M1 Mac Users Report Excessive SSD Wear

[averagenerd81]

Apple screwed up power management of their processor and it caused phone shutdowns at very healthy battery charge levels (as high as 40%). It was a design flaw for which they had to compensate with throttling. Good example to point out how the customers discover major flaws.

Except charge level means nothing, the batteries degraded and couldn’t supply the voltage the SoC needed at peak. This is actually expected and why batteries are considered EOL once they drop 80% capacity.

Apple sucked at explaining that batteries need to be replaced.

The battery could no longer supply the expected voltage to run the SoC at peak performance, it required X voltage and a degraded (“unhealthy”) battery could not supply this voltage. Capping the SoC means they lowered the required voltage to match the voltage the battery would supply. All electronics require a certain voltage to perform properly, degraded batteries naturally reach a point where they cannot supply this. Solve that issue and you have a battery we haven’t (to my knowledge) ever seen.

 

[DanBig]

Sounds like flash storage is not the ideal storage solution for the M1 SOC. Maybe Apple would have done better with Intel/Micron's 3D XPoint instead for VRAM & caching and then used the flash for long term storage.

 

[seadragon]

No, the fact is the keyboard designers are not the logic board designers. You’re assuming they make the same mistake as keyboard designers. That and you’re arguing this is an issue when there is nothing but people reporting some stats we can’t confirm actually mean anything right now.

So, what’s special about the logic board designers that they don't make mistakes while the keyboard ones do? I stated that Apple as a whole is responsible for their products. That is a fact. And where did I argue this is a proven issue? News flash... I didn’t. But guess what? Most issues are discovered by... people.

 

[averagenerd81]

So, what’s special about the logic board designers that they don't make mistakes while the keyboard ones do? I stated that Apple as a whole is responsible for their products. That is a fact. And where did I argue this is a proven issue? News flash... I didn’t. But guess what? Most issues are discovered by... people.

You’re arguing that all things are equal, you’re argument assumes that apple is just one huge company and everyone there is responsible for all things made at apple. It’s a frequent argument here that just doesn’t make sense.

I did not state logic board designers do not make mistakes, I am simply saying that because they beat a dead horse of a terrible keyboard design does not mean it goes the same way for all things at apple. Apple is not a monolith, there are many divisions and subdivisions there. It’s just how large companies work. They are not a hive mind.

 

[seadragon]

You’re arguing that all things are equal, you’re argument assumes that apple is just one huge company and everyone there is responsible for all things made at apple. It’s a frequent argument here that just doesn’t make sense.

I did not state logic board designers do not make mistakes, I am simply saying that because they beat a dead horse of a terrible keyboard design does not mean it goes the same way for all things at apple. Apple is not a monolith, there are many divisions and subdivisions there. It’s just how large companies work. They are not a hive mind.

Well, I’m going to agree to disagree with you and leave it at that.

 

[averagenerd81]

Well, I’m going to agree to disagree with you and leave it at that.

Works for me. We don’t have to agree about everything. 👍🏻

 

[falainber]

Except charge level means nothing, the batteries degraded and couldn’t supply the voltage the SoC needed at peak. This is actually expected and why batteries are considered EOL once they drop 80% capacity.

Apple sucked at explaining that batteries need to be replaced.

The battery could no longer supply the expected voltage to run the SoC at peak performance, it required X voltage and a degraded (“unhealthy”) battery could not supply this voltage. Capping the SoC means they lowered the required voltage to match the voltage the battery would supply. All electronics require a certain voltage to perform properly, degraded batteries naturally reach a point where they cannot supply this. Solve that issue and you have a battery we haven’t (to my knowledge) ever seen.

Sure. The problem was that this generation of A processor had huge power draw spikes. The battery degradation and charge levels at which the shutdowns were happening were ridiculous. The fact that Apple had to introduce throttling in the software is the proof of that. No other phone vendor ever had to do this.

 

[Dicelu]

Then you should not have made the point comparing Macs vs PCs but rather comparing cheap computers vs more expensive ones.

More expensive PC often don't hold up as long either (because of some cheap parts or bad design). Shocking!

(Some smartass will surely reply saying he had a PC of model X which lasted very very long. Except he would be besides the point since no one said all PCs don't last long.)

 

[averagenerd81]

Sure. The problem was that this generation of A processor had huge power draw spikes. The battery degradation and charge levels at which the shutdowns were happening were ridiculous. The fact that Apple had to introduce throttling in the software is the proof of that. No other phone vendor ever had to do this.

Care to back up the claim? It’s well known that the cells used in phones are past their useful life once they reach 80%.

The battery health limits are still in place on modern iPhones, reach 80% and your device will be put into a degraded mode. If you think android phones don’t exhibit this behavior you just haven’t seen it before.
You can research it if you like or just keep believing whatever you want. Doesn’t matter to me at this point.
Edit: I’ll back my own claim.

Apple Issues Updated Statement On Battery Ageing

www.anandtech.com

 

[Dicelu]

2008 Thinkpad x200 8GB/256GB SSD running latest Windows 10 and Linux says hi. Those Mac PCs don't run the latest MacOS.

So? Did he say all PCs? Did he say it had to run the latest OS?

Reading is hard.

 

[Dicelu]

You don't mention how old, what make and model to verify if it's another one of your misinformation.

2008 era PC is the oldest that can run latest Windows 10 20H2 well since performance is usable and chipset supports 8GB DRAM. 2007 era is also supported but limited to 4GB DRAM and performance is just below acceptable threshold. In comparison, Big Sur dropped support for 2012 Macs and earlier so PCs last ~5 years longer.

Who says you need to run the latest OS in order to consider the computer to "last"?

 

[I7guy]

Apple screwed up power management of their processor and it caused phone shutdowns at very healthy battery charge levels (as high as 40%). It was a design flaw for which they had to compensate with throttling. Good example to point out how the customers discover major flaws.

History is rife with examples of customers discovering bad things about a product...not like some power management issues that turned out to be an innovative thing as android phones from that era just shut down.

Note 7, Ford explorer ignitions, takata air bags, etc. Those are major...not power management that most users couldn't detect.

 

[Jack Neill]

IDGAF, I will use it till it burns it self up, then I'll buy a new one and give Apple even more money. Thats what Time Machine is for!

 

[Jamesmarq99]

Performance is stellar, but the disk writes are insane. Activity monitor shows the kernel writing multiple Terabytes each day, including when it should otherwise be idle. Monitoring tools show that in <12 days, it wrote 85 TB.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Watching this thread for updates.

It sounds crazy... writing multiple terabytes of data per day.

Do we think it's a bug in the reporting? Or are these poor drives actually writing this much data all the time?

 

[goodcow]

My Intel Mac mini (32GB RAM, macOS Mojave) is from December 2019, and...

Available Spare: 100%
Available Spare Threshold: 99%
Percentage Used: 9%
Data Units Read: 804,809,522 [412 TB]
Data Units Written: 519,466,015 [265 TB]

Yes, that's a lot of data. Also, does it even matter? In 14 months, I've apparently worn down 9% of the drive. I don't plan on using this for another nine years...

 

[JippaLippa]

IS there an easy way to test this, for people who don't want to mess with the Terminal?

 

[Jamesmarq99]

My Intel Mac mini (32GB RAM, macOS Mojave) is from December 2019, and...

Available Spare: 100%
Available Spare Threshold: 99%
Percentage Used: 9%
Data Units Read: 804,809,522 [412 TB]
Data Units Written: 519,466,015 [265 TB]

Yes, that's a lot of data. Also, does it even matter? In 14 months, I've apparently worn down 9% of the drive. I don't plan on using this for another nine years...

Yes, but the writes some of us are seeing are significantly greater than that. 85 TB in 12 days is 7+X the rate you’re showing. Not saying it’s accurate, I don’t know, but DriveDX shows I have used 6% of the SSD life in <2 weeks of use. (And my uses are mainly in Office / Safari / Video Conferences).

 

[mszilard]

IS there an easy way to test this, for people who don't want to mess with the Terminal?

Use DriveDx

 

[Runs For Fun]

Are we just going to ignore this?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1364211716209393667

 

[thadoggfather]

im usually not that confident Apple will address things, but with something like this, I imagine either a software fix is coming or some kinda statement personally.

They won't wanna let their silicon reputation get tarnished so early on... even if its just a Big Sur bug and not specific to new hardware

im oddly hopeful

 

[JippaLippa]

Use DriveDx

Is it a legit piece of software?
I'm very mindful on what I install, these days.

Of course, when I was talking about the terminal, I only meant complicated things.
If there's a fairly easy command to test this thing with the terminal (without losing files) you are welcome to let me know ^^

Thank you, by the way.

 

[scuac]

I don't understand why people think this is "no big deal", a computer that has been in use for a couple of months wrote >100TB of data to disk and that is not strange!? I checked my MBP from 2017, I use it for work, I do video editing with it, and the disk reports 1% usage and 43TB written, after 4 years of use!

 

[falainber]

Care to back up the claim? It’s well known that the cells used in phones are past their useful life once they reach 80%.

The battery health limits are still in place on modern iPhones, reach 80% and your device will be put into a degraded mode. If you think android phones don’t exhibit this behavior you just haven’t seen it before.
You can research it if you like or just keep believing whatever you want. Doesn’t matter to me at this point.
Edit: I’ll back my own claim.

Apple Issues Updated Statement On Battery Ageing

www.anandtech.com

Anandtech had information about it. I do not have the link at hand but here is a similar article. Quote:

The first unique characteristic separating Apple iPhones from other smartphones is that Apple is using a custom CPU architecture that differs a lot from those of other vendors. It’s plausible that the architecture is able to power down and power up in a much more aggressive fashion compared to other designs and as such has stricter power regulation demands.

 

[mszilard]

Is it a legit piece of software?
I'm very mindful on what I install, these days.

Of course, when I was talking about the terminal, I only meant complicated things.
If there's a fairly easy command to test this thing with the terminal (without losing files) you are welcome to let me know ^^

Thank you, by the way.

it seems a legit app, with trial period, I use it too. It is recommended in the other swap file thread, post #26.