Mac Hardware - 5k Supremacy - The Something Awful Forums

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pyrotek: May 21, 2004

I got a used, like-new Macbook Air from Amazon Warehouse Deals a couple weeks ago because it ended up being about $90 cheaper than the Apple Store after taxes, etc. It ended up having a sticker on the computer itself saying it was a refurb, which I'm guessing means it wasn't refurbed by Apple. On top of that, there are only six months left on the warranty when I plug the serial number into the link in the OP, so I guess that is another sign it wasn't refurbed by Apple.

I love it so far, but I'm concerned because the battery capacity is already down to 93% after just 24 cycles (it had 7 on it when I got it.) Isn't it supposed to last 1000 cycles before it gets down to 80%? Should I return it and just go ahead and pay the extra $90 to get a refurb from Apple?

# ¿ Feb 24, 2012 21:25

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# ¿ Nov 19, 2025 10:31

pyrotek: May 21, 2004

Shmoogy posted:

I'm at 99% after 57 cycles on my 2011 MBA-- If it was an apple refurb it would have a new battery in it.

I guess it is going back, then. I forgot to mention in my other post it dropped from 97% to 93% after I charged it overnight, which can't be good.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2012 21:43

pyrotek: May 21, 2004

KidDynamite posted:

Oh I know that. He's saying it should be regular 15" MBP pricing. $1799 for that machine would be giving it away.

I could see that if it was just a regular MBP with a better screen. It isn't that, though. It is more of a Macbook Air Pro than anything else.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2012 18:12

pyrotek: May 21, 2004

Mercurius posted:

I also received my iMac and it has the upgraded video card, same as what you've ordered. Not really noticing any choppiness of the UI and it seemed to play the 4K video I ran through it with no problems. I know that 2GB graphics cards often have trouble rendering fullscreen 3D stuff at 1440p with large textured so I figured 4GB was probably safer for general use at 5K. I'd imagine it's garbage for full screen 3D stuff but that's to be expected given how many expensive videocards are required to get 4K game playback to be smooth at 60FPS on gaming PCs .

Any chance you could post performance impressions for lighter games along the lines of Hearthstone at native resolution? I'm not expecting to be able to run anything intensive at that crazy resolution, but it would be nice to be able to play some less intensive or older games like at 5K.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2014 23:19

pyrotek: May 21, 2004

Yeast posted:

Made the mistake of viewing my photographs on a retina 5K iMac.

Now I just have to sell the trashcan.

I'm getting my retina iMac in today. I got the apparently unusual i5/8GB/3TB/M295X combination. I haven't been this excited to get a computer since I got my very first computer.

What is the best way to copy over my ~1.5TB of files from my PC? Cat 6 cable (would I need a crossover cable?) from my PC to my iMac and let the migration assistant do it, or just copy over the basic settings using the migration assistant and hook up my PC hard drive to the iMac via a USB3 enclosure? Would I need a crossover cable?

# ¿ Nov 5, 2014 12:31

pyrotek: May 21, 2004

Ok Comboomer posted:

dumb thought: how big and/or expensive would Apple have to make an Apple TV-like product in order to make it roughly competitive with XBSS/XBSX/PS5?

$600? $1k? $1500?

what about "competitive enough" with say, xboneX/XBS/PS4/Switch? $300? $400?

there have been (usually pretty meh) rumors for years about an "ATV console" and "gaming mac" with a focus on more competitive gaming performance. I think it's likelier that we'd see Apple port their own ARM fork of Windows and release it on a touchscreen macbook before parading out a 10 year-old clone of Steve named Steve II, although it's clear that they certainly have the hardware capability at their disposal to take it more seriously.

But if they wanted to, how would they do it?

The M1 has a GPU that is around the same power as a PS4 but with a much, much more powerful CPU. If they put that in a new Apple TV and tried to make it into a console it would be plenty powerful enough to make great games, certainly significantly more powerful than something like a Switch.

I can't think of a single reason to buy that for gaming when you can a digital PS5 runs $400 with an absolutely spectacular controller, the best sound and fastest SSD currently available, and a Zen 2 processor with RDNA2 graphics. The closest Apple equivalent is an 8-core Mac Pro with the W5700X and 1TB storage, but that would still be worse in many ways than a PS5 strictly for games.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2020 19:37

pyrotek: May 21, 2004

MeruFM posted:

why did this sound like a press release

Mostly because I was trying to imagine what the equivalent Apple machine would cost.

Honestly, it is a lot of great hardware for $400 and the controller and sound really are beyond other consoles. Now it just needs more games, and to be available to purchase.

# ¿ Nov 23, 2020 03:13

pyrotek: May 21, 2004

Kilometers Davis posted:

I would like to get into making music videos down the line. Nothing crazy and fancy or anything. The M1 Airs are fine for that right? I would almost certainly use FCP. I don�t really mind if potential throttling means a few added minutes during heavy loads or whatever.

From what I've seen, on M1 MacBook Pros, 4K videos render at like 50FPS using FCP. Unless you are planning on using 8K video or are making really long videos, I doubt the export would even take long enough for an Air to throttle.

# ¿ Nov 30, 2020 22:03

pyrotek: May 21, 2004

FCKGW posted:

What SSD are you getting? They sometimes have some maxed out SKUs on hand for people who walk into a store and say "just gimmie the best of this model".

If it's 256gb/512gb it might be harder to find than 1tb/2tb

16GB and 1TB is the stock high-end model this time, but they are pretty much all gone right now too.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2020 00:25

pyrotek: May 21, 2004

FCKGW posted:

https://twitter.com/andrewculver/status/1334573243009822721?s=21

Little things like that are really nice touches.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2020 15:31

pyrotek: May 21, 2004

Happy_Misanthrope posted:

Not with these. Not remotely comparable to Intel/AMD integrated GPU's, closer to a 6700 XT discrete GPU in performance.

The real advantage is that the PC with a 3080 will only give you that GPU (and be significantly slower CPU) performance when plugged in at the wall, with fans going full bore. This Mac can do it on battery. Plus, the memory is unified - with the 3080 you're limited in pro apps with your 3080's vram, for the M1 Max you can have up to 64GB of 'video' ram accessible by your app, as they're no distinction between video/cpu memory.

Do we know for sure that we'll get full performance on battery? I'm a bit skeptical that the 10-core CPU 32-core GPU version will run the same speed off of battery. They are packing in 96W and 140W chargers for a reason.

Based off of the charts they showed, the CPU maxes out at 30W, the GPU at 60W. The 14" has a 70-watt-hour battery and the 16" a 100-watt-hour. Battery isn't going to last too long on these when doing intensive tasks. These are high power parts, not at all like the base M1 Macs.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2021 18:44

pyrotek: May 21, 2004

SourKraut posted:

Apple's trade-in program is offering me $900 for my 13" M1 MBP that I just bought last November/December, with 16 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD.

Worth it to avoid any headaches, or do I try to sell it on SA-Mart/elsewhere?

I'll give you $1000 for that. PM if interested.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2021 21:48

pyrotek: May 21, 2004

Binary Badger posted:

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/10/18/macbook-pro-hdmi-2-0-port/

Confirmed that the HDMI port on the new MMBPs is HDMI 2.0 and not the most current 2.1 which would have given us 4K @ 120Hz..

To get the 48 Gigabit needed for 2.1 they probably would have had to use up another TB port?

Does MacOS support VRR on external displays?

# ¿ Oct 19, 2021 00:14

pyrotek: May 21, 2004

Quantum of Phallus posted:

Pro can do two, Max can do 4

How does this work, exactly? The exact wording on Apple's web site is:

Apple posted:

Up to two external displays with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz at over a billion colors (M1 Pro) or
Up to three external displays with up to 6K resolution and one external display with up to 4K resolution at 60Hz at over a billion colors (M1 Max)

The 6K60 display out would be over the Thunderbolt ports and 4K60 would be the HDMI 2.0, so does that mean that using the second thunderbolt display out on the Pro disables the HDMI, or does it mean the Pro actually does 3 monitors (2 thunderbolt + 1 HDMI)?

# ¿ Oct 19, 2021 16:59

pyrotek: May 21, 2004

Ok Comboomer posted:

the overwhelming majority of AAA gamers aren�t playing on powerful machines, they�re playing on consoles�and for many games that includes the Switch with its 2015 Tegra.

All of PC gaming, from a $700 Dell laptop running League of Legends to some anorak�s $4000 rig, is like less than 5% of the gaming market.

In light of that I�m excited for Apple Silicon�s potential as a gaming platform because it combines the benefits of PC gaming with the uniform architecture and potential for optimization of a game console, and there�s enough horsepower-vs-cost to make it both reasonably accessible and a good experience for users.

Before Apple Silicon, Macs didn�t really ever have a truly compelling value proposition for developers or potential game players. The ones that could be reasonably used for gaming were too costly to be truly ubiquitous and even the ones with decent GPUs were underpowered and hobbled by graphical APIs, the need for hacky workarounds, etc. Intel Macs are like 1% of the desktop gaming space, which we�ve already established as being a tiny fraction of gaming as a whole.

But now that the MacBook Air is loosely about on par with an Xbone, and more popular than its ever been, that opens up a lot of potential users who would possibly see some benefit to being able to play the same games on their $1000 college laptop that they do on their PlayStation and/or Switch.

To jump off of another poster�s criticism of a previous comment of mine, if a developer is already gonna be supporting Xbox Series S/Series X/OneX/OneS, PS5, PS4, PC, probably Switch, and now handling compatibility with Steam Deck, then addressing support for what is likely to be the best selling class of computers in their category (MacBook Air and MacBook Pro are the best selling ultraportable and $1000+ machines, respectively), and which now have basically one/two chips to develop for, and which now are capable of running graphically demanding titles at least at a level competitive with recent consoles (which they were not able to do before, unless you were spending several thousands of dollars), seems like a good call.

Agreed. Every single M1 is a capable gaming machine, and every successor will be better. There are, or will be soon, tens of millions of these out in the wild, in the hands of people with money. It might take a few years, but soon there will be too much potential profit out there for hugely expensive AAA games to NOT support Apple Silicon.

This will have a knock-on effect on PC, as AMD and Intel will have to start adding capable iGPUs to their processors to compete.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2021 13:58

pyrotek: May 21, 2004

Inept posted:

I know it's just one bench, but I'm surprised by the M1 pro barely being better than the M1 in multicore

That bench makes no sense. I think they messed up somehow?

The single-core score is consistent with all 3 at around 1520, which shows roughly what the performance cores can do.

4x1520=6080, leaving about 1680 for the 4 efficiency cores in the M1, or about 420 per core.

6x1520=9120 for just the big cores on the 8-core, forget the 2 efficiency scores.

8x1520=12160, leaving 220 points for the efficiency cores. A little less than you'd think based on the base M1 score but not far out of line for a rough estimate.

I'd expect scores around 9300-10000 unless something is wrong or weird with the 8-core chip.

# ¿ Oct 25, 2021 23:04

pyrotek: May 21, 2004

Does anybody know for sure if using sidecar with an iPad counts as part of the display limit for an M3 MBA? From looking around it seems like it doesn't.

I would like to have a third monitor, and the OLED screen on the iPad Pro is calling to me

# ¿ Sep 5, 2024 15:01

pyrotek: May 21, 2004

Shaocaholica posted:

there�s something wrong with browsers and/or websites.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2024 16:10

pyrotek: May 21, 2004

If you are comparing a pair of $800 16GB M2 MacBook Airs to M4 MacBook Airs that might cost $1300 after a 20% tariff (or $1200 on the EDU store), the M4 Airs would definitely not be 50% better. Any computer with an M series chip is very capable.

With no tariff and $1000 EDU store prices, I'd probably go with the M4.

# ¿ Nov 7, 2024 19:56

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# ¿ Nov 19, 2025 10:31

pyrotek: May 21, 2004

LionArcher posted:

I follow two channels that will test gaming on the mac mini on youtube. As soon as they post results/tests, I'll share them here. World of warcraft will run fine I think. Cyberpunk will run fine on the pro mac mini soon enough. Though no way of knowing till it actually comes out.

seriously, unless you are doing very specific, very high end tasks, the pro mini is going to be enough computer for 99% of everybody. I maxed on the memory on one and did a 1TB SSD because I'm going to be running LLM's and video editing, and this thing is going to scream I suspect at what I want. Still two weeks out, but now my order says preparing to ship which makes me think... it might be the gets here by date.

Cyberpunk runs alright on a Steam Deck, I'm sure it will be run at least acceptably on any M4 outside of maybe the iPad Pro models with 8GB of RAM.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2024 21:56

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