KVR Audio

lb24569 · Post by **lb24569** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 6:49 pm

The M1 chip has an eight-core CPU, with four high-performance cores, in what Apple calls "the world's fastest CPU core." The other four cores are high-efficiency cores that use one-tenth of the power while still delivering high performance. Apple says that M1 delivers the best CPU performance per watt.

The M1 has integrated graphics with GPU containing up to eight cores, and Apple says the M1 contains the world's fastest integrated graphics. The chip also contains a six-core neural engine that can process 11 trillion operations per second, as well as Apple's Secure Enclave.

M1 is also built on the same five-nanometer process as the A14 Bionic chip, and supports Thunderbolt and USB 4.

https://www.apple.com/mac/m1/

Apple M1 chip
8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores
8-core GPU
16-core Neural Engine

Memory (Mac Mini, MBP 13" & MBA)
8GB unified memory
Configurable up to : 16GB

Update for future chips

Apple reportedly working on a 32-core processor for high-end Macs
https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/7/2215 ... acbook-pro

Apple Plans Upgraded MacBook Pros With Return of Magnetic Charging
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -the-works

Check if your plug-ins & DAW software have been ported to Apple Silicon yet HERE viewtopic.php?f=16&t=556728

agharta · Post by **agharta** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 7:05 pm

Seems amazing.
The only downside is that RAM is limited to 16GB maximum due to being integrated in the M1 Chip.

Etienne1973 · Post by **Etienne1973** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 7:38 pm

Mac mini with M1 chip is cheaper than the still available Mac mini with Intel inside.

Source: https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/mac-mini

I would configure 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD for $1'099.

But my Mac mini (2012) is still a good workhorse for my needs for the next 2 years.

alonl6 · Post by **alonl6** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 7:55 pm

Why only 15 inch MacBook Pro? I guess we will see 15/16 inches in the future

PAK · Post by **PAK** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 8:21 pm

The fact that they didn't include the 16 inch Macbook Pro is telling - it means there are likely still enough scenarios where its i9 outperforms M1, so they're waiting until next year to make sure that isn't true.

Plus they're going to have to come up with a design which can also use external AMD graphics because, as fast as their integrated graphics might be, it's still no match for the higher end AMD / Nvidia stuff. When / if they do that the battery life numbers won't be as impressive.

Lots of people confused and think this is "ARM" though. All Apple do is license the instruction set. Everything else is their own design, and so it's not quite comparable in the way people might think..

They've already put fans on the 13 inch M1 Macbook and Mac Mini, and the "desktop" stuff will probably deviate further from what people expect "ARM" would be. Increasing cores will only get them so far, so ultimately they're going to have to push the frequencies up too, when they eventially do desktop versions of the chip at some point in the next year or two.

Moving the memory onto the chip is also their way to gain a speed advantage too - but locks you in to RAM amount at the time of purchase. They won't really be able to do that for bigger amounts.. or will they?

Whether they're able to compete with AMD, for heavy CPU lifting, by the time their desktop solutions arrive, remains to be seen. But at least we should start to get a rough idea with these..

lb24569 · Post by **lb24569** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 8:27 pm

Yeah these initial product releases certainly feel like Beta products. I dont think we'll see any major gains with these in the audio world until all major DAWs have been recompiled for arm along with plugins.

dewis_ · Post by **dewis_** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 8:28 pm

So if I was to buy an M1 based MBP, when do you think I could expect native support for Ableton for instance? What about drivers for audio interfaces? The emulation is probably not gonna cut it in music production?

Etienne1973 · Post by **Etienne1973** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 8:34 pm

It's way too early for us audio guys to buy M1 based machines. Do we really need a new machine anyway?

PAK · Post by **PAK** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 8:34 pm

lb24569 wrote: Tue Nov 10, 2020 8:27 pm Yeah these initial product releases certainly feel like Beta products. I dont think we'll see any major gains with these in the audio world until all major DAWs have been recompiled for arm along with plugins.

Not just the DAW hosts and software. The driver situation is a bit of an unknown too.

Even with Apple trying to hurry it all along, it's going to take a while. But my guess is they won't have any Intel Macs on sale past 2021, and will pull all support within 3 years of that. IE I think people would be pretty optimistic to expect any Intel MacOS support from Apple beyond 2024..

It's likely their Intel sales will get hammered since only those, with some sort of professional need to upgrade now, would spend money on a "dead" end.

Markus Krause · Post by **Markus Krause** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:20 pm

As a developer I do not recommend to musicians to get a Mac with M1 chip.
It will still need lots of time till the hosts and plugins have been recompiled. Many plugins will not be recompiled at all because of technical problems or because they are not longer updated.
Rosetta2 will most likely disappear withing the next OS updates. Just like Apple dropped 32 bit or Motorola in the past. Then you won't be able to use the old software

Markus Krause · Post by **Markus Krause** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:23 pm

If you are looking for a really fast computer for audio stuff take a look at the recently released Ryzen 5000 chipsets

ericj23 · Post by **ericj23** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:28 pm

I looked at the blurb and saw 3.5 times CPU power the last mac mini and thought - Bull. A little digging and I found the detail - 3.5 is compared to an i3 version from 2018 doing a transcoding task. So while that is an improvement and suggests it is a powerful chip it is certainly not a particularly good metric for assessing how VST performance will compare with my i7.

Double Tap · Post by **Double Tap** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:41 pm

ericj23 wrote: Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:28 pm I looked at the blurb and saw 3.5 times CPU power the last mac mini and thought - Bull. A little digging and I found the detail - 3.5 is compared to an i3 version from 2018 doing a transcoding task. So while that is an improvement and suggests it is a powerful chip it is certainly not a particularly good metric for assessing how VST performance will compare with my i7.

How would that i3 from 2018 compare to the i9 10900 or the i5 10600 (if I've got those names right)?

Markus Krause · Post by **Markus Krause** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:44 pm

VST performance mainly depends on the floating point performance of the CPU. The Intel I7, the I9 and the Ryzen are very strong with it.
Apples M1 chipset is a RISC processor mainly used for tablets and smartphones. They are optimized for low power consumption.

Etienne1973 · Post by **Etienne1973** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:45 pm

Who has the fastest?

Apple announces new Mac Mini, Air + 13" MBP featuring their own M1 chip.