6 ms·

It's crazy how the M1 is still unmatched 1 year and 8 months after it's release. Apple is working with some alien technology.

amelius 4y ago
That alien technology is coming from Taiwan.
- andruby 4y ago
  The processor node tech is from Taiwan and plays an important role. I’d argue that a lot of the speed is also thanks to a great system architecture: the unified memory, dedicated silicon for video, ml, etc.
- atonse 4y ago
  The manufacturing is, but so much of the magic is also the architecture of some parts of the chip like the x86 translation layer being so performant, and the hardware/software integration that enables an exceptionally smooth user experience for transitioning between architectures. Kudos to Apple (and TSMC) for executing flawlessly on multiple levels.
- drexlspivey 4y ago
  And the Netherlands
- bergenty 4y ago
  The alien technology is coming from California. It’s just made in Taiwan.
  - solarkraft 4y ago
    The "made" part matters a lot. They heavily rely on TSMC's process being so good.
    - bergenty 4y ago
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
madduci 4y ago
Unmatched by who? It just covers a predefined set of use cases, it still doesn't match other configurations, where e.g. GPU intensive tasks require dedicated hardware.
- KptMarchewa 4y ago
  Power to performance efficiency.
  - throwawaylinux 4y ago
    That's almost certainly not true. E.g., https://www.embedded.com/risc-v-core-said-to-outperform-apple-m1-and-arm-cortex-a9/ https://www.embedded.com/risc-v-core-said-to-outperform-appl...
    - Infinitesimus 4y ago
      > is said to To most consumers, this will only be interesting if it's shipping in laptops.
    - ungamedplayer 4y ago
    - culopatin 4y ago
      What laptops are shipping with this and are outperforming the Apple processors in real life?
      - throwawaylinux 4y ago
        I'm not sure I was just responding to a claim about a CPU's performance per watt.
    - StringyBob 4y ago
      The quotes in that page have some of the most spectacularly misleading statistics I’ve seen for a while. Might as well point out that for telling the time looking at my watch is more energy efficient than looking at the clock in my car dashboard (and then calculating energy efficiency while comparing power consumption of a car and a watch)
nreece 4y ago
Undoubtedly a solid chip, specially for its performance per watt, but Intel's new i7-1280P performed better in comparison[1]. It'll be interesting in the coming months to see fresher benchmarks of M2 vs Intel 12th-gen vs AMD Ryzen. [1] https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-13-Plus-with-i7-1280P-thrashes-Apple-MacBook-Pro-13-with-M1-in-unfair-comparison-of-premium-13-inch-laptops.616566.0.html https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-13-Plus-with-i7-1280P...
- foldr 4y ago
  In a laptop that, according to the article, is louder, hotter, and with a much shorter battery life.
- Aaargh20318 4y ago
  That's an 6p/8e core machine vs. a 4p/4e core machine, not exactly a fair comparison. A better comparison would be against an M1 Pro or Max, with 8p/2e cores. Some quick Googling shows that the M1 Pro/Max outperforms that Intel part by some margin.
  - MrRiddle 4y ago
    All while my M1 Pro is in the laptop with which I have yet to experience a sound of fans running.
    - hu3 4y ago
      And I'm skeptical that the Intel can be 48% faster as this chart implies: https://i.imgur.com/uelXzJ7.png https://i.imgur.com/uelXzJ7.png
  - fomine3 4y ago
    XPS13 weight is 1.23kg that is almost identical to MacBook Air , and size is similar, so still valid comparison.
kitsunesoba 4y ago
I would love to see a much bigger focus on performance per watt from the rest of the industry, all the way up to high end enthusiast desktop components — even in a nice airflow focused ATX case and with a big Noctua CPU cooler, the extra noise generated when pushing the machine can be really irritating, not to mention creeping power requirements make for replacing PSUs before it’d otherwise be necessary. On a somewhat related note, I’m also mildly annoyed that no case, cooling, and motherboard manufacturers have tried to copy the current Mac Pro’s design with dramatically larger heatsinks, about half as many fans as a typical PC (with the few it has not running as hard), and RAM on the backside of the motherboard where it can be swapped without messing with the CPU heatsink. Being able to build a generic PC version of a Mac Pro would be amazing, but unfortunately the ATX standard has accumulated cobwebs from lack of innovation.
- numpad0 4y ago
  Workstation computers, such as HP Z8 G4, uses PMG5-esque non-ATX placements, though I don't think users are half as much enthusiastic compared to Apple users about that.
  - kitsunesoba 4y ago
    That’s kind of what I was getting at, my hope is for the ATX standard to evolve to better fit modern hardware so users can enjoy many of the benefits of some of the better current non-ATX arrangements while also having a broad selection of parts available.
    - wtallis 4y ago
      The ATX standards have done a good job of evolving the power delivery. But in terms of physical board dimensions and layout, little has changed and we still have a system optimized for maximum PCB surface area when what modern computers need is to maximize heatsink volume with unobstructed airflow.
- corrral 4y ago
  I'd love to see bigger focus on performance per watt from other browser vendors, for that matter.
MisterTea 4y ago
Who else these days has an end to end ecosystem they can steer in any direction they please? So of course there is no competition. When AMD released the Opteron A series my first thought was "This will fail as there is no Arm desktop to develop and test on. Why don't they release an Arm desktop/laptop ready APU with AMD GPU, dual channel DDR, SATA (before NVMe) and PCIe to complement it?" That would have been an awesome setup right there. I mentioned this out loud in a forum and multiple people replied with the same retort: "No one will buy into an ARM desk/laptop without a software ecosystem." Which was true because even if you argued that Linux was good enough, who was going to buy an AMD Arm just to run Linux? Apple can point the ship where it pleases.

amelius 4y ago

That alien technology is coming from Taiwan.

andruby 4y ago
The processor node tech is from Taiwan and plays an important role. I’d argue that a lot of the speed is also thanks to a great system architecture: the unified memory, dedicated silicon for video, ml, etc.
atonse 4y ago
The manufacturing is, but so much of the magic is also the architecture of some parts of the chip like the x86 translation layer being so performant, and the hardware/software integration that enables an exceptionally smooth user experience for transitioning between architectures. Kudos to Apple (and TSMC) for executing flawlessly on multiple levels.
drexlspivey 4y ago
And the Netherlands
bergenty 4y ago
The alien technology is coming from California. It’s just made in Taiwan.
- solarkraft 4y ago
  The "made" part matters a lot. They heavily rely on TSMC's process being so good.
  - bergenty 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

madduci 4y ago

Unmatched by who? It just covers a predefined set of use cases, it still doesn't match other configurations, where e.g. GPU intensive tasks require dedicated hardware.

KptMarchewa 4y ago
Power to performance efficiency.
- throwawaylinux 4y ago
  That's almost certainly not true. E.g., https://www.embedded.com/risc-v-core-said-to-outperform-apple-m1-and-arm-cortex-a9/ https://www.embedded.com/risc-v-core-said-to-outperform-appl...
  - Infinitesimus 4y ago
    > is said to To most consumers, this will only be interesting if it's shipping in laptops.
  - ungamedplayer 4y ago
  - culopatin 4y ago
    What laptops are shipping with this and are outperforming the Apple processors in real life?
    - throwawaylinux 4y ago
      I'm not sure I was just responding to a claim about a CPU's performance per watt.
  - StringyBob 4y ago
    The quotes in that page have some of the most spectacularly misleading statistics I’ve seen for a while. Might as well point out that for telling the time looking at my watch is more energy efficient than looking at the clock in my car dashboard (and then calculating energy efficiency while comparing power consumption of a car and a watch)

nreece 4y ago

Undoubtedly a solid chip, specially for its performance per watt, but Intel's new i7-1280P performed better in comparison[1]. It'll be interesting in the coming months to see fresher benchmarks of M2 vs Intel 12th-gen vs AMD Ryzen. [1] https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-13-Plus-with-i7-1280P-thrashes-Apple-MacBook-Pro-13-with-M1-in-unfair-comparison-of-premium-13-inch-laptops.616566.0.html https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-13-Plus-with-i7-1280P...

foldr 4y ago
In a laptop that, according to the article, is louder, hotter, and with a much shorter battery life.
Aaargh20318 4y ago
That's an 6p/8e core machine vs. a 4p/4e core machine, not exactly a fair comparison. A better comparison would be against an M1 Pro or Max, with 8p/2e cores. Some quick Googling shows that the M1 Pro/Max outperforms that Intel part by some margin.
- MrRiddle 4y ago
  All while my M1 Pro is in the laptop with which I have yet to experience a sound of fans running.
  - hu3 4y ago
    And I'm skeptical that the Intel can be 48% faster as this chart implies: https://i.imgur.com/uelXzJ7.png https://i.imgur.com/uelXzJ7.png
- fomine3 4y ago
  XPS13 weight is 1.23kg that is almost identical to MacBook Air , and size is similar, so still valid comparison.

kitsunesoba 4y ago

I would love to see a much bigger focus on performance per watt from the rest of the industry, all the way up to high end enthusiast desktop components — even in a nice airflow focused ATX case and with a big Noctua CPU cooler, the extra noise generated when pushing the machine can be really irritating, not to mention creeping power requirements make for replacing PSUs before it’d otherwise be necessary. On a somewhat related note, I’m also mildly annoyed that no case, cooling, and motherboard manufacturers have tried to copy the current Mac Pro’s design with dramatically larger heatsinks, about half as many fans as a typical PC (with the few it has not running as hard), and RAM on the backside of the motherboard where it can be swapped without messing with the CPU heatsink. Being able to build a generic PC version of a Mac Pro would be amazing, but unfortunately the ATX standard has accumulated cobwebs from lack of innovation.

numpad0 4y ago
Workstation computers, such as HP Z8 G4, uses PMG5-esque non-ATX placements, though I don't think users are half as much enthusiastic compared to Apple users about that.
- kitsunesoba 4y ago
  That’s kind of what I was getting at, my hope is for the ATX standard to evolve to better fit modern hardware so users can enjoy many of the benefits of some of the better current non-ATX arrangements while also having a broad selection of parts available.
  - wtallis 4y ago
    The ATX standards have done a good job of evolving the power delivery. But in terms of physical board dimensions and layout, little has changed and we still have a system optimized for maximum PCB surface area when what modern computers need is to maximize heatsink volume with unobstructed airflow.
corrral 4y ago
I'd love to see bigger focus on performance per watt from other browser vendors, for that matter.

MisterTea 4y ago

Who else these days has an end to end ecosystem they can steer in any direction they please? So of course there is no competition. When AMD released the Opteron A series my first thought was "This will fail as there is no Arm desktop to develop and test on. Why don't they release an Arm desktop/laptop ready APU with AMD GPU, dual channel DDR, SATA (before NVMe) and PCIe to complement it?" That would have been an awesome setup right there. I mentioned this out loud in a forum and multiple people replied with the same retort: "No one will buy into an ARM desk/laptop without a software ecosystem." Which was true because even if you argued that Linux was good enough, who was going to buy an AMD Arm just to run Linux? Apple can point the ship where it pleases.