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For the price of these new laptops one can already buy a MacBook with a general purpose GPU that is more than capable of running these models. One can buy a win

For the price of these new laptops one can already buy a MacBook with a general purpose GPU that is more than capable of running these models. One can buy a windows laptop with a dedicated graphics card that can also run these models. Perhaps it would be interesting if the price was substantially lower.

TiredOfLife 2y ago
These new laptops are half the price of macbooks with the same ram and storage
- killingtime74 2y ago
  In Australia they are the same price ($1.9k AUD vs $1.6k for MacBook air). How much where you're at?
  - TiredOfLife 2y ago
    M3 15" air with 24gb ram and 1tb ssd is 3400 australian dollars
    - killingtime74 2y ago
      Does the cheapest Microsoft one come with 24 gigs ram and one TB SSD?
- runjake 2y ago
  In which configs and which geographic locations? In the US, pricing for equivalent Surface and Mac hardware configurations looks the same, to me. And that's if the Snapdragon X Elite is actually on par with the Apple M3, like Microsoft claims. Earlier X Elite benchmarks[1][2] showed that it was behind the M3, but hopefully Qualcomm have made some solid performance changes since then. Competition is good. 1. https://www.xda-developers.com/snapdragon-x-elite-benchmarks/ https://www.xda-developers.com/snapdragon-x-elite-benchmarks... Note: the link is comparing vs the M2 2. https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/early-snapdragon-x-elite-benchmarks-seemingly-confirm-the-chips-incredible-performance-and-battery-life-potential https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/early-snapdr...
  - TiredOfLife 2y ago
    ASUS Vivobook S15 S5507QA: 32GB/1TB 1400 EUR MacBook Air 15,3" Apple M3 8-Core CPU & 10-Core GPU 24GB/1TB 2649 €
    - runjake 2y ago
      1. Ah I had assumed you were talking about the new Surface laptops, my bad. 2. Where are you seeing the pricing for those Vivobook configs? I'm not able to pull up equivalent pricing in the US, so far. That might be a pretty good deal, depending on the real world performance of the X Elite and the build quality of the ASUS laptop (I've had quite a few and it's been some great hits and some major misses.)
      - TiredOfLife 2y ago
        The euro prices were from a leak. But the us price for 15" vivobook 16gb/1tb with elite (from announcement video) is 1299. 15" m3 with 16gb/1tb from apple.com is 1899
    - Foobar8568 2y ago
      Asus, the brand that can't make an ISO keyboard in Europe. Either Surface line or Lenovo x line can be compared with Apple devices, anything else falls short.
  - goosedragons 2y ago
    US. Canada. Probably other regions. A Surface Laptop with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD is $1200 USD. A M3 MBA with with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD is $1500.
    - runjake 2y ago
      An equivalent-specced Surface laptop would be the following specs: - 13" or 15" screen - Snapdragon X Elite (which still doesn't match M3 performance) - 16 GB memory - 512 GB SSD Surface laptop price is $1399 (13") or $1499 (15"), which is $100 cheaper for the 13" vs the equivalent MBA, and $200 cheaper for the equivalent MBA 15". The Snapdragon X Plus, which is what it looks like you priced out, is quite inferior to the Elite and even the older Apple M1/M2 series chips. This is all to say that neither is a bad buy, depending on your needs.
- 3abiton 2y ago
  But not same performance. One of the reason QC not releasing anything but controlled benchmarks is most likely the subpar performance of Windows on ARM. This will be the biggest hurdle for QC Elite chips, competing with M-seried which is design in tandem with MacOS.
  - UncleOxidant 2y ago
    Isn't the unified memory architecture one of the advantages of the Apple M* notebooks for running AI workloads?
  - adastra22 2y ago
    Speculation.
    - 3abiton 2y ago
      More like not totally baseless rumors. https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/qualcomm-faces-benchmark-cheating-allegations-snapdragon-x-eliteplus-benchmarks-claimed-to-be-fraudulent https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/qualcomm-faces-be...
dhruvdh 2y ago
The NPU runs this Silica model at 1.5 watts. MacBooks cannot even drive multiple monitors in this price range.
- adastra22 2y ago
  The MacBooks have an NPU too. Just nobody has done anything with them.
  - dhruvdh 2y ago
    The MacBook NPU is 3x slower than the 45 TOPS threshold required for Copilot+ PC branding.

TiredOfLife 2y ago

These new laptops are half the price of macbooks with the same ram and storage

killingtime74 2y ago
In Australia they are the same price ($1.9k AUD vs $1.6k for MacBook air). How much where you're at?
- TiredOfLife 2y ago
  M3 15" air with 24gb ram and 1tb ssd is 3400 australian dollars
  - killingtime74 2y ago
    Does the cheapest Microsoft one come with 24 gigs ram and one TB SSD?
runjake 2y ago
In which configs and which geographic locations? In the US, pricing for equivalent Surface and Mac hardware configurations looks the same, to me. And that's if the Snapdragon X Elite is actually on par with the Apple M3, like Microsoft claims. Earlier X Elite benchmarks[1][2] showed that it was behind the M3, but hopefully Qualcomm have made some solid performance changes since then. Competition is good. 1. https://www.xda-developers.com/snapdragon-x-elite-benchmarks/ https://www.xda-developers.com/snapdragon-x-elite-benchmarks... Note: the link is comparing vs the M2 2. https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/early-snapdragon-x-elite-benchmarks-seemingly-confirm-the-chips-incredible-performance-and-battery-life-potential https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/early-snapdr...
- TiredOfLife 2y ago
  ASUS Vivobook S15 S5507QA: 32GB/1TB 1400 EUR MacBook Air 15,3" Apple M3 8-Core CPU & 10-Core GPU 24GB/1TB 2649 €
  - runjake 2y ago
    1. Ah I had assumed you were talking about the new Surface laptops, my bad. 2. Where are you seeing the pricing for those Vivobook configs? I'm not able to pull up equivalent pricing in the US, so far. That might be a pretty good deal, depending on the real world performance of the X Elite and the build quality of the ASUS laptop (I've had quite a few and it's been some great hits and some major misses.)
    - TiredOfLife 2y ago
      The euro prices were from a leak. But the us price for 15" vivobook 16gb/1tb with elite (from announcement video) is 1299. 15" m3 with 16gb/1tb from apple.com is 1899
  - Foobar8568 2y ago
    Asus, the brand that can't make an ISO keyboard in Europe. Either Surface line or Lenovo x line can be compared with Apple devices, anything else falls short.
- goosedragons 2y ago
  US. Canada. Probably other regions. A Surface Laptop with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD is $1200 USD. A M3 MBA with with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD is $1500.
  - runjake 2y ago
    An equivalent-specced Surface laptop would be the following specs: - 13" or 15" screen - Snapdragon X Elite (which still doesn't match M3 performance) - 16 GB memory - 512 GB SSD Surface laptop price is $1399 (13") or $1499 (15"), which is $100 cheaper for the 13" vs the equivalent MBA, and $200 cheaper for the equivalent MBA 15". The Snapdragon X Plus, which is what it looks like you priced out, is quite inferior to the Elite and even the older Apple M1/M2 series chips. This is all to say that neither is a bad buy, depending on your needs.
3abiton 2y ago
But not same performance. One of the reason QC not releasing anything but controlled benchmarks is most likely the subpar performance of Windows on ARM. This will be the biggest hurdle for QC Elite chips, competing with M-seried which is design in tandem with MacOS.
- UncleOxidant 2y ago
  Isn't the unified memory architecture one of the advantages of the Apple M* notebooks for running AI workloads?
- adastra22 2y ago
  Speculation.
  - 3abiton 2y ago
    More like not totally baseless rumors. https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/qualcomm-faces-benchmark-cheating-allegations-snapdragon-x-eliteplus-benchmarks-claimed-to-be-fraudulent https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/qualcomm-faces-be...

dhruvdh 2y ago

The NPU runs this Silica model at 1.5 watts. MacBooks cannot even drive multiple monitors in this price range.

adastra22 2y ago
The MacBooks have an NPU too. Just nobody has done anything with them.
- dhruvdh 2y ago
  The MacBook NPU is 3x slower than the 45 TOPS threshold required for Copilot+ PC branding.