4 ms·

And yet we're getting ~8h of battery life on these machines with software rendering. Did I mention the hardware is just that good? :-)

kergonath 5y ago
Well, it could be better ;) Seriously though, you’re all doing a very impressive work!
smoldesu 5y ago
I'm sure that's fine for terminal usage, but seriously; who out there is going to daily-drive a laptop that has a non-functional GPU? This line of reasoning sounds like you're trying to compensate for the fact that GPU support is a long ways away, and that we may well have an M2 on store shelves before you've even got M1 support to a usable point.
- gjsman-1000 5y ago
  "I'm sure that's fine for terminal usage, but seriously; who out there is going to daily-drive a laptop that has a non-functional GPU?" Then how did Integrated Graphics sell so well in the broader marketplace? You'd think with their near-useless GPUs that were weaker than M1's software rendering that nobody could use them. Also, whatever about M2 - Apple has structured their hardware to require minimum driver changes on each release. M2 will probably just be a few patches on the core driver, not a rewrite.
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    > You'd think with their near-useless GPUs that were weaker than M1's software rendering that nobody could use them. The point is to delegate rendering away from the GPU, which is obviously a waste of compute no matter how you look at it. Every computer is capable of software rendering (my i5 520m can software-render for crying out loud), but we live in a more civilized age; even weak GPUs do their job to prevent the CPU from being unnecessarily bogged down with a task it's not good at. We do this so your computer doesn't insta-break when you plug in an external display, we do this so that CPU cores don't get pinned when you start scrolling a webpage, we do this because software rendering is bad. It doesn't matter if you're doing it on an i9 12900k or a first-gen Raspberry Pi; the goal is to not waste CPU cycles on it in the first place. This shouldn't even be up for debate in the first place.
- camgunz 5y ago
  > I'm sure that's fine for terminal usage, but seriously; who out there is going to daily-drive a laptop that has a non-functional GPU? This line of reasoning sounds like you're trying to compensate for the fact that GPU support is a long ways away This is making a lot of leaps. None of his comments say that. They have a whole page [0] dedicated to a nuanced discussion on "when will Asahi Linux be done". It's perfectly fine for him to be excited about his project and his hardware. Lots of other people are also excited, which is awesome! [0]: https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/%22When-will-Asahi-Linux-be-done%3F%22 https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/%22When-will-Asahi-L...
- marcan_42 5y ago
  I would expect the people already daily-driving ARM Linux laptops with GPUs that run slower than software rendering on M1s to be perfectly happy with the current state of affairs. This is not to say GPU support is a long way away; it isn't. > and that we may well have an M2 on store shelves before you've even got M1 support to a usable point. You're assuming M2 will take another year. M1 Pro and Max took a week or so to bring to near feature parity, and M1 Ultra will probably take ~1 day. We aren't starting from scratch for every new chip. I'm not saying everyone will be happy daily driving a laptop with no GPU (I wouldn't, not as my main machine). I'm saying some people will be (I would, as a carry around laptop for browsing and SSH).
sudosysgen 5y ago
That's very impressive! Just curious, on which kind of workload?

kergonath 5y ago

Well, it could be better ;) Seriously though, you’re all doing a very impressive work!

smoldesu 5y ago

I'm sure that's fine for terminal usage, but seriously; who out there is going to daily-drive a laptop that has a non-functional GPU? This line of reasoning sounds like you're trying to compensate for the fact that GPU support is a long ways away, and that we may well have an M2 on store shelves before you've even got M1 support to a usable point.

gjsman-1000 5y ago
"I'm sure that's fine for terminal usage, but seriously; who out there is going to daily-drive a laptop that has a non-functional GPU?" Then how did Integrated Graphics sell so well in the broader marketplace? You'd think with their near-useless GPUs that were weaker than M1's software rendering that nobody could use them. Also, whatever about M2 - Apple has structured their hardware to require minimum driver changes on each release. M2 will probably just be a few patches on the core driver, not a rewrite.
- smoldesu 5y ago
  > You'd think with their near-useless GPUs that were weaker than M1's software rendering that nobody could use them. The point is to delegate rendering away from the GPU, which is obviously a waste of compute no matter how you look at it. Every computer is capable of software rendering (my i5 520m can software-render for crying out loud), but we live in a more civilized age; even weak GPUs do their job to prevent the CPU from being unnecessarily bogged down with a task it's not good at. We do this so your computer doesn't insta-break when you plug in an external display, we do this so that CPU cores don't get pinned when you start scrolling a webpage, we do this because software rendering is bad. It doesn't matter if you're doing it on an i9 12900k or a first-gen Raspberry Pi; the goal is to not waste CPU cycles on it in the first place. This shouldn't even be up for debate in the first place.
camgunz 5y ago
> I'm sure that's fine for terminal usage, but seriously; who out there is going to daily-drive a laptop that has a non-functional GPU? This line of reasoning sounds like you're trying to compensate for the fact that GPU support is a long ways away This is making a lot of leaps. None of his comments say that. They have a whole page [0] dedicated to a nuanced discussion on "when will Asahi Linux be done". It's perfectly fine for him to be excited about his project and his hardware. Lots of other people are also excited, which is awesome! [0]: https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/%22When-will-Asahi-Linux-be-done%3F%22 https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/%22When-will-Asahi-L...
marcan_42 5y ago
I would expect the people already daily-driving ARM Linux laptops with GPUs that run slower than software rendering on M1s to be perfectly happy with the current state of affairs. This is not to say GPU support is a long way away; it isn't. > and that we may well have an M2 on store shelves before you've even got M1 support to a usable point. You're assuming M2 will take another year. M1 Pro and Max took a week or so to bring to near feature parity, and M1 Ultra will probably take ~1 day. We aren't starting from scratch for every new chip. I'm not saying everyone will be happy daily driving a laptop with no GPU (I wouldn't, not as my main machine). I'm saying some people will be (I would, as a carry around laptop for browsing and SSH).

sudosysgen 5y ago

That's very impressive! Just curious, on which kind of workload?