The Spectacular M1-Forever a Legend?

[XboxEvolved]

Ever since the M1 first debuted it has been long touted as an almost catch-all processor that is just good enough at enough of the things that it's been easy to recommend for anyone, so much so that all the way up until the Neo the Air was still being sold at Walmart, and of course the Neo makes a lot of direct comparisons to the M1 line due to similarities in power.

I cannot personally think of to many times so much hype has been around, and stayed around a processor for over five years. In Apple terms, there is the first Apple silicon, the A4 for the iPhone 4 and iPad, and then the first 64-bit consumer ARM chip for the iPhone 5S, the A7.

After that, I would guess the Pentium 4's especially once they hit 3Ghz was a big deal, the G5 was a bit of a deal not only because of being the fastest momentarily but also being used in early 7th gen console development. But even so, the Athlon64s came and took that crown for a bit, and I remember that being a bit of a big deal, and then of course you had the advent of multi-core with Core2Duo. The difference is all of these things happened within 5 years of each other or even less, and were maybe the "hot thing" for a year or two. This has been going on now for five.

What is everyone's thoughts? Am I missing some other mythical "Jesus chip" that matches the venerable M1? Could the M6 with its 2NM process maybe be that next "wow" leap; potentially solving throating issues with their beefier versions in the family?

 

[Alameda]

I agree. It’s one of Apple’s greatest achievements. A fantastic technical leap and remarkable execution, with new chips coming out annually and extremely high quality.

 

[Basic75]

I cannot personally think of to many times so much hype has been around, and stayed around a processor for over five years.

Back in the days the "next big thing" would have launched less than five years after the last one. Like the 386 in 1985, the 486 in 1989, the P5 in 1993 and the P6 in 1995. These were all major updates, jump to 32bit, pipelined, superscalar, and out-of-order execution, respectively. After that, most jumps were smaller.

The Pentium 4 was not that great, there's a reason Intel went back to the P6 lineage. The G5 was impressive, though it wasn't the first 64bit personal computer by a long shot, even though Apple claimed it was. AMD's 3D cache could be mentioned, people are still happily gaming on their 5800X3Ds that launched in 2022.

 

[XboxEvolved]

Back in the days the "next big thing" would have launched less than five years after the last one. Like the 386 in 1985, the 486 in 1989, the P5 in 1993 and the P6 in 1995. These were all major updates, jump to 32bit, pipelined, superscalar, and out-of-order execution, respectively. After that, most jumps were smaller.

The Pentium 4 was not that great, there's a reason Intel went back to the P6 lineage. The G5 was impressive, though it wasn't the first 64bit personal computer by a long shot, even though Apple claimed it was. AMD's 3D cache could be mentioned, people are still happily gaming on their 5800X3Ds that launched in 2022.

Yeah like I said, I am just going around hype and legend of said processors and I am failing to think of a time something was like "Wow" like the M1 at least since I have been paying attention.

 

[Fravin]

you had the advent of multi-core with Core2Duo.

Actually, the first dual core processor by Intel was Pentium D, using two Pentium 4 cores. It enabled PCs enjoy 64bits computing.

 

[Onlyuseapple]

I just got a m1 MacBook Air last Monday afternoon, and using it for a week now I am still amazed how stupid fast it is and how well it works on Tahoe. I have a feeling the m1 will be supported for awhile yet, since it is still more than powerful enough.

 

[leman]

M1's "legendary" reputation is solely because it was the first desktop Apple Silicon chip. Comparing to the x86 processors, it represented an incredible jump in efficiency and available performance. At the same time, it was still pretty much a scaled-up iPhone chip, and it has been long left behind by newer Apple Silicon families. I would actually say that M5 is the biggest jump in CPU and GPU performance on Apple's side in a long while — and the first notable improvement in CPU IPC in a very long while.

I doubt that we will have another architecture featuring such a big relative leap in a while, if ever. Semiconductor technology has been slowing down for a long time now, and these modern architectures are already running the code very close to the theoretical limit. The improvement will continue to be incremental. I do anticipate a big jump in GPU performance within the next one or two years, however.

 

[JPack]

Intel Conroe has that kind of presence. Everyone buying a PC quickly wanted a Core 2 Duo processor.

Honestly though, M1 hype is still limited to techies. We here might think M1 made a splash, but in terms of Mac vs. PC marketshare, it didn’t make much of a dent. The average consumer still doesn’t know about M because Apple didn’t splash advertising for their processor like the way Intel did and use celebrities.

 

[XboxEvolved]

M1's "legendary" reputation is solely because it was the first desktop Apple Silicon chip. Comparing to the x86 processors, it represented an incredible jump in efficiency and available performance. At the same time, it was still pretty much a scaled-up iPhone chip, and it has been long left behind by newer Apple Silicon families. I would actually say that M5 is the biggest jump in CPU and GPU performance on Apple's side in a long while — and the first notable improvement in CPU IPC in a very long while.

I doubt that we will have another architecture featuring such a big relative leap in a while, if ever. Semiconductor technology has been slowing down for a long time now, and these modern architectures are already running the code very close to the theoretical limit. The improvement will continue to be incremental. I do anticipate a big jump in GPU performance within the next one or two years, however.

That’s my whole point, it kind of validates what many were recommending to the average Joe, an m1 mba or a refurb m1 over everything else, and then here comes something that is very similar powered so it isn’t just that it was the first, it’s that generally that one before Neo was -still- the #1 family of processors people were recommended, as it was seen as overkill to go past that for many others.

And because it established itself so solidly and profoundly in the industry, the likes of Intel, Microsoft, and Qualcomm will use Apple silicon as the standard for comparisons now. This is a big deal, and I don’t see those sort of comparisons going anytime soon.

 

[Onlyuseapple]

I have a feeling the m1 series will continue to get updates and upgrades for awhile yet as they are still extremely well performing machines, and are much more capable than intel was in a short few years.

 

[Alameda]

Intel Conroe has that kind of presence. Everyone buying a PC quickly wanted a Core 2 Duo processor.

Honestly though, M1 hype is still limited to techies. We here might think M1 made a splash, but in terms of Mac vs. PC marketshare, it didn’t make much of a dent. The average consumer still doesn’t know about M because Apple didn’t splash advertising for their processor like the way Intel did and use celebrities.

I think the computer that's going to move the lever is the Neo.

The whole marketshare story is nonsense. Companies practically give away computers to get marketshare. Marketshare does not make you money. Volume does not make you money. Profit makes you money, and Apple is running a much more profitable computer business than Acer, Asus, Dell and HP. If Apple wanted to slash the prices of their computers, of course they would sell a lot more, but their profit would be reduced and they might not have as much capital to invest in innovation. As it is, however, they are pushing TSMC to capacity.

And, frankly, it shows. Apple is a far better platform. I think it's a shame that more people don't see the value of Apple's products, but that's their choice. A Dell laptop configured with 8/512 costs $350. A Neo is $600 in an 8/256 configuration. I think the Neo is definitely worth the extra money, but that's just my opinion.

 

[JPack]

I think the computer that's going to move the lever is the Neo.

The whole marketshare story is nonsense. Companies practically give away computers to get marketshare. Marketshare does not make you money. Volume does not make you money. Profit makes you money, and Apple is running a much more profitable computer business than Acer, Asus, Dell and HP. If Apple wanted to slash the prices of their computers, of course they would sell a lot more, but their profit would be reduced and they might not have as much capital to invest in innovation. As it is, however, they are pushing TSMC to capacity.

And, frankly, it shows. Apple is a far better platform. I think it's a shame that more people don't see the value of Apple's products, but that's their choice. A Dell laptop configured with 8/512 costs $350. A Neo is $600 in an 8/256 configuration. I think the Neo is definitely worth the extra money, but that's just my opinion.

With Neo, most consumers will simply be aware that it uses an iPhone processor.

Apple's formula to sales is they don't focus on the chip itself, but rather the package as a whole. This is why most people won't be familiar with the M1 or A18 compared to say, Pentium or Core 2 Duo.

 

[JPack]

I have a feeling the m1 series will continue to get updates and upgrades for awhile yet as they are still extremely well performing machines, and are much more capable than intel was in a short few years.

No, it won't. This is because Apple sells the customer a package, which includes hardware, software, and support. Just because the M1 chip is capable, doesn't mean Apple will extend support. We've already seen this with the iPad Pro. Once the product reaches 6-7 year mark, it stops getting major updates regardless of processor performance.

 

[aespana]

If Firefox and third party software supports this machine a couple of year after Apple support ends, I be very happy with my purchase.

Bought an Air M1 16/512 nearly a year ago and man, beatiful machine with a really good performance (not in gaming.. it sucks) and very good battery life. Also good speakers, good keyboard, perfect trackpad, beautiful display, and other good perks that stand very well even 5-6 after it release.

For me, these M1 are legends. Most than enough for many many people out there.

 

[mike.coulter]

If Firefox and third party software supports this machine a couple of year after Apple support ends, I be very happy with my purchase.

Bought an Air M1 16/512 nearly a year ago and man, beatiful machine with a really good performance (not in gaming.. it sucks) and very good battery life. Also good speakers, good keyboard, perfect trackpad, beautiful display, and other good perks that stand very well even 5-6 after it release.

For me, these M1 are legends. Most than enough for many many people out there.

I play a few games on mine and it runs great, granted Eve online would play on a potato but it still hits my frame limiter at 60fps. Metal upscaling certainly helps.

 

[delsoul]

I bought a 2021 14” MBP M1Pro base model (16gb ram and 512gb ram) new and it was a fantastic laptop. Saw me through daily use, saw me through great school and huge data intense projects, been around the world etc. I ended up trading it in towards an m5 max (that’s a whole different monster) but I’ll always have a soft spot for the M1 Pro, really changed the perception that people have of Mac’s and that they’re not powerful enough for this or that. The power for the price was truly incredible

 

[Bungaree.Chubbins]

I play a few games on mine and it runs great, granted Eve online would play on a potato but it still hits my frame limiter at 60fps. Metal upscaling certainly helps.

I haven't played Eve Online for ages! I used to play it on my 2012 11" MacBook Air!

 

[XboxEvolved]

I have a feeling the m1 series will continue to get updates and upgrades for awhile yet as they are still extremely well performing machines, and are much more capable than intel was in a short few years.

I concur with this idea if the “earth friendly Apple” makes it so, as if you look back, the PowerPC became underpowered fast compared to Intel, generally got less updates (like 3-5 years worth of OS updates possible didn’t seem to be a set amount), and with Intel it went to 7yrs. I don’t see why M1 chips couldn’t feasibly get software updates for at least 9 years, especially if macOS27 is just Snow Leopard with optional AI, pretty sure it would be plenty powerful for 28, and keep going in 29.

 

[XboxEvolved]

No, it won't. This is because Apple sells the customer a package, which includes hardware, software, and support. Just because the M1 chip is capable, doesn't mean Apple will extend support. We've already seen this with the iPad Pro. Once the product reaches 6-7 year mark, it stops getting major updates regardless of processor performance.

They’ve changed this policy before and they can again, and I’d be willing to bet once they only concentrate on Apple silicon Mac’s, it’ll open up to 8-9 years, with that to follow with several different models of their phones starting from the 16 series. Just a feeling I guess?

 

[XboxEvolved]

If Firefox and third party software supports this machine a couple of year after Apple support ends, I be very happy with my purchase.

Bought an Air M1 16/512 nearly a year ago and man, beatiful machine with a really good performance (not in gaming.. it sucks) and very good battery life. Also good speakers, good keyboard, perfect trackpad, beautiful display, and other good perks that stand very well even 5-6 after it release.

For me, these M1 are legends. Most than enough for many many people out there.

Think it depends on what games but also you are using something with no actual fan. I’d wager visually the m1 series is about regular ps4 powerful which id say is pretty decent.

 

[gpat]

Intel Conroe has that kind of presence. Everyone buying a PC quickly wanted a Core 2 Duo processor.

Honestly though, M1 hype is still limited to techies. We here might think M1 made a splash, but in terms of Mac vs. PC marketshare, it didn’t make much of a dent. The average consumer still doesn’t know about M because Apple didn’t splash advertising for their processor like the way Intel did and use celebrities.

I think the computer that's going to move the lever is the Neo.

The whole marketshare story is nonsense. Companies practically give away computers to get marketshare. Marketshare does not make you money. Volume does not make you money. Profit makes you money, and Apple is running a much more profitable computer business than Acer, Asus, Dell and HP. If Apple wanted to slash the prices of their computers, of course they would sell a lot more, but their profit would be reduced and they might not have as much capital to invest in innovation. As it is, however, they are pushing TSMC to capacity.

And, frankly, it shows. Apple is a far better platform. I think it's a shame that more people don't see the value of Apple's products, but that's their choice. A Dell laptop configured with 8/512 costs $350. A Neo is $600 in an 8/256 configuration. I think the Neo is definitely worth the extra money, but that's just my opinion.

As a matter of fact, Macs made up 9% of PC sales in 2025 vs. 6.6% in 2019.
That's a growth of 36% in relative terms.
The Air M1 likely made most of that work. So the "M1 moment" was there. Anything after that was more incremental.
I have no doubt that the Neo could push that number to something like 12-13%, and there you have +100% compared to 2019.
And the M1 allure went far beyond techies, no doubt. In 2020, I remember people no longer wanting to buy the Macbook Air because the stupidly engineered 2018 Retina model couldn't manage video calling without heating up like crazy, and upgraded to the Pro only because it had proper cooling.
Now they've started going back to the Air, so there you have it.

 

[Alameda]

M1's "legendary" reputation is solely because it was the first desktop Apple Silicon chip. Comparing to the x86 processors, it represented an incredible jump in efficiency and available performance. At the same time, it was still pretty much a scaled-up iPhone chip, and it has been long left behind by newer Apple Silicon families. I would actually say that M5 is the biggest jump in CPU and GPU performance on Apple's side in a long while — and the first notable improvement in CPU IPC in a very long while.

I doubt that we will have another architecture featuring such a big relative leap in a while, if ever. Semiconductor technology has been slowing down for a long time now, and these modern architectures are already running the code very close to the theoretical limit. The improvement will continue to be incremental. I do anticipate a big jump in GPU performance within the next one or two years, however.

Well… no.
The M1 was a much faster and far more energy efficient chip. It wasn’t a big deal just because Apple made it. If anything, people were reluctant to leave the Intel brand but these new chips were much better and the proof is that M1 Macs are still fast enough even for many power users.

 

[David Hassholehoff]

They’ve changed this policy before and they can again, and I’d be willing to bet once they only concentrate on Apple silicon Mac’s, it’ll open up to 8-9 years, with that to follow with several different models of their phones starting from the 16 series. Just a feeling I guess?

That would be fantastic, not the least from an environmental standpoint, but there is no way they will be that generous. At best, you will see an emergency security patch to some truly catastrophic hole in an OS package, but that's probably it.

 

[JPack]

As a matter of fact, Macs made up 9% of PC sales in 2025 vs. 6.6% in 2019.
That's a growth of 36% in relative terms.
The Air M1 likely made most of that work. So the "M1 moment" was there. Anything after that was more incremental.
I have no doubt that the Neo could push that number to something like 12-13%, and there you have +100% compared to 2019.
And the M1 allure went far beyond techies, no doubt. In 2020, I remember people no longer wanting to buy the Macbook Air because the stupidly engineered 2018 Retina model couldn't manage video calling without heating up like crazy, and upgraded to the Pro only because it had proper cooling.
Now they've started going back to the Air, so there you have it.

Nah, it comes down to what data you’re referring to. Full calendar year 2025 for Apple according to Gartner is 9.2%. In 2015, this was 7.5%.

Global market share of iOS has also gone up significantly from 11-12% in 2015 and 2019, to about 16% today. Many people buy iPhone then follow up with a Mac.

Common sense would tell you if M1 had that Apple “moment” the Neo wouldn’t be necessary. Apple would be happy sitting with high margin Macs.

https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom...-2025-and-9-point-1-percent-for-the-full-year

Apple iPhone Market Share

Counterpoint Research Insight

counterpointresearch.com

 

[gpat]

Nah, it comes down to what data you’re referring to. Full calendar year 2025 for Apple according to Gartner is 9.2%.

Common sense would tell you if M1 had that Apple “moment” the Neo wouldn’t be necessary. Apple would be happy sitting with high margin Macs.

https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom...-2025-and-9-point-1-percent-for-the-full-year

Margins on Mac are much higher regardless since they don't have to pay Intel for CPUs and AMD for GPUs anymore.
M1 made the Mac wildly more profitable than before. That's a simple fact.
And that's also the reason for which the Neo became possible at all. It has lower margins than the rest of the lineup but high enough to keep Apple happy.