M1 Chip Performance Review

ORIGINAL POST

I must have been living under a rock or something - but what's up with the new M1 MBPro, does it perform well while gaming?

I'd just like a confirmation from the ones who posses a M1, how is it performing? Comparable to a medium-spec PC?

Regards,

6 replies

mproud · 4 years ago

YES, and they are AMAZING!

There are lots of benchmarks lying around. It looks like some others have pointed to them, but the M1 chip is really a revolution in the industry, and with better capable Macs that can also run iOS apps, you better believe Mac gaming has been reborn.

11 upvotes on reddit

naveron1 · 4 years ago

I don’t have an m1 MacBook, but I’ve been following the news about it closely so here’s the distilled version: in terms of processing power per watt the m1 is in a league of its own. It’s literally the best mobile processor out there while still giving you good battery life. The downside is the new architecture that made this possible comes at a cost: it can’t run x86 (the architecture that intel uses) natively. Mac already suffered in terms of quantity of games available without using bootcamp, but this narrows down the options quite a bit more. Even with Rosetta 2 and developers working hard to make universal versions of apps that will work with arm only about 2/3 of the apps currently work. Gaming will likely take even longer to catch up, and some legacy or indie titles may never be playable on arm. Here’s the solution for those that can. When the time comes to get an arm macbook, by all means do. It’s got a lot of things going for it, but don’t delude yourself into thinking that it’s all going to be roses and sunshine at the start. And if you value gaming, keep your intel MacBook and use it for the majority of your gaming experience. Just be careful not to update too far, or you’ll end up without intel support. Personally I’m going to wait until the end of the transition period and see what the 16”mbp holds. I hope they can make their integrated graphics be competitive with discrete graphics cards, though that might take some time.

2 upvotes on reddit

wutend159 · 4 years ago

If you have anything but a Mac with dedicated graphics (MBP15/16 or iMac), it will perform better

1 upvotes on reddit

bamboo_zeld · 4 years ago

Some optimised games work great, but many don’t (yet)

3 upvotes on reddit

Gramage · 4 years ago

Honestly I'm just hoping future models support eGPU. That would be a dream.

3 upvotes on reddit

fakepc · 4 years ago

m1's gpu performance is mediocre, their cpu performance and power efficiency is what's mind boggling, intel's iris xe or amds vega graphics should be better for integrated graphics

1 upvotes on reddit

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r/mac • [2]

Summarize

Apple Silicon VS Intel

Posted by InterestingMindset · in r/mac · 2 months ago

I've been a Mac user for over a year now and as someone who is used to running Intel based Windows laptops, it is still bizarre to me how the M1 - A five year old chip - still holds up.

For context, I have a M1 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. Yes low specs but that was what my budget allowed.

Even with those low specs, it runs really good. I can have multiple videos playing, have Safari open while playing games, I can play 4K video, etc. and as an audio lover, I love the speakers and listening to the surround sound stuff.

My main gripes are low specs, maybe I can upgrade later. System Data takes up WAY too much storage. I can't run most games. And as someone who uses SD cards, having to dig out my adapter is annoying.

But with those gripes, I haven't a single laptop that can do what the M1 MBA does and achieve great battery life. I'm so used to battery being a footnote in laptops that experience 18-24 hours on a single charge was mind-blowing.

And I love the ability to copy and paste between my devices. The iPad continuity is cool I rarely use it. Again with iPhone mirroring. The MB feels like a giant iPhone with keyboard.

I'm not a major fanboy of either but Macs are solid devices.

28 upvotes on reddit

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https://browserbench.org/Speedometer3.1/

9 replies

Manfred_89 · 2 months ago

I sold the same spec MacBook Air you have a couple of weeks ago. It was an amazing machine.

It always surprised me how it actually got more than 10h of battery life with my surface only getting like 2-4. Plus browsing the web felt much more snappy despite the surface having a 120hz screen.

16 upvotes on reddit

rainy_diary · 2 months ago

I found browser like Chrome, Firefox, Edge seem optimized for Mac OS than for Windows.

You could test bechmark using speedometer 3.1 between same browser on MacBook and Windows laptop. Most of Windows laptop got low score than MacBook. No doubt it snappy.

https://www.browserating.com

2 upvotes on reddit

Manfred_89 · 2 months ago

Yeah it's amazing how well M series Macs are at that.
But even with the page fully loaded the actual scrolling was much smoother on the MacBook Air which I didn't expect at all.

1 upvotes on reddit

HenkPoley · 2 months ago

And.. the M5 cores will (rather probably) be twice as fast as the M1 cores 🤯

Be sure to note that the later editions Apple Silicon MacBook Air throttle way more.

E.g. 20W total when cold (think 'turbo boost') -> 3.2W sustained after some heavy load. Ends up very similar wattage as an iPhone. See the graphs just above "Power consumption": https://www.notebookcheck.net/The-passively-cooled-M4-SoC-makes-the-competition-look-old-Apple-MacBook-Air-13-M4-base-model-review.1002534.0.html#c13214514

The MacBook Pro will hold at around 15W. The nice thing is that half the watt still equals more than half the performance (power doesn't scale linearly with performance). But 20W -> 3.2W (6x) should still be very noticeable. These laptops are not made for being a workhorse.

Btw, further down the page they run a heavy game, Cyberpunk 2077, but barely throttles. So YMMV, you probably only notice this from time to time.

6 upvotes on reddit

kappakai · 2 months ago

It’s kind of cray how after I got my M1 Air, my upgrade path for all my devices has pretty much frozen. I use to upgrade SOMETHING each year - phone, laptop, iPad, watch, AirPods, whatever. I am an admitted Apple fanboy and have been for decades - I still remember seeing the OG Mac, but never got an Apple product until college with a Power Book. I was a pretty typical fanboy, always been the new Apple product, including an i9 MBP right before the M1 came out. Anyway. That all came to a screeching halt when I got the M1. I have a 12 Max Pro, and iPad Pro, and the Air, and they’re all years old, and I’m quite satisfied with them all. It feels like when the M series came out, there just wasn’t a need because it was so stable and could keep up year after year. I can run Logic or Ableton, with all my synths and gear hooked up to it. I can run three monitors. It’s never slowed down, hell, it’s never heated up. Maybe subconsciously I realized that all these devices were now on the same chip platform and architecture and that longevity applied across the board. Therefore. Why upgrade?

It’s crazy how being so good at a product has turned into a revenue killer for Apple; because I’m not the only one who feels this way about their products. I’m sure there are other factors at play; but I know for me personally, I’m so satisfied with what I have, it’s completely quieted by Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I’ve filled in here and there - AirPods 2, a Windows laptop for gaming - and I kind of want a Mini; but for the most part, my everyday devices, I’m very stoked with.

9 upvotes on reddit

Ill-Rise5325 · 2 months ago

Except WiFi 7 MLO (simultaneous use of 2.4/5/6ghz) will finally nudge me to upgrade from M1 to M5.

Cellular modem in a Mac (be it 4G LTE, 5G NSA, or 5G SA) would also be enticing.

1 upvotes on reddit

pastry-chef · 2 months ago

Don't undersell macOS and how the tight integration with the hardware helps bring it all together.

7 upvotes on reddit

Bladeandbarrel711 · 2 months ago

Windows computers are junk.

4 upvotes on reddit

jasonwright15 · 2 months ago

I just sold mine this year(2015 I mean) for like 225$ I bought it on eBay like 2 years ago for 250$ and it did everything I wanted it to do and basically got my money back. I feel like my M4 15inch MacBook Air will still be worth 800-900$ in a year and if Apple keeps prices the same I’ll sell it and upgrade for 2-300$ every other year. Same with my phone my 15pro max I’ll sell it when the 17 pro max comes out and so on even an air M2 15 inch are selling for 750-800$ on eBay. I guess my point is you should take care of it but use it as intended. Just my opinion.

Edit: sorry I wanted to post this on the main. Also I agree. Try selling a windows laptop with a few exceptions you are better off just putting Linux on it and repurpose it.

1 upvotes on reddit

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r/macbookair • [3]

Summarize

Upgraded from M1 to M4 Max (48GB RAM / 1TB SSD) first impressions

Posted by Serenejypsy · in r/macbookair · 24 days ago

Just pulled the trigger on a new MacBook Pro M4 Max with 48GB RAM and 1TB SSD, coming from my trusty M1 with 16GB RAM.

The difference is night and day. The M1 was already a solid machine, but the jump in responsiveness is immediately noticeable. Apps that used to stutter under heavier loads (Affinity, Xcode builds, running local LLMs, etc.) just snap open now. Multitasking feels limitless since I can have way more windows and heavier projects going at once without worrying about memory pressure.

Battery life so far seems just as strong, if not slightly better, even with the beefier chip. The fans basically never kick on, even under workloads that would have spun up the M1. And the display still blows me away: crisp, bright, buttery smooth.

I debated between 32GB and 48GB of RAM, but I am glad I stretched for the 48 since it feels like the sweet spot before going all the way to 128. 1TB storage is plenty for my workflow, though I already know how fast that can fill with creative projects.

If you are on an M1 and wondering whether it is worth the jump, it really depends on what you do. For everyday browsing and light office work, the M1 is still a champ. If you are doing heavy creative work, dev stuff, or want some future proofing, the M4 is a monster.

Happy to answer questions if anyone is interested.

reddit.com

114 upvotes on reddit

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berrymusprime · 24 days ago

I also had a similar experience. People like to talk about how good the M1 is, but I started noticing slow downs while opening normal apps and the 8gb of ram was not suitable for running LLMs. The upgrade was worth it

8 upvotes on reddit

Medium-Ad-2742 · 23 days ago

Babe maybe it's not the m1 but the giant red flag of 8GB of RAM

15 upvotes on reddit

berrymusprime · 23 days ago

That could be the main problem,but 8gb of ram should be enough to open a chromium browser instantly especially when nothing else is open in the background . My m1 MacBook Air is noticeably slower than my m4 pro mbp, and the battery life on the m4 pro mbp seems better to me due to the fact that I can use low power mode on it and still get twice the performance the m1 mba gave me.

2 upvotes on reddit

Much-Reflection-3467 · 23 days ago

The issue is not the M1 like others have said, the red flag is the 8gb of RAM. My mum's iMac 2015 with 16gb ram, and my own iMac 2017 with 16Gb - we have not noticed any slow downs at all. Doubt very much it is the M1 tbh. Never ever purhase a Mac with 8GB - that is the golden rule - for most people 16GB is the sweet spot- unless of course you are a creative and need the extra ram for more intense work.

2 upvotes on reddit

endless_universe · 23 days ago

Put 8 gb on an M4 and see what happens

7 upvotes on reddit

nvictor-me · 24 days ago

Nice upgrade 👍 I’m still too attached to my M1 Max/64GB. I’ll drive it until it breaks.

5 upvotes on reddit

Serenejypsy · OP · 24 days ago

Bro the fear was real, my little air was so tuned in. We did so much together. 🤦🏻‍♂️ but day one I am pleased.

5 upvotes on reddit

ApprehensiveNeat9584 · 23 days ago

Well, you didn't have enough RAM. My M1 Max still works like a champ but I have 32GB of RAM and I clean my fans, flawless experience.

4 upvotes on reddit

Ok-Simple-7069 · 23 days ago

One thing I noticed on a family members m4 max is the fans have yet to kick in lol. It’s the 16in version and I’m surprised they’ve implemented such a stringent fan curve with zero RPM unless it was under benchmarking software or games. Even then hardly noticeable. Very impressed.

3 upvotes on reddit

onemaxone · 23 days ago

Hi there! I'm happy with your purchase. :) The last sentence is exactly describing what I feel about my M4 16gb 512gb 13" as well. So cannot imagine your setup felling ;) btw. since I use my for bedtime I'd never take bigger than 13"

3 upvotes on reddit

Parking-Plant4880 · 23 days ago

Beast!! That device will last for the next 10 years

3 upvotes on reddit

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r/macbookair • [4]

Summarize

Macbook air m1 users, how is the performance after two years?

Posted by lookupformeaning · in r/macbookair · 2 years ago

Especially those heavy users, like developers or designers? How is the performance since you bought it ?

67 upvotes on reddit

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Not-Poirot · 2 years ago

Its amazing, I use for research work, heavy photo and video editing in 4k files handles like a champ, no slowdowns, best part I don't even need to create proxy files Lol in a fan less machine, just updated to Sonoma and performance is still the same and battery lasts 12+ hrs on research work and 6+ hrs when video editing.

Its the best damm electronic item I ever purchased after my Kindle paperwhite, no plans to upgrade anytime soon maybe when M5 Chips release

37 upvotes on reddit

[deleted] · 2 years ago

I won’t upgrade until my M1 can’t get anymore software updates.

3 upvotes on reddit

Not-Poirot · 2 years ago

Same, how long do you think M1 will get updates? Apple should support their own silicone longer than they did with Intel.

3 upvotes on reddit

arjun_parthi · 2 years ago

Have you felt the need to upgrade the ram ever , kindly mention the variant that you have ! Thank you

3 upvotes on reddit

Not-Poirot · 2 years ago

I have the base variant 8/256, yes only time I wished I had the 16GB ram when I use lightroom+Final Cut Pro and upload something in the background in One drive, but that's rare case scenario, if u use 1-2 apps at a time its just perfect, idk how apple manages memory so efficiently, my windows laptop has 16GB ram and with few browser tabs and 1-2 small apps reaches 12GB usage LOL

5 upvotes on reddit

fluorescentroses · 2 years ago

Not the person you replied to, but I've used Sonoma on my M1 MBA since the public beta, and aside from occasional bugs (which are to be expected), I've had zero issues. Performance hasn't changed since day one for me.

6 upvotes on reddit

Xexets · 2 years ago

Not a heavy user here but performance is identical to day 1. No perceived ageing here.

122 upvotes on reddit

JohnniNeutron · 2 years ago

Same. Love my M1.

31 upvotes on reddit

NotTurtleEnough · 2 years ago

Same. Love my M1.

6 upvotes on reddit

BS2H · 2 years ago

Same. Honestly no drop off in performance. Very surprised.

10 upvotes on reddit

Tratix · 2 years ago

Your M1 air is at 87% life with only 53 cycles?

1 upvotes on reddit

Nowisee314 · 2 years ago

8/256. Bought 11/21
It's working like a champ. Probably one of the best performing Apple products I've had...along with my 8 Plus. I'll be buying the next MBA that comes out. No more MBP for me... actually no more Pro anything.
Anyway. I use Thinkorswim trading platform (java based). When in use there's a lot of memory swap. Next MBA will be 16/512 min.
The first 3-4 months I used the battery a lot, since then mostly stayed plugged in. Battery health 92%

27 upvotes on reddit

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r/macbookair • [5]

Summarize

M4 is not a big jump from M1

Posted by 78914hj1k487 · in r/macbookair · 3 months ago

The M4 is a great chip—nobody is complaining—and Apple's silicon team deserves praise for not dropping the ball—there have been consistent gains. And you want to treat yourself, it's a great model at a great price. But just be realistic and know that the M4 chip is not a magical leap in computing that this sub seems to think it is. I'll put it as simple as I can:

M1 was
2x faster in single-core
3x faster in multi-core, and
3.3x faster in GPU

compared to the 2020 Intel MacBook Air released only 8 months prior. That's nearly unheard of. That is a magic leap. A 2-3x performance leap in 8 months.

Where as compared to the M1, the M4

took a slow 4.5 years
to get just 60% faster

8 months vs 4.5 years and we're still closer to the half-way mark in single-core.

So M4 is not a huge leap and it may not feel too different for burst tasks. Unless you were already low on RAM with the M1, or doing regular sustained tasks or pushing the performance with AAA 4K gaming, then yeah, the M4 will feel faster.

But not 2x or 3x faster. It's 60% faster synthetically and in some tests and tasks it's only 30% faster. Real world results vary up and down due to software constraints. You're not always going to see 60% faster.

So if you're a casual enjoyer of the M1, don't believe the hype and expect the M4 to be a new era of computing.

Chip discussion aside—I don't want to harsh anyone's mellow if you want to upgrade from the classic look and feel of the M1. The entire M4 Air model—new design, screen, colors, 16 GB RAM, and M4 chip—when combined—are totally worth the upgrade. Please treat yourself—we're tech enthusiasts after all.

Just don't let this sub talk you into high expectations as if the M4 blows the M1 into outer space. It doesn't. We're in the incremental improvement phase of chip design.

Open to discussion.

162 upvotes on reddit

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https://preview.redd.it/tsv1wv1shz9f1.png?width=1194&format=png&auto=webp&s=8c2fe66157af15a9380a420f50c8f58b14d44fab

12 replies

dannepai · 3 months ago

M4 is a big jump from M1, but for most users the M1 is already sufficient and only power users will notice the difference.

I haven’t seen anyone promoting the M4 as a magic leap over M1. Most seem to have realistic expectations.

88 upvotes on reddit

78914hj1k487 · OP · 3 months ago

> M4 is a big jump from M1, but for most users the M1 is already sufficient and only power users will notice the difference.

Then it's not a big jump for casual users. Those are the people I'm addressing in my post, right? So I don't understand why you're refuting my point, while also supporting it in the same sentence.

Statistically—the most important metric for casual M1 users is single-threaded performance. That is what most defines their experience. Therefore the M4 is not a big jump because it hasn't doubled single-threaded performance.

Anyone satisfied with M1 performance—and still preferring the classic look and feel of the M1 design as they tend to do—can continue to be satisfied and only revisit an upgrade once single-core is 2x—which M6 or M7 will undoubtedly do. That is the trigger point where it would be prudent for that category of user to upgrade. Until then, for them the M1 has much life left in it.

2 upvotes on reddit

PsychologicalUnit22 · 10 days ago

I have M1 macbook air (the version with 1 extra GPU core)...i am hoping to get mac mini (with m4, 16gb and 256gbSSD, just for office use since everything i work is stored on cloud) this black friday sale, to keep in my office. do you recommend this? i can say i am a power user, however, i have never been bottlenecked by my buddy macbook air :D

i will hope to use remote desktop connections to use computing on my this machine kept in office with a 24*7 1Gbps connection through ethernet. will it be good for extending my macbook's general life and reduce its usage a bit?

1 upvotes on reddit

Analog-Digital- · 3 months ago

I am on a MBA M1 8/256 and all runs fine since I am just a light user. For sure I use Swap Memory but not that much + I checked my SSD and from day one my health dropped 3%, so now it is at 97%. BTW: I am using a dual boot of Seqouia 15.6 Beta and MacOS26 Tahoe Beta 2. My M1 was never faster as with Tahoe Beta 2 !

Next week I am picking up a mint MBA M2 16/256 (yes with the slow SSD) but my USB4/TB4 NVMe eclosure arrived with my 4TB WD SN850X

Suppose I am fine for another 2 or 3 years, next stop the M3 or M4

16 upvotes on reddit

Jurisprudencian · 3 months ago

Not negligible gains in web browsing speed which makes m1 feel unusable

-4 upvotes on reddit

Blablabene · 3 months ago

idk why you're getting downvoted honestly. It's been years since M1. Lunar Lake is an impressive chip

19 upvotes on reddit

mellofello808 · 3 months ago

I like to do video editing, and my M4 is a noticeable step up from my M1. The M1 did chug on some apps like the Insta360 editor, but the M4 is butter.

That being said I was happy with the M1, and wouldn't have upgraded if the hard drive on my old MacBook didn't begin to die.

14 upvotes on reddit

MaximusMurkimus · 3 months ago

Currently all M-series chips exist in order to get people off of Intel chips.

Moore's law is dead, etc...

108 upvotes on reddit

sffunfun · 3 months ago

Honestly, the M-series chips get me off. Wait.

-1 upvotes on reddit

The_B_Wolf · 3 months ago

all M-series chips exist in order to get people off of Intel chips.

What is this supposed to mean? I mean, yeah. Apple wasn't happy with Intel and thought they could do it better themselves, so they did.

1 upvotes on reddit

Analog-Digital- · 3 months ago

No actually I have zero issues with my Gold MBA M1 8/256, I paid it $ 425.00 in mint condition Jan '23. My best ever money spent on a laptop ! This is now my Activity Monitor, I just start using it, all green, later today it will turn Yellow, but with max 1GB of Swap memory. I can get the MBA M2 16/256 localy for $ 450.00, do I need it, no, will the 16GB make a difference in my case, probably not ... It's more 'getting' it, also because of the price. The problem for most of us is Reddit and reading posts of new(er) gear ... otherwise all would be fine, and there never would have been a 8GB vs 16GB 'war', people would just use their 8GB since it runs perfect, even better + faster + snappier with MacOS26 Tahoe Beta 2 ... 🤷

I made a post lower of the NVME enclosure I just bought, maybe that might help some. I just put all large Apps on it, makes my internal SSD is almost 'empty'

https://preview.redd.it/n86x085uz2af1.png?width=1276&format=png&auto=webp&s=dccefb42895af92876caa91b94f199a4a2c0a045

1 upvotes on reddit

yasssssplease · 3 months ago

My M1 works so well. I barely used it the last four years until very recently (I was on a work computer enough that I didn’t want to jump onto a personal one). I’m just truly impressed. I hadn’t appreciated apple silicon until May basically. I can’t imagine needing to upgrade it any time soon. Probably its biggest downfall is that it has 8 gb ram. I’m a light user though, so hopefully that’s fine enough for me for the near future.

10 upvotes on reddit

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r/macbookair • [6]

Summarize

my two cents on the M4 MBA

Posted by prime1433 · in r/macbookair · 7 months ago

Even though the benchmarks comparing M3/2/1 to the anticipated M4 are very good, the vast majority of people would not benefit that much from the M4 chip. Most people just use their computer to surf the internet, do social media, and watch YouTube videos. None of which need the latest chip to do. We need to remind ourselves when the M1 chip was debuted, it vastly outperformed the 2019 Intel MacBook Pro. That M1 chip was also introduced in an affordable MacBook Air.

This is coming from a person who has a M1 and M4. In most cases, the perceived speeds, loading times, and whatnot on both devices are very similar. I'm not saying that the M4 isn't a great chip though -- some differences from using the M4 includes navigating HUGE amounts of graphics without any jitters and other intensive GPU related stuff.

That being said, if you need a computer that lets you browse, do social media, and watch YouTube videos, get the current M3 or even an M1 if you are in a budget. If you are a normal user that's comfortably using a M1 and are curious about getting M4 just for the sake of the new chip, just know that there might not be a noticeable difference from upgrading. If you are in a job/hobby that is very time sensitive and/or demands better monitor support, the M4 might be for you.

I would also like to note that I'm just talking about the M4 chip itself. There could be a few meaningful updates to the M4 MBA like nano-texture and an extra port that does comes in handy for some people.

63 upvotes on reddit

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78914hj1k487 · 7 months ago

My rule of thumb is to not consider an upgrade until single core speed has at least doubled; that’s about every 5 years. And even then, who’s to say you can’t enjoy that laptop another 5?

A good thought experiment is this:

If we switched your current Mac with a new Mac, could you tell the difference? Most likely no. Like if you switched my current 24 GB Mac either a second Mac with 128 GB RAM, I would never know, so why would I buy that even if 128 GB is technically better than the 24 GB I already have?

It’s all about bottlenecks. Once I’m seriously limited by a bottleneck, then it’s time to upgrade.

3 upvotes on reddit

RogueHeroAkatsuki · 7 months ago

So if you have M1 then you will wait probably m7, maybe m6 :P

Well, a lot of basic users are still happy with Intel 4th gen(Haswell) CPUs from 2013 so well.. for basic user M1 will be still decent in 2030 IMHO. You can't make websites much snappier than on M1 anyway and this chip has capabilities to easily handle software 4k decoding(if not 8k)

3 upvotes on reddit

78914hj1k487 · 7 months ago

> So if you have M1 then you will wait probably m7, maybe m6 :P

May not have to:

M1 single core is 2346.
If M5 is 25% faster than M4—in the same way that M3 was 25% faster than M2—then M5 will be 4688—which is double M1

Of course, its just a rule of thumb. A buyer may find more reasons to upgrade like needing to increase RAM, storage, or simply refresh the design, or their use case has evolved and so therefore their needs require they move up to more CPU or GPU cores. I don't mean to tie anyone down, its just gives a quick sense for when an upgrade will actually feel like an upgrade.

> Well, a lot of basic users are still happy with Intel 4th gen(Haswell) CPUs from 2013 so well.. for basic user M1 will be still decent in 2030 IMHO. You can't make websites much snappier than on M1 anyway and this chip has capabilities to easily handle software 4k decoding(if not 8k)

100% agree.

I think when Apple was promoting the M3 chip, people were asking why Apple kept showing graphs of how much faster the M3 was to the old Intel chips. People were saying it was cheap, but that wasn't it. At the time, 50% of Mac users were still on Intel Macs. Apple was trying hard to get them to switch. People are stubborn and they love their Macs. Why change? Those people already browse the web and don't want to spend $1000 again just to browse the web.

Point is that same stubbornness you see with M1 users. They love it. It works. It has all day battery. Why change?

5 upvotes on reddit

maldingtoday123 · 7 months ago

I think the people who are upgrading already self answers their question. If they really need it, there’s no question. If they have questions, they probably don’t need it and don’t need to upgrade.

For a new buyer, I think it’s a bit harder. Yeah sure m2 is probably fine. But if I’m gonna buy and use it for as long as possible, shouldn’t I go with the m4 rather than m2 even though m2 might be better value today?

1 upvotes on reddit

78914hj1k487 · 7 months ago

I can see that being right. It's kind of complex so you can "frame it" from different angles.

Like if you're coming from a 2017 Intel MacBook Air with a single core score of 825...

M2 would be 3x faster
M4 would be 4.5x faster

So on a timeline, if your'e coming from way behind, then something being 3x faster and 4.5x faster, they will both feel the same.

And then from the other end, 10 years down the line, an M2 and M4 will feel about equally slow in comparison. It's all so relative that I think these numbers work to sell us, but experientially we can't tell. To me, whats important is bottlenecks. Like a 60 MB/s HDD is too slow. Once we went to 600 MB/s SSDs, and even 1500 MB/s SSDs,—we've surpassed the slow storage bottleneck—and so the numbers no longer matter, to the point where if you gave me a Mac with 1500 MB/s SSD, and another with 3000 MB/s SSD, I wouldn't know which is which. I'd have to do some very niche tasks that saturate SSD speed to notice, but those tasks aren't daily tasks, so does it really matter?

Of course, everyone's different, and has different needs. Makes for good discussion, though.

1 upvotes on reddit

EmilyDickinsonFanboy · 7 months ago

Buying for as long as possible doesn't mean buying the newest if you're always upgrading to the oldest model currently available. I could upgrade my 2020 Intel to an M2, then in a few years upgrade that to an M7 when the line-up is M7 - M9. You're getting the same laptops as everyone else but you're a couple of years behind the latest and greatest and most expensive, which for many is fine.

In theory I like this idea because when you do buy you can essentially see into the future, so if the M7 is an incremental improvement but the M8 is a huge one you have the option to either spend more on the M8 than you had planned to on the M7, or wait a year until the M8 is at today's M7 price. This is different from perpetually waiting for the next model because the next model/s are already out.

I dunno, I just think there's something to this mode of thinking...

1 upvotes on reddit

Boring-Impress-6329 · 7 months ago

To add on...I got the MBP M4 from Costco just to try it out...and I don't notice any difference from my MBA M3, with the possible exception of starting up (which I normally only do once every week or two)

2 upvotes on reddit

wickeddimension · 7 months ago

If you’re buying a new computer? Might as well get the new one. Makes no sense to me buying the M3 if the M4 is a month away.

If you are considering a M2 or used M1, go for that don’t bother waiting for the M4.

End of the day, regardless if you need or notice the performance. It’s resale value getting the newer model, assuming prices being the same.

4 upvotes on reddit

LiberalTugboat · 7 months ago

The M3 Air I bought 3 weeks ago was $200 off. Makes sense to me.

1 upvotes on reddit

Pitiful_Turnover3376 · 7 months ago

This is exactly what I did too, taking advantage of a $200 reduction (Amazon) on an Air M3 a week ago

3 upvotes on reddit

mjeziersky · 7 months ago

I agree.

Im just a bit confused, I've decided to wait for M4 release because waiting means win in both cases I think. I've already sold my pro15/2015 Intel one so I will benefit for any of the options below.

get M3 even cheaper when M4 announced (looking for deals either way now) 2)get shiny M4 when it makes more sense (pricing/specs/ maybe some good surprise feature)

I just need a date of the release, hope it's soon 🥲

2 upvotes on reddit

Luvthoseladies · 7 months ago

I have a base model M1 MBA and a M3 MBA with 16 gigs of memory. In day to day use the performance difference is not noticeable. However I'm still happy to have the M3 model because future software demands may highlight the differences between the processors.

2 upvotes on reddit

See 12 replies

r/MacStudio • [7]

Summarize

M4 Max (16/40) Outperforms my 20 core M1 Ultra. (63/39.5%) Uplift

Posted by meshreplacer · in r/MacStudio · 2 months ago

I needed a second workstation so I figure I would get the M4 Max. It outperforms the 20 core model of 3 years ago by quite a margin.

3920 Single Core and 25665 Multicore M4 Max

2396 Single Core and 18392 Multicore M1 Ultra

63% Faster Single core and 39.5% faster Multi core

Apple is really moving the Silicon M series processors forward rather quickly.

Will test Graphics but I suspect M1 will be faster since it has more cores. I could only imagine the Uplift in performance if an M5 Ultra Mac Studio makes it out the gate vs the M1

M1 Ultra is actually slower. (48 Core slower than the 40 core M4)

OpenCL on 48 core GPU M1 98886

OpenCL on 40 core GPU M4 119754 (21.1% performance improvement)

Metal on 48 core GPU M1 168504

Metal on 40 core GPU M4 189612 (12.5% performance improvement)

This shows apple is really making significant improvements in the entire CPU/GPU package. This does not even include the extra features like Raytracing etc.. missing from the M1 and not only that the M4 MAX consumes less power than the M1 Ultra.

M4 MAX is the best bang for the upgrade for anyone with the M1 Ultra and you save quite a bit of money in the process since there is no need to jump to the M3 Ultra.

I predict the M5 Ultra will be a beast of a machine looking at these numbers. Intel is really struggling to get these kinds of performance uplifts between generations.

24 upvotes on reddit

6 replies

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6 replies

Fourthtunz · 2 months ago

If the M1 Ultra isn’t doing what you need, then I get the upgrade! I want to upgrade from an M1 max only because of RAM and hard drive. The problem with the M4 is if you get a larger hard drive like a 4 TB it’s gonna cost you almost twice as much.

1 upvotes on reddit

meshreplacer · OP · 2 months ago

I needed a second machine so I bought the M4 Studio. I am surprised at how much of a performance boost you get from a non ultra machine.

1 upvotes on reddit

Fourthtunz · 2 months ago

I’m just using logic so even the max is enough for me

1 upvotes on reddit

Helpful_Fall7732 · 2 months ago

awesome, kudos

2 upvotes on reddit

Playstation696969 · 2 months ago

Just enjoy the current ones you have, no need to keep chasing stats. The next M series will be faster, better. Then the next, then the next, then the next so on and so forth

3 upvotes on reddit

julian7725 · 2 months ago

This is it! It is a never ending cycle.

0 upvotes on reddit

See 6 replies

r/iPadPro • [8]

Summarize

M1 users are you thinking of upgrading ?

Posted by Serhide · in r/iPadPro · 3 months ago

How is the everyday performance for you ?

33 upvotes on reddit

11 replies

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11 replies

Long_Repair_8779 · 3 months ago

Nope. Sometimes I look at the brand new M4 ones and think wow that looks good, but tbh they are pretty identical. The performance from M1 is already far more than it needs to be, and other than being slightly thinner and with a slightly better display, they are exactly the same

32 upvotes on reddit

Bergatron25 · 3 months ago

I have an m 4. Love it!

I can’t tell it’s an m 4 or an m1 if that’s what you’re asking…..

Screens cool 😎 *not at 100 brightness in the sun however.

-9 upvotes on reddit

noclueXD_ · 3 months ago

what?

1 upvotes on reddit

673NoshMyBollocksAve · 3 months ago

I ended up upgrading and there was a feature that I feel like no one ever talks about that I discovered upon picking it up for the first time. How insanely thin it is. Like holy shit I have a 13 inch iPad and it’s actually holdable now. That was worth the upgrade alone. I don’t care about the old screen and all that

4 upvotes on reddit

Long_Repair_8779 · 3 months ago

I heard the that came at the compromise of the speakers though

4 upvotes on reddit

Kevinm2278 · 3 months ago

I am. Only because my wife is usually on the m1. Performance is well above our needs. I just want my own iPad now.

5 upvotes on reddit

Downtown_Ambition680 · 3 months ago

When she sees the screen and how much lighter it is I’d be surprised if she doesn’t want it lol

1 upvotes on reddit

corintography · 3 months ago

Hell no, unless they can update iPadOS to take advantage not going to happen.

8 upvotes on reddit

Marino4K · 3 months ago

I imagine starting with iPad OS26, the gap will finally start to open up. Apple isn’t stupid, they want those M1 people to start upgrading.

4 upvotes on reddit

sociablezealot · 3 months ago

I went M1->M4.

I feel absolutely no difference in day to day screen usage.

It is lighter to hold when detached from keyboard.

The new Magic Keyboard is more premium and has an escape key.

Was it worth that much for the keyboard? Hell no. Do I enjoy every time I use it? Yes.

5 upvotes on reddit

Ill-Praline1261 · 3 months ago

Nope, still a beast. Use it daily for hours and still feels as quick as the day i got it for my usecase.

51 upvotes on reddit

See 11 replies

r/pcmasterrace • [9]

Summarize

Is the Apple M1 as good as everyone says it is?

Posted by [deleted] · in r/pcmasterrace · 4 years ago

Sure, it might beat X86 CPUs in single core, but it gets smashed in multithreaded. And then there's all the problems that turn me off of Apple computers:

Upgradeability (or complete and utter lack thereof)
Expensive ass repairs (just watch any of Louis Rossman's videos its insane)
No gaming although I guess this can be overlooked
Rosetta emulation performance tax
OSX gets far less app support than windows
EXPENSIVE, like seriously expensive
Thermals? I'm gonna assume given Apple's less than rosy track history with thermals that it probably runs 90+C on full load, but that's a general laptop problem more than anything tbh
Ridiculous port selection

However, as I am looking for a new laptop I couldn't simply overlook a Mac, especially not when every youtuber loves the new M1. Here are some pros:

Clean design (macs are the best looking laptops)
Good software, I've never had nearly as many software headaches on OSX as I have on Windows.
Amazing battery life (some people say 14-15 hours)
Nice display (but at it's price it should have one)

Anyways, if I'm missing anything let me know below. I feel like for someone like me, who does game but realistically only plays Minecraft (which probably runs on an M1 fine enough) a Mac might be possible if not for the cons completely overwhelming the pros.

1 upvotes on reddit

11 replies

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11 replies

Snorkle25 · 4 years ago

Yes... and no. The M1 is very very impressive in regards to how powerful it is on a very very low power budget. That means more performance and power with far less battery draw and heat generated. And that is truly impressive.

But its not going to fix any of the issues that turn a lot of people off of Apple. It won't make devices more upgradable for instance.

8 upvotes on reddit

[deleted] · 4 years ago

You are right about that, but personally I feel like all that performance is a waste if it can't run half of what Windows computers can. It was supremely annoying not being able to run uTorrent, etc on my Mac and its one of the big driving factors behind my switch from Mac to Windows

1 upvotes on reddit

Snorkle25 · 4 years ago

Well its the first hybrid ARM chip that runs native x86 programs. Its going to have some bugs and it will have limits. Think of it this way. This is their first gen attempt at it and it can already run half of the native x86 programs that a windows laptop can. The next one may be able to do 80%, the one after that may be at 95%+, and so on.

And they also do that one ~1/10th to 1/3 the power of a traditional x86 processor too.

It would be pretty cool to see AMD try to replicate a consumer version of this too.

2 upvotes on reddit

reddit_is_CCP · 4 years ago

Absolutely. It's a whole new approach to how processors work. Instead of the traditional method of putting a few jack-of-all-trades/master-of-none cores on a chip, Apple does that PLUS they put graphics processors right on the chip as well as a few other processors designed to excel in certain types of operations.

The end result: Apple's laptop processors shit on intel's desktop processors.

2 upvotes on reddit

[deleted] · 4 years ago

Well intel sucks rn, Ryzen gives it a much more impressive fight. Price wise Ryzen and M1 have comparable performance with the Ryzen having a slight value edge over all, Intel's out of the competition tho.

1 upvotes on reddit

Buckaroo_0 · 4 years ago

Not sure why everyone is so against intel these days, they’re doing fine, their gaming performance is still as good or slightly better than Ryzen 5000 on the laptop front and intel is now the much better budget option for building a new desktop

3 upvotes on reddit

Buckaroo_0 · 4 years ago

The new m1 MacBooks aren’t actually unreasonably price as long as you overlook some of the upgrade costs while speccing it out

And the build quality of apple is quite nice and the M1s have great performance and excellent battery life

If it’s just for every days use and some simple games like minecraft, the m1 MacBooks are solid options

Though the port selection is pretty hilarious

4 upvotes on reddit

SirGeorgington · 4 years ago

The M1 Macs cost a similar amount to Windows laptops of a similar class.

5 upvotes on reddit

[deleted] · 4 years ago

While there's no direct comparison to be made here, I'd disagree with you. Not gonna name any specific laptops because we can argue on their different merits and demerits all day long but I think most people would agree that macs inluding the m1 are more expensive than comparable windows laptops

1 upvotes on reddit

SirGeorgington · 4 years ago

Compared to a similarly specced XPS 13, the MBP 13" comes out around $200 more expensive, but for those $200 you get better performance, a better trackpad, better display, and better battery life. I would say that's a fair deal.

5 upvotes on reddit

krishnugget · 4 years ago

The M1 has no thermal issues in the slightest, even on the fanless MacBook Air unless pushing it to its absolute limits. The MacBook Pro however nearly never turns on its fan and it’s still always cool. It’s still outperforming any laptop in its weight class that doesn’t suck up significantly more power or costs more

7 upvotes on reddit

See 11 replies

r/macbook • [10]

Summarize

M1 MacBook Air from 2020 still runs perfectly like the day I got it!!🩵

Posted by jenarion · in r/macbook · 1 month ago

This is such a good laptop, both for writing and normal use and even gaming. Anyone switched from M1 to one of the more recent chips from this year, how big of a difference did you find? Did you think it’s worth it?

i.redd.it

122 upvotes on reddit

12 replies

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https://preview.redd.it/8eyqy1zpt7kf1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=56bf7918aded0d2136b8d503fe3ca70455217f5f

12 replies

melvin3v1978 · 1 month ago

Same here I love this laptop and actually prefer the wedge design 👍 it does everything I need and even runs Logic Pro well multiple tracks and plugins and that’s the heaviest application I use. Other then that I’m a therapist so use for business related tasks etc the only bummer is the webcam but tbh I much prefer using continuity camera with IPhone as that quality makes the 720p or the 1080p built in webcams look way lower quality imo. I love continuity feature. I’m excited for Tahoe

7 upvotes on reddit

Icy-Word4459 · 1 month ago

Actually I'm kinda scared for Tahoe... not sure if it's a good idea to upgrade.

1 upvotes on reddit

Scared-Context-5211 · 1 month ago

I’ve been using Tahoe on my base m1 and the newer betas are running fine. I’ve had no issues so far even battery is fine for the most part

2 upvotes on reddit

EternallySickened · 1 month ago

I did the Tahoe beta upgrade and I wasn’t a fan. Getting it off was an actual nightmare. I couldn’t just restore like normal. I had to plug it into another Mac and use dfu mode. Took hours.

2 upvotes on reddit

melvin3v1978 · 1 month ago

Yeah I won’t upgrade to Tahoe for long time because 3rd party plugins for Logic aren’t compatible. I just updated to Sequoia last week.

2 upvotes on reddit

jenarion · OP · 1 month ago

Same actually! I love both the look and feel of the wedge design. It’s so sleek

4 upvotes on reddit

Analog-Digital- · 1 month ago

I used my MBA M1 8/256 for 12 hours a day, from day one

I checked my SSD Health and it only dropped 3% and was at 97%, since I used about 2.5GB Swap memory on average

It was the best $ 425.00 I ever paid for a laptop ... 🫵

Now using a MBA M2 16/256, again a hell of a Mac (for me at least)

https://preview.redd.it/sl3octrcw7kf1.jpeg?width=3136&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6f717e9c143bdccae8b333b8ab93d1258ae7e1ba

8 upvotes on reddit

nicoraph38 · 1 month ago

Why did you move to a M2 macbook, if that's OK to ask?

2 upvotes on reddit

Analog-Digital- · 1 month ago

For sure you can ask

I really did not need to upgrade to another Mac but less than 10 minutes out a BNIB Midnight MBA M2 16/256 showed up for $ 450.00. That was Saturday and the seller told me to meet at 08:00 AM on Sunday. I was there 07:45 ... lol

Sold my MBA M1 for $ 350.00 a week later

1 upvotes on reddit

RWPRecords · 1 month ago

I still have a 2017 MBP and 2018 Mac mini going strong.

4 upvotes on reddit

Hot_Shape_6695 · 1 month ago

Your wallpaper is hard af

7 upvotes on reddit

ElkZealousideal1824 · 1 month ago

Came here to say this same thing. Love it!

4 upvotes on reddit

See 12 replies

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