Resident bored techies.....New MacBooks with M1 chips

[Steve]

Anyone reckon the new MacBook air or MacBook pro are worth buying?

Im due a new laptop now and wondering whether to get an old intel based mac or are these new apple silicon ones game changers.

[Saint]

Depends what you're going to do with it. If it's just web browsing and a bit of office work then the only benefit of tge M1 is likely a marginal battery life improvement.

If you're going to be a power user then the M1 looks like a major advancement

[Steve]

web browsing, watching movies, college assignments, and Zwift sessions would be my day to day.

my current MacBook air 2012 cant handle Zwift. it wants to burst into flames when i try.

would like to get into editing my go pro cycling footage but not sure if this is considered being a power user.

[JPNZ]

Simply get the M1, its a huge improvement over intel chips. Not only are the M1 chips faster but the battery life is improved as well. The last 2020 MPB 13" with Intel had geekbench scores of 905 single core and 3746 multi core. The 2020 M1 13" MBP scores 1699 single and 7349 multi core. Now granted geekbench/benchmark tests are not real world performance, but the M1 is nearly twice as powerful.

On top of that you have the massive improvement in battery life for instance the 2019 intel macbook pro 13" had 10 hour battery and the latest M1 has doubled that to 20 hours. 20 hours is unheard of in the 13" laptop category.

There is a reason apple is moving all Macs/Macbooks to their own chips (M1 etc) over the next 12-18 months.

[Sandstorm]

People buy last gen Apple kit?

[laurent]

People buy last gen Apple kit?

Gilded cages...

[Saint]

People buy last gen Apple kit?

Fir a £300 discount, yes

[fishfoodie]

Simply get the M1, its a huge improvement over intel chips. Not only are the M1 chips faster but the battery life is improved as well. The last 2020 MPB 13" with Intel had geekbench scores of 905 single core and 3746 multi core. The 2020 M1 13" MBP scores 1699 single and 7349 multi core. Now granted geekbench/benchmark tests are not real world performance, but the M1 is nearly twice as powerful.

On top of that you have the massive improvement in battery life for instance the 2019 intel macbook pro 13" had 10 hour battery and the latest M1 has doubled that to 20 hours. 20 hours is unheard of in the 13" laptop category.

There is a reason apple is moving all Macs/Macbooks to their own chips (M1 etc) over the next 12-18 months.

The problem is that Apple wasn't going to choose a benchmark that made their processor look worse that the ones it was supposed to be replacing; was it ?

I'm not terribly surprised to see that when someone independent got their hands on them; their results weren't nearly as rosy !

Intel and AMD mobility x86 CPUs thrash Apple M1 in Cinebench R23 benchmarks even with a node handicap

It is also interesting that not a lot of people keep in mind that Apple's M1 is based on the 5nm process - which is a 2 node advantage over Intel 14nm and a 1 node advantage over AMD 7nm. This advantage has nothing to do with Apple's architectural/engineering prowess and simply a function of the process provided by TSMC. However, even with this handicap, Intel 10nm and AMD 7nm mobility chips thrash out Apple's M1 in recent Cinebench R23 benchmarks.

[Dinsdale Piranha]

Simply get the M1, its a huge improvement over intel chips. Not only are the M1 chips faster but the battery life is improved as well. The last 2020 MPB 13" with Intel had geekbench scores of 905 single core and 3746 multi core. The 2020 M1 13" MBP scores 1699 single and 7349 multi core. Now granted geekbench/benchmark tests are not real world performance, but the M1 is nearly twice as powerful.

On top of that you have the massive improvement in battery life for instance the 2019 intel macbook pro 13" had 10 hour battery and the latest M1 has doubled that to 20 hours. 20 hours is unheard of in the 13" laptop category.

There is a reason apple is moving all Macs/Macbooks to their own chips (M1 etc) over the next 12-18 months.

The problem is that Apple wasn't going to choose a benchmark that made their processor look worse that the ones it was supposed to be replacing; was it ?

I'm not terribly surprised to see that when someone independent got their hands on them; their results weren't nearly as rosy !

Intel and AMD mobility x86 CPUs thrash Apple M1 in Cinebench R23 benchmarks even with a node handicap

It is also interesting that not a lot of people keep in mind that Apple's M1 is based on the 5nm process - which is a 2 node advantage over Intel 14nm and a 1 node advantage over AMD 7nm. This advantage has nothing to do with Apple's architectural/engineering prowess and simply a function of the process provided by TSMC. However, even with this handicap, Intel 10nm and AMD 7nm mobility chips thrash out Apple's M1 in recent Cinebench R23 benchmarks.

So, faster than single core AMD (at 30% of the power) and multicore Intel (at 60% of the power)

Disaster!

[fishfoodie]

Simply get the M1, its a huge improvement over intel chips. Not only are the M1 chips faster but the battery life is improved as well. The last 2020 MPB 13" with Intel had geekbench scores of 905 single core and 3746 multi core. The 2020 M1 13" MBP scores 1699 single and 7349 multi core. Now granted geekbench/benchmark tests are not real world performance, but the M1 is nearly twice as powerful.

On top of that you have the massive improvement in battery life for instance the 2019 intel macbook pro 13" had 10 hour battery and the latest M1 has doubled that to 20 hours. 20 hours is unheard of in the 13" laptop category.

There is a reason apple is moving all Macs/Macbooks to their own chips (M1 etc) over the next 12-18 months.

The problem is that Apple wasn't going to choose a benchmark that made their processor look worse that the ones it was supposed to be replacing; was it ?

I'm not terribly surprised to see that when someone independent got their hands on them; their results weren't nearly as rosy !

Intel and AMD mobility x86 CPUs thrash Apple M1 in Cinebench R23 benchmarks even with a node handicap

It is also interesting that not a lot of people keep in mind that Apple's M1 is based on the 5nm process - which is a 2 node advantage over Intel 14nm and a 1 node advantage over AMD 7nm. This advantage has nothing to do with Apple's architectural/engineering prowess and simply a function of the process provided by TSMC. However, even with this handicap, Intel 10nm and AMD 7nm mobility chips thrash out Apple's M1 in recent Cinebench R23 benchmarks.

So, faster than single core AMD (at 30% of the power) and multicore Intel (at 60% of the power)

Disaster!

Faster than the 5 year old offerings from them.

[Dinsdale Piranha]

The problem is that Apple wasn't going to choose a benchmark that made their processor look worse that the ones it was supposed to be replacing; was it ?

I'm not terribly surprised to see that when someone independent got their hands on them; their results weren't nearly as rosy !

So, faster than single core AMD (at 30% of the power) and multicore Intel (at 60% of the power)

Disaster!

Faster than the 5 year old offerings from them.

Intel i7-1185G7 ( top performing single core) launched Q3, 2020
Amd Ryzen 9 4900H (top performing multicore) - Launched 16th March 2020

[JPNZ]

The problem is that Apple wasn't going to choose a benchmark that made their processor look worse that the ones it was supposed to be replacing; was it ?

I'm not terribly surprised to see that when someone independent got their hands on them; their results weren't nearly as rosy !

Intel and AMD mobility x86 CPUs thrash Apple M1 in Cinebench R23 benchmarks even with a node handicap

It is also interesting that not a lot of people keep in mind that Apple's M1 is based on the 5nm process - which is a 2 node advantage over Intel 14nm and a 1 node advantage over AMD 7nm. This advantage has nothing to do with Apple's architectural/engineering prowess and simply a function of the process provided by TSMC. However, even with this handicap, Intel 10nm and AMD 7nm mobility chips thrash out Apple's M1 in recent Cinebench R23 benchmarks.

But thats not comparing the ones Apple is replacing is it? That article is talking Core i7, the MBP 13" 2020 was core i5 so Apple comparison stands. Apples for apple (hah) the 13" MBP with M1 is miles better than the previous model which is what the OP asked.

Wait till Apple develops the M(x)'s higher specced brothers for the 16" MBP and Mac Mini's then you'll see Core i7 and all intel chips obliterated.

[Steve]

wow......lot of conflicting views.

[JPNZ]

wow......lot of conflicting views.

There is nothing conflicting, you want to compare which is better Macbook Air/Pro 2019 version vs the 2020 version. The answer is simple.