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M1 graphics is as we feared. Mediocre at best.
- Thread starter TheFluffyDuck
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Yeah, the internet has truly made the concept of the "straw man" obsolete. However ridiculous the claim, there's always someone out there on the tubes espousing it for your debunking pleasure.
I think Apple set themselves up for it a bit, though - all those "3x faster", "5x faster" references compared to the previous not-very-fast Intel machines. Including the Intel MacBook Air with the mysteriously missing heatpipe... Then there are the thermal performance graphs with no scale, no units and vague references to "the latest PC laptop chip" - to anybody with a brain cell, that sort of dumbing-down cast doubts on any data, even if it is honest.
Still - if the MacBook Air out-benchmarks a full-size dGPU from as little as 4 years ago (which probably means it will shred my 2017 iMac), colour me impressed. I wonder if the forthcoming new higher-end Macs will be proportionally faster, or if we'll be in to diminishing returns as the power consumption becomes less important.
This thing is Dead on Arrival!
Looks like fluffy crawled back under the rock he crawled out from.
We will know in a few days what the sustained performance is going to be like. I am going to assume that it will be good since cooling the chip is tons easier in the enclosure size of a laptop/Mac mini case compared to iPads and iPhones.
I have been more on the skeptic side of this announcement, but if Apple's claims ring true then I will be the first to admit how impressive this is.
We will know in a few days what the sustained performance is going to be like. I am going to assume that it will be good since cooling the chip is tons easier in the enclosure size of a laptop/Mac mini case compared to iPads and iPhones.
I have been more on the skeptic side of this announcement, but if Apple's claims ring true then I will be the first to admit how impressive this is.
This sucks too
https://gfxbench.com/device.jsp?benchmark=gfx50&os=OS X&api=metal&D=Apple+M1&testgroup=overall - NOTAttachments
Nitpicker mode: So 700% then. (100% is 2x, 200% is 3x etc).At least 800% (8x)
UserBenchmark: Intel HD 515 (Mobile Skylake) vs Nvidia GTX 1050-Ti (Mobile)
gpu.userbenchmark.com
But more on topic - I have a 2016 15" MBP with touchbar and 4 Thunderbolt ports. It is by far the worst Mac product I have owned - and I have used Macs since 1995. Battery level is down to ~1 hour and multiple keys are failing. This was the first Touchbar release.
So I'm a bit concerned to buy into the first version of a new generation again. I was planning to jump onto the M1 now, and even downsize from 15" to 13". But AFAIK the new M1 MBP is an mid level machine and I will probably wait for the next release. A 14" would be great. And I need all the ports I can get...
If you can wait, then wait. Keep in mind that it's very likely that the 16" and a potential 14" will come somewhere in 2021 and that those models will probably have 4 USB-C ports, more than 16GB of RAM and (unlike the current M1 machines) also a modern design with slim bezels. Maybe they also come with Mini LED displays, but who knows.Nitpicker mode: So 700% then. (100% is 2x, 200% is 3x etc).
But more on topic - I have a 2016 15" MBP with touchbar and 4 Thunderbolt ports. It is by far the worst Mac product I have owned - and I have used Macs since 1995. Battery level is down to ~1 hour and multiple keys are failing. This was the first Touchbar release.
So I'm a bit concerned to buy into the first version of a new generation again. I was planning to jump onto the M1 now, and even downsize from 15" to 13". But AFAIK the new M1 MBP is an mid level machine and I will probably wait for the next release. A 14" would be great. And I need all the ports I can get...
Although I am hyped for these new chips and especially the battery life, I wouldn't buy the first generation neither.
well given that the new M1 Macs cannot use a eGPU over TB3, yep.I would be in for a Mac mini even if I resold it when Apple Silicon Mac Pro comes out but not with mediocre graphics.
I'm on a mid-2015 MBP and battery is like a couple of minutes if I'm doing anything other than working in Finder.Nitpicker mode: So 700% then. (100% is 2x, 200% is 3x etc).
But more on topic - I have a 2016 15" MBP with touchbar and 4 Thunderbolt ports. It is by far the worst Mac product I have owned - and I have used Macs since 1995. Battery level is down to ~1 hour and multiple keys are failing. This was the first Touchbar release.
So I'm a bit concerned to buy into the first version of a new generation again. I was planning to jump onto the M1 now, and even downsize from 15" to 13". But AFAIK the new M1 MBP is an mid level machine and I will probably wait for the next release. A 14" would be great. And I need all the ports I can get...
The port sockets are all starting to become intermittent — a major PITA with displays, I now have to use a dock display port and USB drives need to be through the docks also.
Let's compare this M1 thing, this ENTRY machine of Apple to nr 5 graphic card in 2020, according to https://www.pcgamer.com/the-best-graphics-cards/, see https://gfxbench.com/compare.jsp?be...U&hwname1=Apple+M1&D2=NVIDIA+GeForce+GTX+1660 (M1 to the left., NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 to the right)
That's why those benchmark sites are a bit shady or incomplete. 1660 is far from being no 5 GPU on the market. It's last gen lower mid-range.
It is also why I dislike the TFLOP comparisons. The 1660 has a little bit less than twice the TFLOP count, yet somehow the M1 GPU isn't that far behind in GFXBench.
That's because TFLOP is just one metric. TFLOP to TFLOP is not comparable unless within the exact same architecture (and even then not really). Best way to compare is to run the same game or workflow.
We “feared” that Apple would have the fastest iGPU in the industry at an absurdly lower power draw ON THEIR ENTRY LEVEL MACHINES THAT ARE NOT MEANT TO COMPETE AGAINST THE HIGH END???
That’s what we feared? Get a grip, and compare the same machine class to the same machine class.
That’s what we feared? Get a grip, and compare the same machine class to the same machine class.
I mean, besides boot camp? No. It isn't likely that the actual Game Pass (where you download the games) will ever come to Mac. xCloud (which may or may not be included with Game Pass Ultimate) would be more likely.That was out of the blue.
Yeah, that is a maybe. Depends on if the iOS browser solution will be limited to iOS.
In graphic (not compute) tasks, the M1, an integrated GPU, could be on par with the Radeon Pro 570X and 5300M (and way ahead of the 560X). The TBDR architecture of the M1 (for which Metal has been tailored) benefits graphics more than it benefits compute.