Apple One More Thing- Apple Silicon

Im thinking about it. I wouldn't mind placing one in my cabinet to take over as my plex server so I have more freedom with my laptop.

Im wondering why the new M1 version of the mac mini is cheaper than the older version?

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Apple One More Thing- Apple Silicon by BallsEleven
Im thinking about it. I wouldn't mind placing one in my cabinet to take over as my plex server so I have more freedom with my laptop.

Im wondering why the new M1 version of the mac mini is cheaper than the older version?

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As I understand it, they expected the in-house design to be cheaper and said they planned to share that benefit with the consumer.


One marketing caution: when you look at the m1 mini, they compare its ability to perform certain functions to the Intel base model. This was an i3-8300 chip. If you want a $700 desktop with a 256gb drive (and room for peripherals) this looks like it is going to be a fairly decent upgrade. But you could upgrade to an i7-8700 in the same box (and an i5-8500 in the middle), and they don't give a good comparison between the "high-end" Intel Mini vs the m1

My suspicion: they are probably fairly similar in horsepower (keep in mind the mac mini intel chips are about 2 years old). When looking at certain reviews between the i3/5/7 models, it looks like in most tasks (mostly video rendering and big transfers), the i7 outperforms the i3 by about the same margins that they're touting the m1 to outperform the i3. I would imagine if there's a big difference, they would have marketed that fairly extensively. They're going to be saving a bit on power, but they're undercutting the power on the i3 chip by enough that touting efficiency for 2-year old power isn't a great marketing point.
The integrated graphics are stated to be better than Intel's. It wouldn't be surprising. It also won't surprise me at all when the integrated graphics are still comparable to current-gen integrated graphics or slightly better. They'll never compare to discreet graphics, but they'll make up for it with programs optimizing their architecture for the things that sell (most people buying this computer want to use photoshop, 4k netflix, and surf the web +/- Apple Arcade (which is designed for mobile processors to begin with) more than they want to render 3d animations and "game" (your online FPS et al).


I did it. I ordered one. I overpaid for 16gb of what is stated to be nonexpandable RAM and the 2tb ssd. I'll probably regret it. But it will be here in about 2 weeks. I'll try it out pretty hard and give it a review after a week or two.

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$200 for RAM is fricking ridiculous.

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$800 for a 2tb ssd is somewhere in the ballpark of "fricking ridiculous" as well

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I’m interested to see what drops with iMacs and the higher tier MacBook pros

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I'm actually most intrigued by the fact that they plan on offering a Mac Pro within 2 years. I'm assuming they're going to make one mobile and one desktop CPU and then have the MP with 2 and 4 (or more?) physical CPU options.


If I'm guessing, the mobile shift is very successful with adequate power and battery life that thrills, but the desktop stuff lags behind benchmark wise. The iMac crowd will probably not see a dip in real-world performance based on how the typical user uses the machine. And then I think that they may wind up depending on the Mac Pro heavy users being satisfied with cheaper, adequate machines that don't really improve function but get smaller, quieter and still sell the hell out of the machines just to be able to use Logic and Final Cut.



The concept they're working with here with the m1 begs for the return of the trash can mac pro form factor.



ETA: On second thought, I just found this benchmark comparison between a 9900k and the m1. Apparently this little fricker can hold its own at 15w TDP vs the 9900k (actually beats it in single core, 18% slower in multi-core processing using Geekbench 5).


It seems a bit too good to be true, but I'm looking forward to my toy.

I’m looking forward to see how fast these new laptops are without the Apple marketing spin when the review embargo lifts. I see a new iMac in my future, hopefully they get a little face lift and update in the next batch.

Still using a 720p camera and no Face ID in the first two laptops

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Im thinking about it. I wouldn't mind placing one in my cabinet to take over as my plex server so I have more freedom with my laptop.

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I’d be curious to see how long it takes Plex releases an MacOS11 ARM build to take advantage of the full SoC, and until then how PMS runs emulated via Rosetta, especially if a lot of content needs to be transcoded. And no external GPU support for these guys for increased hardware transcoding.

I cancelled my order... the M1 chips only support 1 external display which is a deal breaker for me at least. On well, guess I’ll wait on the next version of their SoC.

Possibly.. Mac Mini is the tale tell, it only supports one TB display & 1 HDMI which means the MacBooks are using one of those PCI lanes for the internal display and only one lane is left for Thunderbolt out display. I'm shocked they did this, I can imagine a ton of people dock up everyday to their multiple screens.

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Im wondering why the new M1 version of the mac mini is cheaper than the older version?

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Where Intel charged ~$200 for the chip, Apple is able to make the M1 for < $50

Totally agree with you, it’s an amazing piece of technology for what it is. Put that together with a OS specifically made for it and only it, it’s crazy what it can do.

This is the MacBook Air

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In comparison to Macs, the single-core performance is better than any other available Mac, and the multi-core performance beats out all of the 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro models, including the 10th-generation high-end 2.4GHz Intel Core i9 model. That high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro earned a single-core score of 1096 and a multi-core score of 6870

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Single core performance better than even the most expensive Mac Pro. Wow