Apple's M1 Pro, M1 Max SoCs Investigated: New Performance and Efficiency Heights
by Andrei Frumusanu on October 25, 2021 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Apple
- MacBook
- Apple M1 Pro
- Apple M1 Max
Conclusion & First Impressions
The new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips are designs that we’ve been waiting for over a year now, ever since Apple had announced the M1 and M1-powered devices. The M1 was a very straightforward jump from a mobile platform to a laptop/desktop platform, but it was undeniably a chip that was oriented towards much lower power devices, with thermal limits. The M1 impressed in single-threaded performance, but still clearly lagged behind the competition in overall performance.
The M1 Pro and M1 Max change the narrative completely – these designs feel like truly SoCs that have been made with power users in mind, with Apple increasing the performance metrics in all vectors. We expected large performance jumps, but we didn’t expect the some of the monstrous increases that the new chips are able to achieve.
On the CPU side, doubling up on the performance cores is an evident way to increase performance – the competition also does so with some of their designs. How Apple does it differently, is that it not only scaled the CPU cores, but everything surrounding them. It’s not just 4 additional performance cores, it’s a whole new performance cluster with its own L2. On the memory side, Apple has scaled its memory subsystem to never before seen dimensions, and this allows the M1 Pro & Max to achieve performance figures that simply weren’t even considered possible in a laptop chip. The chips here aren’t only able to outclass any competitor laptop design, but also competes against the best desktop systems out there, you’d have to bring out server-class hardware to get ahead of the M1 Max – it’s just generally absurd.
On the GPU side of things, Apple’s gains are also straightforward. The M1 Pro is essentially 2x the M1, and the M1 Max is 4x the M1 in terms of performance. Games are still in a very weird place for macOS and the ecosystem, maybe it’s a chicken-and-egg situation, maybe gaming is still something of a niche that will take a long time to see make use of the performance the new chips are able to provide in terms of GPU. What’s clearer, is that the new GPU does allow immense leaps in performance for content creation and productivity workloads which rely on GPU acceleration.
To further improve content creation, the new media engine is a key feature of the chip. Particularly video editors working with ProRes or ProRes RAW, will see a many-fold improvement in their workflow as the new chips can handle the formats like a breeze – this along is likely going to have many users of that professional background quickly adopt the new MacBook Pro’s.
For others, it seems that Apple knows the typical MacBook Pro power users, and has designed the silicon around the use-cases in which Macs do shine. The combination of raw performance, unique acceleration, as well as sheer power efficiency, is something that you just cannot find in any other platform right now, likely making the new MacBook Pro’s not just the best laptops, but outright the very best devices for the task.
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ruthan - Friday, October 29, 2021 - link
So great on paper and for some number crunching, compiling and maybe some video editing.. but where you really need performance for gaming it sucks... and all Apples lofty paper specs are gone. I know that there is some translation layer, but its Apple choice to use it.richardnpaul - Sunday, October 31, 2021 - link
I think that that is a bit of an unfair characterisation at this stage.jojo62 - Saturday, October 30, 2021 - link
I am programmer. Not a gaming programmer but I use my Mac Book Pro 2019 to connect to my work computer. I run Databases like Oracle 21c, microsoft sql server, and others in Windows 11 on my Mac. The performance is great and these laptops last forever. I still have my mac book pro 2012 laptop and it works. I've had many many computers over the years and they all seem to die after 3-4 years but not my apple computers. I think PC makers have implemented planned Obsolescence on their products. I am upgrading to the new mac book pro m1 max soon.razer555 - Saturday, October 30, 2021 - link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRPPLrlUeSAAnadtech, It seems you really need to test with Baldur's gate 3 which can perform 4K 100~120 FPS.
ailooped - Monday, November 1, 2021 - link
What 7? years back there were proof of concept ARM computers that proved you can run many many processors in parallel. I am not that technically apt, of course. However this seems like apple taking advantage of that fact.They are just doubling everything. I am guessing we will see a 64 core graphics and perhaps a max of 128 core for Mac Pro. With M2 cpu cores also doubling to 24 cores or something like that.
Yes, Apple chose to say goodbye to windows compatibility. However, they have a HUGE developer base in iOS. And they (Mac and iOS) are now on-par and running on the same silicone.
This is a disruption to the pc world no matter how you slice it. Of course, intel can see it hence the smear ads against apple. Windows is quietly tinkering with their ARM version of windows, just to see if apple can actually take off with it.
The pc ecosystem is already suffering from the influx of powerful smartphones/tablets. And now apple is in 100% with ARM computers, with a HUGE iOS user base what will be seduced by a seamless transition to Macs from iPhones? Perhaps.. Understandable that Apple is trying...
Do you really mind though? The Intel/AMD/Nvidia trifecta seems to be quite stagnant on CISC. Perhaps it`s better for the PC ecosystem to be on the same silicone as phones and tablets... To benefit from ALL that R&D money going into it...
ailooped - Monday, November 1, 2021 - link
silicon...ailooped - Monday, November 1, 2021 - link
To be quite honest, I am not sure I want to see Apple with their approach to hardware gain tons of marketshare on the desktop/laptops.. No upgradeability... RAM integrated into CPU... I DO however think Intel/AMD/Nvidia can do with a fourth player in the GPU/CPU game..jmmx - Tuesday, November 2, 2021 - link
It would be nice to see some discussion of the NPU. I imagine it would be hard to find any tests across platforms but some type of evaluation would be helpful.bgnn - Tuesday, November 2, 2021 - link
Clarification on node advantage.. I've designed in both 7nm and 5nm. The power and performance increases are marginal compared to good old days. Back then when we switched from 32nm to 28nm we had more than 70% perf/power increase. 7nm to 5nm it's more like 25% at best. Density is the main benefit. Interconnect is killing it for smaller nodes. Gate contacts are tiny and they are incredibly resistive..Hrunga_Zmuda - Sunday, November 7, 2021 - link
Anyone who actually designs in this corner of the computer industry must be familiar with the law of diminishing returns. Right?