Well, they don't just "feel" faster. They also complete lots of real-world tasks in shorter times, often significantly shorter than the last Intel Macbook Pro.
I have two laptops side by side, one is an M1, the other a HP in a slightly higher price point (more memory, bigger SSD). The challenges Intel has in the form factor are obvious — it’s a 1.2Ghz chip that turbos almost 2x as heat allows.
In any dimension that it can do what you need, the Apple wins. Cheaper, faster, cooler, longer battery endurance. The detriments are the things it cannot do — run Windows/Linux or VMs or tasks that need more memory than is currently available.
Are you comparing a binary being run under dynamic binary translation with a native binary?
Not really an honest comparison, if that's the case.
Why? The Java community has only just been working on ARM64 support at all over the last few years, and it's still a little limited, and macOS ARM64 support is only out a couple of weeks and only from non-Oracle third-party builders I believe.
Depends which version you have installed. It's a taken a while for the native versions to reach the mainstream channels, so unless you've specifically installed an M1 build you probably have an x86 build being run under translation.
I see a 4.1x speedup in compiling (including tests), excluding dependency resolution:
Azul Native M1 java JDK11:
./sbt "clean;compile;test:compile"
254.86s user
11.84s system
519% cpu
51.375 total
Azul java JDK11:
./sbt "clean;compile;test:compile"
490.04s user
59.48s system
269% cpu
3:23.81 totalIf someone could figure out a way to get all MacOS apps —including the system — to use the performance cores, perhaps the battery life would be back down to Intel levels?
Other than to prove an utterly useless point - why would you want to even remotely do that?!?
If my time machine backup takes four times as long but my battery lasts longer still why would I care? The overall experience is a HUGE net improvement.
That's the point being glossed over by the majority of commenters and the point the original author is making - benchmarks are interesting, but nothing beats real world experience and in real world experience there are a suite of factors contributing to the M1 and Apples SOC approach spanking the crap out of their competitors.
There is more to life than rAw PoWeR ;)
yah never mind I don't care why these computers are impressive let’s just play macos chess and browse facebook jfc if you’re not interested why did you even join this conversation
I don't know what point would be proved by maxing out the cores other than confirming what seems to be pretty obvious - a hybrid approach has multiple benefits - not just in power efficiency but the user experience as well.
It's not just one aspect of the design choices - but all of them in concert.