ARM based Macs?

[fiveohwblow]

Originally Posted by ASAP

So... any thoughts? They all got released recently... cannot decide between the Air or Pro... they seem so close in specs.

My 2015 i7 MBP took a dump, I had to buy a new one as it was beyond repair. Grabbed me a smaller M1 equipped MBP this time and it has been nothing shy of amazing. Two weeks in, zero bugs, zero issues and MY GAWD the battery life is staggering. I ran some benchmarks and the single core processing can't be beat. This is obviously the single most Important indicator. The only machines besting this out of box laptop are also 16 core gaming jams or 8 core i9 overclocked type units. that is impressive. I would HIGHLY recommend this to anyone looking.

[GenXer]

The biggest difference is literally the cooling fan!

MacBook Air doesn't have a cooling fan --- the irony isn't lost on me either.

MacBook Pro has a cooling fan which helps keep the processor runs cooler and helps processing output. So if you know you're going to be running Final Cut Pro and other processor hogs, you really don't have a choice.

But if you're not a power user, the Air is just about perfect.

[ASAP]

Originally Posted by GenXer

The biggest difference is literally the cooling fan!

MacBook Air doesn't have a cooling fan --- the irony isn't lost on me either.

MacBook Pro has a cooling fan which helps keep the processor runs cooler and helps processing output. So if you know you're going to be running Final Cut Pro and other processor hogs, you really don't have a choice.

But if you're not a power user, the Air is just about perfect.

I bought the 512 gb Air which comes with the 8 core processor like the Macbook pro... it's spectacular and cost $1249... $600 less than my mbp from 2015 and it blows it away in every way. Size is awesome, keyboard is awesome, battery is amazing and heat dissipation is incredible.

[JasonDot]

Looking at the stellar M1 reviews really makes me wonder what Intel has been doing for so long. Apple Silicon/ARM processors aren't new but they seem like the rookie that's smoking the veterans with energy for overtime.

[Capt Crunch]

Originally Posted by GenXer

The biggest difference is literally the cooling fan!

MacBook Air doesn't have a cooling fan --- the irony isn't lost on me either.

MacBook Pro has a cooling fan which helps keep the processor runs cooler and helps processing output. So if you know you're going to be running Final Cut Pro and other processor hogs, you really don't have a choice.

But if you're not a power user, the Air is just about perfect.

Linus Tech Tips just tested the batter between the Air and MBP and the MBP was significantly longer, I think 5-6 hours or something. Definitely makes the price difference better.

[M_Six]

Got a 13" M1 MBP on order with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. Can't wait for it to get here. My 2012 13" MBP, which I'm typing on now, starts to sound like a hair dryer with any heavy graphics use. Plus it takes about a minute to open Photoshop and there's a pretty good lag to see 100% previews in Bridge. I bought a 27" Intel iMac back in the spring, and that is sooo much faster than the 2012 iMac it replaced. I'm hoping the new MBP will be equally as big of an improvement.

[M_Six]

Anyone special order one of these yet? If so, how long did you have to wait for delivery?

As I said above, my new M1 has 16GB RAM, which was a special order. I asked the university bookstore to order it for me on Jan 5. They said it would be 3 weeks. I sent them an email today asking if they'd received any updates and they told me the estimated delivery date is now Feb 4. That's 2 weeks from now. I'm wondering if they just forgot to put in my original order or waited a week or so to do it.

[vreihen16]

IIRC, the Apple web site gives estimated shipping dates when you do a custom build.

Out of curiosity, does your university bookstore have better pricing than Apple's online academic discount?????

[ASAP]

I was initially going to buy the higher end mac pro but after I started researching how good the specs are on the base air machines... I skipped the pro but definitely a part of my decision was the long wait... some of these machines have oddly long wait times.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

IIRC, the Apple web site gives estimated shipping dates when you do a custom build.

Out of curiosity, does your university bookstore have better pricing than Apple's online academic discount?????

Same discount. In fact, it's the same website. When I go to the Apple section of our bookstore's site, it bounces me to the Apple academic discount site. And with the bookstore, I don't have to worry about UPS/Fedex snafus. My new MBP, even with the sales tax, was quite a bit less than the same configuration at B&H.

[vreihen16]

When I priced out my i9 MBP beast last spring, a local electronics chain had it in stock for next-day UPS delivery...for less than the Apple academic price...and offered 24 month interest-free financing. Apple's site was quoting a few weeks out for delivery on the same common configuration at the time. My daddy didn't raise no fools, so I grabbed it from the local place while they still had stock in their own warehouse.....

[dreamingat30fps]

Any ETA announced on the M1 16" MBP?

I have a 2016 15" MBP and honestly it's still running strong. I use it mostly as a desktop hooked up to 3 4k displays and for the most part it doesn't skip a beat. I do use it as a laptop when we are traveling so I would like the bigger screen for that. I also find it has started to lag a bit after it has been on for several days and I have a lot of stuff going on or when I'm running windows 10 on virtualbox. So while I don't need to upgrade yet I'm starting to think about it. Apple did replace the battery a couple years ago as it was getting bloated, pretty sure I was out of warranty also so maybe it was a recall or something.

My previous MBP maybe a 2010 or 2012 don't remember is still kicking also although the battery on that one is shot, but as long as it's plugged in it runs perfectly fine.

[JasonDot]

Originally Posted by dreamingat30fps

Any ETA announced on the M1 16" MBP?

I have a 2016 15" MBP and honestly it's still running strong. I use it mostly as a desktop hooked up to 3 4k displays and for the most part it doesn't skip a beat. I do use it as a laptop when we are traveling so I would like the bigger screen for that. I also find it has started to lag a bit after it has been on for several days and I have a lot of stuff going on or when I'm running windows 10 on virtualbox. So while I don't need to upgrade yet I'm starting to think about it. Apple did replace the battery a couple years ago as it was getting bloated, pretty sure I was out of warranty also so maybe it was a recall or something.

My previous MBP maybe a 2010 or 2012 don't remember is still kicking also although the battery on that one is shot, but as long as it's plugged in it runs perfectly fine.

Hi, no announcement of the 16 inch M1 MBPs. It's one I'm looking for as well.

Also, nice setup with your current configuration!

[bimmer456]

Originally Posted by GenXer

It's fast and all. It even has a long battery life between charges. But you're giving up on a lot of ports that are still popular; USB A, SD which are plentiful on the old MacBook going down to 2 USB C ports. One of which may be charging your computer. If you got the old MacBook Air with Magsafe port, you'll be losing that too. I know you can by a plug in magnetic USB C but it sticks out of the laptop and it limits your charging amp too.

It's supposed to be able to run iOS apps if you don't mind it being a little buggy.

But I am tempted as well since my MacBook Air has seen better days.

Just got mine, it is crazy fast, the only computer you'll ever need. I got an adapter for the missing ports, not an issue. You won't mind and the MacBook Air hasn't had them for a few years now. Battery last forever, and no fan so no noise and it doesn't even get warm. It's great that it runs most iOS apps, my ring and wyze camera apps now work on my Mac and are more stable and load faster than they do on my 2018 iPhone 10s max. You won't regret it, $899 with student discount and less then $1000 with tax and shipping. They don't really check if you're a student. Blows the doors off the 16" intel Mac that costs thousands more, honestly apple is canabalizing their own computers with these cheaper and faster models. All you need is the base config.

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by JasonDot

Looking at the stellar M1 reviews really makes me wonder what Intel has been doing for so long. Apple Silicon/ARM processors aren't new but they seem like the rookie that's smoking the veterans with energy for overtime.

It's the price you have to pay for extreme backwards compatibility.
Intel doesn't give a shit about apple, their main target is x86/x64 based pc (mainly windows based machines) as that market is way way bigger.
And microsoft has this thing about legacy compatibility.

Arm base processors have been superior in the performance per watt game (which this is ultimately about) for decades as it's a platform specifically designed for low energy consumption (handhelds etc). It's not a new platform, it's origins date back to the 80's (the A stands for Acorn). So there's no rookie here. x86 is only ~10 years older.

It would be interesting to compare apple's m1 cpu to smartphone cpu's. these are also usually ARM based and also have insane processing power per watt.
I think this is both because of the 5nm process. Both the M1 and top end smartphone cpu's are based on 5nm CPU lithography whereas Intel cpu's are currently on 10nm.

[GenXer]

Originally Posted by bimmer456

Just got mine, it is crazy fast, the only computer you'll ever need. I got an adapter for the missing ports, not an issue. You won't mind and the MacBook Air hasn't had them for a few years now. Battery last forever, and no fan so no noise and it doesn't even get warm. It's great that it runs most iOS apps, my ring and wyze camera apps now work on my Mac and are more stable and load faster than they do on my 2018 iPhone 10s max. You won't regret it, $899 with student discount and less then $1000 with tax and shipping. They don't really check if you're a student. Blows the doors off the 16" intel Mac that costs thousands more, honestly apple is canabalizing their own computers with these cheaper and faster models. All you need is the base config.

You say they don't check if you're an actual student?

I think my MacBook Air is going to last forever.
My old Core 2 Duo MacBook is 15 years old and it still works.

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

It's the price you have to pay for extreme backwards compatibility.
Intel doesn't give a shit about apple, their main target is x86/x64 based pc (mainly windows based machines) as that market is way way bigger.

That's right. Being able to run arbitrarily old code forces decisions at both the architectural and micro-architectural level that are the enemy of simplicity. This ultimately makes for less efficient processors.

While AMD has fared better, they are still a slave to the same ISA. There's a reason why you don't see x64/x64 powered hand-held devices anymore. It was tried, but it didn't work. Performance/watt just isn't there, and the gulf remains visible as you scale up to laptops, desktops, servers, etc.

And Microsoft has this thing about legacy compatibility.

I know that was tongue-in-cheek, but it's not just a nuance or quirk, it's probably the only thing keeping them alive at this point. In today's world, there are plenty of alternatives that give up nothing other than they require users and organizations to accept some up front change or concession - even if only minimally in some cases - in order to get up and running. Wintel offers smoother (or sometimes just the perception of smoother) upgrade transitions which turns out to be extremely valuable, and leads to massive advantage when fighting off threats to market share.

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

In today's world, there are plenty of alternatives that give up nothing other than they require users and organizations to accept some up front change or concession - even if only minimally in some cases - in order to get up and running.

Amazon AWS is literally giving away free ARM-based Graviton2 CPU demo micro-instances to customers through March, trying to get people to shift from Intel x86/x64 to Arm. I'm running a few basic Linux instances on my personal AWS account, and am seriously thinking about moving them over to Graviton2 just because the hourly cost is lower.....

[M_Six]

Finally got my 13" MBP M1. 16GB/512GB

Seems pretty snappy, but I haven't had a chance to do much with it yet except the initial OS update and install my apps. So much lighter than my 2012 13" MBP.

[bimmer456]

Originally Posted by GenXer

You say they don't check if you're an actual student?

I think my MacBook Air is going to last forever.
My old Core 2 Duo MacBook is 15 years old and it still works.

I have a 2011 and it is still going strong after an ssd upgrade. But the air is faster and has no fan and phenomenal battery life. Also I can run iOS apps like my ring and Wyze apps and the video loads quick. They are giving me $100 for my old machine but I will put the stock HDD back in and wipe it.