The New Macbook M1 Pro
Everyday; non-professional results and comparisons
The day finally came, and then after opening, transferring, and configuring my new MacBook Pro 14" I found myself curious if the hype, marketing, and architecture would meet my daily IT needs.
Like many, I have a varied taste in projects stemming from blogging to video editing and occasionally the random Blizzard game thrown in the mix. My last big Laptop purchase was the mid-2015 MacBook Pro 16" complete with Intel I-7, secondary GPU, and fan noise for days.
So as any diligent IT ̶p̶r̶o̶f̶e̶s̶s̶i̶o̶n̶a̶l̶ nerd, I set out to determine if taking out a small home loan to buy the latest Apple product was worth the investment.
TLDR: It was
I woke up the week before launch day, suffering Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) for not buying the latest Apple device, god forbid I would have to wait. My love affair with Apple extends to not only the usually mediocre technical specs but includes the little things like fan noise, design decisions, and ergonomics. I, however, having missed the initial purchase window, resigned myself to the wait. Convincing myself that the System was underpowered due to the limited ARM processors, and I was smart by not buying into the marketing hype.
I've hated my 2015 Macbook for the better part of the last year, having been made acutely aware of its deficiencies after receiving a newer non-M1 version through my work where I was exposed to the latest technology and developed the understanding that fan noise, larger trackpads, and even the keyboard were quieter and more efficient.
I appreciate the efficiency of well-designed software, both professionally and personally, which reduces my daily interactions and time sinks with IT. However, as an IT professional, I'm also too familiar with the traditional limitations of ARM architecture, or at least I thought I was.
I had fooled myself into viewing the capabilities of ARM through the lens of more mainstream System On a Chip (SOC) devices which for me included iPhone, Raspberry PI, and other devices like the Nvidia Jetson.
Thus I naively assumed that Apple had to be cheating its way to higher specs through its software, and I would dislike the M1 device.
Launch Day
By now, the FOMO train was in full effect on the cold morning of October 26th, it was raining, and my dog was uneasy due to my anxiety. I found myself starting my daily routine. I knew I wouldn't have to check physical store stock, knowing full well that they would have launch day availability in my area. I had priced what I wanted for a device multiple times throughout the weeks leading up to launch and always ended up in the 2500$ to 3200$ range which in my current situation would be a stretch even with Apple payments.
Driving to take the doggo to daycare (as I will sometimes do during poor weather days), I found myself checking, wondering if I could secure one of the holy grail, industry upsending devices. I knew full well that I felt this way because of the Apple marketing train. Eventually, I relented and placed the order, feeling disgusted at my weakness as I experienced the dopamine hit and realized that things might be tight for a while.
The curiosity, FOMO, and desire to punt this old 2015 to the curb got the best of me, and I felt both dirty and excited to finally give the device a run for its money.
First Impressions
I won't bore you with glorifying the aesthetics outside to point out that my choice to move to a 14" for portability and weight was what I expected. The machine feels right IMHO; whether it's the keyboard, weight, or just the way the thing opens, it feels high-end.
I feel dumb admitting this, but I found myself wowed by the decision to add a braided power cord for the 96watt adaptor. I can't tell if I'm in a bad relationship with Apple, and therefore little things like moving back to MagSafe and other details should be lauded, but here it is. I love the direction of the new device aesthetically.
I finally had acquired, admittedly insecurely, a 2021 Macbook Pro with the M1 Pro, 16Gb, and 1TB HDD.
Performance Comparisons
I've read articles before the launch that stated "Intel should be scared" or included words like "Industry upheaval," and to me, at least initially, they were buzz words.
There was no possible way that Apple would have created a chip in the first two years since its launch that could compete with the top-of-the-line Intel chips. So I headed to Geekbench, fully expecting disappointment, and ran a series of tests against the new MacBook and my Old 2015 model for a baseline. The results that followed were, in a word, breathtaking.
I had effectively doubled my single-core and quadrupled my multicore scores. Or, as Apple marketing would put it, I 2x the single and 4x the multicore capabilities of my device.
I then compared my results to the Geekbench historical benchmarks; the ARM 10core CPU placed second on the charts and mid-pack on the multicore comparisons. Considering that this processor base is still only a year old, this is some transformative stuff.
Gaming
One of the items that drove me the battiest on the 2015 Macbook was the battery life and the fans that came on if I looked at the device wrong. As mentioned earlier, I occasionally boot up cross-platform games like Heros of the Storm, Hearthstone, or Starcraft; the performance of these games and, more importantly, the droning of the fans or lack thereof was on the want list.
I have booted two games in my twenty-four hours of ownership and was pleasantly surprised to see that I could run it at a high setting with my Macbook configuration with 120FPS at menu and 80FPS within the game itself.
After playing hearthstone for the better part of 2hours and Netflix for an equal amount of time, I found myself only 25% of the way through my battery. More importantly, to me, I could not hear the fans even when I multitasked or was deep in gaming for a few hours. I would assume this has to do with the increased heatsink and the architecture of the M1 chip itself, which allows for better cooling capabilities and generates less year due to the lower power requirements.
Graphics Compute
Finally, I wrapped up my initial time with the device by running the Geekbench compute, because let's face it, 16 core GPU and 16core Machine Learning means nothing to most of us. Technically, I'm familiar with the terms, but what does that translate to in terms of current market leaders NVIDIA and AMD from a layperson perspective?
As demonstrated above, the primary base model Macbook Pro was comparable to the AMD Pro 5500X or the NVIDIA Titan XP. For the form factor, power capabilities, noise level, and most importantly, price, this author gives the 2021 Macbook a big fat WOW. To get this kind of performance requires a desktop typically with considerable power and heatsink requirements.
Instead, I have a 14" laptop, arguably designed on customer feedback and improved every day that will last me up to 20 hours. It is flexible enough to allow me some basic gaming while meeting my media needs carte blanche.
My only regret is not having bought the Max, but that's the impulsive tech nerd in me wanting the newest, fastest, and best without knowing how to use the extra processing speed or memory.
