Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

Their line from the video about being the highest performance chip in single core appears to be true. This is of course a synthetic benchmark but the single core result is very promising. Note that the single core and multi core scores exceed the top-of-the-line 16” MacBook Pro (9th generation 8-core i9 2.4 ghz). I actually made the call to sell my 16” for the new Air yesterday. It’s looking like a good call. Glad I’m selling my 16” while it still has some value.

You can see all Air results so far here: https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/search?q=MacBookAir10%2...

Replacing my 16" MBP (8 core i9 2.3ghz / 32GB RAM) with the new Air as well. All of that power (yes I know, it's not sustained) without a fan is incredible.

Yeah I had almost the same configuration (2tb/32gb/2.4 ghz). I’m literally getting the new Air for half of what I’m selling it for.

Direct comparison between best MBP Intel 16" vs M1 Air: https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/compare/4651916?baselin...

1.5x single-core perf.

M1 MacBook Pro vs Intel MBP (top specs) show same performance: https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/compare/4652718?baselin...

Likely because GB5 doesn't run long enough to trigger thermal throttling on the M1 MBA.

M1 is beating all CPUs on the market in single-core scores: https://browser.geekbench.com/processor-benchmarks (M1 at 1719, vs AMD Ryzen 9 5950X at 1628).

Anandtech on the memory-affinity of GeekBench vs SPEC:

> There’s been a lot of criticism about more common benchmark suites such as GeekBench, but frankly I've found these concerns or arguments to be quite unfounded. The only factual differences between workloads in SPEC and workloads in GB5 is that the latter has less outlier tests which are memory-heavy, meaning it’s more of a CPU benchmark whereas SPEC has more tendency towards CPU+DRAM.

Damnit I have to decide the same thing. I’m really happy with my 16” mbp for once and I’m not sure if I want to get a smaller screen and give up windows support (for now) I feel like Ms could be convinced to make a version for Apple silicone if it keeps its performance advantage.

Good news is Parallels announced a closer colab with Apple to bring x86 virt to M1, too. They demo'd Parallels running a linux VM at WWDC, but the upcoming release will also support seamless Windows virt again.

Why did you pay a fortune for 32GB RAM, a larger screen, and a dGPU if you don't need it? You could have bought a 13" MBP and saved enough cash to get the new Air and now have 2 laptops.

Note that the M1 does not support eGPUs, in case you need it.

That demo shows an ARM VM with Linux for ARM running inside it. There have been no announcements or demos of Intel emulation, besides Rosetta 2.

Parallels announced a full version of Parallels Desktop (which is the Win-on-macOS product) at the same time as the event on Nov 10: https://www.parallels.com/blogs/parallels-desktop-apple-sili...

The new MBA is a total beast. The comparison is almost unbelievable. Can't wait to see what they do with the iMac, Mac Pro and MBP 16". Just phenomenal!

1. How do you know he didn’t need it?

2. Even if he didn’t need it, why assume he didn’t want it?

3. Why are you assuming that money is an issue for him?

Where are you selling it? I want to know where to buy a used 16” MBP.

He's assuming he didn't need 32GB if he's replacing it with a 16GB Air.

Also: Why assume he would want to have two separate laptops

They need to put out a 16" MBA.

Where is that spec’d out?

I’ve always used 15” MBPs without external displays as my only computer for years. I like being mobile and don’t particularly like having a desktop + laptop. Since COVID I’ve been stuck at home so I decided to finally get an external monitor. The problem is that you can’t use the 16” with an external display and the lid open without the fans spinning at full speed. Some people don’t mind it but it drives me crazy. Now it’s hooked up to my display in clamshell mode. Do I need all of that power? No, but I did want the biggest screen at the time when I purchased it a year ago. I plan on selling it when the new Air comes in.

That PR doesn't actually say anything about running Windows. You can't just port the app. A VM on an ARM system is still ARM inside, and given that the PR specifically mentions "support of x64 applications in Windows on ARM", this is clearly for ARM VMs. You'd need actual Intel emulation in order to run the normal version of Windows.

No mention there of it supporting x86 on M1.

Indeed. Might be misleading marketing. Docker meanwhile mentioned they will launch with ARM containers only, but are expecting QEMU to be able to run x86 (probably badly).

> You'd need actual Intel emulation in order to run the normal version of Windows.

Microsoft is working on enabling x64 emulation on ARM, it should roll out in preview this month[1]. I can see Windows 10 ARM-edition working inside Parallels with its own x64 emulation inside. The issue right now is that MS does not sell Win 10 ARM, it is available for OEMs only.

x86 emulation on Windows 10 ARM was already done few years ago, when MS shipped their Surface ARM notebook.

[1] https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2020/09/30/now-m...

eBay-you’re welcome to buy it if you want: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-MacBook-Pro-16-2-4-Ghz-i9-32-...

I've sold on cragislist before... worked out fine.

Somebody else bought it.

> The problem is that you can’t use the 16” with an external display and the lid open without the fans spinning at full speed

Say what? I have a LG 5K and two 27” Apple Thunderbolt displays (four screens total including laptop display) hooked up to my 16” MBP and fans definitely are no where near full speed, unless I’m compiling or in a Google Hangout that is...

    sudo htop 

See what’s going on.

Os-query was going bonkers on me.

You need to plug the power port into the back right usb-c connector.

You guys must have some generic or Apple specific workflows since you are confident that the software is already supported.

You can emulate anything on anything (pretty much), but the real question is can you emulate it at a speed that’s sufficient. That takes host-system-specific optimizations.

Look at N64 emulation, for example.

As long as you don't depend on x86_64 Docker containers or Boot Camp, you should be fine in general.

I bought the new Air, but I’m keeping my 16” as it may be the last laptop of that quality that can run programs without telling some stranger over the network that you’ve run a specific program.

Current (and presumably future) macOS does this and you can’t turn it off, except with Little Snitch. New APIs in macOS 11 means that Little Snitch will no longer be able to block OS processes, so it will require external network filtering hardware.

I’ll likely end up with Linux on the 16”, and use the new one for things that are not secret/private.

I regularly drive a 5k2k display on a 16" MBP, along with glowy keyboard and trackpad, and I only get the fan when I'm doing something like a full-screen streamed video: text editing and web browsing seldom trigger it.

I like the bigger screen, so I'll hold out on this platform for now. Pretty impressed with where the M series is going, though; might hold out two iterations instead of the four I had in mind before the M1 dropped.

Yeah I'm powering 4k external display for normal things (hangouts, photoshop) no fan, only when doing a-frame / three.js stuff in the browser will bring the constant fan and provide a nice finger warmer above the touch bar

This is where I’m at too. Compromising Little Snitch and VPNs is just a bridge too far. It’s cool that they got this level of performance in a lightweight form factor, less so when it enables the worse of surveillance practices.

If he needs it he wouldn’t move to a laptop that doesn’t offer it. You can’t get 32GB of memory or a dGPU on the new Macs.

X64 apps running in a emulator, running on ARM64 Windows, running virtualized in ARM64 MacOS. What is the world coming to??

It's not a process thing. The left-side TB3 controller freaks out under sustained load and can drive the system to a crawl. We have to unplug one of our LG 4/5Ks and run the other+power on the right when we want to be able to do back to back video conferencing.

It's been a running joke in corporate for years that Apple's "premium fan noise" is a brilliant branding move because you can identify the Mac users as soon as they unmute.

I'm seriously considering doing the same thing. My only hesitation is the screen size. But right now the laptop I bought in January is being outclassed by one that costs 1/3 the price...

Why? Really interested.

Back in the day I had 2 Sun 20" GDM20E20 (1997) which was major $$ and after then I alway had 2 monitors, moving at some point to a single ultra wide LG (which are pretty neat). One day I looked at my setup and how I used it and realized I did not look at all of the screen. I swapped it for a small single Apple LG 4K and it turns out I am very happy. The dense nature of the 4K was a game changer. I plan on getting an 8K when it comes out.

Ugh, I didn’t realize that the system apps would bypass VPNs, too. That’s terrible. :(

https://appleterm.com/2020/10/20/macos-big-sur-firewalls-and...

Looks like it will be impossible to use Apple Silicon (without external network hardware) without revealing your track log to the CIA. How cool is that?!

What video conferencing app? Why is the machine loaded up when running it?

Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on but I'm not the only one it seems.

Here's a 173 page thread on MacRumors about it: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/16-is-hot-noisy-with-an...

> The problem is that you can’t use the 16” with an external display and the lid open without the fans spinning at full speed.

I had the same problem, when connected to a USB-C monitor I wanted to use the keyboard, but not the built in monitor. Even with the display backlight off the fan would still run. After a lot of searching I found that you can disable the built in monitor by:

- Booting into recovery mode - Opening Terminal - Entering `sudo nvram boot-args="niog=1"` - Restarting - Close the clamshell - Plug in the external monitor - Open the monitor

I hope that helps.

At least it doesn't involve Electron.

I want to do the same, but I like being able to do some gaming on my Windows partition (I opted for the 8GB dGPU as well).

I have the same problem and I've tried plugging it into all 4 ports, no difference at all.

The monitor gets plugged in and the fans just start taking off to the moon - no workload or anything. It's extremely annoying.

I'd like to see a good piece on these new Mac systems from the perspective of exactly what they mean in terms of software lockdown.

Mine should be here in a week or two, and doubtless I’ll be complaining on my blog with receipts. I can’t promise “good” but I’ll present the facts.

That actually seems more logical than the alternatives.

One of the big hopes for Rosetta2 is the possibility of intercepting library calls and passing them to the native library where possible. So a well-behaved app using OS libraries for everything it can, and really only driving the business logic itself, would be running mostly-native with the business logic emulated/translated.

(This is hopes/dreams/speculation with no insider knowledge.)

If Windows could do the same, then letting windows-arm do the translation of windows-x86/64 binaries would allow it to leverage windows-arm libraries - so an app could be running in mostly-virt with some-emu. If we let parallels/qemu/etc do the emu, it can only ever be 100% emu.

Have you tried only using the ports on the right side of the laptop?

As crazy as this sounds, using the left hand side ports for charging causes the fans to kick in more often[0].

[0]https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/363337/how-to-find...

The VHDX for Windows 10 on Arm inside of virtual machines can be downloaded at: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windowsins... as part of the Insider program.

That Air will sell so well.

Many don't even want to pay for the MacBook Pro's Touch Bar and many will probably see an Air's fanless design as an advantage over Pro, even if its CPU is throttled a little more often in sustained high CPU workloads. Complete silence is just that good. And it's going to be so much cheaper.

I think the star of the show yesterday was definitely the MacBook Air.

> why? Really interested.

Generally speaking, I’ve never found that to be genuine, but assume best intent and all as the site rules say, so here goes...

For me, I often am doing multiple things at once and juggling between unrelated tasks which actually need my attention sporadically. The LG 5K with it’s beautiful display gets my primary attention and is what I want to be focused on. Apps there are what I should ideally be working on. The two Apple TB displays then flank either side, and they get the “distractions”, but stuff important enough to allow distracting me when needed. What that is is variable from day (sometimes Slack makes the list, sometimes it doesn’t, as one example), but it’s intentionally in my peripheral vision so I only “look” for motion/changes in certain areas, not actually try to read. If I need to read, I context shift by rotating my chair slightly to the left or right (better for you than rotating head).

End of the day, do whatever works for you. Yes, there are folks who can legitimately take advantage of lots of screens like me. Some folks who have tried multiple don’t, and are happier when they switch back, but I’m not one of them and it’s something I routinely experiment with to ensure I’m still using the best “for me” setup. I’ve gone as high as nine screens attached (with eGPU) to my laptop (eGPU seems to keep laptop fans on elevated, but not full power btw, back to original thread purpose), but I found I was too easily distracted and hence am back to four. Ideally I’d like to do two 8K 32” or less monitors, but haven’t justified buying them yet.

I have two identical top-specced MBP16", bought them as soon as they were released. They BOTH do that with my LG 5K Ultrafine display, whether they're closed or open, without doing anything particularly heavy. Sent them both to Apple, they passed all checks with flying colours. And that's the end of more than a decade of giving Apple tons of money. I built a Ryzen desktop this year and, despite missing macOS terribly, I couldn't be happier with the speed and ergonomics.

edit: I've tried both sides of the laptop, I have iStat Menus and keep an eye on temps, etc.

edit2: they "only" spin to 3.5k-4k at idle, but go up as soon as I do anything with Chrome or am on a video call, which is most of my job

Make sure the resolution is set to “native” for the external monitor.

I think you should wait because I have a feeling all of this sounds too good to be true. wait for real world reviews.

Thanks, that makes sense. For me I have found having something on the other monitor catch my eye a distraction, so I have gone back to a single high DPI one.

It is a general theme, people say how they are switching their specced out 2019 16inch MBP to these new M1 Macbooks, then getting all upset when people point out, they are probably not the professionals the top-end MBPs were aimed at.

A lot of people run around with way more powerful laptops than they actually need for whatever they are doing, because it's through a business or it's deductible, but news flash, buying a Macbook Pro doesn't make you a pro.

A question, if ALL pros were fine with 16GBs of RAM, why does Apple offer 4x as much? Answer, because a lot of people will actually need it.

I am happy for people who will get these new devices an be happy with it, I might get one too. But truth be told, most of us getting these devices could make it work with the latest iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard just as well. (OK, I do need to code occasionally, but even for that there is pretty ok apps for iPad I could use)

The expectations have to come the fuck down from where they are today, because the expectations put on these devices are just crazy. It's so overhyped that I think many will be disappointed, when compatibility issues surface and when people realise that the 3x, 5x, 7x performance digits are mainly down to Fixed Function Hardware and Accelerators and general performance increase is just slightly above the generational leap we are used to, with a bigger increase in efficiency.

They're all set to native, I don't do scaling. I've since got a free top case replacement from Apple (keyboard was slightly busted because I spilled soda on it lol) and, after a PRAM reset, it's not going crazy at idle, only when being in WebRTC calls (which is 90% of my job).