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The New Coffee Room

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  3. Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world

Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world

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  • K Offline
    K Offline
    Klaus
    wrote on 12 Nov 2020, 13:22 last edited by
    #31

    I don't quite understand why the single core score is so much higher.

    The base frequency is a little higher, ok. The caches are significantly bigger, that might make a difference. But I find it hard to imagine that the new chip can do that much more per cycle.

    1 Reply Last reply
    • G Offline
      G Offline
      George K
      wrote on 12 Nov 2020, 13:27 last edited by
      #32

      Here's a different MacBook Pro (13 inch):

      https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/4665696

      Screen Shot 2020-11-12 at 7.25.53 AM.png

      "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

      The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

      1 Reply Last reply
      • G Offline
        G Offline
        George K
        wrote on 14 Nov 2020, 23:20 last edited by
        #33

        https://www.tomsguide.com/news/macbook-air-m1-benchmarks-revealed-and-they-destroy-windows-laptops

        Screen Shot 2020-11-14 at 5.19.06 PM.png

        "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

        The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

        1 Reply Last reply
        • K Offline
          K Offline
          Klaus
          wrote on 15 Nov 2020, 00:04 last edited by
          #34

          Yeah, it is impressive. It's not so clear, though, how well that translates into real-world performance. These are all synthetic benchmarks.

          One should also add that Intel/AMD desktop/server CPUs are still way faster. The fastest AMD CPUs have a multi-core score of around 60,000.

          I personally have always "philosophically" preferred RISC over CISC CPUs. It's nice to see RISC so much on the rise.

          G X 2 Replies Last reply 15 Nov 2020, 00:07
          • K Klaus
            15 Nov 2020, 00:04

            Yeah, it is impressive. It's not so clear, though, how well that translates into real-world performance. These are all synthetic benchmarks.

            One should also add that Intel/AMD desktop/server CPUs are still way faster. The fastest AMD CPUs have a multi-core score of around 60,000.

            I personally have always "philosophically" preferred RISC over CISC CPUs. It's nice to see RISC so much on the rise.

            G Offline
            G Offline
            George K
            wrote on 15 Nov 2020, 00:07 last edited by
            #35

            @Klaus said in Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world:

            The fastest AMD CPUs have a multi-core score of around 60,000.

            I have no doubt that there are many, many, "faster" chips.

            The chip is just one part of the equation, see my "Big Sur" thread.

            OTOH, that AMD CPU that scores 60K, is that available in a consumer machine for less than $2K?

            "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

            The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

            1 Reply Last reply
            • K Offline
              K Offline
              Klaus
              wrote on 15 Nov 2020, 00:22 last edited by
              #36

              @George-K said in Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world:

              OTOH, that AMD CPU that scores 60K, is that available in a consumer machine for less than $2K?

              No, of course not. I merely wanted to point out that this is not "the fastest CPU ever" or something, which somebody may prematurely conclude when looking at the numbers.

              G 1 Reply Last reply 15 Nov 2020, 00:28
              • K Klaus
                15 Nov 2020, 00:04

                Yeah, it is impressive. It's not so clear, though, how well that translates into real-world performance. These are all synthetic benchmarks.

                One should also add that Intel/AMD desktop/server CPUs are still way faster. The fastest AMD CPUs have a multi-core score of around 60,000.

                I personally have always "philosophically" preferred RISC over CISC CPUs. It's nice to see RISC so much on the rise.

                X Offline
                X Offline
                xenon
                wrote on 15 Nov 2020, 00:24 last edited by xenon
                #37

                @Klaus intel chips are x86 chips (30 year old basic design). They have to dedicate silicon to compatibility with legacy commands, pipelines. Then there are some other features like virtualization which are important for business applications, that benefit from hardware acceleration (but are wasted if you don’t use it).

                So in short - intel has a lot of design legacy to deal with and can’t just optimize for today’s common workloads.

                K 1 Reply Last reply 15 Nov 2020, 00:38
                • K Klaus
                  15 Nov 2020, 00:22

                  @George-K said in Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world:

                  OTOH, that AMD CPU that scores 60K, is that available in a consumer machine for less than $2K?

                  No, of course not. I merely wanted to point out that this is not "the fastest CPU ever" or something, which somebody may prematurely conclude when looking at the numbers.

                  G Offline
                  G Offline
                  George K
                  wrote on 15 Nov 2020, 00:28 last edited by
                  #38

                  @Klaus said in Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world:

                  that this is not "the fastest CPU ever"

                  Fair enough.

                  Perhaps the "Fastest CONSUMER CPU ever?"

                  "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

                  The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

                  K 1 Reply Last reply 15 Nov 2020, 00:40
                  • X xenon
                    15 Nov 2020, 00:24

                    @Klaus intel chips are x86 chips (30 year old basic design). They have to dedicate silicon to compatibility with legacy commands, pipelines. Then there are some other features like virtualization which are important for business applications, that benefit from hardware acceleration (but are wasted if you don’t use it).

                    So in short - intel has a lot of design legacy to deal with and can’t just optimize for today’s common workloads.

                    K Offline
                    K Offline
                    Klaus
                    wrote on 15 Nov 2020, 00:38 last edited by
                    #39

                    @xenon said in Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world:

                    So in short - intel has a lot of design legacy to deal with and can’t just optimize for today’s common workloads

                    I don’t think that this is the main factor. CISC vs RISC, that’s the big difference.

                    X AxtremusA 2 Replies Last reply 15 Nov 2020, 00:47
                    • G George K
                      15 Nov 2020, 00:28

                      @Klaus said in Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world:

                      that this is not "the fastest CPU ever"

                      Fair enough.

                      Perhaps the "Fastest CONSUMER CPU ever?"

                      K Offline
                      K Offline
                      Klaus
                      wrote on 15 Nov 2020, 00:40 last edited by Klaus
                      #40

                      @George-K said in Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world:

                      Perhaps the "Fastest CONSUMER (except Mark’s) CPU ever?"

                      FIFY.

                      G 1 Reply Last reply 15 Nov 2020, 00:41
                      • K Klaus
                        15 Nov 2020, 00:40

                        @George-K said in Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world:

                        Perhaps the "Fastest CONSUMER (except Mark’s) CPU ever?"

                        FIFY.

                        G Offline
                        G Offline
                        George K
                        wrote on 15 Nov 2020, 00:41 last edited by
                        #41

                        @Klaus said in Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world:

                        @George-K said in Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world:

                        Perhaps the "Fastest CONSUMER (except Mark’s) CPU ever?"

                        FIFY.

                        LOL

                        "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

                        The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        • K Klaus
                          15 Nov 2020, 00:38

                          @xenon said in Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world:

                          So in short - intel has a lot of design legacy to deal with and can’t just optimize for today’s common workloads

                          I don’t think that this is the main factor. CISC vs RISC, that’s the big difference.

                          X Offline
                          X Offline
                          xenon
                          wrote on 15 Nov 2020, 00:47 last edited by
                          #42

                          @Klaus well - yes, but Intel zero agency to change that because of its legacy and incumbency.

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          • K Klaus
                            15 Nov 2020, 00:38

                            @xenon said in Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world:

                            So in short - intel has a lot of design legacy to deal with and can’t just optimize for today’s common workloads

                            I don’t think that this is the main factor. CISC vs RISC, that’s the big difference.

                            AxtremusA Offline
                            AxtremusA Offline
                            Axtremus
                            wrote on 15 Nov 2020, 01:04 last edited by
                            #43

                            @Klaus said in Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world:

                            @xenon said in Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world:

                            So in short - intel has a lot of design legacy to deal with and can’t just optimize for today’s common workloads

                            I don’t think that this is the main factor. CISC vs RISC, that’s the big difference.

                            Not necessary a conflict between @xenon and @Klaus' points. Not hard to imagine, with the smaller transistor feature sizes today, that you can pack legacy Intel x86 CISC cores and AArchx64 RISC cores into the same die and have one chip that runs both instruction sets while sharing on-chip common caches and I/Os. Coming up with an OS that can simultaneously take manage both will take more work. The business/legal folks have to remove commercial and legal/cross-licensing impediments, but technically something like this can be done.

                            As a guy who keeps a Windows VM on my x86 Mac to run Windows, I really want to have a Mac option let me run a Windows VM on my future Mac. Not that it's urgent, I can wait a few years. I am just not confident that Apple will find sufficient commercial incentives to build a M-series chip Mac that can also run Windows and craft a version of macOS that can simultaneously manage AArch-64 and x86 cores. (Though, seeing how macOS can make use of an external GPU, maybe extending that framework to make use of an external x86 CPU isn't all that far fetched.) Else we'll have to resort of using software to emulate an x86 PC inside a macOS. The performance will take a hit and the CPU may be made unnecessarily busy then, but I suppose that will still be better than me having to maintain a separate machine just to run a Windows application.

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            • AxtremusA Offline
                              AxtremusA Offline
                              Axtremus
                              wrote on 16 Nov 2020, 02:53 last edited by
                              #44

                              https://www.macrumors.com/2020/11/15/m1-chip-emulating-x86-benchmark/

                              Got a chart there that shows the benchmark of M1-based MacBook Air running Geekbench in Rosetta 2:

                              alt text

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              • G Offline
                                G Offline
                                George K
                                wrote on 16 Nov 2020, 02:57 last edited by
                                #45

                                I saw that too. As I said earlier, I had no problems with the PowerPC/Intel transition. Rosetta worked just fine. Rmarkably well, as a matter of fact.

                                I have little doubt that Rosetta 2 will not be as good.

                                But, when your software runs faster in emulation than on native hardware. that's amazing.

                                "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

                                The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

                                AxtremusA 1 Reply Last reply 16 Nov 2020, 03:31
                                • G George K
                                  16 Nov 2020, 02:57

                                  I saw that too. As I said earlier, I had no problems with the PowerPC/Intel transition. Rosetta worked just fine. Rmarkably well, as a matter of fact.

                                  I have little doubt that Rosetta 2 will not be as good.

                                  But, when your software runs faster in emulation than on native hardware. that's amazing.

                                  AxtremusA Offline
                                  AxtremusA Offline
                                  Axtremus
                                  wrote on 16 Nov 2020, 03:31 last edited by
                                  #46

                                  @George-K said in Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world:

                                  But, when your software runs faster in emulation than on native hardware. that's amazing.

                                  Yes, that's bound to happen given enough time, like MS-DOS can run faster in an emulator on a modern computer than it could natively on an Intel 8088 PC XT from the 80s. I just was not sure how long that would take, so it's good to see these benchmarks.

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  • AxtremusA Offline
                                    AxtremusA Offline
                                    Axtremus
                                    wrote on 11 Dec 2020, 07:43 last edited by
                                    #47

                                    Posting from from a MacBook Air with M1 chip.
                                    So far so good.

                                    G 1 Reply Last reply 11 Dec 2020, 12:50
                                    • AxtremusA Axtremus
                                      11 Dec 2020, 07:43

                                      Posting from from a MacBook Air with M1 chip.
                                      So far so good.

                                      G Offline
                                      G Offline
                                      George K
                                      wrote on 11 Dec 2020, 12:50 last edited by
                                      #48

                                      @Axtremus said in Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world:

                                      Posting from from a MacBook Air with M1 chip.
                                      So far so good.

                                      How much RAM does it have, and are you bumping into any problems because of the RAM?

                                      I assume Mac OS 11, right?

                                      "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

                                      The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

                                      AxtremusA 1 Reply Last reply 11 Dec 2020, 14:13
                                      • G Offline
                                        G Offline
                                        George K
                                        wrote on 11 Dec 2020, 12:57 last edited by
                                        #49

                                        Apple's working on its own cellular modem chip:

                                        https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/10/22168779/apple-leak-cellular-modem-johny-srouji-town-hall

                                        "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

                                        The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

                                        AxtremusA 1 Reply Last reply 11 Dec 2020, 14:23
                                        • G George K
                                          11 Dec 2020, 12:50

                                          @Axtremus said in Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world:

                                          Posting from from a MacBook Air with M1 chip.
                                          So far so good.

                                          How much RAM does it have, and are you bumping into any problems because of the RAM?

                                          I assume Mac OS 11, right?

                                          AxtremusA Offline
                                          AxtremusA Offline
                                          Axtremus
                                          wrote on 11 Dec 2020, 14:13 last edited by
                                          #50

                                          @George-K said in Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world:

                                          @Axtremus said in Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world:

                                          Posting from from a MacBook Air with M1 chip.
                                          So far so good.

                                          How much RAM does it have, and are you bumping into any problems because of the RAM?

                                          I assume Mac OS 11, right?

                                          16GB RAM in this case.
                                          It came with macOS 11 preinstalled.

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