M1 based Macs

[Paul R Owen]

This may be useful to someone.

The difference between Thunderbolt 3 ports on M1 macs and earlier models.

Story (with image of device) available here: https://tidbits.com/2020/12/02/thunderbolt-improvements-in-the-m1-based-macs/ 

Thunderbolt Improvements in the M1-Based Macs

Over at the OWC Rocket Yard blog, SoftRAID developer Tim Standing shares a welcome discovery about Apple’s new M1-based Macs. Although the new Macs have only two Thunderbolt ports, compared to four on the Intel-based 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini, Standing discovered that each port has its own Thunderbolt bus. By comparison, each pair of Thunderbolt ports on the Intel-based Macs share a bus, meaning that they also share bandwidth. If you plug two fast drives into ports that share a bus, performance suffers. Standing also notes that the M1-based Macs support Thunderbolt 4, which differs from Apple’s implementation of Thunderbolt 3 in only one fundamental way: it offers support for Thunderbolt hubs that let you add more ports.

So yes, the M1-based Macs may have only two Thunderbolt ports, but they’ll both provide full bandwidth and allow users to add more ports through a hub. And as you might suspect, OWC has a Thunderbolt Hub shipping soon for $149.

Paul Owen

[Jason Davies]

That is useful, thank you. (I note they currently have two versions of the site, US and EU. Sigh.)

I'm still getting my head around the transition from 'this plug is for displays, this plug is for ethernet, this plug is for...' to the new 'well it all goes in the same socket';)

<looks sadly at all the minidisplayport adaptors, now in a drawer...>

So far the M1 mac mini is doing everything they said; it's virtually silent and a test encoding of a video in Handbrake ran twice as fast as the old Mac Pro. I haven't yet tried installing iOS apps but note with irritation at myself I just bought a Mac licence for something that will probably be fine running as iOS (separate licence).

If anyone wants to know anything specific about how they perform, fire away, happy to be the local guinea pig on this.

Cheers,
Jason

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Cheers,

Jason

[nick_p...@mac.com]

Paul,

Interesting. Thank you. Have you yet come to any conclusions regarding the improvement of the M1 MBA over your previous one? Chalk & cheese? Similar to what you were hoping/expecting?

I have a 2017 MBA and have been wondering, being tempted,  what the new M1 MBAs are really like,

Cheers, Nick

[Jason Davies]

On 3 Dec 2020, at 14:11, nick_public1 via Sussex Mac User Group wrote:

> I have a 2017 MBA and have been wondering, being tempted,  what the
> new M1 MBAs are really like,

My work machine is a 2017 MBA and my old Mac pro is significantly faster
than that, so I've been using it exclusively since about March.

The M1 Mac Mini blows the Mac Pro out of the water. If this particular
software you would like me to test on both that is easily accessible,
I'm happy to do a little test to see how it works. But the performance
really is quite something – the only issue I'm getting so far is
compatibility of some of the software.

Eg encoding a video to h265, the M1 did double the frame rate in
Handbrake to the Mac Pro (38 vs 17). I think the processor in the new
MBA is either identical or very similar...

Cheers,

Jason

[nick_p...@mac.com]

Thanks Jason. Helpful. I’m not a heavy user so can’t really justify upgrading straightaway to a new M1 MBA but after 30 years or more of following in the footsteps of Apple’s ever increasing sophistication, something with an M1 chip sounds like a logical next step. Onward and upward!
Nick

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[Paul R Owen]

Nick,

It’s primarily for work, but whilst at home I mostly use my superb MacMini (18 months old) with two 27”screens. My 2008 MacPro sits serenely in the background on my desk totally ignored for over a year.

I have no complaints at all (except T3) regarding the MacBook Air (M1) it’s fast, I like the Touch ID key to login, also the backlight keyboard so I can use it in the evenings on my lap. I haven’t, and probably won’t, be using it for video (prefer MacMini for using Screenflow) so don’t really need it for super speed. The two Thunderbolt 3 ports are a bit of a pain ‘cos it means buying expensive adaptors to plug all my old peripherals in, such as memory sticks and remote mics for recording meetings. I could use the inbuilt mics but in my experience they distractingly record my tapping on keys as I record what is said. The screen is one of the best I’ve seen.

I didn’t like the idea of buying a defective M1 (with 7 cores) so went for the 8 core version. 8GB of ram seems fine, in fact as good or better than my MacMini which has 32GB. Haevn’t tried external monitors yet as I don’t have the right adaptors, it works well with my Apple TV box. 

So, by no means am I using it to it’s full extent, but am very happy with it. I’ve had it almost a week and haven’t needed to charge the battery yet!

A thought for everyone. The new Apple M1 chip is the slowest ‘M’ class chip that Apple will ever make!

Paul

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[mac98aop]

Thanks Nick, et al, really helpful 'real user' reviews.

Can't help but think that the M1 is a 'game changer'? John Gruber linked to stats that it even runs Windows in emulation than it runs on MS's own Surface Pro X. It's astonishing - and seemingly with few (any?) end user compromises. Less heat, less power consumption and blazing speed. 

AP

[Jack Elliott]

I hated the fact that I bought a very well upscaled MacBook Pro 16" 2 months before the announcement of M1 Mac. I knew they were coming, but I didn't think they would be THAT good. I am just tricking myself into thinking that my MBP is better than the MacBook Air (just a few months ago, even thinking this as a possibility would be a laughing matter). I am actually not going to read any MBP 16" reviews when they come up. :(

Jack Elliott

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[Jason Davies]

On 4 Dec 2020, at 9:24, 'Paul R Owen' via Sussex Mac User Group wrote:

in my experience they distractingly record my tapping on keys as I record what is said. The screen is one of the best I’ve seen.

Interesting to hear your set-up! I am also the proud new owner of many adaptors for the monitors;)

On this issue of noise, you might give https://krisp.ai a try. It filters sound and is very good at it, but not perfect. It doesn't work with all apps though so might depend what you're using (works with Teams, Zoom etc).

I have 3 TB of stuff on the old Mac Pro and also some expensive but obsolete bits of software so I am letting that carry that (using screen sharing to control it). I'll save up and get an M3 Mac Pro just as the old one finally dies;)

cheers,
J

[Jason Davies]

A few other observations if anyone else is interested:

• the built-in dictation is as good as the discontinued Nuance Dragon for Mac (the ability to create commands is a little harder but very effective)

• the speed thing is beyond question. I posted that Handbrake is twice as fast as my fairly fast Mac Pro but forgot to add that this wasn't even the apple silicon version, it was running under Rosetta 2

• with speed comes responsiveness. Word is up and loaded within one second when relaunched. Been waiting for that for years. Teams still needs a few seconds even when it's being relaunched

• it is much more efficient with RAM than other machines, so 8 gig of M1 RAM seems to do the same work that about 12 did before (not sure why). Even when it runs out, you barely notice if it all.

• you can run iOS apps easily though most of the actions don't work; I have a few utilities that only need clicking on and it's very handy to have them on the Mac rather than my phone.

• the Mac Mini is not utterly silent, but it's very close to it (it does have a fan)

• not sure if this is me and the keyboard I'm using but i can't get any start-up 'hold key down' things to work (alt, command R etc).

Seems to be the beginning of a new era:)

cheers,
J

[nick_p...@mac.com]

Thanks Paul and Jason for your very helpful comments. Yes lots of adaptors for USB/thunderbolt would be a downside for me but liveable with.

It seems we are rapidly approaching the holy grail of a very useful digital assistant that one can just wake up and speak to; type out the following letter on such and such template and read it back. Turn on printer and print 2 copies etc. All while relaxing with a fine glass of plonk. (maybe some of this is already possible within Accessibility?).

Nick

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[Jason Davies]

As a long time Voice recognition user, it's two steps forward one step
back. You can see dictation in action below, where would [what] I
intended is in square brackets.

Because they have hooked up voice commands to Apple script and
alternator [Automator], many things are possible now with voice. For
instance I created this reply and I'm dictating right now.

However, dictation is an absolute bugger. When people talk about 95%
success rate, That [that] means quite a lot of correction. It can become
extremely friendly [fiddly] and he rotate thing[be Irritating].

After many years, what I have done is stuck with using voice commands
for simple actions and be nervous of complicated ones. For instance,
things are [that] instantly send a message to someone are extremely
dangerous;) I want [once] accidentally initiated a phone call to advise
Provost [our Vice-Provost] at 11 pm, But luckily managed to kill it off
before it got through!

It's also bizarrely easy to get a bit tired and say completely the wrong
command, Like'Quit Application 'instead off 'Close window '(I had to
dictate those extremely carefully, or it would've quit/Closed what I was
working on).

As you can see, capitalisation can be a bit of an issue…

But yes, we are getting closer!

Cheers,

Jason

On 4 Dec 2020, at 12:32, nick_public1 via Sussex Mac User Group wrote:

> Thanks Paul and Jason for your very helpful comments. Yes lots of
> adaptors for USB/thunderbolt would be a downside for me but liveable
> with.
>
> It seems we are rapidly approaching the holy grail of a very useful
> digital assistant that one can just wake up and speak to; type out the
> following letter on such and such template and read it back. Turn on
> printer and print 2 copies etc. All while relaxing with a fine glass
> of plonk. (maybe some of this is already possible within
> Accessibility?).

Cheers,

Jason

[Paul R Owen]

Jason,

Re your last bullet point. That puzzled me for a while too.

On an Apple Silicone Mac, in Finder select Help in the menus and type ‘Recovery’

In the results click on the top option “Use Mac OS Recovery on a Mac with Apple silicon”, a whole new learning experience.

On the other hand disk First Aid remains in Disk Utlity.

Paul Owen

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[Jason Davies]

lol, I should have done more homework when migrating, would have saved
myself a lot of time and trouble!

There was a weird issue out of the box that it didn't seem to recognise
one of teh USB ports. After 50 minutes on the phone to apple (most of it
on hold), it suddenly started working so I wanted to run a hardware test
to be sure.

Thanks for the tip.

On 4 Dec 2020, at 15:18, 'Paul R Owen' via Sussex Mac User Group wrote:

> On an Apple Silicone Mac, in Finder select Help in the menus and type
> ‘Recovery’

Cheers,

Jason