Is Big Sur running natively on Arm or Intel?

[b656]

Please pardon my ignorance but I just want to understand this correctly. I understand that Big Sur will run both on ARM-based and intel macs. So which one is it running natively on? Is Big Sur running natively on ARM-based or intel macs? And how much performance difference?

For example. If Big Sur is running natively on ARM-based macs, the OS will run faster on ARM compared to right?

And also, If Big Sur is running natively on ARM-based macs, it's safe to assume that the speed of an app ranking will be like below right?

• ARM mac + macOS 11 Big Sur + ARM native apps
• intel mac + macOS 10.15 Catalina + intel native apps
• intel mac + macOS 11 Big Sur + intel native apps (since it's in emulation mode)

Once again please pardon my ignorance. I am a bit technically challenged to understand these things right away. So if any of you can explain it to me or point to some resource I'd very much appreciated!! Thanks.

 

[cmaier]

Please pardon my ignorance but I just want to understand this correctly. I understand that Big Sur will run both on ARM-based and intel macs. So which one is it running natively on? Is Big Sur running natively on ARM-based or intel macs? And how much performance difference?

For example. If Big Sur is running natively on ARM-based macs, the OS will run faster on ARM compared to right?

And also, If Big Sur is running natively on ARM-based macs, it's safe to assume that the speed of an app ranking will be like below right?

• ARM mac + macOS 11 Big Sur + ARM native apps
• intel mac + macOS 10.15 Catalina + intel native apps
• intel mac + macOS 11 Big Sur + intel native apps (since it's in emulation mode)

Once again please pardon my ignorance. I am a bit technically challenged to understand these things right away. So if any of you can explain it to me or point to some resource I'd very much appreciated!! Thanks.

The operating system runs natively on both.

You can run x86 apps on arm or x86, but they will run faster on x86 (generally)
You can run arm apps only on arm

 

[gilby101]

Please pardon my ignorance but I just want to understand this correctly. I understand that Big Sur will run both on ARM-based and intel macs. So which one is it running natively on? Is Big Sur running natively on ARM-based or intel macs? And how much performance difference?

For example. If Big Sur is running natively on ARM-based macs, the OS will run faster on ARM compared to right?

And also, If Big Sur is running natively on ARM-based macs, it's safe to assume that the speed of an app ranking will be like below right?

• ARM mac + macOS 11 Big Sur + ARM native apps
• intel mac + macOS 10.15 Catalina + intel native apps
• intel mac + macOS 11 Big Sur + intel native apps (since it's in emulation mode)

Once again please pardon my ignorance. I am a bit technically challenged to understand these things right away. So if any of you can explain it to me or point to some resource I'd very much appreciated!! Thanks.

Nativeness (with assumptions about futures):

• Big Sur Beta available to download now and when released in Sep/Oct(?) will be Intel only.
• Big Sur with Developer Transition Kit (DTK) is Apple Silicon (Arm).
• Big Sur on future Apple Silicon Macs (Xmas?) will be Arm.
• Big Sur next year we can assume will be 2 versions - one for Intel and one for Apple Silicon (Arm).
• All Arm versions will include Rosetta2 to translate (not emulate) Intel Apps to Arm code.

The speed ranking of Arm vs Intel is unknown. But it is safe to assume that:

• 'Native' apps will be fastest on the right hardware.
• Translated apps (i.e. apps translated from Intel to Arm) will be slower than 'native', but maybe not much for most apps.
• Top end Intel chip + AMD GPU will outperform Apple Silicon (Arm) for a few (2?) years.

 

[b656]

Nativeness (with assumptions about futures):

• Big Sur Beta available to download now and when released in Sep/Oct(?) will be Intel only.
• Big Sur with Developer Transition Kit (DTK) is Apple Silicon (Arm).
• Big Sur on future Apple Silicon Macs (Xmas?) will be Arm.
• Big Sur next year we can assume will be 2 versions - one for Intel and one for Apple Silicon (Arm).
• All Arm versions will include Rosetta2 to translate (not emulate) Intel Apps to Arm code.

The speed ranking of Arm vs Intel is unknown. But it is safe to assume that:

• 'Native' apps will be fastest on the right hardware.
• Translated apps (i.e. apps translated from Intel or Arm) will be slower than 'native', but maybe not much for most apps.
• Top end Intel chip + AMD GPU will outperform Apple Silicon (Arm) for a few (2?) years.

Incredible. Thank you so much for taking the time to summarize the whole thing!!!!!