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But you can ARM Windows and eventually that will also support x64 App emulation. We don't know how that performs yet. But I'v got the feeling that I might be better than running Windows native on an Intel MacBook.

The question as posed is what will be the criticisms about the M1. The current lack of a VM, whether it is easily fixed or not is going to be a criticism. And more than just games need Windows, I saw a post about Solidworks which, like games probably won’t work even with an ARM version. It’s a design and engineering software that requires higher end and fast graphics. They don’t have a Mac version because there was never a market for it, if you want it on a Mac you use the VM.


The M1 is very new technology, and no company can release technology that is able to cover all bases on day 1. I don’t know what Apple will be able to do. Maybe the adoption of this technology will cause the software companies to write ARM programs. The speed increases ARE impressive. I don’t think that this new chip is going to fail or take a long time to gain wide acceptance.

But even if it does everything wonderfully someone will complain.
 
The question as posed is what will be the criticisms about the M1. The current lack of a VM, whether it is easily fixed or not is going to be a criticism. And more than just games need Windows, I saw a post about Solidworks which, like games probably won’t work even with an ARM version. It’s a design and engineering software that requires higher end and fast graphics. They don’t have a Mac version because there was never a market for it, if you want it on a Mac you use the VM.
I don't understand this whole reasoning.
If I need professional software that requires a Windows PC, I go out and buy that.
What I don't do is buy a Mac, then find out the software does not run on macOS, and use some form of emulation.
 
Intel/AMD/Qualcomm probably already have chips with even better performance per Watt. But they practice the “small yearly improvements” game. It works for them since the have the control of the market and the customers are forced to choose one of them. Apple now kicked the table and the traditional CPU manufacturers will “magically” launch new chips with higher performance. Kudos to Apple. It’s the iPhone history all over again. The first smartphone to have a responsive glass touch panel, with a nice screen, GPS, decent camera...while the others were releasing plastic-based phones with really small improvements year by year. The competition will catch soon, but it’s great for all consumers.
That catchup will happen after 5 years. It is not like Intel will come up with a chip design that will match Apple’s in the next 18 months.

Apple’s iPhone chips have been smoking Qualcomm’s since iPhone 7 and the A13 is still the second fastest mass produced chip after the A14. Where are those magic chips? It has been 6 years and they have not caught up.
 
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Sitting here on a newly purchased 2019 MBP 16" and wondering if I should return it and get the MBP 13" now :confused::confused:

I have the same one for a year now. It's doing its job perfectly well which is more important to me than benchmark scores. I bought it while Apple ARM processor rumours were around, even back then. Before I had the last MBP with a decent keyboard (2015 model), now I just have the last one with an Intel. I'll just work with it, sit back while other people struggle with fist generation Apple M1 issues, compatibility and so on. And maybe, in two or three years, I'll upgrade to a new MBP.
 
to those who are struggling to believe ARM can possibly compete in the desktop space - just remember ARM started out as a desktop chip in the old British Acorn PCs :)

Just because intel instruction set has dominated general purpose computing over the last few centuries does not mean it is inherently better, particularly in 2020
Yep for those who grew up with these here's a nostalgia trip

 
Impressive , the only thing that worries me is the 16Gb RAM , as it seems that is shared between GPU and CPU . Next week will know for sure.
 
It’s interesting, we don’t know the longevity of those chips because the only parameter is the iPad, and only in the last few years the iPad started getting performance intensive apps like Lumia Fusion and Affinity (and Photoshop).

The base question that I was replying to was what criticism will the M1 face. I don’t think an ARM Windows VM will matter for games because many games don’t use Metal. They could, but they don’t. And engineering software that is graphic intensive may also not work for the same reason. Until some reviews of Rosetta 2 run programs have been done and compared with native running versions then this will also be a complaint, justified or not.

Complaints tend to assume the worst whether they end up being true or not.
I haven’t addressed lack of memory expansion because most x86 computers in the price range of the Air max out at 16GB, so saying that you can’t expand it isn’t a valid criticism.
 
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[...] this means you need to pay up front for all memory that you desire (which you already do for Apple anyway). The prices are just nuts and Apple is milking the customer. I hope the silicon is life long stable.
You say it correctly, user upgradeable memory has been absent for a long time on lower end Apple hardware. So no news here.
 
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I don't understand this whole reasoning.
If I need professional software that requires a Windows PC, I go out and buy that.
What I don't do is buy a Mac, then find out the software does not run on macOS, and use some form of emulation.
I know people that buy a Mac because with a VM they can run whatever non Mac Windows only software that they have. I saw one mention of an engineering software that I am familiar with, Solidworks, somewhere on this thread. Evidently the company this person works for uses Macs and runs a VM for software that the Mac doesn’t run. Yes they could buy a Intel version this year. But if there isn’t a software solution then in 5 years they are going to have to start switching anyway. Maybe Solidworks will create an AS version because of its speed. Maybe the graphics of the M series chips already will handle the graphics. But as of Nov 12 that company doesn’t know.
 
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The M1 is very new technology, and no company can release technology that is able to cover all bases on day 1. I don’t know what Apple will be able to do. Maybe the adoption of this technology will cause the software companies to write ARM programs. The speed increases ARE impressive. I don’t think that this new chip is going to fail or take a long time to gain wide acceptance.

If Apple had maintained the OpenGL API properly, things would be much easier – even if it just meant to use it as a translation layer. But noooo. Apple has a "not-invented-here syndrome".

If they're not careful, this can play out like in the 1990s, in which Apple CPUs were much faster than Intel's, but lost due to sheer inertia.
 
I’m trying to imagine what the reviewers will point out as downsides/issues. Lack of complete software compatibility? I’m not sure. But, damn, this is such fantastic news for the Mac. And I can’t help but get excited for a redesigned 14” and 16” MBP. 2021 is going to be so special for Mac.
Me too. And by the time the 14" comes out, most of the software I use (Office, Adobe, etc.) will have been updated to take advantage of the M1. So I think I'm going to wait for that. (I had placed an order for the 13" Pro M1, but canceled once I realized it only had two ports and was a replacement for the low-end 13" MBP).
 
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