It has been a week, since M1 Macs have been able to be discussed by reviewers and normal users. In that time, we have seen benchmarks and real world use, and I have frankly been stunned. I was expecting a platform that basically iterated upon the performance of the existing Intel based Macs, with less heat and improved battery life. What we got instead was something almost revolutionary.
These new M1 Macs come close to putting everyone else to shame. The CPU performance is up there with AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series chips and Intel’s 10th Generation Core chips, especially in single core tasks, but rivaling them in multi-core performance as well. The GPUs are no slouch, coming close to, if not beating, cards that still fetch $200-400 (disclaimer: the last GPU I bought, by itself, was a Matrox Mystique 220 for $120, and I thought that was expensive). To think this is the first iteration of these chips for PCs. It also puts into context what the iPads and iPhones actually are, as these chips are close cousins to the A series chips used in those devices.
The reviews are actually making me want to go out and buy a new Mac. I don’t normally buy new machines frequently, my last new purchase was 2012, for a MacBook Pro Retina 15″, but these new M1 Macs, make my existing 3 main machines (2012 MBPr 15″, 2011 27″ iMac, and Lenovo Ideapad Y700) look like chumps. I AM one of those Mac guys though that actually games on his machine, and not things like RCT (which I do play), or something in a browser, but Cities Skylines, Republique, CivVI, GTA V, among others. And while the 960M in my Lenovo works great most of the time, and the 650M and 6970M in my other machines is capable in both MacOS and Windows, I actually covet the performance being cited from the M1… an integrated GPU.
It isn’t just me. My financé, who while working at literally the same job I do, isn’t that into computers, is even getting on the bandwagon. She is considering ditching her 2013 27″ iMac for a MacBook Air, which I keep telling her to wait until the next generation, as I recall what happened with the early Intel Macs, and even some of the early PPC Macs; there are always better machines coming.
I will say, $1059 for an M1 Mac Mini is starting to seem quite compelling to me. While the reviews have been for the 8GB model, I know better, and will have to have the 16GB, just like I did 8 years ago with my MacBook Pro Retina. Honestly, it certainly can’t be too much worse than what I currently daily-drive at home or work, and at the very least could be an interesting experiment.