Apple M1 - new Macs use ARM

[_V_]

Seems like it.

You often hear "wow the new Apple XXXXXX looks fantastic, but the starting price is X thousand pounds"

And Apple are worth more than most countries.

I don't own any Apple products. The chip looks interesting but I like to upgrade. All my laptops get RAM upgraded to max capacity during their lifetime.

[Lance]

looks like the M1 devices are going to be sold in parallel with the Intel ones for some while.
The M1s are quite a bit cheaper.

I assume they don't perform as well as the Intel chips, despite the marketing guff, as the M1 is only available for lower specced systems.
I also assume that binary compatibility will be gone so no more Windows VMs.
And I doubt that any Powershell cmdlets will work, not that many do on OSX yet anyway.

I am tempted though.

[Lance]

Apple are claiming that intel binaries run up to 2.8x faster when using Rosetta as an emulator.... which is remarkable..

[zerosum]

Apple are claiming that intel binaries run up to 2.8x faster when using Rosetta as an emulator.... which is remarkable..

Yeah...the new Macbook Air benchmarked higher on single-core and multi-core than the highest specced 16" Macbook Pro *without a fan* and with 15 hours+ battery life. Nuts.
Apple Silicon M1 Chip in MacBook Air Outperforms High-End 16-Inch MacBook Pro - MacRumors

[d000hg]

A bit more research highlights that M1 systems only offer up to 16Gb RAM and of course it cannot be upgraded later. It seems like this also is shared for GPU memory which will surely eat into that a bit as well?

They have also made the new systems worse in terms of driving external displays. As in, you can only drive up to 2 AFAIK unlike 3 before.

Maybe these two things are related and they haven't figured how to cram enough power/RAM onto the SoC design yet, and higher spec versions will come soon.

edit, found: Apple M1: Will storage and memory limits be a problem for pros? | ZDNet

[zerosum]

A bit more research highlights that M1 systems only offer up to 16Gb RAM and of course it cannot be upgraded later. It seems like this also is shared for GPU memory which will surely eat into that a bit as well?

They have also made the new systems worse in terms of driving external displays. As in, you can only drive up to 2 AFAIK unlike 3 before.

Maybe these two things are related and they haven't figured how to cram enough power/RAM onto the SoC design yet, and higher spec versions will come soon.

edit, found: Apple M1: Will storage and memory limits be a problem for pros? | ZDNet

What are you comparing to? This first wave replaces the most portable machines.

Apple are committed to doing an Apple silicon overhaul of the entire line within two years, but I’d wager we’re not going to see an m1 or 16gb max memory in the more ‘pro’-y machines. It will be another chip.

[d000hg]

You could upgrade the low-end MacMini past 16Gb and it (presumably) had discreet GPU RAM too.
I would guess 16GB is plenty but 8 is looking a bit sparse to me. You're right they are only replacing the lower spec so far.