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Any Downsides To Switching from Intel to ARM?

Vlad Soare

Vlad Soare

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 23, 2019
676
653
Bucharest, Romania
Hello,

I may need another 13" Macbook Pro soon, and the M1 seems like a very attractive option. Is there anything that might make me regret buying it instead of its Intel brother?

One extremely annoying thing that I've noticed is that the M1 has only two USB-C ports, only on the left hand side. Though I'm terribly disappointed in Apple for resorting to such pitiful cost saving tricks, I think I could live with that if the rest of the device were really as terrific as they say. What I'm a bit worried about are things that may not be visible at first glance. For instance, application compatibility issues.
Are there apps which are known to depend on the Intel architecture and to be incompatible with ARM? Virtualization software springs to mind, but there may be others.
Any other drawbacks?
Apple has launched a 2020 refresh of the Intel 13" Macbook Pro at the same time as the M1, and they're both on sale simultaneously at nearly the same price. This makes me think that there may still be some reasons for buying the Intel, otherwise they would have discontinued it. I'm curious as to what those reasons might be.

Thank you.
 
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I switch to a M1 Mini on Dec 17th and have not run into any issues. That said I do not use any virtualization software. I use a Citrix portal to access work and then it is generally normal run of the mill programs (MS Office, Mindnode Pro, both an Epson and Brother printers, a few graphic programs). The number of ports is an issue, and I hope today to be receiving a couple of usb-c hubs.
 
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Vlad Soare said:
Though I'm terribly disappointed in Apple for resorting to such pitiful cost saving tricks,
Click to expand...
Not cost saving. The SoC has IO for only two ports, but it supports hubbing. Get a Thunderbolt 3 hub from OWC.
Vlad Soare said:
Are there apps which are known to depend on the Intel architecture and to be incompatible with ARM?
Click to expand...
Parallels is in technical preview, Docker in Beta. The whole rest of applications runs through either rosetta or natively.

Get the M1. Intel platform is dead.
 
Are they great? Yes they are.
Are they perfect? No, but I'll qualify that. For my use it's great and I personally have no bluetooth or wireless problems, but others have, though they usually involve multiple BT devices and/or external monitors.
Virtualisation could be a way off, though Parallels seem to be moving along nicely.
You need to do your research regarding apps/programmes that don't currently work on ARM. It depends on what you use regularly.
 
The lack of ports as you mentioned. The lack of support for multiple external displays (I need 3x4k). One of my programs doesn't run on Big Sur so it wouldn't run on an M1 system.

The M1 systems offered are kind of Beta systems and I think that many here are treating it as such and look forward to the M1X systems and selling their M1s and buying an M1X.

Other complaints that I've seen:

Bluetooth
Display glitches - may be related to cables or frequencies or high-resolution monitors
RAM only up to 16 GB

I think that they are fantastic Gen 1 systems but a lot of people here are used to more (ports, RAM, displays, GPU, CPU). My approach, if I were to buy one, would be to use it in combination with a Windows system to run my program that doesn't run on Big Sur. I would guess that it will be updated soon; and that maybe then it will also run on an M1 but I haven't seen confirmation that it runs yet. This program always has a lag on new macOS releases and they just tell you to run on the old version. Not helpful when you buy a new system.
 
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As @pldelisle mentioned, Intel on the Mac platform is dead now. There is no roadmap other than an undetermined period of support, so don't waste your money. As an owner of an M1 MacBook Pro I can categorically say it is so much better than the previous Intel efforts it's laughable.

If you have a specific app need, check compatibility here: https://isapplesiliconready.com

For those Intel apps that work, I can see no performance difference on my M1. If you absolutely need more RAM or ports etc, wait. Don't burn cash on an Intel Mac unless you absolutely have to (e.g. x86 VM support).
 
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Most of the issues have been covered.

I'll add one more downside - at the moment

16GB models are borderline impossible to get your hands on! :)
 
I'll add that if one is coming from a machine with a good dGPU, the Apple M machines don't really compete particularly well with that config and some of those use cases quite yet.

(They will - I'm almost positive - but probably not until Spring/Summer or maybe Fall 2021)
 
turbineseaplane said:
Most of the issues have been covered.

I'll add one more downside - at the moment

16GB models are borderline impossible to get your hands on! :)
Click to expand...

They are available in my area typically late at night or early in the morning. I assume some kind of late delivery and then entry into inventory. By my area, I mean within 50 miles as that's what The Apple Store shows me the inventory on. Most of the places that have inventory are places I wouldn't go to because of COVID. They get sold out in my area very quickly because our COVID numbers are a lot lower and we don't have sales tax in my state.
 
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As others pointed out, Apple released is the entry level model that replaced an Intel version that also only had two ports. If that or the lack of being able to "easily" output to multiple monitors concerns you, I'd wait until the more Pro 13" MBP (or the rumored 14" MBP). I bought a loaded 13" MBP (32GB RAM) earlier this year and have been just blown away with the performance of the base MBA M1 I bought.
 
How many ports do you guys need?

99% of the time I use only one for the monitor, the other .1% I use the other port to connect to my usb hub for the external ssd for backup...
 
Depends on which model you're currently using. If you work with external peripherals, especially audio interfaces, check the manufacturer's website to make sure it is supported. There are still several devices that don't yet support Big Sur, or Apple Silicon. Also, eGPUs aren't supported if you use one of those. Developers should be aware that some tools are also still being worked on, and it might take a few more months to sort everything out. If you use the Adobe suite, then I would also hold off if you can. That being said, Office, the major browsers, Affinity suite, Omni Group apps, and may others have been updated already.

If you really need a new machine right now, then Apple Silicon is the future. If what you currently have still works, then you will likely see faster machines with more ports in the coming year.
 
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Brazooka said:
How many ports do you guys need?

99% of the time I use only one for the monitor, the other .1% I use the other port to connect to my usb hub for the external ssd for backup...
Click to expand...

I'm running 3x4k.

The monitor on the left runs Think or Swim and displays 88 RealTime Charts. The one in the middle is running trading algos, displays my portfolios and 15 charts with analysis and I look for trading signals in these charts. I run everything else, including a couple of Virtual Machines, in the third monitor. All of the monitors run at native 4k resolution for me to display so many charts.
 
Brazooka said:
Been there and done that, came from 3 27” myself... try a 38” or 43” and you will be ditching the dual/triple monitor...
Click to expand...

I have 11,520 horizontal pixels and I'd actually like more. The other thing about individual monitors is that I can put each professional trading program on one monitor. I have not heard of any consumer monitors giving you 11,520 horizontal pixels.

That's why a 30-inch iMac at 5K or 6K is interesting.
 
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