Topic: The new Apple Silicon macs with M1 (Read 4914 times)

kers · « **on:** November 11, 2020, 07:07:40 am »

Apple just launched their first Apple Silicon macs with the first M1 desktop processor.
It is a major change for Apple, the last time was in 2006 when they moved from IBM to Intel.

Anandtech has an in depth article on the A14 chip that they think will be at the base of the M1.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/16226/apple-silicon-m1-a14-deep-dive

Some of the things they say:
Apple already is capable to make a chip as fast as the fastest current chip from Intel or AMD.
At the same time they need less energy to reach that goal.
Apples chips in the iphone made a 200% jump in performance during the last 5 years, while Intel made only a 28% jump.
Because of that Apple had simply no other option then to start using their own chips, or stay behind ( or go to AMD)

I foresee a big future for Apple produced chips - also for use in servercentra.
for us it is more a matter of how well non-Apple-software will run on it in emulation, during the first period.
And there will be glitches; i already read only one supported external screen can be attached...16gb ram internally.
In a few years it will be a mature system - the same with Big Sur.

Benny Profane · « **Reply #1 on:** November 11, 2020, 10:57:16 am »

Man, I hope it's at least a few years. I just dropped 3000 on a souped up trashcan, and I'd like my money's worth before Adobe starts ignoring the old chips.

Joe Towner · « **Reply #2 on:** November 11, 2020, 11:58:33 am »

It's been a multi-year process that's been going for a while. The move to 64bit only apps - Catalina - was the first step. By forcing folks to either stay where they are with their working apps or upgrade their apps to support the OS path, Apple has the ability to spread the disappointment out over a long term. The other option was to announce a new Mac that doesn't run any of your existing stuff.

It will be good to see how far they can push the A14/M1 platform, but I have concerns on the larger side of things - the new Mac Pro's are a 5 year investment so I would expect them to maintain the support they currently for a long time. Given that I don't expect a 16/32core M1 series processor, the platform will be as cpu agnostic as possible.

kers · « **Reply #3 on:** November 11, 2020, 12:01:22 pm »

Well they have said they will support Intel based macs for years to come. My guess is the trashcan will at least be supported another 3-5 years.
about cores; the A14 chip is champion in dealing with many instructionsets at the same time.

Daverich · « **Reply #4 on:** November 11, 2020, 03:58:44 pm »

One problem that jumps out me with all three of these new models is they are limited to a max of 16 GB of RAM. Guess there’s no new ARM Mac in my immediate future.

kimballistic · « **Reply #5 on:** November 11, 2020, 06:11:37 pm »

It's worth noting that Apple started by putting the M1 chip in their lowest performing machines in their lineup: the macbook air, the 2-port macbook pro, and the mac mini. None of these machines were ever positioned in the market to be speed demons or to be hot-rodded with tons of ram.... except maybe the mini.

Personally I'm expecting another round of laptop updates in 6-12 months with something like an M1X (or M2X?) for their 4-port 13" MBP and 16" MBP that will have 32-64 GB of ram on the chip and more CPU/GPU cores. I expect the mini to then be configurable with this chip as well, since the old intel mini could be spec'd with up to 64gb of ram and the new M1 mini is absolutely crippled at 16gb.

I also expect at least one more chip that isn't designed for power-constrained or thermally-constrained environments. We'll see that in the iMac and Mac Pro. And it could be up to 2 years away still, so that could be an M3 generation at that point, if they do annual improvements like they do with their mobile chips.

phila · « **Reply #6 on:** November 13, 2020, 01:55:48 am »

"In comparison to Macs, the single-core performance is better than any other available Mac, and the multi-core performance beats out all of the 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro models, including the 10th-generation high-end 2.4GHz Intel Core i9 model."

https://www.macrumors.com/2020/11/11/m1-macbook-air-first-benchmark/

Not too shabby for the bottom of the range model! No doubt more powerful versions with more RAM will be seen in higher end models in due course. This is only a Geekbench score so we will have to wait to see how actual real life operations perform but it is certainly an encouraging start!

kers · « **Reply #7 on:** November 13, 2020, 12:52:18 pm »

Non Apple software running through emulation might give problems;

here the message from Adobe about compatibility of photoshop
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-and-macos-big-sur.html

Photohop version 22 runs emulated - with some problems like no ACR support at the moment
a native version is expected in 2021

digitaldog · « **Reply #8 on:** November 13, 2020, 01:10:57 pm »

Quote from: kers on November 13, 2020, 12:52:18 pm

Non Apple software running through emulation might give problems;

here the message from Adobe about compatibility of photoshop
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-and-macos-big-sur.html

Photohop version 22 runs emulated - with some problems like no ACR support at the moment
a native version is expected in 2021

Adobe's on top of the new chip, all I can say is, stay tuned a bit longer.
Now, should you rush out for the new chip due to PS/LR? I wouldn't for many reasons.

kers · « **Reply #9 on:** November 13, 2020, 01:20:30 pm »

Oh i agree- i usually wait one year after Apple introducing a new OS, now they introduce a really new OS and a new chips to support.
Might take two years to get it working as it should.
But it is very interesting to see what can be the result of this new chip, OS and programs all made by one company.
You would suspect a perfect match.
For photoshop, my current software and printer support I stay at Mojave for the next 4 years... i think.

Eric Brody · « **Reply #10 on:** November 14, 2020, 11:32:07 am »

I've never understood the need to be first out the door with a new OS or new chipset. Are there some sort of bragging rights to being the first to download the new whatever and then deal with all the glitches, major and minor that are almost guaranteed with any major change? Among photographers, who can see any upside to spending large amounts of money on a machine with only 16GB of RAM? Given the potential downside risks of the new OS and chips, I invested in an Intel 2020 iMac that I hope and expect will keep me going until Apple and Adobe have sorted things out. I have no doubt that it will be fine in the long run but how long that will take is an unknown.

I wish only the best to these early adopters but given the problems that sometimes pop up even with long established systems, I'm sticking with my current plan. I only wish I could be running Mojave on my 2020 iMac.

digitaldog · « **Reply #11 on:** November 14, 2020, 11:44:45 am »

Gotta say, I'm so far much happier with Big Sur than Catalina.

Jeremy Roussak · « **Reply #12 on:** November 14, 2020, 01:13:59 pm »

Quote from: digitaldog on November 14, 2020, 11:44:45 am

Gotta say, I'm so far much happier with Big Sur than Catalina.

That's interesting, Andrew. What do you find to be better? No issues with printing or colour management? LR/PS/Epson drivers working OK?

In days gone by, I'd have been the first to have installed a new OS (I'd probably have been running the beta), but old age has brought caution.

Jeremy

digitaldog · « **Reply #13 on:** November 14, 2020, 02:19:46 pm »

Seems faster, especially Safari, nice on the eyes (GUI).

langier · « **Reply #14 on:** November 14, 2020, 02:53:31 pm »

I think another factor of Big Sur over Catalina is that Big Sur in now a full-release, MacOX 11, not a 10.x as was Catalina, the last or of the now nearly 20 year evolution that took the Mac from the old RISC architecture on the G-series chips into Intel and now back to Apple silicon.

It's come a long way and the journey will soon start anew...

digitaldog · « **Reply #15 on:** November 15, 2020, 03:15:48 pm »

My 3880 prints correctly using color management in Big Sur with the older driver that worked under Catalina. Tested in Photoshop. So that's all good. Will have to try the P800 next but I suspect it will be fine, the 3880 driver hasn't been updated in awhile.

Jeremy Roussak · « **Reply #16 on:** November 16, 2020, 04:28:00 am »

Good to know, Andrew. Thanks. It's reasonably likely that my aged 3800 will continue to function as well, I'd guess.

Jeremy

StephaneB · « **Reply #17 on:** November 16, 2020, 05:11:19 am »

I don't think the 16GB is a problem for my usage. The most demanding scenario I run is Lightroom Classic CC + Affinity Photo. This now runs on a 2019 MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM. It is not as quick as on the Windows beast I ran it before (Ryzen 7 8C, 32GB RAM) but surprisingly good and smooth since I did a fresh OS install with Big Sur. It is great as it is, really.

Based on this, I'd expect an M1 with 16GB RAM and its super fast SSD to be all I need for several years.

Incidentally, the 3 Mac models they converted to M1 make more than 90% of Mac sales volumes. So it is not a prudent step they took last week. They actually went almost all in. From a sales volume perspective, the transition is already almost complete.

digitaldog · « **Reply #18 on:** November 16, 2020, 09:17:29 am »

FWIW P800 prints without issue on Big Sur with driver that also worked under Catalina.

mcbroomf · « **Reply #19 on:** November 17, 2020, 01:04:14 pm »

Beta PS is now available for the M1 chipped Macs
https://feedback.photoshop.com/conversations/photoshop-beta/photoshop-for-mac-arm-is-here/5fb359d3ca9d527a59c4677e

Also for the ARM based Microsoft device(s?)
https://feedback.photoshop.com/conversations/photoshop-beta/photoshop-for-windows-arm-is-here/5fb3584b38150f55db64b1e4

Author Topic: The new Apple Silicon macs with M1 (Read 4914 times)