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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M5 Family discussion here:

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[poke01]

Specify

There is some law that states phones in EU need to have 5 years of security updates

 

[fastandfurious6]

There is some law that states phones in EU need to have 5 years of security updates

I'd be surprised if common people cared about any of that, bet at least 95% of europeans don't even know what a android security update is or why it's needed

AFAIK almost all phones are available in EU markets, it's major

 

[poke01]

I'd be surprised if common people cared about any of that, bet at least 95% of europeans don't even know what a android security update is or why it's needed

AFAIK almost all phones are available in EU markets, it's major

Yeah most don’t care but when you pay over 1000euros some would consider timely updates to be important

 

[oak8292]

Fully agree and makes sense for real computers but what optimizations are we talking about exactly for phones? Phone CPUs are x100 stronger than needed, even if OS is unoptimized it will still be snappy.

‘Real computers’?

‘x100 stronger than needed’. Who arbitrates what is needed and is this also done for laptops and desktops? Are Apps limited by what some random person decides is too strong?

Literally 99% of phone users in the entire world don't care and don't even know anything about this topic

For 99% of people, Android 11 is as good as Android 18, can't tell the difference

Are we making things up for argument? There are well over a billion iPhone users globally at this point and my guess is that more than a couple of them have bought an iPhone for updates and security. Here is a new article about the latest update which give iPhones back to 5S the certificates they need to continue calling emergency services.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidphelan/2026/01/27/apple-just-released-urgent-updates-for-2-billion-iphones/

 

[MerryCherry]

I don't think iPhones are meaningfully better than Android phones (if you compare like for like).

On the laptop front though, it is a slaughter. No Windows laptop can match the Macbook Air, and very few equal the Macbook Pro.

(Doesn't help that Microsoft is shooting itself in the foot either).

 

[coercitiv]

On the laptop front though, it is a slaughter. No Windows laptop can match the Macbook Air, and very few equal the Macbook Pro.

(Doesn't help that Microsoft is shooting itself in the foot either).

It's still relative. I buy Macs for my wife, but I still can't fully justify them for myself. I need RAM and storage, and once I factor those in the Macbook is twice as expensive as the PC. I'd rather buy twice as often (which I don't, I just buy when need to).

Microsoft is making it really hard for me though. If they don't get their act together the Win laptop I just bought will be my last. In fact I would argue the biggest problem of the PC today is Windows, it's on the verge of actually preventing people from being productive on their own devices.

 

[jdubs03]

It's still relative. I buy Macs for my wife, but I still can't fully justify them for myself. I need RAM and storage, and once I factor those in the Macbook is twice as expensive as the PC. I'd rather buy twice as often (which I don't, I just buy when need to).

With RAM costs what they are now and in the near term. The value proposition is significantly better; as long as they don’t raise prices…