Discussion Apple Silicon SoC thread

[Eug]

M1
5 nm
Unified memory architecture - LP-DDR4
16 billion transistors

8-core CPU

4 high-performance cores
192 KB instruction cache
128 KB data cache
Shared 12 MB L2 cache

4 high-efficiency cores
128 KB instruction cache
64 KB data cache
Shared 4 MB L2 cache
(Apple claims the 4 high-effiency cores alone perform like a dual-core Intel MacBook Air)

8-core iGPU (but there is a 7-core variant, likely with one inactive core)
128 execution units
Up to 24576 concurrent threads
2.6 Teraflops
82 Gigatexels/s
41 gigapixels/s

16-core neural engine
Secure Enclave
USB 4

Products:
$999 ($899 edu) 13" MacBook Air (fanless) - 18 hour video playback battery life
$699 Mac mini (with fan)
$1299 ($1199 edu) 13" MacBook Pro (with fan) - 20 hour video playback battery life

Memory options 8 GB and 16 GB. No 32 GB option (unless you go Intel).

It should be noted that the M1 chip in these three Macs is the same (aside from GPU core number). Basically, Apple is taking the same approach which these chips as they do the iPhones and iPads. Just one SKU (excluding the X variants), which is the same across all iDevices (aside from maybe slight clock speed differences occasionally).

EDIT:



M1 Pro 8-core CPU (6+2), 14-core GPU
M1 Pro 10-core CPU (8+2), 14-core GPU
M1 Pro 10-core CPU (8+2), 16-core GPU
M1 Max 10-core CPU (8+2), 24-core GPU
M1 Max 10-core CPU (8+2), 32-core GPU

M1 Pro and M1 Max discussion here:

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M1 Ultra discussion here:

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M2 discussion here:

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Second Generation 5 nm
Unified memory architecture - LPDDR5, up to 24 GB and 100 GB/s
20 billion transistors

8-core CPU

4 high-performance cores
192 KB instruction cache
128 KB data cache
Shared 16 MB L2 cache

4 high-efficiency cores
128 KB instruction cache
64 KB data cache
Shared 4 MB L2 cache

10-core iGPU (but there is an 8-core variant)
3.6 Teraflops

16-core neural engine
Secure Enclave
USB 4

Hardware acceleration for 8K h.264, h.264, ProRes

M3 Family discussion here:

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M4 Family discussion here:

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[mvprod123]

With approximate napkin math given the an e core is about 1/3 the performance of a P core, giving the M4 about 6 P core power. 2 more P cores would be about 1250, therabouts top HX 370, X Elite range. M4 Max? Fuggedaboudit.

I think that M4 Max will get +2 E-core. Together with architectural enhancements, it can give +20-30% improvement. This will easily outperform the M2 Ultra.

 

[mvprod123]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1844087296179761394

 

[FlameTail]

M4 Cinebench 2024 MT result: 977

That honestly makes the X Elite look bad.

M4 with 4P+6E configuration trading blows with X Elite's 12P config.

Of course, X Elite can score higher upto 1200 points, but it also needs 100W of power to do that.

 

[jdubs03]

For reference Notebook Check has this chart:

This Vadim fellow is pretty useless despite having access to the hardware.

Just keep in mind the M4 consumes on the order of 1/3 of the power of the HX 370 to max out on CB24.

 

[gdansk]

Just keep in mind the M4 consumes on the order of 1/3 of the power to max out on CB24.

Yes, it's so good there's no reason to make stuff up. And yet... he did.

 

[jdubs03]

Yes, it's so good there's no reason to make stuff up. And yet... he did.

I should clarify, consumes 1/3 of the power to reach a similar score. HX 370 full max is like 80W+ (forget exactly off the top of my head).

And I agree, no need to embellish.

 

[mvprod123]

That honestly makes the X Elite look bad.

M4 with 4P+6E configuration trading blows with X Elite's 12P config.

Of course, X Elite can score higher upto 1200 points, but it also needs 100W of power to do that.

X Elite was released late. It should have been released earlier, instead of holding numerous events with hasty and false promises to ‘get ahead of the industry’.

 

[okoroezenwa]

X Elite was released late. It should have been released earlier, instead of holding numerous events with hasty and false promises to ‘get ahead of the industry’.

Well, I hope they live up to whatever promises they intend to make next year. It’d be weird to do what they did for v1 twice.

 

[Doug S]

Leaked M4 MacBook Pro Appears for Sale on Russian Classifieds Site

In a continuation of the latest unprecedented leak, Apple's yet-to-be-announced M4 MacBook Pro has reportedly surfaced on Avito, a popular...

www.macrumors.com

It seems multiple M4 MacBook Pro 16/512 GB units were available, listed at ~US$7500 each until the listing was removed by the site.

Damn, smuggling Apple products into Russia is apparently a really lucrative gig!

 

[poke01]

People corrected him in the comments on that thread which is good to see.

Yes, it's so good there's no reason to make stuff up. And yet... he did.

 

[S'renne]

Any news on the M4's GPU then besides just the CPU?

 

[Eug]

Any news on the M4's GPU then besides just the CPU?

FWIW, there were OpenCL and Metal benchmarks posted:

https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/compute/2893034 OpenCL

Metal: 57603

That puts it in between M3 non-Pro and M1 Pro.

 

[FlameTail]

Evolution of Apple M series single core performance.

 

[mikegg]

View attachment 109075
Evolution of Apple M series single core performance.

In 3.6 years. That's nuts. M1 was already leading in ST.

I don't expect this pace to continue though. TSMC nodes are getting more expensive and density scaling has slowed drastically.

 

[poke01]

There is a whole review of it lol

This never happened before to Apple. Previously only to Google Pixels

Spoiler: Cinebench Screenshots

 

[FlameTail]

Base M4 chip?

I want M4 Pro and M4 Max!!!

 

[mvprod123]

Base M4 chip?

I want M4 Pro and M4 Max!!!

M4 Ultra!

 

[FlameTail]

M4 Ultra!

That is next year.

M4 Pro and M4 Max will be unveiled at the event this month.

 

[mvprod123]

That is next year.

M4 Pro and M4 Max will be unveiled at the event this month.

I know. I wonder how the M4 Ultra will potentially outperform the new Zen 5 and ArrowLake CPUs.

 

[FlameTail]

I know. I wonder how the M4 Ultra will potentially outperform the new Zen 5 and ArrowLake CPUs.

Probably M4 Ultra will shred the 9950X and 285K.

 

[Nothingness]

There is a whole review of it lol
...

This never happened before to Apple. Previously only to Google Pixels

I don't want to derail the thread or enter any political discussion, but this is to be expected: Russia is China's new best friend, and previously China and Google had issues over Google store. Given that these devices are built in China, I'm not surprised there are leaks to countries where companies have very little control, and I expect more in the future. There's no judgement on my side about this, just my thoughts. I like to read such leaked previews, even though I always wait for more official reviews before drawing any conclusion and making any decision.

 

[poke01]

Probably M4 Ultra will shred the 9950X and 285K.

Yeah I actually think the M4 Ultra in the Mac Studio will be at the top for CPU compute.

the m4 max might also be a contender if it gets 16 P cores

 

[FlameTail]

Yeah I actually think the M4 Ultra in the Mac Studio will be at the top for CPU compute.

the m4 max might also be a contender if it gets 16 P cores

Yeah, a 16 P-core M4 Max would be enough to beat the 9950X/285K in MT.

 

[mikegg]

I know. I wonder how the M4 Ultra will potentially outperform the new Zen 5 and ArrowLake CPUs.

I honestly wouldn't care about the CPU in an Ultra. I would like to see how it will handle LLMs. It will have at least 256GB of VRAM, big enough for some very large LLM models.

 

[Henry swagger]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1844069410279129148

apple single core performance is insane 14% faster than lion cove t lower clock rate... m4 ultra will be insane 😆🤣🤨