New apple M1 chips - who's buying?

New apple M1 chips - who's buying?

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Bikerjon

Original Poster:

2,176 posts

148 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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So after a longish wait I see these new non-intel chips have been launched for some of the Macbook and Mini range. Impressive how it combines everything into one chip, but it also seems that this is the absolute end of upgrading as we know it - not that there was a huge amount of upgrade potential on recent Mac's anyway.

I'm thinking about a Macbook air. Seems fairly good value and should be all I need performance-wise. Be interesting to see some benchmarks against the intel equivalent.

theboss

6,302 posts

206 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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Ordered an air for the missus as a tester - the base model with 16GB upgrade

page3

4,782 posts

238 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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Thinking of the Air for my 12 year old. With the ability to run iOS apps I think it’ll be the perfect machine for him, especially as he won’t accept Windows.

I will (on the other hand) carry on with my 2012 Air. Probably hacked to run Big Sur.

loudlashadjuster

4,685 posts

171 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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Looks like a stunning achievement and if initial reports and Apple's own claims are borne out, then Intel should be too embarrassed to show themselves.

With a bigger core count/higher frequencies (whatever mix they choose to go with when they move to desktop and server-class chips) they'll be freed of TDP worries and we'll really see what the architecture can do. As it is, for a debut low-power chip to basically be competitive with the best that Intel and AMD can offer in x86 at the high-end is simply astonishing.

Unless you need Windows on Bootcamp, or eGPU support, it looks like a no-brainer.

ant1973

5,606 posts

192 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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They are saying 3.5 times more powerful than the last Air. I could be persuaded to leave the windows environment if any of that is true...

xeny

3,640 posts

65 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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loudlashadjuster said:
Unless you need Windows on Bootcamp, or eGPU support, it looks like a no-brainer.
or more than one external monitor, or the ability to run x86 VMs, or use software that is CPU intensive (e/g/ makes heavy use of AVX(2) and not likely to be re-released for ARM.

They cover a large fraction of Mac laptop use cases but the corner cases will catch a fair few people out.

loudlashadjuster

4,685 posts

171 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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xeny said:
or more than one external monitor, or the ability to run x86 VMs, or use software that is CPU intensive (e/g/ makes heavy use of AVX(2) and not likely to be re-released for ARM.

They cover a large fraction of Mac laptop use cases but the corner cases will catch a fair few people out.
Good points. I'm sure a few other constraints/caveats will come out in time too, but for the bulk of Air, Mini users these won't be an issue.

Maybe later, higher power versions will include some sort of vector extensions that can be implemented to replace AVX? Apple users have enough clout in media/content generation applications to justify the investment on behalf of Adobe etc. modifying their applications. This isn't, after all, going to be a flash in the pan, rather the entire future for Apple OSes.

Edited by loudlashadjuster on Wednesday 11th November 13:54

kevinon

654 posts

47 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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I moved to Mac in 2006 when they ditched Motorola chips for Intel. And that MacBook Pro lasted 8 years at least, using the latest OS available. So a very cost-effective machine. (And I was sick of windows and windows laptops)

5 Nanometer SOC's shown yesterday do look like a great first step. As noted, these are optimised for laptops, with the new machines drawing low power, and not even needing a fan inside!

I am sure Apple and ARM have the smarts to make desk-top machines which will satisfy a huge % of use cases. That said, some people have a very closed mind when it comes to Apple and some even see Apple as all style over substance. It's a free world.






megaphone

10,187 posts

238 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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My 2009 iMac will need to be replaced in the next few years, so will be waiting.

I'm interested to see how long they will support Intel based Macs with new OS updates. If you look when they went from Power PC to Intel, updates for Power PC stopped after 3/4 years?

Magnum 475

3,181 posts

119 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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kevinon said:
I moved to Mac in 2006 when they ditched Motorola chips for Intel. And that MacBook Pro lasted 8 years at least, using the latest OS available. So a very cost-effective machine. (And I was sick of windows and windows laptops)

5 Nanometer SOC's shown yesterday do look like a great first step. As noted, these are optimised for laptops, with the new machines drawing low power, and not even needing a fan inside!

I am sure Apple and ARM have the smarts to make desk-top machines which will satisfy a huge % of use cases. That said, some people have a very closed mind when it comes to Apple and some even see Apple as all style over substance. It's a free world.
I didn't even move to Apple - I bought my first Mac in 1990 when I was a student. I majored in Computing with AI, so my humble motorola powered Mac was used to write code that simulated neural networks for image recognition (a single low-res image took several days to process) - a feature that is now available 'on chip' and can complete processing on much higher res images in a fraction of a second.

I've had a Mac of some sort ever since, and have no plans to change that. The M1 chip is a huge move for Apple, and a significant step forward over the current architecture. It's going to take some time for the assorted developers and software companies out there to start to take advantage of all the features of this CPU, but when they do it's clearly going to outperform anything Intel / AMD has to offer smile

I might buy the latest MBA to replace my existing 2011 MBA. But my MBP is also getting on a bit and I think OS 11.0 will be the last update it gets. So I'm minded to wait for the next batch that includes the 16" MBP, probably with a more powerful 'M' series CPU and bigger memory options. I'm also going to have to change my wife's iMac soon, as Catalina is the last supported OS version for it - when Apple stops issuing security updates for Catalina it will be time to change that as well. Now add in that the kids are getting to the age where they need computers for school (yes, I'm 'old dad') and I feel a couple of Mac Minis being purchased soon as well.




Magnum 475

3,181 posts

119 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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megaphone said:
My 2009 iMac will need to be replaced in the next few years, so will be waiting.

I'm interested to see how long they will support Intel based Macs with new OS updates. If you look when they went from Power PC to Intel, updates for Power PC stopped after 3/4 years?
They seem to have supported most machines for 7 - 8 years in the latest releases. My late 2013 MBP is one of the earliest that will take 'Big Sur' when it's released, so I'd expect to see similar for the current generation. Most users expect their Macs to last a long time, rather than be changed every few years as people do with PCs.

ATG

19,409 posts

259 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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Apple's claims about their M1 smell of cherry-picking data points and their description of the comparisons they've made are opaque. A bit of digging seems to suggest that the "3.5 times faster" stuff really means 3.5 times faster than a somewhat crappy Intel proc we used to use without providing it with adequate cooling.

I've been using ARM stuff since their first incarnation in the Acorn Archimedes in the late 1980s. Particularly compared to the Intel offerings back then, ARM cores have always been extremely power efficient and rather more elegant. For compact battery operated stuff like phones they are a no-brainer. But it's more than a stretch to claim they are outright faster than top end Intel or AMD processors. And the idea that they're usefully tailored for machine learning ... as if that were even a useful feature in a consumer grade, mid-market laptop ... is ... erm ... arse gravy.

Ynox

1,661 posts

166 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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On the fence here. I use my Mac as a development box and a non x86 CPU is a tiny bit worrying for that, but they do sound good.

I might maybe pick up a new MBA and see how that goes and go from there. It's definitely impressive though.

mathmos

716 posts

161 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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xeny said:
or more than one external monitor, or the ability to run x86 VMs, or use software that is CPU intensive (e/g/ makes heavy use of AVX(2) and not likely to be re-released for ARM.

They cover a large fraction of Mac laptop use cases but the corner cases will catch a fair few people out.
Why can't you run. more than one external monitor? I run 2 on my air with no problem...is there something different on the new models?

JonChalk

6,398 posts

97 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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I really want an M1 MBA, but my 2013 retina MBP is still going strong, battery is at 87% health, so I'm struggling to justify one just yet.

That makes me sad frown

colin79666

1,596 posts

100 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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mathmos said:
Why can't you run. more than one external monitor? I run 2 on my air with no problem...is there something different on the new models?
Yes, the M1 chip can only run 1 display over thunderbolt and the Air and Pro MacBooks only have thunderbolt ports. The Mini can run 1 via thunderbolt and one with the hdmi port.

interstellar

2,813 posts

133 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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Ordered an air last night. Been waiting for new chip and good value.

LunarOne

3,851 posts

124 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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I'm not tempted personally. I still use an early 2008 Mac Pro with a 4-core Xeon as my workhorse machine. As part of the freelance work I do while my fledgling fashion business establishes itself, I do Linux and recently, Solaris server builds in virtual machines using either VMware Fusion or Oracle Virtualbox. I also have an old HP Z400 workstation on which I run ESXi server, but there are certain things where I prefer a local VM. Especially when running Windows as a desktop. My old Mac doesn't support anything newer that OS X El Capitan unless I hack it, but it's just unbearably slow running a more recent OS. So I'm hoping that the prices of recent used Intel Macs is going to plummet soon at which time I shall upgrade. Because I'm a cheapskate and would rather spend my money on cars and fuel than on computer equipment!

SpudLink

4,749 posts

179 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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LunarOne said:
Because I'm a cheapskate and would rather spend my money on cars and fuel than on computer equipment!
I have ordered a MacBook Air with money that was going towards an upgrade for my track car.
It’s the first computer I’ve bought in 13 years, so I figured it’s about time. (Actually I have a 2012 MacBook Pro, but the insurance company paid for that after burglars took the previous model.)

mathmos

716 posts

161 months

Wednesday 11th November 2020
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colin79666 said:
Yes, the M1 chip can only run 1 display over thunderbolt and the Air and Pro MacBooks only have thunderbolt ports. The Mini can run 1 via thunderbolt and one with the hdmi port.
isn't it 1 6k resolution...that down't mean you can't run 2 x HDMI through the thunderbolt using an adaptors. Thats what i do with the air and it works fine.