But it’s not a need yet, so trying to hold on till Q2 2021 when the 16 inch ARM MBP is due. Not worried about buying the first version, Apple has always nailed these transitions incredibly well in the past.
I started it with 16 Gb RAM to avoid Apple RAM tax, and just installed 32 Gb for only $180. Thought about spending $280 for 64 Gb, but cheaped out.
Edit: Hindsight being 20-20, should have got a 8Gb/1 Tb and upgraded the ram right then. The Ram upgrade is a lot easier that it first appears but easily done in an hour being careful. I think ram upgrades were more expensive at the time and I was anxious to get using it.
All the Apple ARM benchmarks I've seen is that they're competitive with MacBook Air class offerings and not the high performance CPUs.
Beyond the raw CPU power, it has been quite overlooked how much performance Apple can get by putting additional compute units onto the chip, like their neural net accellerators. As they own the whole hard- and softwarestack, they can much more easily make the best use out of those additions.
MBPs with i9s:
Single Core: 1,119
8 Core: 6,900
A12Z (iPad 12.9 inch)
Single Core: 1,118
8 Core: 4,626
A13 Bionic (iPhone 11)
Single Core: 1,327
6 Core: 3,384
Neither of these ARM CPUs will be used in Apple Silicon. It will be an A14 class chip. It will be significantly faster due to
1) New 5 nm process vs. the older 7 nm process.
2) Greater thermal headroom ie they will be able to use more power in laptops and desktops than in tablets/phones.
3) More cores
It is expected that Apple Silicon will have at least 12 to 20 cores, and more for high end desktop versions.
4) GPU integration
The current A13 has an Apple integrated GPU that’s reputedly much faster than the Intel integrated GPUs. The 5 nm process will provide many more transistors for even faster GPU performance.
My expectation is Apple will have a family of Apple Silicon SOCs next year that start around 1,400 single core, and with multi-core starting at 7,000 and going over 20,000 for 30 or 40 core desktop versions.
They will probably include T2 functionality and more, further reducing power draw.
Also remember that i9s are $200-$300 each. A13s are around $100 each.
MacBooks will get the benefits of longer battery life, faster CPUs & GPUs while also being as much as $200 cheaper.