found the user review
Yay, I can talk now that the announcement has happened. I’ve got a new 13” MBP here. Apple is kicking ass with this new chip. It’s a HUGE improvement over the 2018 MBP13 I have. Still not as powerful as my 16” MBP, yet it’s a lot snappier overall. And actually to take that back, things that can use the ML cores and are optimized for the M1 chip absolutely scream. I didn’t know what all they were going to announce today, but now we see that the bigger chip(s) for the 16” MBP, iMac and Mac Pro are not here yet. They’re still saying this is about a 2 year transition process. I just wanted to chime in previously about the Apple chips, but couldn’t really say anything on it until now. Apple is now making the most powerful CPUs in terms of power per watt. How that will scale up to their larger systems will be interesting to see. All things considered, I think the new Air, Mini and MBP13 are a great start.
FWIW, I know Intel is pretty butt-hurt over this. But Apple has been on them hard for a while about getting their process shrink implemented, trimming the bloat and a bunch of other things that Intel just can’t seem to get done.
The way the new Rosetta2 works, it’s a whole lot smoother than PowerPC to Intel. Overall there’s much greater compatibility and developers have minimal work to rebuild a native app compared to the last time around. That said, I’ve encountered a few little gotcha’s in my testing so far. And depending on what you’re coming from, it may or may not be the right time to consider one of these vs. an Intel Mac. Apple will continue to sell Intel Macs until their transition is complete and maybe even a bit beyond. But I wouldn’t expect any real innovation on that side of the product line, just a minor update here and there to accommodate a new CPU or GPU. The 13” Pro is great for working in Xcode and moderate photo work, can edit videos in a pinch. For now, if I know I need more power, I’ll grab my 16”. This is a nice replacement to my 2018 MBP13. But if you have a current 13”, then probably best to wait a year or two. Waiting is probably the best course of action unless you just need a new Air, Mini or MBP13 now.
Should be pretty comparable for general CPU tasks that don’t utilize more than 4 cores, but it’s not that simple. The new one has 8 cores and absolutely crushes through stuff built as a native app. It’s a much tighter integrated product and a lot more efficient. The new one is said to be configurable to 32GB, but we can only order with 16GB. They sent me one with 16GB, which is fine for my 13”. The biggest improvement I see vs. my 2018 is the whole system just being a lot snappier and it is definitely more powerful. Noticeably a lot faster building Xcode projects. Working in Unity is actually possible on the 13” with their GPU. My 2018 was a dog in Unity. OTOH, it’s not a great system for Unity anyway just because the screen is too small, but that’s a different problem.
Final Cut is way more responsive and capable on the system with ProRes footage. I have not tried R3D clips lately and will revisit, I had some issues with getting R3D to work last week. I have not attempted DaVinci Resolve. R3D support may need a native update from RED and I haven’t asked if they have it up and running. I’m curious to see how the Metal acceleration for R3D will translate to these systems.
Not sure if anyone caught wind of this: https://www.macrumors.com/2020/11/02/apple-smaller-mac-pro-apple-silicon/ I have a decent 2019 set-up at work and would love an affordable one for home.
www.reduser.net
