3 ms·

Spend a few minutes talking with someone who designs hardware. Often when they release something, there are TONs of incremental improvements that they just didn

Spend a few minutes talking with someone who designs hardware. Often when they release something, there are TONs of incremental improvements that they just didn't have time to get to when a new product is released. I remember having a conversation with someone who worked on hard drives in the 80s. He got so ^%$^$# excited telling me about all the improvements he worked on between generations; they were mostly things like tighter calibrations, and refinements. Point being: Don't knock releases like this.

FullyFunctional 4y ago
Indeed, that "18%" improvement is almost certainly made up of very many 1% improvements (or more likely, many improvements that each only makes difference in some scenarios).
- reaperducer 4y ago
  that "18%" improvement is almost certainly made up of very many 1% improvements My guess is 18 of them.
  - _ea1k 4y ago
    I'd guess 17, but I guess it depends on whether they compound. :)
    - welfare 4y ago
      Ah, the old synergy effect, a corporate executive's best friend.
smoldesu 4y ago
This comment sounds like the exact same hopium I heard about Intel in 2016. I get what you're saying, and there are definitely smaller changes packed in here, but my point is that Apple's performance crown is looking mighty easy to usurp right about now. Hell, they even showed a graph with the i7 1280p beating the M2's single-core performance by ~20% at the WWDC today; they know they're on notice.
- astrange 4y ago
  M2 isn’t intended to have high performance. It’s intended to have a high perf-power ratio, as they said. Often it gets the performance too, but that’s kind of like a lucky break.
  - fomine3 4y ago
    Still M1 Pro/Max/Ultra single core performance is basically same as M1. It's not good sign for M2 Pro/whatever's single core performance. It's fine for M2.
  - seabriez 4y ago
    And why do I care about perf-power ratio if my laptop is plugged in? WHY? I can understand if it switched to high perf-power ration when Im not plugged, but why would I need that when Im plugged in? Seems like a made up, just because metric.
    - ezsmi 4y ago
      Because lots of power makes a system hot. And a hot system is a slow system, even if the battery is full. https://www.novatech.co.uk/blog/cpu-and-thermal-throttling/ https://www.novatech.co.uk/blog/cpu-and-thermal-throttling/
      - seabriez 4y ago
        Nothing you said here doesn't not apply to M1 which also overheat under high load and gets throttled, and some of them dont even have a fan. https://medium.com/illumination/how-to-solve-overheating-issue-of-macbook-m1-pro-and-m1-max-15d055d17bca#:~:text=It%20is%20necessary%20to%20give,it%20will%20get%20good%20ventilation https://medium.com/illumination/how-to-solve-overheating-iss.... A lot of these benchmarks run for several minutes and test the system as it OVERHEATs, simulating real conditions and Intel i12 beats M1/M2. So this doesnt change anything or bring any new information.
        4y ago

FullyFunctional 4y ago

Indeed, that "18%" improvement is almost certainly made up of very many 1% improvements (or more likely, many improvements that each only makes difference in some scenarios).

reaperducer 4y ago
that "18%" improvement is almost certainly made up of very many 1% improvements My guess is 18 of them.
- _ea1k 4y ago
  I'd guess 17, but I guess it depends on whether they compound. :)
  - welfare 4y ago
    Ah, the old synergy effect, a corporate executive's best friend.

smoldesu 4y ago

This comment sounds like the exact same hopium I heard about Intel in 2016. I get what you're saying, and there are definitely smaller changes packed in here, but my point is that Apple's performance crown is looking mighty easy to usurp right about now. Hell, they even showed a graph with the i7 1280p beating the M2's single-core performance by ~20% at the WWDC today; they know they're on notice.

astrange 4y ago
M2 isn’t intended to have high performance. It’s intended to have a high perf-power ratio, as they said. Often it gets the performance too, but that’s kind of like a lucky break.
- fomine3 4y ago
  Still M1 Pro/Max/Ultra single core performance is basically same as M1. It's not good sign for M2 Pro/whatever's single core performance. It's fine for M2.
- seabriez 4y ago
  And why do I care about perf-power ratio if my laptop is plugged in? WHY? I can understand if it switched to high perf-power ration when Im not plugged, but why would I need that when Im plugged in? Seems like a made up, just because metric.
  - ezsmi 4y ago
    Because lots of power makes a system hot. And a hot system is a slow system, even if the battery is full. https://www.novatech.co.uk/blog/cpu-and-thermal-throttling/ https://www.novatech.co.uk/blog/cpu-and-thermal-throttling/
    - seabriez 4y ago
      Nothing you said here doesn't not apply to M1 which also overheat under high load and gets throttled, and some of them dont even have a fan. https://medium.com/illumination/how-to-solve-overheating-issue-of-macbook-m1-pro-and-m1-max-15d055d17bca#:~:text=It%20is%20necessary%20to%20give,it%20will%20get%20good%20ventilation https://medium.com/illumination/how-to-solve-overheating-iss.... A lot of these benchmarks run for several minutes and test the system as it OVERHEATs, simulating real conditions and Intel i12 beats M1/M2. So this doesnt change anything or bring any new information.
      - 4y ago