Base Model MacBook Air With M2 Chip Has Slower SSD Speeds in Benchmarks

[norcalsurfer925]

Not really. They’re exploiting the issue for clicks. They’ve made FOURTEEN videos on the MacBook Pro 13” M2 and in the video two days ago, Vadim ”apologized” for over-emphasizing the negatives and utterly ignoring the positives, yet in the video immediately following up that apology, they start their video with a clip of Steve Jobs saying Apple doesn’t ship junk and they wish Jobs were still in charge. Essentially they reversed their apology by outright calling a machine that overall is faster than the M1 version junk. Now today, yet ANOTHER video with the 13” MBP. They had one video trying to push positives but then went right back to trashing it.

Normally, I like MaxTech’s thoroughness and like their videos, but on this issue they’ve jumped the shark in the interest of clicks. They come up with severe edge cases that 99% of people would never do and create an overheating and throttling problem that doesn’t exist and they overhype the storage issue with over a dozen videos on the machine. Seriously, how many people do 8K Red Raw editing on an entry-level machine? If they’d mentioned it a couple of times, I’d consider it to be decent information, but in multiple forums, I’ve seen normal users who do nothing more than web browse or run MS Word panic about buying a base unit because they’ve heard it’s incapable of handling their work flow and might overheat in the process. That’s the damage MaxTech has done to the product with their overhyping. Apple doesn’t care. They’re laughing all the way to the bank with people upgrading their RAM and storage unnecessarily or buying M1 Pro 14” MBP’s. Maybe Max and Vadim will get a bonus check from Apple for services rendered.

Did you really call the M1 junk?

 

[Gaman.]

The trouble is there is absolutely no point in debating it because neither you nor I have any influence over it whatsoever other than not buying the product. And if enough people care and don’t buy the product, Apple will do something about it.

Although I agree, that same thinking can be applied to many threads on this site. If it weren't for complaining, what would we talk about? Nothing can really be done about it. People could all speak with their wallets if they wanted to make a change. But unfortunately, most people don't do that. They just end up buying things anyway.

 

[skitidetdu]

Apple taking a piss on costumer while they grab a better margin.

 

[86Hawkeye]

You always make assumptions on specifications that are not in marketing materials when making a purchase? 💀

I assume a new model from Apple performs at least as well as the old model, similarly configured.

 

[mrochester]

I don't think they can pack that much inside the single NAND chip yet. But they will be able to do so soon probably.

What size NAND modules are 8tb SSD Mac models using?

 

[StellarVixen]

What size NAND modules are 8gb SSD Mac models using?

You asking for the new M2 Air? They packed 256Gb inside single NAND chip. 512Gb models probably use 2 256Gb chips.

 

[boak]

I assume a new model from Apple performs at least as well as the old model, similarly configured.

There are many counterexamples to this assumption in the history of Apple though

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Ever think they couldn’t get their hands on enough 128GB chips? There is a global chip shortage going on. And since two chips are generally cheaper than one, I seriously doubt this is cutting their costs. It probably costs them more to put the single 256GB chip in than two 128GB chips. Anyone who has done any serious purchasing of RAM or flash would know this to be the case. Rather than pushing their MBA/MBP release back months in order to get enough chips, they used what they could get.

Yes, they are hurting. Cook said their last quarter would have been $8 billion higher if not for the shortages. They weren’t lacking demand. They couldn’t make enough devices due to shortages. While $8 billion may not seem as much to a $2 trillion company, that’s serious cash for most companies. Their stock has crashed along with the rest of the market, losing a ton of its value due to inflation and shortages.

This is my assumption as well.
I highly doubt that 256 GB modules are cheaper than two 128gb modules.
Thinking along the same line, I also wouldn’t rule out the possibility of the M1 MacBook airs manufactured after June 2022 switching to using the single module as well.
Everyone here is so sure that that M1 MacBook Air isn’t or more importantly, won’t be affected in the same way, but I wouldn’t be so sure

 

[tobybrut]

Did you really call the M1 junk?

Perhaps I'm missing a comma. MaxTech essentially called the M2 machines junk because Steve would never ship junk and he would have never shipped the 13" MBP. Since the Air has the same flash configurations, I'm going to guess MaxTech is going to call the MBA M2 junk, too.

 

[86Hawkeye]

There are many counterexamples to this assumption in the history of Apple though

Probably true, though I can't recall them. My personal experience has so far supported my assumption. Doesn't mean it will always do so. That's why I can use Apple's return policy if I don't get what I expect .

At any rate, my M2 MBA was ordered with a 512GB SSD and 16GB of RAM, so not likely to be an issue for me, but we'll see.

 

[86Hawkeye]

Perhaps I'm missing a comma. MaxTech essentially called the M2 machines junk because Steve would never ship junk and he would have never shipped the 13" MBP. Since the Air has the same flash configurations, I'm going to guess MaxTech is going to call the MBA M2 junk, too.

We won't know for sure until we see which 256GB SSD setup is in the M2 MBA. I think Max was particularly perturbed because he was comparing an M2 "Pro" model with an M1 MBA.

 

[gadgetgirl85]

I feel like the 'average' user (e.g. someone using it for word/excel), internet surfing etc, isn't really going to notice?

 

[tobybrut]

We won't know for sure until we see which 256GB SSD setup is in the M2 MBA. I think Max was particularly perturbed because he was comparing an M2 "Pro" model with an M1 MBA.

This site is already reporting the 256GB are using one chip.

 

[86Hawkeye]

I feel like the 'average' user (e.g. someone using it for word/excel), internet surfing etc, isn't really going to notice?

Likely you won't notice.

See how it goes. You can always return it if you don't like it.

 

[86Hawkeye]

This site is already reporting the 256GB are using one chip.

I stand corrected. Thanks!

 

[gadgetgirl85]

Likely you won't notice.

See how it goes. You can always return it if you don't like it.

Yep - I just checked my M1 and I've only used 110GB. I feel like 512 would be total overkill for me. I already have an iMac as my primary machine

 

[86Hawkeye]

Yep - I just checked my M1 and I've only used 110GB. I feel like 512 would be total overkill for me. I already have an iMac as my primary machine

Awesome! You should be just fine.

Which color did you order?

 

[compwiz1202]

The trouble is there is absolutely no point in debating it because neither you nor I have any influence over it whatsoever other than not buying the product. And if enough people care and don’t buy the product, Apple will do something about it.

Will depend if people buy nothing or cough up for the next level, which would be what they would want

 

[Karma*Police]

How much is this likely to impact real-world usage for most people? (Genuinely asking here)

If you watch in-depth Max Tech reviews of the MBP M2 vs M1 Air, a LOT. Just having multiple apps open can slow some operations down in half. That’s very noticeable whereas the single/multi-core M2 performance gains over the M1 are not.

 

[gadgetgirl85]

Awesome! You should be just fine.

Which color did you order?

Midnight

 

[86Hawkeye]

Midnight

Me too. I was a bit hesitant due to potential finger prints, but it's really cool looking and I can just wipe it down .

 

[Apple_Robert]

Yep - I just checked my M1 and I've only used 110GB. I feel like 512 would be total overkill for me. I already have an iMac as my primary machine

Keep in mind that for optimal health and performance of the SSD, it is best to keep 20% space free. That needs to factor into your total usage of whatever size you are using or are thinking of getting.

 

[tobybrut]

Keep in mind that for optimal health and performance of the SSD, it is best to keep 20% space free. That needs to factor into your total usage of whatever size you are using or are thinking of getting.

Ah, remember the Apple days of the hybrid drives where they'd use a 250GB or 120GB flash drive joined with a 1TB or larger platter drive? Apple did that to increase performance but flash was too expensive back then to use solely.

But that 20% drive space being free mattered a lot to those hybrid drives. If you dropped below 20%, the overall drive performance would slow to the point where the machine was utterly unusable and every action lead to many seconds of spinning beach balls. Clean up stuff and get back to over 20% free and the computer would speed up dramatically.

What's the point I'm making? There are no circumstances under which one generation of hardware is superior in every way to the prior generation. I'll use another comparison of QLC Gen 4 flash versus Gen 3. In most cases, Gen 4 is faster as we'd expect.... except when transferring very large files. The cache would fill up and the speed of Gen 4 flash would fall to a tiny fraction of its initial speed. In those cases, Gen 3 was faster. In this case, the M2 machines with 256GB are faster in most cases but there are some where they aren't. Nothing is universal. If people want to find a machine that's superior 100% of the time in every use case, good luck. They're not going to find it.

 

[86Hawkeye]

NOT the 13 AND the Air with one chip…….sounds like it should be called NAND Gate

NAND gate - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

thank you, I will be here all week.

LOL! I was thinking the exact same thing😂.

 

[ProfessionalFan]

Apple taking a piss on costumer while they grab a better margin.

So basically how any profitable business would run?