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Comment by mdp2021 | Hacker News Reader

mdp2021

> highly performant

Last thing I read, 70% of the native performance was shown by running GeekBench through Rosetta (with a few odd results noted).

If somebody has better info...

Edit: I see that Nov 2020 checks returned an 80% performance, and there was discussion on HN at (at least) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25105597

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Here are my numbers for the original M1 (not Pro or Max) soon after release:

ARM Geekbench single core on M1 MacOS is 1734. ARM Geekbench single core on WinARM in VM on M1 is 1550. x86 single core on i9 MB Pro MacOS is 1138. x86 in emulation on M1 MacOS is 1254.

Yes, 72% x86 Rosetta vs. M1 Native. However, x86 Rosetta on M1 was faster than the previous i9 2019 Macbook Pro x86 native. I consider that to be performant for running code that was compiled for a very different architecture.

When you compare with the sad-trombone sound that Windows has produced for its ARM os, it is speedy.

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I really think people should ignore bench scores and run the processes they need themselves. See what it feels like, and how comfortable you are with that.

Benchmarks are good for bragging rights and maybe convincing over-zealous accounting to approve a purchase (but even then that’s probably not all there is to it.)

All the telling similes I can briefly think of, from "in Chad drinking water availability does not reach 40% and in Namibia exceeds 80% - but see what it feels like, and how comfortable you are with that" or "near that peaks the temperature is 10°C, and in the valley 20°C - but see what it feels like, and how comfortable you are with that", seem to be part a much more sophisticated reality (the "ceteris paribus" constraint is less foreseeable) than that of "on that machine this defined code runs in half the time of that one" - especially when you are trying to get an idea of the world, not to see how you will feel like and how comfortable you are with that.

You can decide beforehand if increased speed with respect to your experience on your machines is beneficial to you or not.

> […] I really think people should ignore bench scores and run the processes they need themselves. See what it feels like, and how comfortable you are with that.

And how do people without disposable income judge?

When I didn’t have disposable income, I don’t remember worrying about the performance of things I couldn’t afford.

In the case of Apple at least, they have a 14 day no questions return policy.

Those are terrific numbers for emulation.

Anyway I can say that my colleagues M1 using rosetta is faster or equal to my MBP i9 2020.

That's because it's not emulation. It's binary translation, which is vastly more performant.

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