←back to thread

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

(www.macrumors.com)
1080 points antipaul | 1 comments | 12 Nov 20 00:56 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
zdw ◴[12 Nov 20 04:30 UTC] No.25066465[source]▶
AMD's Zen 3 (Ryzen 5xxx series) are beating the Apple M1 in single core score: https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/singlecore

As another datapoint Ian (of Anandtech) estimated that the M1 would need to be clocked at 3.25Ghz to match Zen 3, and these systems are showing a 3.2Ghz clock: https://twitter.com/IanCutress/status/1326516048309460992

replies(9): >>25066469 #>>25066520 #>>25066537 #>>25066720 #>>25067051 #>>25067086 #>>25068425 #>>25068547 #>>25069628 #
gjsman-1000 ◴[12 Nov 20 04:31 UTC] No.25066469[source]▶
OK... but let's say it's 95% there, even. How much power does an M1 draw compared to a 5950X? It's not even funny. And the M1 is running at a lower clock.
replies(5): >>25066529 #>>25066541 #>>25066618 #>>25066722 #>>25066829 #
acomjean ◴[12 Nov 20 05:40 UTC] No.25066829[source]▶
It’s very impressive. It seems like the open computing platforms where you have control of your hardware/ os are in real trouble.

I use Mac at work, but Linux at home, if the hardware isn’t competitive....

replies(4): >>25066910 #>>25066996 #>>25067041 #>>25068356 #
josteink ◴[12 Nov 20 06:23 UTC] No.25067041[source]▶
> It’s very impressive. It seems like the open computing platforms where you have control of your hardware/ os are in real trouble.

Not really. The M1 may objectively and factually be a very good CPU, but it comes bundled with the cost of being locked into a machine with a locked bootloader and not being able to boot any other OS than MacOS.

And many people will find such a cost unacceptable.

replies(3): >>25067154 #>>25067162 #>>25069008 #
brailsafe ◴[12 Nov 20 06:46 UTC] No.25067154[source]▶
I have a hard time believing that the amount of people that care so deeply about loading other OSs as to switch their computing platform of choice is significant. Perhaps more significant for those who are already doing that with either a mac or something else and choose not to switch, likewise for virtualization, but I sure as hell wouldn't switch away from mac for the ostensible benefit of multibooting Windows or Linux, and I'm at least in the subset of people who might.
replies(1): >>25067911 #
feanaro ◴[12 Nov 20 09:05 UTC] No.25067911[source]▶
There are gargantuan unseen costs for giving up computing freedom that will not readily apparent at the moment you abandon it. The benefit will be shown as much more than "ostensible". I do hope for both of our sakes that most people are not so fickle to abandon it at first opportunity just because it is not an immediate cost.
replies(3): >>25068028 #>>25068869 #>>25071679 #
1. pmontra ◴[12 Nov 20 16:48 UTC] No.25071679{6}[source]▶
> There are gargantuan unseen costs for giving up computing freedom

There is a social experiment about that, running since at least 2007. It's the smartphone and the tablet. I think I don't have to detail it and all of us can assess the benefits and the problems. We could have different views though.

By the way, I wonder if the makers of smartphones hardware and/or software could do all of their work, including the creation of new generations of devices, using the closed systems they sell (rent?). I bet they couldn't, not all of their work, but it's a honest question.