'm more optimistic. Simply because most software people today is cross-platform, so most developers need to make sure their code is reasonably performant on x86. As long as M2, M3, M4 keep getting better and maintain (or even increase) their performance margin over x86, then everyone running M chips will continue to see blazing performance. The bigger worry here is actually if Apple somehow "figures out" how to make macOS feel slow again. I guess it depends on how "mature" you think macOS is at this point, if whole additional layers will inserted into the stack somehow.

leokennis 6y ago

In general, yes, a new laptop hits its peak performance on day one. Software is most often written to perform well on the “median machine”, and today’s top performing computer is tomorrow’s bargain bin underachiever. However, the M1 is a huge leap forward. It gives you a maybe 3 year head start on all other computers. So no, in a few years it won’t be as revolutionary and fast as it is today. But I think it’s safe to say you can expect an M1 to last you a good few years longer than a similarly priced Intel based laptop you can purchase today.

shakezula 6y ago
Yeah I don't really understand what the parent comment is trying to say. They wouldn't have this argument if it was a new processor from Intel or AMD, just seems like the point is moot - developers will _always_ utilize available resources, it doesn't mean that the pursuit of more efficient resources is not worthwhile.

uyt 6y ago

This is just the unfortunate consequence of devs not bothering to optimize something if it runs fast enough on their own machine. Stuff that is just on the edge of human perception (100ms or so?) might become a few times slower on an older machine and become noticeably laggy. I think there are now more tools to help with phenomenon. For example for web dev, chrome has a built-in cpu/network throttler so you can simulate a low-end device.

tdsamardzhiev 6y ago

Electron blows my mind every time I open Activity Monitor. How on the Earth does Spotify manage to use 2GB RAM and 48 threads for a music player?!

vially 6y ago
Spotify is using the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) [1] which is similar to Electron in the sense that they are both based on Chromium but it's not quite the same thing. [1] - https://community.spotify.com/t5/Closed-Ideas/Revert-to-native-app-or-at-least-provide-an-option-for-one/idi-p/336136 https://community.spotify.com/t5/Closed-Ideas/Revert-to-nati...
- kergonath 6y ago
  Still rubbish, though.
Shadonototro 6y ago
it's the typical management that is computer illeterate and push useless tech to everyone.. the spotify devs are quite capable, look at this ImGui port of the Spotify client: https://twitter.com/rogueops/status/1243269640815509504 https://twitter.com/rogueops/status/1243269640815509504

crazygringo 6y ago

I'm more optimistic. Simply because most software people today is cross-platform, so most developers need to make sure their code is reasonably performant on x86. As long as M2, M3, M4 keep getting better and maintain (or even increase) their performance margin over x86, then everyone running M chips will continue to see blazing performance. The bigger worry here is actually if Apple somehow "figures out" how to make macOS feel slow again. I guess it depends on how "mature" you think macOS is at this point, if whole additional layers will inserted into the stack somehow.