Yeah, I would wait for the M2 Pro Mac mini that would replace the i5/i7 Mac mini in the line up now. That should have more ports and such.
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Disappointed in Apple Silicon: Apple Marketing vs. Reality / Intel
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Hilarious. User error my butt. I clearly show the battery loss in the period stated. There is no argument. Stop already.
I am lost. Not an owner but looking to possibly buy. But I see so many threads rejecting benchmarks for the newest Macs and then this. Are they relevant or not?
I am a windows user and sometime Linux hobbyist, so often the terms used by Mac aficionados are a bit foreign to me (8, 10 12 core cpu and 8-32 core gpu) I know Intel and Nvidia. It is hard to compare my experience (last time I had a Mac was the Blue iMac all in one? Up until then all I used were Macs (my first was Performa 450) but work made me change to Wintel (proprietary software reasons) so I haven't used a Mac computer in a long time.
I came here to see if the newer Macs were good for my needs, but I see a lot of contradicting posts like this.
Could it potentially be an iMovie problem? I have the m1 max 24 core and while it does get hot when doing things like gaming and hard core file exports, the battery is great and the m1 max chip is a beast that never slows down. i can edit video, run a parallels emulation of windows 11, have safari tabs open, AND have a game open without any slow downs.
Are you using chrome at all? Have you looked at activity monitor in the energy section to see what is using so much power? Have you tried toggling on low power mode to save battery? and is your OS up to date?
My desktop has an M1 mini, 2014 iMac and 2015 MacBook Pro. The M1 mini runs production and serves as the NAS. It sometimes gets development duty and video editing duty and it handles it all in stride. I use the MacBook Pro and iMac for office stuff. Both of them can heat up so I don't run too much on either system. I've put the iMac on sleep as it generates a fair amount of heat in my basement which doesn't have AC. I do love the iMac screen though.
The amazing thing about the M1 mini is how much work it can do while staying cool and quiet.
What would have been nicer is if the M1 chips supported more than two displays. I have several ways to get around that but it requires additional hardware. It's normally fine three seasons a year but this is summer and it would be nice to keep things cooler in my office.
The amazing thing about the M1 mini is how much work it can do while staying cool and quiet.
What would have been nicer is if the M1 chips supported more than two displays. I have several ways to get around that but it requires additional hardware. It's normally fine three seasons a year but this is summer and it would be nice to keep things cooler in my office.
You are not in a good position to form general conclusions on jack. Sample size n=1. You either don’t know what you’re doing or you have some rogue processes running that you’re not aware of.
Do you know why the M2 gets better battery life? The M2 has 4 less P cores and 2 more E cores than 14" M1 Pro.
The 16" M1 Pro gets amazing battery life because of it's 99.9wh battery inside and compared to the Intel 16" i9 the 16" M1 Pro 2021 gets MUCH better battery life.
The upcoming M2 Pro and Max is said to have 8P cores and 4E cores. So next gen MBP should get more E cores, but you won't see a major battery life impovement until M3 which is based on 3nm in late 2023/early 2024.
Thank you for the laugh, I needed that.
Try compling code or editing in Canon RAW on the 14". I saw big jumps in perf.
Speed is in the eye of the beholder? OP doesn't sound very objective.
I can, but my disappointment is an edge case. No decent way to run an x86 Windows VM, and my M1 MBA throttled WAY too much given what I was trying to do with it. I never should have expected to be able to run Windows in a VM adequately, and I never should have tried a passively cooled laptop with my workload.
After trading in my MBA on a Studio Max (64G RAM), and using a Windows machine for Windows at home, I'm actually pretty happy with my Studio. I still wouldn't use it for work, but that's not its job here at home.
I am using the M1 Max MacBook Pro, coming from a 2018 MacBook Pro and before that the 2016 model, both with whatever the best processors for them were (can't recall). I can say that everyday tasks feel a great deal more responsive on the M1. My dad is currently using the 2018 model and I am using the 2016 for software compatibility (mainly virtual machines). My desk is arranged in an unfortunate way so that the fan of the 2016 MacBook Pro is blaring in my ear all day. It does this doing absolutely nothing. My M1, by contrast is always as quiet as though it were turned off. Always. I've run multiple VMs at once on it, all updating/installing operating systems and not a peep from it. The bottom has never felt warm either. I remember back before the M1 where I could hang out on the patio with my lizard for only an hour or two before having to go back inside to charge. Now I can be out there nearly all day - with tons of VMs. No problems.
I'm primarily an Apple user because I find this ecosystem's advantages important to me and its downsides not so important. It's personally just what works best for me. I'm not an Apple fangirl. I am very excited about the ARM revolution not just because of its use on Macs. This is something that will eventually make its way to the Windows world as well. The software support is already very mature on Windows for this stuff - it's just a matter of some Windows-centric computer company managing to do what Apple has already proven possible and make a proper processor to go with that software. That WILL happen, given time.
I can understand the vitriolic responses given how badly this flies in the face of everyone else's experiences. But telling this person they are making this up / trolling / being delusional / etc. seems like a useless response. Something very strange is going on here and maybe if people could actually keep cool heads long enough to communicate better we'd be able to figure it out.
I'm primarily an Apple user because I find this ecosystem's advantages important to me and its downsides not so important. It's personally just what works best for me. I'm not an Apple fangirl. I am very excited about the ARM revolution not just because of its use on Macs. This is something that will eventually make its way to the Windows world as well. The software support is already very mature on Windows for this stuff - it's just a matter of some Windows-centric computer company managing to do what Apple has already proven possible and make a proper processor to go with that software. That WILL happen, given time.
I can understand the vitriolic responses given how badly this flies in the face of everyone else's experiences. But telling this person they are making this up / trolling / being delusional / etc. seems like a useless response. Something very strange is going on here and maybe if people could actually keep cool heads long enough to communicate better we'd be able to figure it out.
I seem to recall reading that some video sources use codecs/settings that aren’t optimal for the video engine on apple silicon. Maybe certain Sony or Red…
Sorry I don’t remember all the details. But, I wonder if you have looked into whether that could be part of your problem? Just a thought.
Sorry I don’t remember all the details. But, I wonder if you have looked into whether that could be part of your problem? Just a thought.
Thanks for your suggestions.
I wouldn’t discourage you from buying a Mac.
You aren’t in a position to form a conclusion on jack.
Post your data. Show me YOUR battery life before on the Intels and show me on the M1 MBP.
People, stop posting on paper stuff and marketing. My experience is real world.
Strange that you're not experiencing the difference. I use a 2020 Intel Air at work and own an M1 Air at home. So I back-to-back them daily and the M1 is on a completely different planet from the Intel Air.
My workflow at my company is entirely web-based and I use Firefox on both machines. The Intel Air gets warm within minutes, and it's a struggle to make it last the full 8-hours.
I haven't done a full day's work on my M1, but I've repeatedly done 2.5-3 hours of the same work on it at home and only lost 10% battery. That's on track for 25-30 hours of constant web use. And no heat whatsoever. AND I have more 3rd-party apps installed.
The Intel Air gets hot and laggy when I play a 1080p YouTube video picture-in-picture while working. Just for hoots I made my M1 play 4K HDR videos while working and I couldn't even tell it was there. Stayed cool n smooth.
For further comparison, my desktop command center is a 2010 Mac Pro with dual 3.4GHz quad-core Xeons and an RX580. I do music production and video editing and have never ever gotten close to the limits of that old machine. It never chokes or lags or anything.
The M1 Air makes that tank of a tower feel slow without the bedroom's-worth of heat.
My workflow at my company is entirely web-based and I use Firefox on both machines. The Intel Air gets warm within minutes, and it's a struggle to make it last the full 8-hours.
I haven't done a full day's work on my M1, but I've repeatedly done 2.5-3 hours of the same work on it at home and only lost 10% battery. That's on track for 25-30 hours of constant web use. And no heat whatsoever. AND I have more 3rd-party apps installed.
The Intel Air gets hot and laggy when I play a 1080p YouTube video picture-in-picture while working. Just for hoots I made my M1 play 4K HDR videos while working and I couldn't even tell it was there. Stayed cool n smooth.
For further comparison, my desktop command center is a 2010 Mac Pro with dual 3.4GHz quad-core Xeons and an RX580. I do music production and video editing and have never ever gotten close to the limits of that old machine. It never chokes or lags or anything.
The M1 Air makes that tank of a tower feel slow without the bedroom's-worth of heat.
I am invested in the ecosystem and have software dev teams for iOS and Mac OS. I have poured through Activity Monitor and can’t see much. I am going to sit down and review logs.
But it's not paper stuff and marketing. The M2 Air is more efficient than the M1 Pro in your 14". This is because the 14" has more performance cores and less efficiency cores than M2.
The 14" Pro also has a 120hz display and has to power a brighter screen as well. As for my own use case well my most demanding is Minecraft and code compilation. The 2019 16" screamed its fan at me when playing Minecraft, the 2021 16" was quiet and cool.
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The Mac Mini 2018 I had, would heat the room up. The eGPU did nothing but add to the heat load.
The Mac Studio runs way cooler, just touching the cases of both is night and day.
Much cooler this summer in the room with the Mac Studio.
If I followed the YouTube advice, I would have bought a M1 Mac Mini, ran it near 100% all the time, had slower graphics, and been disappointed.
The Mac Studio runs around 25% in CPU and GPU, but is cool instead of hot.
The Mac Studio runs way cooler, just touching the cases of both is night and day.
Much cooler this summer in the room with the Mac Studio.
If I followed the YouTube advice, I would have bought a M1 Mac Mini, ran it near 100% all the time, had slower graphics, and been disappointed.
The Mac Studio runs around 25% in CPU and GPU, but is cool instead of hot.
well here is a real world review of the 2021 16" and Mr Fisher is no Apple fanboy
He said the battery life was one the biggest impovements over the 2019 16" he had used previously
He said the battery life was one the biggest impovements over the 2019 16" he had used previously
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