Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Microsoft Says Windows Laptops With Snapdragon X Elite Will Be Faster Than M3 MacBook Air
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
If MS is able to differentiate its laptops with modular systems, it will not matter if Applw has M4 or M14. OTOH, if their Arm Laptops are also like Apple silicon Laptops where you cannot have user replaceable memory, HDD, etc., and are crippled with lack of ports then they DOA. From what I am hearing, that seems to be the most likely scenario, unfortunately.
Surface laptops have Apple levels of build quality, no bloatware or garbage that many other manufacturers add... and if they can get the battery performance up there with the MacBook Air... I think its a solid option.
Most people are familiar with Windows... and it's more versatile from a software compatibility aspect.
If I had to pick up just one of my devices and told I could only use that device... it would probably be my surface laptop go 2... it can do everything... its a jack of all trades.
Even $200 Intel N100 mini PCs support three 4K displays. It’s crazy that Apple is limiting this so much.
Exactly, as many have pointed out, Intel's top of the line I-whatever with Nvidia's top of the line video card destroys Apple's mightiest M-whatever. And the room the intel rig is in will be toasty warm all winter.
CPU power is no longer the limiting factor for most people, including me. But if I'm going mobile battery life is the limiting factor.
I keep bluetooth turned off on the Air because it uses power and does nothing useful most of the time. If I need it I'll turn it on.
Hmmm, I didn’t realise that the M3 Air was the most powerful Apple laptop.
Well some people would like the performance with some of the efficiency. Maybe even a halfway house energy-wise between M and Intel. Not only that, not everyone uses a laptop on battery all the time. Then there’s price.
X86 probably won’t live forever, but Intel is also investing heavily into AI processors and into fabs for foundry services like TSMC. They are reducing their dependance on x86.Totally agree but I think that Microsoft continuing down this path and holding special events for things like this paint a potentially future that is not good for Intel. Maybe I shouldn't have said "writing on the wall" and maybe "faint outline" instead
Competition is good. I'm happy with my Apple Silicon MacBook and it's performance but I recognize there are many people out there who don't care for the Apple ecosystem so I'm glad they will have an option for their own version of that. Plus anything that keeps Apple on their toes is only a good thing.
Absolutely true but the dynamics are different. As Apple is a hardware company and controls their hardware they were able to ditch Intel completely, really providing little choice to devs other than to keep using Rosetta. Microsoft, on the other hand, is a software company at heart so what needs to happen is OEMs need to start using ARM chips, then we will see devs switching over. Still, you have a great point and certainly this is a sticking point for Microsoft. Although I'd say that even today you can get an Arm procced Surface device and many, if not most, programs don't necessarily run terribly, from what I understand Microsoft's translation layer is actually pretty good. And at least many of the core programs are in Arm, MS Office (sort of, see ARM64EC), Web browsers, Adobe photoshop/lightroom and are otherwise slowly implementing ARM, and rumors of Windows 12 going fully ARM.
This is excellent news for everyone. Apple has been resting on its laurels ever since it introduced Apple Silicone. It was a giant leap and achievement for the time, but their performance gains have been lacklustre when moving from M1 -> M2 -> M3. They need more competition in this space to stay agile and competitive.
This is also excellent news for Windows on ARM and notebooks running Windows. I have some Windows-only software I need to run in my professional work. I mostly get around this by using Remote Desktop to a virtual Windows installation as I prefer macOS and Apple Silicone. But if these Windows ARM systems prove to be competitive on both performance and efficiency, finally making to possible to have a Windows notebook with reliable battery life, combined with excellent performance in a slim package like Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga or Carbon. I might consider this the next time I need to replace my work notebook.
This is also excellent news for Windows on ARM and notebooks running Windows. I have some Windows-only software I need to run in my professional work. I mostly get around this by using Remote Desktop to a virtual Windows installation as I prefer macOS and Apple Silicone. But if these Windows ARM systems prove to be competitive on both performance and efficiency, finally making to possible to have a Windows notebook with reliable battery life, combined with excellent performance in a slim package like Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga or Carbon. I might consider this the next time I need to replace my work notebook.
Well, for a large part of Windows users, the efficiency or inefficiency of Macbooks is irrelevant. A Windows user is suddenly not likely to change to Macbook unless they were already exploring MacOS. That is a separate world. People frequenting that world care if there are improvements to those systems. They may not care much whether Apple silicon systems give 5 extra hours of battery life for double the price and change in the OS which they have to get used to all over again.
I was totally baffled that my new M2 Mac Mini didn't freakin support two (2) 4k displays at a decent resolution much less 3, I had to go out and firmware hack a freakin dongle to get this to work. It's a shame Apple limits so much just to get you to spend more money, but then again the side of me that holds Apple stock is happy (even though that stock has been miserable this year).
A change in architecture was always going to be a big jump and then smaller gains again.... just look at Apple Silicon on the iPhone/iPad side since introduction of the A4.
In any case... fr the average consumer, the performance is so far above and beyond what anyone really needs... there isn't much else to do... except for AI, and GPU advances (but not many play games on AS). SO for now the focus will be on AI... but Apple having been really enhancing this aspect of the SoC in AS anyway. The ML hardware of AS is really impressive... and I dont think they have been resting on laurels in this area at all.
The only reason my tech budget goes to windows machines is because Intel chipsets are required for our pro design & engineering software. Windows running on ARM achieves nothing I need or want. The day Dassault & Autodesk rewrite Solidworks & Inventor for ARM & it runs on an iPad pro, the surface & MS are dead to me and it’ll be back to Apple.
No mention of power consumption or battery life, just speed. Smells like a non-starter.
Competition is good.
But…
"Windows Laptops With Snapdragon X Elite Will Be Faster Than M3 MacBook Air"
OK, but that's literally Apple's slowest current-generation laptop.
We still haven't seen concrete products (we might in May), but from early benchmarks, it looks like:
But…
"Windows Laptops With Snapdragon X Elite Will Be Faster Than M3 MacBook Air"
OK, but that's literally Apple's slowest current-generation laptop.
We still haven't seen concrete products (we might in May), but from early benchmarks, it looks like:
- the X Elite is only slightly above the M1 at single-core performance, or about 20% slower than the M3
- it is, however, about 20% faster than the M3 at multi-core
- …or quite similar to the M3 Pro.
The snapdragon x elite or whatever didn’t even beat the M2 in tests. And won’t be available until later in the year in consumer devices. Plus it will cost a bomb and what’s it going to run?
So, nothing to see here.