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Does your M1 mac show the same results.


  • Total voters
    6

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
29,175
13,223
This kind of goes along with my postulation that the excessive swapping/disk usage exhibited by the m-series Macs is not "a bug", but rather, "a feature".

That is to say, it has been purposely "designed into the system".
But... they'd rather not talk about it.

It would also support [what I believe to be] Apple's total "silence" on this issue so far...
 

jdb8167

macrumors 601
Nov 17, 2008
4,854
4,594
My M1 macbook pro activity shows that I have written 42gb to my disk since last reboot but when i use "iostat -Id disk0" code in terminal it shows 130gb written this means two things:-

1. On intel macs using this code you could see the total data written to SSD since it started, but on M1 these values would be too huge that apple disabled it and made it show data written since last reboot.
View attachment 1771254
2. The fact that activity monitor shows only 42gb means apple is hiding the remaining amount of data written but terminal shows it.... View attachment 1771255

Check out this video I saw on YouTube
Or your iostat command is showing both reads and writes? Which is very similar to 84.77+42.40=127 GB.
 
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cmaier

Suspended
Jul 25, 2007
25,405
33,474
California
My M1 macbook pro activity shows that I have written 42gb to my disk since last reboot but when i use "iostat -Id disk0" code in terminal it shows 130gb written this means two things:-

1. On intel macs using this code you could see the total data written to SSD since it started, but on M1 these values would be too huge that apple disabled it and made it show data written since last reboot.
View attachment 1771254
2. The fact that activity monitor shows only 42gb means apple is hiding the remaining amount of data written but terminal shows it.... View attachment 1771255

Check out this video I saw on YouTube

iostat is showing the total i/o, not just writes.
 

cmaier

Suspended
Jul 25, 2007
25,405
33,474
California
This kind of goes along with my postulation that the excessive swapping/disk usage exhibited by the m-series Macs is not "a bug", but rather, "a feature".

That is to say, it has been purposely "designed into the system".
But... they'd rather not talk about it.

It would also support [what I believe to be] Apple's total "silence" on this issue so far...

Internet: fake facts prove my baseless conspiracy theory!
 

MohdZafar

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 4, 2021
24
3
This kind of goes along with my postulation that the excessive swapping/disk usage exhibited by the m-series Macs is not "a bug", but rather, "a feature".

That is to say, it has been purposely "designed into the system".
But... they'd rather not talk about it.

It would also support [what I believe to be] Apple's total "silence" on this issue so far...
Yes, I agree with you that it is a 'feature' which enables the unified memory architecture and efficiency of Apple Silicon helping it to do more with less memory, but I'd argue that it is a bug as this 'feature' comes at a cost. As you might know all SSD's have a certain TBW after which it is prone to fail, so this amount of write over a period of time even though is to increase efficiency might end up failing the system. Thereby making it less efficient than their intel macs that would last for years, but in these M1 macs a drive failure could be fatal as the system now depends on RAM more than before. This is why I say it is a bug..... Open to other speculations😁
 

MohdZafar

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 4, 2021
24
3
Internet: fake facts prove my baseless conspiracy theory!
I was wrong about the 2nd fact yet you can't deny my 1st fact "1. On intel macs using this code you could see the total data written to SSD since you first started using the device, but on M1 these values would be too huge that apple purposefully disabled it from showing all time ssd write and made it to show data written since last reboot only."
 

jdb8167

macrumors 601
Nov 17, 2008
4,854
4,594
I was wrong about the 2nd fact yet you can't deny my 1st fact "1. On intel macs using this code you could see the total data written to SSD since you first started using the device, but on M1 these values would be too huge that apple purposefully disabled it from showing all time ssd write and made it to show data written since last reboot only."
No that is wrong too. From my MacPro.
Screen Shot 2021-05-07 at 1.05.06 PM.png
 

leman

macrumors Core
Oct 14, 2008
19,494
19,631
I was wrong about the 2nd fact yet you can't deny my 1st fact "1. On intel macs using this code you could see the total data written to SSD since you first started using the device, but on M1 these values would be too huge that apple purposefully disabled it from showing all time ssd write and made it to show data written since last reboot only."

It's exactly the same on Intel and M1 Macs... iostat shows the total IO (reads + writes), as already pointed out by others. Apple is not "hiding anything", you just misunderstood what the numbers mean.

I would kindly ask you to edit your original post to clear up this misunderstanding, or we will have hundreds of "articles" tomorrows with "proof" that Apple is deliberately killing your SSD and does not want you to know it.
 

MohdZafar

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 4, 2021
24
3
It's exactly the same on Intel and M1 Macs... iostat shows the total IO (reads + writes), as already pointed out by others. Apple is not "hiding anything", you just misunderstood what the numbers mean.

I would kindly ask you to edit your original post to clear up this misunderstanding, or we will have hundreds of "articles" tomorrows with "proof" that Apple is deliberately killing your SSD and does not want you to know it.
I am so sorry, I indeed misunderstood and will delete my original post....
 

za9ra22

macrumors 65816
Sep 25, 2003
1,441
1,931
... you can't deny my 1st fact "1. On intel macs using this code you could see the total data written to SSD since you first started using the device, but on M1 these values would be too huge that apple purposefully disabled it from showing all time ssd write and made it to show data written since last reboot only."

That isn't a statement of fact, 'on M1 these values would be too huge that apple purposefully disabled it' is an opinion. The difference is that since you don't have any way to know why the results on the M1 system are not the same as on the Intel, you cannot state Apple's motive. You can guess, of course, but that also would not be a fact.
 

Luis Ortega

macrumors 65816
May 10, 2007
1,179
359
Yes, I agree with you that it is a 'feature' which enables the unified memory architecture and efficiency of Apple Silicon helping it to do more with less memory, but I'd argue that it is a bug as this 'feature' comes at a cost. As you might know all SSD's have a certain TBW after which it is prone to fail, so this amount of write over a period of time even though is to increase efficiency might end up failing the system. Thereby making it less efficient than their intel macs that would last for years, but in these M1 macs a drive failure could be fatal as the system now depends on RAM more than before. This is why I say it is a bug..... Open to other speculations😁
I suspect that apple doesn't like users keeping their devices for more than a year or two, so a feature that writes an ssd to death in a couple of years seems more like planned obsolescence than a bug.
 
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MohdZafar

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 4, 2021
24
3
And you think the total IO to your SSD is just over 1 TB for the entire time since 2015? It is the amount of IO to the SSD since your last reboot.
Well since it's my mom and 10 year old brother who uses it i don't expect the values to be huge.
 

jdb8167

macrumors 601
Nov 17, 2008
4,854
4,594
Well since it's my mom and 10 year old brother who uses it i don't expect the values to be huge.
Just OS updates alone will have written more than 1 TB not to mention it also includes reads. Why not just reboot it and check again to convince yourself?
 

MohdZafar

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 4, 2021
24
3
Just OS updates alone will have written more than 1 TB not to mention it also includes reads. Why not just reboot it and check again to convince yourself?
Yeah you're right I rebooted and now it shows 5gb..👍🏻
 

za9ra22

macrumors 65816
Sep 25, 2003
1,441
1,931
I suspect that apple doesn't like users keeping their devices for more than a year or two, so a feature that writes an ssd to death in a couple of years seems more like planned obsolescence than a bug.

An interesting proposition, which seems likely to become the basis for a class action lawsuit in due course. It will be interesting to see what Apple's defence would be.

Perhaps a fair point with iPhones, but there do seem to be plenty of people who have been using their Apple computers for years though, so it doesn't bear up to examination at this point.
 

deeddawg

macrumors G5
Jun 14, 2010
12,465
6,563
US
That isn't a statement of fact, 'on M1 these values would be too huge that apple purposefully disabled it' is an opinion. The difference is that since you don't have any way to know why the results on the M1 system are not the same as on the Intel, you cannot state Apple's motive. You can guess, of course, but that also would not be a fact.

I'm not following how the M1 results are different from Intel?

On both my Intel and M1 systems the iostat number is approximately the sum of Activity Monitor's data-read & data written.

From my rMB12:
Screen Shot 2021-05-07 at 2.03.08 PM.png
Screen Shot 2021-05-07 at 2.01.45 PM.png


and from my M1 MBP:

Screen Shot 2021-05-07 at 2.05.16 PM.png
Screen Shot 2021-05-07 at 2.04.32 PM.png
 

jdb8167

macrumors 601
Nov 17, 2008
4,854
4,594
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