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If people are wondering about why some people in the comments are reporting 3080 vs 3060 levels of performance, it's based on the workload. On synthetic (native

If people are wondering about why some people in the comments are reporting 3080 vs 3060 levels of performance, it's based on the workload. On synthetic (native I assume) benchmarks, the M1 Max reaches 3080 levels, but in gaming benchmarks (using x86) it reaches 3060 levels.

marricks 5y ago
It's interesting especially since it sounds like the reason it doesn't reach "close to 3080" in many games is because it's CPU bound, specifically because it's emulating x86. Once we get more benchmarks with non-rosetta apps the picture may be rosier? That said, it's not like Apple was every the company for gaming machines so perhaps that will just be the state of things.
- lowbloodsugar 5y ago
  TFA also compares games at 4k, where it is very much GPU bound, and it is about half the speed of a laptop 6800. Which is not great. (And I am speaking as someone whose M1 Max arrives tomorrow). The M1 GPU is vastly different than an AMD or nVidia GPU, and I suspect it will have not-great scores until someone writes a game and optimizes it specifically for the M1. Which is most likely never.
  - xoa 5y ago
    >and I suspect it will have not-great scores until someone writes a game and optimizes it specifically for the M1. Which is most likely never. Don't forget that these days few demanding games are "optimized for Platform XYZ", they're generally using one a small set of middleware/engine they license. So it's more a question of if Unreal Engine and Unity and so on get optimizations aimed at Apple's M-series chips. That isn't out of the question at all, given that they definitely have optimization aimed at Apple's A-series chips. Once they do, everything going forward that uses them will be better "for free". Even if they don't hit the performance of something truly hand tuned just to make max use of the arch it won't be entirely ignored either. May not even be that much work. That's another potential non-technical performance advantage in moving the Mac from x86, they get to piggyback in some areas off the enormously higher market share iDevices. We'll see how it works out of course.
Thaxll 5y ago
I don't think you've read the comments: However gaming is a poorer experience, as the Macs aren’t catching up with the top chips in either of our games. It's far far from a 3060 for gaming.
- mrtranscendence 5y ago
  I haven't read all the comments, but one of the first comments that shows up says this: > When it comes to the actual Gaming Performance, the M1X is slightly slower than the RTX-3060. Edit: also, the 3060 isn't a "top chip", particularly on a laptop.

marricks 5y ago

It's interesting especially since it sounds like the reason it doesn't reach "close to 3080" in many games is because it's CPU bound, specifically because it's emulating x86. Once we get more benchmarks with non-rosetta apps the picture may be rosier? That said, it's not like Apple was every the company for gaming machines so perhaps that will just be the state of things.

lowbloodsugar 5y ago
TFA also compares games at 4k, where it is very much GPU bound, and it is about half the speed of a laptop 6800. Which is not great. (And I am speaking as someone whose M1 Max arrives tomorrow). The M1 GPU is vastly different than an AMD or nVidia GPU, and I suspect it will have not-great scores until someone writes a game and optimizes it specifically for the M1. Which is most likely never.
- xoa 5y ago
  >and I suspect it will have not-great scores until someone writes a game and optimizes it specifically for the M1. Which is most likely never. Don't forget that these days few demanding games are "optimized for Platform XYZ", they're generally using one a small set of middleware/engine they license. So it's more a question of if Unreal Engine and Unity and so on get optimizations aimed at Apple's M-series chips. That isn't out of the question at all, given that they definitely have optimization aimed at Apple's A-series chips. Once they do, everything going forward that uses them will be better "for free". Even if they don't hit the performance of something truly hand tuned just to make max use of the arch it won't be entirely ignored either. May not even be that much work. That's another potential non-technical performance advantage in moving the Mac from x86, they get to piggyback in some areas off the enormously higher market share iDevices. We'll see how it works out of course.

Thaxll 5y ago

I don't think you've read the comments: However gaming is a poorer experience, as the Macs aren’t catching up with the top chips in either of our games. It's far far from a 3060 for gaming.

mrtranscendence 5y ago
I haven't read all the comments, but one of the first comments that shows up says this: > When it comes to the actual Gaming Performance, the M1X is slightly slower than the RTX-3060. Edit: also, the 3060 isn't a "top chip", particularly on a laptop.