Apple Silicon M1

Messages
19
Name
Richard
Edit My Images
Yes
I've just finished setting up my new MacBook Pro with he new Apple Silicon ARM M1 chipset in it.
So far so good. Lightroom CC works very well and is sooooo much quicker. Affinity seems to work well too and is also noticeably quicker. My Wacom Intros Pro tablet works fine too.
The whole experience is noticeably quicker, my only complaint so far is that my old MacBook used to keep me warm when I browsed in bed, this new one seems not to generate any heat at all, the fan has not run at all yet and it is cold to touch on the bottom after an hours use, I'll have to put a fleece on.
 
Apparently it will run even faster when they produce dedicated apps for it.
 
Interesting (fairly techie) article on *why* they are so fast

Why Is Apple’s M1 Chip So Fast?. Real world experience with the new M1… | by Erik Engheim | Nov, 2020 | Debugger (SPAM)

and a bit of commentary on why not everybody thinks they are a good idea....

Apple's M1: the fastest and bestest ever silicon = revolution? Nah, there's far more interesting stuff happening in tech that matters to everyone • The Register

And apparently if you stick Win10 on one they are still seriously fast.
 
I got a base spec M1 MacBook Air a couple of weeks ago to replace my 6 year old Air. I'm very impressed and so pleased with it's performance and stability, works fast in Photoshop, Lightroom and day to day tasks. One of the main attractions in buying an M1 in the first place was to be able to runs apps from my iPad Pro eg. Lumafusion video editing app. It can only get better when they start producing dedicated apps. I initially missed 4 USB-C ports when I was doing a lot of disc management tasks with some new backup discs, but now that's done I'm ok with just Sandisk Extreme 1TB SSD (on a powered dongle) for Time Machine, and another Extreme 1TB SSD as my scratch disc .... both SSDs being permanently connected to the provided 2 USB-C ports.
 
My Mac Mini M1 is arriving on Thursday so looking forward to that.

You're always going to get people poo pooing them and telling you it's a bad idea to buy now because next year will be better and this is the first generation blah blah. That's all crap! The M1 is based on the latest mobile chip A14 or whatever it is now so hardly first generation and you could spend you life never upgrading because next year will be better.

From everything I have seen the M1 chip performs extremely well compared to it's "bigger" brothers and I have no doubt it will out perform my 2015 5k iMac for the tasks I need it to do.

I've had to order a good monitor for photo editing which cost me the same as the Mac but still cheaper than a new iMac and the next upgrade will be even less because I no longer have to replace the screen every time.
 
Hidden inside the article, for a brief moment, it raises a good point: M1's fewer high speed IO. But other than that, it's typical Register negativity.

The performance of M1 a triumph for future of computing. It does matter how quickly calculations can be done on-chip at such power efficiency. As always, efficiency is king. End of x86 days are coming, started with ARM-based smart phones, this M1 is a clear sign in PC space. RISC-V in servers will be the final nail.

Rumour mill is saying AMD prototyping a RISC architecture: https://www.techspot.com/news/87851-amd-rumored-working-arm-based-apple-m1-rival.html
 
My Mac Mini M1 is arriving on Thursday so looking forward to that.

You're always going to get people poo pooing them and telling you it's a bad idea to buy now because next year will be better and this is the first generation blah blah. That's all crap! The M1 is based on the latest mobile chip A14 or whatever it is now so hardly first generation and you could spend you life never upgrading because next year will be better.

From everything I have seen the M1 chip performs extremely well compared to it's "bigger" brothers and I have no doubt it will out perform my 2015 5k iMac for the tasks I need it to do.

I've had to order a good monitor for photo editing which cost me the same as the Mac but still cheaper than a new iMac and the next upgrade will be even less because I no longer have to replace the screen every time.
I get your point but I’m wary of being the tester considering I’m not the most computer savvy in the tech department. My worry has been trying to spec what I need but I was worried that a lot of it was marketing hype from Apple. Now real user experiences are coming out I’m more inclined to think the M1 Mac mini is the right choice. The only question for me is spec. 16GB RAM is the obvious choice but it’s whether I go with the 512GB SSD or 1TB SSD.

I still think there will be a faster chip out next for the Mac mini. Of course it will cost more but it would potentially be more future proof for me (I’m currently using a 2012 iMac so I don’t upgrade as often as some).
 
I get your point but I’m wary of being the tester considering I’m not the most computer savvy in the tech department. My worry has been trying to spec what I need but I was worried that a lot of it was marketing hype from Apple. Now real user experiences are coming out I’m more inclined to think the M1 Mac mini is the right choice. The only question for me is spec. 16GB RAM is the obvious choice but it’s whether I go with the 512GB SSD or 1TB SSD.

I still think there will be a faster chip out next for the Mac mini. Of course it will cost more but it would potentially be more future proof for me (I’m currently using a 2012 iMac so I don’t upgrade as often as some).

I've never paid Apple for Ram upgrades but had no choice this time round so did stump up the extra £200 for 16Gb. I left the capacity at 256Gb as I'll only be using the machine for image editing and basic home use so I have a 1Tb external drive which will hold all the data.

There will most certainly be a fast chip out next year whether that be a M2 or M1X but no doubt they will also be more expensive, but like I said how long you hold back. In 2022 there will be a M3
 
what is even more interesting about all this is the strength of ARM technology . it was sold by the UK for a song. and now has not only won virtually the entire mobile market but has now also made vital inroads into the computer market via Apple.

Its profit factor must be massive, as it manufactures nothing, but is a vital intellectual resource to almost everyone in the field of computing and communication.
 
...... but it’s whether I go with the 512GB SSD or 1TB SSD.

Over the years I personally have managed with 256GB on my old MacBook Air, Mac mini, iMac and now the new M1 Air. With all the programs/apps I use and temporarily putting photos, films, downloads etc on the drive, I've always had about 100GB spare. I favour using external drives (duplicate backups) for photos, docs and everything else, but I like to be fairly disciplined about not just dumping stuff on the internal 256GB drive forever. So I think going for 512GB will be fine ..... if you don't want to use it as a main storage facility. If you do want to use it as main storage then go for the 1TB ... but like always with Apple, you pay a premium for that storage
 
Last edited:
The usual "sources" are saying next release will have basically a double or triple number of faster CPU and GPU cores, and probably the usual speed bump too. You can imagine what this will translate to. The next big mbp will be a monster compared to these.
 
One of the most interesting things for me though is the aggressive price point.
 

I bet they are researching things outside of x86. Notably, both apple and amd manufacture their chips and work with TMSC. This can only result in many similarities, like process size, and power efficiency.
I guess such a product from amd would initially target server market and maybe mobiles or even game consoles. A hybrid x86-arm chip is a maybe for cross compatibility. The best case future scenario I can see is a desktop class android devices offering a much better alternative to windows and competition to Mac. Adobe and others already have a few apps on android and it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect the full set
 
One of the most interesting things for me though is the aggressive price point.

I'm wondering if it's to entice people to jump with them being new, making the risk lower. Whether they stay low priced as confidence builds is another matter.

They seem very quick, certainly when compared to any all-in-one system. One test I saw on youtube of them exporting a batch of images on Lightroom had it *almost* as fast as a mid-range Ryzen in a desktop build.

Given that the desktop obviously has far superior cooling capability, the fact it was so close is pretty impressive.
 
I'm wondering if it's to entice people to jump with them being new, making the risk lower. Whether they stay low priced as confidence builds is another matter.

They seem very quick, certainly when compared to any all-in-one system. One test I saw on youtube of them exporting a batch of images on Lightroom had it *almost* as fast as a mid-range Ryzen in a desktop build.

Given that the desktop obviously has far superior cooling capability, the fact it was so close is pretty impressive.

The speed of it is ridiculous:-

1 - It is the slowest M chip they will make
2 - It's 1st gen
3 - Lightroom is running through Rosetta, meaning around a 20% resource lost to that....wait until native code comes out!
4 - The amount of power it uses to achieve the same result
5 - The simple 1 fan needed to cool it

Double the performance core, double the GPU cores, sure the price will go up but at that point even if using 20% for Rosetta wouldn't be a problem it will probably be like 10% (just a guess), the potential for this Apple SOC tech is insane. I am going to say it now, when they do an iMac, it will most likely blow away every Intel desktop rig at that price point (subtracting the monitor cost). Hell, I will even say throw that monitor in for free and just the tower cost, it will be faster.

(Gaming performance excluded)
 
The speed of it is ridiculous:-

1 - It is the slowest M chip they will make
2 - It's 1st gen
3 - Lightroom is running through Rosetta, meaning around a 20% resource lost to that....wait until native code comes out!
4 - The amount of power it uses to achieve the same result
5 - The simple 1 fan needed to cool it

Double the performance core, double the GPU cores, sure the price will go up but at that point even if using 20% for Rosetta wouldn't be a problem it will probably be like 10% (just a guess), the potential for this Apple SOC tech is insane. I am going to say it now, when they do an iMac, it will most likely blow away every Intel desktop rig at that price point (subtracting the monitor cost). Hell, I will even say throw that monitor in for free and just the tower cost, it will be faster.

(Gaming performance excluded)

Its not like Intel has been any good for some time. AMD is leading with desktop and mobile chips and the Ryzen 5/7 mobile chips are faster than Apple M.
 
Last edited:
My Mac Mini M1 is arriving on Thursday so looking forward to that.

You're always going to get people poo pooing them and telling you it's a bad idea to buy now because next year will be better and this is the first generation blah blah. That's all crap! The M1 is based on the latest mobile chip A14 or whatever it is now so hardly first generation and you could spend you life never upgrading because next year will be better.

From everything I have seen the M1 chip performs extremely well compared to it's "bigger" brothers and I have no doubt it will out perform my 2015 5k iMac for the tasks I need it to do.

I've had to order a good monitor for photo editing which cost me the same as the Mac but still cheaper than a new iMac and the next upgrade will be even less because I no longer have to replace the screen every time.

I was in the same boat. My late 2015 iMac 27" with 32gb of RAM was really starting to struggle with video editing, so I ordered the 8gb Ram 256GB base model as a little experiment. I also ordered a Viewsonic 32" 4k monitor to go with it.

I am really impressed with how the mini is performing. There is a noticeable improvement in all aspects of its performance.

My only complaint is that I have had to buy a monitor when the iMac 27" screen is perfectly good, but the new one will last for a while. Plus, a couple more ports wouldn't go amiss.

For £699 you can't really ask for anything else, its brilliant.
 
Last edited:
They seem very quick, certainly when compared to any all-in-one system. One test I saw on youtube of them exporting a batch of images on Lightroom had it *almost* as fast as a mid-range Ryzen in a desktop build.

My laptop, Ryzen 7 4800H, 16GB DDR4 benches faster than my Ryzen 3600X, 32GB DDR4 desktop in Cinebench R20. Couldnt believe it.
 
Last edited:
I ran some benchmark type tests on both machines. I am no nerd, so it was literally a click and run thing, but the results showed at least a 50% increased in performance across the majority of tasks when compared with the same test results on my iMac.
 
My only complaint is that I have had to buy a monitor when the iMac 27" screen is perfectly good, but the new one will last for a while. Plus, a couple more ports wouldn't go amiss.

Don't you have any USB Ports on the new monitor? I've also bought a Viewsonic monitor 27" which has USB-C in (display and USB input) and a two or three USB 3.1 ports.
 
That's quick I wasn't expecting it until next year.

Edit - Wait

With this in mind it is probably appropriate to note that beta versions of M1- and Windows ARM-compatible Photoshop are available now… And dream of the performance boost you can expect in future years as Apple Silicon design improves.
 
Last edited:
Hidden inside the article, for a brief moment, it raises a good point: M1's fewer high speed IO. But other than that, it's typical Register negativity.

Yeah - The Reg try to outweigh all the people gushing over what is after all an astonishing bit of kit.

One thing I hadn't realised is that the memory cannot be upgraded. Which seems a small price to pay for the performance. Until you realise that Apple want £200 for 16GB.... :D
 
Its not like Intel has been any good for some time. AMD is leading with desktop and mobile chips and the Ryzen 5/7 mobile chips are faster than Apple M.

I wonder if Intel is working on something really major and groundbreaking or just going to commit Kodak

My only complaint is that I have had to buy a monitor when the iMac 27" screen is perfectly good, but the new one will last for a while. Plus, a couple more ports wouldn't go amiss.

The good news is you can sell it more than paying for your new display.

It's out.

The useless one, yes. Not LR Classic. It won't be our for at least a couple of months.
 
I wonder if Intel is working on something really major and groundbreaking or just going to commit Kodak



The good news is you can sell it more than paying for your new display.



The useless one, yes. Not LR Classic. It won't be our for at least a couple of months.
A very sneaky headline.
 
Yeah - The Reg try to outweigh all the people gushing over what is after all an astonishing bit of kit.

One thing I hadn't realised is that the memory cannot be upgraded. Which seems a small price to pay for the performance. Until you realise that Apple want £200 for 16GB.... :D

It's a system on a chip, so by definition the RAM, CPU and GPU must all be non-upgradeable
 
The speed of it is ridiculous:-

1 - It is the slowest M chip they will make
2 - It's 1st gen
3 - Lightroom is running through Rosetta, meaning around a 20% resource lost to that....wait until native code comes out!
4 - The amount of power it uses to achieve the same result
5 - The simple 1 fan needed to cool it

Double the performance core, double the GPU cores, sure the price will go up but at that point even if using 20% for Rosetta wouldn't be a problem it will probably be like 10% (just a guess), the potential for this Apple SOC tech is insane. I am going to say it now, when they do an iMac, it will most likely blow away every Intel desktop rig at that price point (subtracting the monitor cost). Hell, I will even say throw that monitor in for free and just the tower cost, it will be faster.

(Gaming performance excluded)

Not sure if it will or won't, current benchmarks seem to be pitting it against PC builds that are CPU only and using on board graphics. Which seems fine as the Mac doesn't have a dedicated GPU and it's baked into the chip. The no one realistically expects to use a PC without a separate GPU even if the motherboard has on board graphics, so it's not a real-world comparison.

And AMD and NVIDIA have both said they're looking at Resizable BAR which would let the CPU grab as much VRAM as it needs on the fly.

Regardless of the results though, it's nice to see Apple doing something genuinely innovative on the tech side (rather than the design side) it's been a long while since they did something groundbreaking in that space. And more competition in the space will only lead to better development regardless of your flavour of OS.
 
I was in the same boat. My late 2015 iMac 27" with 32gb of RAM was really starting to struggle with video editing, so I ordered the 8gb Ram 256GB base model as a little experiment. I also ordered a Viewsonic 32" 4k monitor to go with it.

I am really impressed with how the mini is performing. There is a noticeable improvement in all aspects of its performance.

My only complaint is that I have had to buy a monitor when the iMac 27" screen is perfectly good, but the new one will last for a while. Plus, a couple more ports wouldn't go amiss.

For £699 you can't really ask for anything else, its brilliant.
So you did buy one in the end? :ROFLMAO:
 
Last edited:
Haha yes! Got it end of last week. Absolutely love it. Base model though, just to ‘see how it goes’

I also cancelled mine.
I am now waiting on a base MacBook air.
Good to hear you are pleased with the performance.
 
Last edited:
I saw some forum, may be this one, someone is selling the base for £860. 2 weeks old.

that's a pretty good price (can't see it on this forum though)
I am hoping Santa will bring mine, i have been a good boy this year :ROFLMAO:
 
Over the years I personally have managed with 256GB on my old MacBook Air, Mac mini, iMac and now the new M1 Air. With all the programs/apps I use and temporarily putting photos, films, downloads etc on the drive, I've always had about 100GB spare. I favour using external drives (duplicate backups) for photos, docs and everything else, but I like to be fairly disciplined about not just dumping stuff on the internal 256GB drive forever. So I think going for 512GB will be fine ..... if you don't want to use it as a main storage facility. If you do want to use it as main storage then go for the 1TB ... but like always with Apple, you pay a premium for that storage
I currently have 150GB (OS and LR catalogue) on a 250GB external SSD so 512GB should be fine but having a 2012 iMac I know with Apple what you buy now can’t be updated later so there is an element of buying more than you need know so it future proofed.
 
Back
Top