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

(www.macrumors.com)
1080 points antipaul | 3 comments | 12 Nov 20 00:56 UTC | HN request time: 0.002s | source
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WoodenChair ◴[12 Nov 20 01:47 UTC] No.25065476[source]▶
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...

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imwally ◴[12 Nov 20 01:51 UTC] No.25065503[source]▶
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.
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srtjstjsj ◴[12 Nov 20 02:05 UTC] No.25065595[source]▶
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.
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imwally ◴[12 Nov 20 02:46 UTC] No.25065846[source]▶
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.
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jsjohnst ◴[12 Nov 20 03:38 UTC] No.25066152[source]▶
> 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...

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1. smnscu ◴[12 Nov 20 14:13 UTC] No.25070021{5}[source]▶
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

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2. sroussey ◴[12 Nov 20 15:23 UTC] No.25070814[source]▶
Make sure the resolution is set to “native” for the external monitor.
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3. smnscu ◴[25 Nov 20 20:35 UTC] No.25214007[source]▶
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).