Higher end Intel laptops have had cooling issues for nearly a decade now. When my daughter starts using my old 15" MBP I can hear it from across the room. In normal use I can't hear the fans on my Intel iMac at all.
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All in on M1 from Intel?
- Thread starter Kierkegaarden
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Right, so now to both completely obliterate the performance of Intel laptops *and* run cool and silent while doing it is an incredible leap.
Yes it is but if you are using an Intel Desktop Mac the cooling and power issues that Intel has are less important and the Intel Macs still enjoy a backward compatibly and cross platform advantage (which will fade over time).
Why would an M1 machine have poor Bluetooth? Sorry if this is a stupid question - I've never heard anyone mention this before.
Some people have reported issues with Bluetooth. Wifi is also slower than on the Intel Macs. Some have also reported issues with Thunderbolt hubs and external monitors.
This issue isn’t unique to the M1 mini, but previous Intel mini’s that have used this same enclosure.
Long story short; the only clear point of antenna reception is the plastic base on the bottom of the device. The original mini didn’t have this issue because, sensibly, the design team used a plastic panel for the top of the device, where the antenna was located.
Apple has never been one to let usability get in the way of design.
Absolutely. The charging port on the bottom of the Magic Mouse is a work of art
That, and the 2009-era iMac power button, the touchbar, having the back button on the iPhone in the top left corner, the handles on the cMP being too wide for rack mounts, the usb ports on later Apple wired keyboards being too small for larger usb flash drives, the entire saga of the Apple Display Port, the G4 Cube, the tcMP, the clamshell iBooks being a weird design for a square lcd screen, and probably a few others that I’m forgetting. Those are just ones off the top of my head.Absolutely. The charging port on the bottom of the Magic Mouse is a work of art
I have literally one Logic plugin that doesn’t work. For the rest everything ported without issues. Oh, I do have the weird SD card issue on my M1 macbook. Waiting for a software update to fix that. But overall the switch was a non-event really…
But: there are definitely issues for specific use cases, so check your requirements!
But: there are definitely issues for specific use cases, so check your requirements!
There definitely is software that doesn't run or run properly on Apple silicon, but it's few and far between and often edge cases where Rosetta can't help, like non-arm64 binaries in arm64 or Rosetta-translated Docker containers, which could have bitten us at my web development job. (Rosetta can translate Docker containers but not binaries therein.)
Re: the OP, a good rule of thumb imo is unless you have a specific piece(s) of software that you're concerned about, you're most likely fine, and even then there's always Google to research whether most software runs on Apple silicon.
Also, if you frequently use any command-line tools, make sure to reinstall your programs with Apple silicon versions where available to fully realize the benefits of the transition. Reinstalling Python with an arm64 binary made my research scripts run about 20% faster, for example (though they were already about that much faster vs. my old Intel-based Mac even from Rosetta).
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Anything that requires an x86 Virtual Machine is unlikely to work well on an M1 Mac. In addition to x86 Docker images this would include:
Many Linux distros including previous versions of Ubuntu.
Windows. Yes you can run the ARM version of Windows 11 but the Windows ecosystem is very Intel centric. Earlier versions are not available for ARM. Some hardware requires windows to update firmware (my keyboard for example).
Being able to run any version of Windows can be useful. Also, if you want to run Windows games, you really need to use Bootcamp to run on bare metal. That is not possible with an M1 Mac.
Older versions of MacOS. The last version of MacOS to support 32bit apps was Moave. If you have any old 32bit software you wish to retain access to, on an Intel Mac you can run Moave in a VM and install the apps on the VM. You can even do TimeMachine backups from a VM.
There are other operating systems that will run in an x86 VM such as Free BSD or Solaris.
I have a feeling it's going to get brutal the next few years for most Mac software in the next few years! Just like the change from PPC to Intel only last 3 years! So if goes the same way software makers need to step up and make sure Mac Arm programs to survive because the stop gap on Rosetta is only going on for 3 maybe 4 years at most!
Not sure how long Rosetta will be around but Intel Macs will be around a lot longer than the next 4 years. When the Mac migrated from PPC to Intel, Apple was a much smaller company with a tiny installed base of Macs and the iPhone had not been launched yet.
Apple has gotten a lot more aggressive with cutting support to older OS installs and codebase.
For instance you can't install Keynote, Numbers etc if you are too far behind. As in on a 10.something OS.
So thats a lot of older Intel stuff that is still fast enough to be a hand me down computer, but not gonna be happy choking on an OS that presumes all laptops have minimum 16GB.
For instance you can't install Keynote, Numbers etc if you are too far behind. As in on a 10.something OS.
So thats a lot of older Intel stuff that is still fast enough to be a hand me down computer, but not gonna be happy choking on an OS that presumes all laptops have minimum 16GB.
I don‘t use Keynote or Numbers and my have never owned a Mac with less than 16GB but yes they are very aggressive with cutting off support for older OS versions of Mac OS. To run the latest version of Xcode you need to be on Big Sur. Sometime in early 2022 they will probably release an update to Xcode that requires Monterey.
If you've ever downloaded an earlier version, you can still download that. But iWork was always a separate purchase. (You now get it as part of a Mac purchase.) If you've got a High Sierra Mac and suddenly decide that you want iWork, no, you can't now get an old version.
That's because the latest Xcode can produce Universal Binaries, so it needs have an OS that contains ARM libraries. You can of course use an earlier version of Xcode on Catalina. There's a difference between "new things have newness" and "cutting off old versions".
I have one program that I depend on that runs on Rosetta 2 but Apple will discontinue Rosetta 2 at some point and I will either require a Windows machine or an Intel Mac. The vendor has given no indication that they will port to Apple Silicon.
I'm still debating the wisdom in trading in my 68030-based Macintosh IIci for a Centris 650.
Never upgrade! Stay with the past where everything works and you need learn nothing new! ?
In all seriousness, the main reason to keep any particular hardware is to support something. I'm both platform- as well as program-independent, so for me it mattered very little. My other issues notwithstanding, the M1 MBA is a beautiful machine, and I enjoy using it very much.
Just because the latest Xcode can produce universal binaries doesn’t mean it has to and Xcode has shipped with ARM libraries ever since the iPhone SDK was launched. On an Intel Mac the MacOS ARM libraries are only useful when building universal Mac apps and should be included with the MacOS SDK.
Earlier versions of Xcode will not be able to attach to an iOS device running the latest version and patch level of iOS. So if you want to stay current with iOS development you have to stay current with Xcode.
I am ready to move to Apple Silicon but ended up getting another Intel MBP.
I had a 2016 MBP (multiple repairs on that one), but it died recently and i had to get a new one. I almost got the new MBP but the notch killed me. I couldn't buy it after I saw that. So I got a refurbished 2019 MBP. Haven't regretted it for a second.
I already have a 16” M1 Pro and M1 Air — absolutely love them both, especially the M1 Pro. The notch on the Pro is not interfering with my work at all — I don’t even see it.
My question was about keeping my Intel machines around for whatever reason or trading them in. There is no way I would invest any money into Intel Macs today — that is dead money in my opinion.
I have an Intel i5 MBP from 2020 with 16GB of RAM, and an M1 MBA in the base config.
For everything I do on a daily basis (Affinity Photo for RAW and JPG editing, MS Office, browsing the web, GarageBand/NI Guitar Rig and the occasional Apple Arcade game) the M1 MBA beats the Intel MBP without breaking a sweat. It’s faster, it’s quiet, it’s much cooler.
My partner has an M1 iMac and it’s the same story there. We only heard the fan once - when we tried Unreal Engine 4 on it and it had to compile thousands of shaders.
The only reasons I’m not selling the Intel MBP are
a) it’s a great Windows laptop with BootCamp.
b) the value of Intel Macs seems to have dropped significantly since the release of the M1 machines. I paid almost 2k euros for that Intel one and originally assumed I’d get about 1200 for it.
From what I’ve seen, they seem to actually sell for less than that - because unless you need Intel, why pay more for a used computer than for a brand new M1 that’s more future proof? ?♂️
For everything I do on a daily basis (Affinity Photo for RAW and JPG editing, MS Office, browsing the web, GarageBand/NI Guitar Rig and the occasional Apple Arcade game) the M1 MBA beats the Intel MBP without breaking a sweat. It’s faster, it’s quiet, it’s much cooler.
My partner has an M1 iMac and it’s the same story there. We only heard the fan once - when we tried Unreal Engine 4 on it and it had to compile thousands of shaders.
The only reasons I’m not selling the Intel MBP are
a) it’s a great Windows laptop with BootCamp.
b) the value of Intel Macs seems to have dropped significantly since the release of the M1 machines. I paid almost 2k euros for that Intel one and originally assumed I’d get about 1200 for it.
From what I’ve seen, they seem to actually sell for less than that - because unless you need Intel, why pay more for a used computer than for a brand new M1 that’s more future proof? ?♂️
The i5 in a 13" MBP is a low power Ultrabook CPU. It has no hope of keeping up with an M1.
There will be a market for Intel Macs for a while but I think many people who still need an Intel are going to want more RAM and CPU than the lower end Intel MBPs provide.
You're probably right.
Tbh, I think I'm going to keep this MBP around. I enjoy using it - but it does seem odd that for more intense work, I would now get the Air out rather than the Pro xD
The only reason I bought this particular MBP was that the Intel MBA (my partner used to have one) got very hot even under fairly low load and the fans would be roaring even when just browsing the web, let alone editing photos.
I'm glad the current generation makes a bit more sense.