5 ms·

> Also, as a curiosity, why is every thread related to a X86 news, need to bring in the Apple M1 fan army and bang their drums? Honestly? Efficiency & battery

> Also, as a curiosity, why is every thread related to a X86 news, need to bring in the Apple M1 fan army and bang their drums? Honestly? Efficiency & battery life without sacrificing speed/performance. If you need great battery life (or simply don't want to have to worry about charging your laptop frequently), it's hard to swallow ~4-10h battery life of a typical X86 laptop when MBA/MBP are consistently achieving 10-16+ with real-world use. ...not to mention the other perks MacBooks hold over their competitors, e.g. fit/finish, display quality, speakers, etc. >They serve completely different markets. Do they, though? With so many things being web-based these days, it's not very hard for most people (without specific needs) to switch to an M1 as their primary device without experiencing problems.

alsobrsp 5y ago
> when MBA/MBP are consistently achieving 10-16+ with real-world use. I never get more than a couple hours on my MBP, 2.5-3 tops.
- sokoloff 5y ago
  Intel or M1 CPU?
  - als0 5y ago
    Sounds like what's normal for a mid aged Intel Macbook.
- dmd 5y ago
  Then there's something physically wrong with it. My M1 MBP - which is near-constantly at 100% CPU doing neuroimaging tasks - gets about 9 hours. If I'm not running high-cpu tasks and just web browsing, I've gotten 13-18 typically (e.g., two full days of use between charges).
  - dylan604 5y ago
    >If I'm not running high-cpu tasks and just web browsing, You state this as if they are 2 different things. Sadly, more and more shittily designed sites are using more and more resources. Whether that's just a poorly written bit of JS or a maliciously written bit of JS, web browsing is becoming more compute intensive.
    - runnerup 5y ago
      I believe the M1 is much better at computing JavaScript as well. Comparable intel x86 CPUs have 60% more branch misprediction during JS benchmarks and ARMv8.3-A added the processor instruction FJCVTZS (Floating-point Javascript Convert to Signed fixed-point, rounding toward Zero). Especially due to the better branch prediction, the M1 simply does quite a bit more web browsing with fewer VPU cycles used, thus less power consumption.
- throwntoday 5y ago
  Let me guess the device is over two years old, your display is always above 70% brightness, you have chrome opened with over a dozen tabs, alongside it a bunch of other background apps you don't actually need open. Oh and probably a VM or docker. How close was I? ;-)
  - runnerup 5y ago
    The only one that matters is if their MBP is over 2 years old. I got my M1 the week it released and I only run it under the conditions you describe. Sometimes accidentally leaving baldurs gate 3 / Stellaris / Civ6 running in the background. It still gets a battery life of “oh I showed up to an all-day working session with a friend with 50% battery life and forgot my charger and I don’t have any anxiety about that” battery life. I think the least it’s ever gotten was around 10 hours. I’m still getting 14+ after a couple years of abusing the battery charge levels. The iPhone 13 Pro Max is also the first phone I truly never worry about battery life since a late-stage flip phone in 2007. (Or the Samsung S5 Active which had a replaceable battery, I just carried a couple extra around in my pocket).
    - throwntoday 5y ago
      >The only one that matters is if their MBP is over 2 years old I wasn't just asking because of the potential wear on the battery from abuse, but M1 laptops did not exist 2 years ago. Although the intel macbooks still had great battery life for their size. People who put their device through it's paces and wonder why the battery is draining so fast are a special breed that's for sure.
vishaltelangre 5y ago
> when MBA/MBP are consistently achieving 10-16+ with real-world use. Really? I have a 2019 MBP and it doesn't last more than 3 hrs on 100% charge. The only usage is for the web development. And this is my third MBP (the old ones are dead because their magic boards became dead after the expiry of 1yr warranty + 2yr AppleCare plan). The battery drains pretty quickly if I attach it to an external monitor. Also, the evil `kernel_task` process eats up all CPU cores (for minutes and the machine remains unusable in the meantime) that drains the battery within an hour if I don't keep my table fan pointed at it (probably because Apple doesn't give a sh*t about the products they sell in India and their performance at 30-45 deg celsius temperature which is normal in Indian subcontinents).
ChuckNorris89 5y ago
What use is all those perks for those of us, if the apps we use for work and play are not compiled for M1 nor web based? Meanwhile my "inferior" x86 machine can run everything I need to use. Why do people insist you need to buy a Ferrari when your work or lifestyle requires an F-150? Therefore, back to my original question, why do M1 fans need go off topic on every X86 article and spray the same things over and over again: "but muh' Geekbench score", "muh' excellent battery life", "muh' no fan noise" and insist you're wrong for choosing to go X86 even though you don't have a choice because of the architecture. We know the pros, Ok? But some of us still need X86 machine like the one in the article, regardless if those are machines not for you. And if they're not for you, that's fine, but why always bang on with the M1 trope everywhere?
- serenitylater 5y ago
  The comment section isn't a zero-sum game. The fact that alternatives to the x86 are brought up in the comments section could be useful for many people, it might not be for you, but it is for many people. To use your own analogy, how many people are currently sputtering around the USA in pickup trucks that don't require a F-150?
- StellarTabi 5y ago
  > Why do people insist you need to buy a Ferrari The cheapest M1 laptop is actually really affordable, almost the same price as this laptop's cheapest configuration. This is probably the exact product I would be looking for if I were trying to avoid buying from Apple. I couldn't find anything on cooling/fans, so IDK if this will be another standard Intel jet engine and lap burner.
- ksec 5y ago
  It is not really just M1, this pattern is very specific to hardware category on HN.
- ponyous 5y ago
  Genuinely wondering, why specifically do you need x86? Some legacy software? Is the compatibility layer not working (Rosetta or how is it called?)?

alsobrsp 5y ago

> when MBA/MBP are consistently achieving 10-16+ with real-world use. I never get more than a couple hours on my MBP, 2.5-3 tops.

sokoloff 5y ago
Intel or M1 CPU?
- als0 5y ago
  Sounds like what's normal for a mid aged Intel Macbook.
dmd 5y ago
Then there's something physically wrong with it. My M1 MBP - which is near-constantly at 100% CPU doing neuroimaging tasks - gets about 9 hours. If I'm not running high-cpu tasks and just web browsing, I've gotten 13-18 typically (e.g., two full days of use between charges).
- dylan604 5y ago
  >If I'm not running high-cpu tasks and just web browsing, You state this as if they are 2 different things. Sadly, more and more shittily designed sites are using more and more resources. Whether that's just a poorly written bit of JS or a maliciously written bit of JS, web browsing is becoming more compute intensive.
  - runnerup 5y ago
    I believe the M1 is much better at computing JavaScript as well. Comparable intel x86 CPUs have 60% more branch misprediction during JS benchmarks and ARMv8.3-A added the processor instruction FJCVTZS (Floating-point Javascript Convert to Signed fixed-point, rounding toward Zero). Especially due to the better branch prediction, the M1 simply does quite a bit more web browsing with fewer VPU cycles used, thus less power consumption.
throwntoday 5y ago
Let me guess the device is over two years old, your display is always above 70% brightness, you have chrome opened with over a dozen tabs, alongside it a bunch of other background apps you don't actually need open. Oh and probably a VM or docker. How close was I? ;-)
- runnerup 5y ago
  The only one that matters is if their MBP is over 2 years old. I got my M1 the week it released and I only run it under the conditions you describe. Sometimes accidentally leaving baldurs gate 3 / Stellaris / Civ6 running in the background. It still gets a battery life of “oh I showed up to an all-day working session with a friend with 50% battery life and forgot my charger and I don’t have any anxiety about that” battery life. I think the least it’s ever gotten was around 10 hours. I’m still getting 14+ after a couple years of abusing the battery charge levels. The iPhone 13 Pro Max is also the first phone I truly never worry about battery life since a late-stage flip phone in 2007. (Or the Samsung S5 Active which had a replaceable battery, I just carried a couple extra around in my pocket).
  - throwntoday 5y ago
    >The only one that matters is if their MBP is over 2 years old I wasn't just asking because of the potential wear on the battery from abuse, but M1 laptops did not exist 2 years ago. Although the intel macbooks still had great battery life for their size. People who put their device through it's paces and wonder why the battery is draining so fast are a special breed that's for sure.

vishaltelangre 5y ago

> when MBA/MBP are consistently achieving 10-16+ with real-world use. Really? I have a 2019 MBP and it doesn't last more than 3 hrs on 100% charge. The only usage is for the web development. And this is my third MBP (the old ones are dead because their magic boards became dead after the expiry of 1yr warranty + 2yr AppleCare plan). The battery drains pretty quickly if I attach it to an external monitor. Also, the evil `kernel_task` process eats up all CPU cores (for minutes and the machine remains unusable in the meantime) that drains the battery within an hour if I don't keep my table fan pointed at it (probably because Apple doesn't give a sh*t about the products they sell in India and their performance at 30-45 deg celsius temperature which is normal in Indian subcontinents).

ChuckNorris89 5y ago

What use is all those perks for those of us, if the apps we use for work and play are not compiled for M1 nor web based? Meanwhile my "inferior" x86 machine can run everything I need to use. Why do people insist you need to buy a Ferrari when your work or lifestyle requires an F-150? Therefore, back to my original question, why do M1 fans need go off topic on every X86 article and spray the same things over and over again: "but muh' Geekbench score", "muh' excellent battery life", "muh' no fan noise" and insist you're wrong for choosing to go X86 even though you don't have a choice because of the architecture. We know the pros, Ok? But some of us still need X86 machine like the one in the article, regardless if those are machines not for you. And if they're not for you, that's fine, but why always bang on with the M1 trope everywhere?

serenitylater 5y ago
The comment section isn't a zero-sum game. The fact that alternatives to the x86 are brought up in the comments section could be useful for many people, it might not be for you, but it is for many people. To use your own analogy, how many people are currently sputtering around the USA in pickup trucks that don't require a F-150?
StellarTabi 5y ago
> Why do people insist you need to buy a Ferrari The cheapest M1 laptop is actually really affordable, almost the same price as this laptop's cheapest configuration. This is probably the exact product I would be looking for if I were trying to avoid buying from Apple. I couldn't find anything on cooling/fans, so IDK if this will be another standard Intel jet engine and lap burner.
ksec 5y ago
It is not really just M1, this pattern is very specific to hardware category on HN.
ponyous 5y ago
Genuinely wondering, why specifically do you need x86? Some legacy software? Is the compatibility layer not working (Rosetta or how is it called?)?