Well, I guess don't ask me a whole lot 'cuz I only really use both for basic things like web browsing, document editing, video watching, etc.
But I figure I'd post this comparison because the cMP is the peak of 2010 Apple hardware, and the M1 Air is the entry level of 2020 Apple hardware. I paid nearly the exact same price for both of them (that's including the upgrades to the cMP, see my sig).
My goodness the Air is fast. In terms of just using a computer, it's so fast it's like the hardware is removed from the equation and the machine is controlled by your thoughts. It feels like moving physical things around on a desktop. The facts that it generates almost no heat and the battery lasts for ever further contribute to this sense that the hardware has become "transparent." However, it does lag occasionally. I don't know if it's the mere 8GB of RAM, or the M1 GPU doesn't come close to an RX580, but it does lag on occasion.
The cMP on the other hand, you feel all that hardware (including waves of hot air from under the desk), and it feels unstoppable. It never lags. Never. I've tried to bog it down and just can't. It's like a tank. Not as fast, but totally unstoppable. I thought maybe the Air would really draw my fancy and my cMP would see a lot less use. But no, I still enjoy sitting at the helm of all this firepower.
It's just nice to have that same firepower in mobile form with an M1!
So both machines handle my workloads about equally. The Air feels like a wizard's wand and the cMP feels like a war machine.
Now I do use Logic Pro on my cMP (which is really why I bought it). My typical project has 8-20 audio tracks, 4-8 different samplers and a few handfuls of plugins. The cMP barely reaches 30% CPU usage when a project is at its peak. The Logic benchmark test for the M1 says it's about on par with the dual 6-core cMP. Mine is only dual quad-core. So in that regard, I'm sure the base M1 chip will beat a maxed-out cMP for raw strength of audio (and probably video) editing.
All in all, extremely impressive for the latest entry-level machine to be effortlessly hanging with the warhorse of yore. This Apple Silicon leap is just amazing.
But I figure I'd post this comparison because the cMP is the peak of 2010 Apple hardware, and the M1 Air is the entry level of 2020 Apple hardware. I paid nearly the exact same price for both of them (that's including the upgrades to the cMP, see my sig).
My goodness the Air is fast. In terms of just using a computer, it's so fast it's like the hardware is removed from the equation and the machine is controlled by your thoughts. It feels like moving physical things around on a desktop. The facts that it generates almost no heat and the battery lasts for ever further contribute to this sense that the hardware has become "transparent." However, it does lag occasionally. I don't know if it's the mere 8GB of RAM, or the M1 GPU doesn't come close to an RX580, but it does lag on occasion.
The cMP on the other hand, you feel all that hardware (including waves of hot air from under the desk), and it feels unstoppable. It never lags. Never. I've tried to bog it down and just can't. It's like a tank. Not as fast, but totally unstoppable. I thought maybe the Air would really draw my fancy and my cMP would see a lot less use. But no, I still enjoy sitting at the helm of all this firepower.
It's just nice to have that same firepower in mobile form with an M1!
So both machines handle my workloads about equally. The Air feels like a wizard's wand and the cMP feels like a war machine.
Now I do use Logic Pro on my cMP (which is really why I bought it). My typical project has 8-20 audio tracks, 4-8 different samplers and a few handfuls of plugins. The cMP barely reaches 30% CPU usage when a project is at its peak. The Logic benchmark test for the M1 says it's about on par with the dual 6-core cMP. Mine is only dual quad-core. So in that regard, I'm sure the base M1 chip will beat a maxed-out cMP for raw strength of audio (and probably video) editing.
All in all, extremely impressive for the latest entry-level machine to be effortlessly hanging with the warhorse of yore. This Apple Silicon leap is just amazing.
