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Great marketing. I wonder the sales difference if they were also selling Macs with current generation AMD Ryzen chips manufactured on a modern TSMC node.

andy_ppp 6y ago
I think they are so good at building CPUs that fit their designs why do they need to rely on AMD keeping pace with them? I bet you Apple increase performance 20%+ per year for a decade while at some point AMD will slow down their improvements. Never mind the whole issue with heat and battery life where AMD is miles behind.
- yoz-y 6y ago
  > Never mind the whole issue with heat and battery life where AMD is miles behind. That's just false. AMDs newer U models have TDP and performance per watt at the same level as the M1. Apple has other advantages with the M1 (like running iOS programs, more optimised for their software and so on), so they still benefit from having their own chips. M1 is great, but it's not magic.
  - andy_ppp 6y ago
    The AMD CPU wattage != Apple’s SOC including graphics card, large parts of the motherboard and memory. If you’re right where can I buy an AMD laptop with 20h battery life?
    - frant-hartm 6y ago
      You are mixing battery life (= battery capacity / power consumption at low digits cpu usage) and performance per watt (= max performance / power consumption). M1 is better at the former, high end laptop Ryzen models are better at the latter.
      - andy_ppp 6y ago
        No, I’m not mixing anything up; I mentioned heat and battery life. Where do I mention performance per watt?
    - sz4kerto 6y ago
      My M1 MBA lasts around 6 hours if I do a lot of Google Meet calls.
      - andy_ppp 6y ago
        Yes I've noticed something about Javascript and video seems to consume huge amounts of battery life. What do we think the battery life of an AMD 5800U laptop would be at Google Meet if you could buy one of course...
        nottorp 6y ago
        Doubt you can have battery life and javascript in the same phrase. They'll find a way to nullify any technological advance.
  - Vvector 6y ago
    AMD Ryzen 7 5800U - 15/25 watts TDP Apple M1 - 10 watts TDP If the numbers are accurate, then it is close. However, each company measures TDP in different ways. Plus AMD can boost to 30W for short periods of time. Obviously the boost is good when you need it. The big question, how does this affect battery consumption? That said, AMD's biggest issue is supply. I don't know if it is supply issues from TSMC, or component issues with the OEMs. But it is nearly impossible to buy a 5800u.
haswell 6y ago
What is great marketing? That they successfully sold the merits of their new architecture? Or are you saying that talking about the difference in chip sales is a marketing tactic? What is the relevance of Ryzen here?
- ZiiS 6y ago
  It seems highly likely given past performance; if they had put any half-reasonable Intel or Ryzen chip in their $999 Air then that chip would be their best selling CPU. Saying the M1 "isn't just an upgrade, but a breakthrough," and supporting that with sales figures that don't really show anything is "great marketing".
  - haswell 6y ago
    M1 isn’t just an upgrade. Staying on x86 would be nothing more than an incremental update, and would not be noteworthy. Successfully executing an architecture change of this magnitude and immediately hitting these sales numbers is why this is a headline.
okigan 6y ago
That seems to miss the point that they’ll have one chip family across all their devices - the cost savings to APPL will be tremendous compared to tailoring to intel/amd/iPhone_chip/ipad_chip. So we can bemoan a missing cpu option but profitwise (ie price*volume-costs) it makes more sense.
rswail 6y ago
He's basically saying to investors "We're executing this bet-the-company's-lap/desktop-market change to our CPUs flawlessly." It's got nothing to do with the merits of the new architecture vs Intel, it's about Apple not only transitioning, but also consolidating its market edge with yet another moat of smart technology adoption.

andy_ppp 6y ago

I think they are so good at building CPUs that fit their designs why do they need to rely on AMD keeping pace with them? I bet you Apple increase performance 20%+ per year for a decade while at some point AMD will slow down their improvements. Never mind the whole issue with heat and battery life where AMD is miles behind.

yoz-y 6y ago
> Never mind the whole issue with heat and battery life where AMD is miles behind. That's just false. AMDs newer U models have TDP and performance per watt at the same level as the M1. Apple has other advantages with the M1 (like running iOS programs, more optimised for their software and so on), so they still benefit from having their own chips. M1 is great, but it's not magic.
- andy_ppp 6y ago
  The AMD CPU wattage != Apple’s SOC including graphics card, large parts of the motherboard and memory. If you’re right where can I buy an AMD laptop with 20h battery life?
  - frant-hartm 6y ago
    You are mixing battery life (= battery capacity / power consumption at low digits cpu usage) and performance per watt (= max performance / power consumption). M1 is better at the former, high end laptop Ryzen models are better at the latter.
    - andy_ppp 6y ago
      No, I’m not mixing anything up; I mentioned heat and battery life. Where do I mention performance per watt?
  - sz4kerto 6y ago
    My M1 MBA lasts around 6 hours if I do a lot of Google Meet calls.
    - andy_ppp 6y ago
      Yes I've noticed something about Javascript and video seems to consume huge amounts of battery life. What do we think the battery life of an AMD 5800U laptop would be at Google Meet if you could buy one of course...
      - nottorp 6y ago
        Doubt you can have battery life and javascript in the same phrase. They'll find a way to nullify any technological advance.
- Vvector 6y ago
  AMD Ryzen 7 5800U - 15/25 watts TDP Apple M1 - 10 watts TDP If the numbers are accurate, then it is close. However, each company measures TDP in different ways. Plus AMD can boost to 30W for short periods of time. Obviously the boost is good when you need it. The big question, how does this affect battery consumption? That said, AMD's biggest issue is supply. I don't know if it is supply issues from TSMC, or component issues with the OEMs. But it is nearly impossible to buy a 5800u.

haswell 6y ago

What is great marketing? That they successfully sold the merits of their new architecture? Or are you saying that talking about the difference in chip sales is a marketing tactic? What is the relevance of Ryzen here?

ZiiS 6y ago
It seems highly likely given past performance; if they had put any half-reasonable Intel or Ryzen chip in their $999 Air then that chip would be their best selling CPU. Saying the M1 "isn't just an upgrade, but a breakthrough," and supporting that with sales figures that don't really show anything is "great marketing".
- haswell 6y ago
  M1 isn’t just an upgrade. Staying on x86 would be nothing more than an incremental update, and would not be noteworthy. Successfully executing an architecture change of this magnitude and immediately hitting these sales numbers is why this is a headline.

okigan 6y ago

That seems to miss the point that they’ll have one chip family across all their devices - the cost savings to APPL will be tremendous compared to tailoring to intel/amd/iPhone_chip/ipad_chip. So we can bemoan a missing cpu option but profitwise (ie price*volume-costs) it makes more sense.

rswail 6y ago

He's basically saying to investors "We're executing this bet-the-company's-lap/desktop-market change to our CPUs flawlessly." It's got nothing to do with the merits of the new architecture vs Intel, it's about Apple not only transitioning, but also consolidating its market edge with yet another moat of smart technology adoption.