I'm curious if SA 5.5.5 is known to run fine on the new MacBookPro machines? There's both new hardware and a new O/S in the mix.
And I look forward to hearing what kind of performance improvement SA users will experience with them.
Are they an ideal machine for running SA or is it better to look towards desktops that are more designed to keep chips cool when run full-bore? I realize these new chips are much more energy efficient, but when you use all the CPU cycles, they must get warm at some point? It got to where when I run the GalleryShow for hours on my 2016 MacBookPro, I manually set the fans at high to try to keep the temp. under control.
Assuming we're not doing giant canvases (mine typically are 3000x2000 or 2500x2500), is 32GB RAM going to be pretty decent?
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Yes, we've been running Studio Artist on M1 macs here since the first week they were released. Old V5 actually worked (with a few small cosmetic defects), and V5.5.5 runs fine on M1 macs as well as all of the latest mac os versions.
As to how much faster the M1X chips are going to be in comparison to the M1 machines, that is an interesting question.
The M1 is effectively a 4 core computer as far as Studio Artist and other software apps are concerned. It is 8 core, but the other 4 cores are efficiency cores.
The M1X has 10 cpu cores, and 8 of them are high performance cores your software could potentially be using. So everthing computational that threads should see an improvement because of that. As far as single threaded operations go, we will see if there is any real change or not.
The increased GPU core situation looks interesting. Apple is claiming RTX-3080 performance, but whether that is actually true or not is still up in the air since no third parties can test it yet. You might also want to price out what the 32 GPU machine configurations cost before you get too excited.
We were hoping a M1X iMac with a larger display screen was going to be announced, but we're still waiting for those.
Same goes for a M1X mini, still waiting as well.
The new M1X 14 and 16 inch powerbooks do support external monitors via thunderbolt. And hdmi, although i believe there is a fixed resolution limit associated with that apple neglects to mention in large print, so do your research i guess.
I only do serious work on the desktop with large display monitors. I've avoided using laptops to power that kind of setup so far. Curious what other people's opinions are on that. That is why we have so many iMacs here.
I don't expect any mere mortal is going to be able to get one of these new M1X machines before the end of the year.
That was the same story for the M1 iMacs when they were announced. We ordered one and several months later we were still waiting for it to get here.
The M1 powerbook we have runs cooler than an intel based laptop. And the battery life is better because of that. As compared to a windows laptop with Studio Artist running full bore gallery show cycles for hours and hours.
The M1 architecture does some interesting things associated with keeping cache memory accessible. So it is pretty effective with smaller ram footprints than you might expect because of that.
I do want to point out that you can still get 8 core 27 inch intel iMacs for $2300 ($1800 for 6 core).
That contrasts with $1500 for what is effectively a 4 core 24 inch M1 iMac for $1500. Yes i know it says 8 cores in the marketing, but really only 4 are available for threading for a software app. This has 256GB of storage and 8GB memory. The intel configs above have 512GB storage in the 8 core, 256 in the 6 core, 8GB memory for both.
I'm rendering something here right now on the 8 core 27 inch intel machine that is averaging 740% processor utilization.
So that particular render would theoretically run slower on a M1 powerbook, because i would have fewer full capacity cpu cores to thread to. Now on the M1X powerbooks that would probably be a different story.
These intel iMacs receive no love from apple, they currently ship with some old obsolete version of Safari on them that effectively hang crashes your mac. Probably because they are sitting in a warehouse somewhere gathering dust? My guess is that there will be additional price breaks on these older models once apple gets it together to ship a 27 or larger inch iMac with M1X chips in it.
The 16 inch M1X powerbook apparently does have some new high fan 'run fast' mode you can switch on in it. The others apparently do not.
Also, the main difference between the M1 air and 13 inch powerbook models is that the 13 inch ones have a very quiet fan in them, and that fan allows for faster performance. The processor hardware is effectively the same otherwise.
Large monitors that effectively match what you get in a 27 inch iMac are not cheap. Please correct me if i am wrong on this. So a big part of our continued interest here in iMacs for our work is that they provide a really excellent large work display surface. If you price out a 16 inch M1X powerbook along with an additional 27 inch monitor and a real keyboard and track mouse for desktop usage you are looking at a pretty expensive system. I would think 27 inch or greater iMacs with M1X chips will price out better. But we are probably not going to see that until next year, certainly not something you can actually buy.
If you buy a 14 and 16 inch M1X powerbooks today you will most likely not see it until early dec. If things end up like the initial m1 iMac release, that receive it date will extend out after you purchase.
I should point out that any intel machine running at full bore (my 740 % cpu utilization mentioned above for example) is going to be like a space heater pumping out heat into your workspace (noisy as well). The M1 chips are way better in that regard.
I have an iMac for work, and I really like it's integrated screen.
I think some of the calculcations are different if you already have a good external monitor.
Thanks for your observations, you make some good points.