Apple's Silicon Magic Is Over!

Snazzy Labs
20 Apr 202417:32

Summary

TLDRThe video script discusses the evolution of Apple's Mac lineup, particularly focusing on the significant impact of the M1 chip on the industry. It highlights how Apple's shift to its own silicon led to a dramatic improvement in performance and efficiency, allowing for sleek designs without compromising on power. The script also addresses the incremental improvements from the M2 and the challenges faced by the M3 due to the limitations in transistor density and the escalating costs of newer chip processes. It emphasizes the need for Apple to innovate beyond silicon and explore unique form factors that leverage the performance per watt benefits of their chips. The video further acknowledges the growing competition from other chip manufacturers like Qualcomm, which is making strides with its Snapdragon X Elite SoC. The summary calls for Apple to continue taking bold risks and to innovate in design to stay ahead of the competition.

Takeaways

  • 🔥 The M1 chip was a game-changer for Apple, offering significant performance improvements and efficiency, without requiring a fan for cooling.
  • 📈 Apple's M2 chip, while iterative, increased transistor count and moved to a more refined process, but also faced thermal challenges.
  • 🌡️ The M2 MacBook Air was found to be more difficult to cool and experienced performance throttling due to increased heat and power draw.
  • 📉 Despite higher peak energy consumption, the M2's performance per watt improved, allowing for quicker task completion and lower energy usage per task.
  • 🚀 The M3 chip's launch on TSMC's 3nm process did not yield the expected massive performance gains, indicating a slowdown in process improvements.
  • 💸 The cost of manufacturing on newer nodes is increasing, which may affect the pricing and efficiency gains of future chips.
  • 🤝 Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite SoC is a new competitor in the market, aiming to provide performance between Apple's M2 and M3 chips with a focus on efficiency.
  • 🔍 The era of significant performance improvements with each process shrink is over, with new nodes becoming more expensive and offering less density gains.
  • 💻 Apple's MacBook lineup has become more uniform in design and features, but there's a call for more innovative form factors that take full advantage of Apple Silicon's capabilities.
  • 🎮 The suggestion that Apple could explore creating a gaming-oriented laptop with an M3 ULTRA chip, offering high performance with excellent idle efficiency.
  • 🚨 A call for Apple to continue taking risks and innovate beyond their silicon, to maintain their competitive edge as the industry catches up.

Q & A

  • What was the main issue with the Macs from just over 5 years ago?

    -The main issue was that they had high TDP Intel chips paired with inadequate cooling, which led to overheating and a significant drop in benchmark scores, making them some of the worst Macs in decades.

  • What was the significance of the M1 chip for Apple's Mac lineup?

    -The M1 chip was a revelation, addressing the overheating issues and providing a significant performance boost. It allowed Apple to keep Macs thin and light without the need for a fan and offered a 3.5x speed increase with a 50% longer battery life, all without a price increase.

  • What are the three main drivers behind the M1's incredible performance?

    -The three main drivers are: (1) The use of the modern Arm64 instruction set architectures, (2) Apple's dedicated on-chip hardware blocks that handle specific tasks more capably, and (3) deep vertical control from hardware to application level which streamlined efficiency.

  • How did the M2 chip improve upon the M1?

    -The M2 chip improved by moving to TSMC’s refined N5P process, which provided a 7% performance improvement and about 15% lower power consumption. Additionally, the total number of transistors was increased from 16 billion to 20 billion.

  • What was the challenge with the M3 chip's launch on TSMC’s N3E 3nm process?

    -The challenge was that while expectations were high for a significant performance increase due to the smaller process size, the actual improvement was only slightly better than the jump from M1 to M2, which was disappointing given the new process technology.

  • Why might the era of massive improvements from one process shrink to the next be over?

    -The era might be over because the improvements in transistor density are becoming smaller with each new node, and the time between each shrink is now years apart. Additionally, each new node is significantly more expensive, which may not yield the same efficiency gains as before.

  • What is the Snapdragon X Elite SoC and how does it compare to Apple's chips?

    -The Snapdragon X Elite is a custom laptop chip built on TSMC’s 4nm process with a high-performance CPU, GPU, and NPU. It is designed to compete with Apple's chips, with benchmarks placing it between the M2 and M3 in performance. However, it targets a different segment and is not aimed at competing with Apple's Pro, Max, and Ultra chips.

  • What is the current challenge for Apple's silicon lineup?

    -The challenge is that the jumps in performance from M2 to M3 and potentially from M3 to M4 are not as massive as expected. Apple is pushing against technological limits, and competitors are catching up, which means Apple needs to innovate beyond just silicon performance.

  • Why is it suggested that Apple should focus on hardware design in addition to silicon performance?

    -Focusing on hardware design can allow Apple to take better advantage of the performance per watt provided by their silicon. This could lead to innovative form factors, such as even thinner and lighter laptops or more powerful laptops with better thermal management and longer battery life.

  • What is the potential market for a laptop with an M3 ULTRA chip?

    -The potential market includes gamers and creators who typically opt for heavier-style laptops on Windows/Linux platforms. An M3 ULTRA chip could provide the necessary performance with better thermal headroom and maintain excellent idle efficiency.

  • What is the author's final suggestion for Apple?

    -The author suggests that Apple should stop resting on the success of the M1 series and take more risks to innovate and stay ahead of the competition. This includes focusing on both silicon performance and hardware design to create truly differentiated products.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Apple Silicon's Impact on Mac Design

This paragraph discusses the significant transformation in Apple's Mac lineup following the introduction of the M1 chip. Previously, high TDP Intel chips coupled with insufficient cooling led to overheating issues and poor performance. The M1 chip, however, was a game-changer, offering faster performance without the need for a fan and with a 50% longer battery life, all at the same price point. The paragraph also touches on the improvements in the MacBook Pro and M2 MacBook Air, which corrected past design flaws and enhanced various features. It concludes by noting that while Apple's current lineup is one of the best ever, it must continue to innovate to maintain this status.

05:05

🤔 The M2 and M3: Incremental Improvements and Challenges

The second paragraph delves into the technical aspects of Apple's M1, M2, and M3 chips. It explains the three main factors behind the M1's success: the modern Arm64 instruction set architecture, dedicated on-chip hardware blocks, and Apple's deep vertical control over the hardware and software stack. The paragraph then explores the challenges faced by the M2 and M3 chips, which include the limitations imposed by transistor density and the trade-offs between performance, power consumption, and heat generation. It also discusses the M2's increased transistor count and the thermal issues it faced, contrasting this with the M3's more modest performance improvements despite being built on a newer, more expensive process.

10:06

🚀 The Emergence of Snapdragon X Elite as Competition

In this paragraph, the focus shifts to the competition emerging in the market, particularly with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite system-on-chip (SoC). The author shares their experience with Qualcomm's reference design laptops and notes the significant strides made in optimizing Windows for Arm architecture. The Snapdragon X Elite is described as a powerful laptop chip with a high-performance CPU, GPU, and NPU, capable of competing with Apple's M2 and M3 chips in benchmarks. The paragraph suggests that while Apple's Pro, Max, and Ultra chips will likely remain superior, the X Elite represents a serious challenge, especially with Microsoft's support and the potential for future integration of high-end GPUs from NVIDIA or AMD.

15:10

💡 Pushing the Boundaries of Apple Silicon

The final paragraph emphasizes the need for Apple to continue innovating beyond its silicon capabilities. It suggests that while the M1 series was a groundbreaking success, Apple must not rest on its laurels as competitors are catching up. The author proposes exploring new form factors that take full advantage of Apple silicon's performance per watt, such as a thinner and lighter laptop or a more powerful gaming-oriented laptop. The paragraph also reflects on Apple's past reliance on Intel chips and how the M1 series allowed Mac users to boast about their computers' speed for the first time. It concludes by encouraging Apple to take more risks and innovate further to stay ahead of the competition.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Apple Silicon

Apple Silicon refers to the custom-designed system-on-a-chip (SoC) developed by Apple for its devices, starting with the M1 chip. It is a key innovation that has allowed Apple to significantly improve the performance and efficiency of its Mac computers. In the video, it is discussed as a 'revelation' that transformed the Mac lineup, enabling thinner, lighter, and more powerful devices without the need for active cooling systems.

💡Thermal Throttling

Thermal throttling is a mechanism used by electronic devices to prevent overheating by reducing their processing power when they reach a certain temperature. In the context of the video, it is mentioned as an issue with the M2 MacBook Air, where increased performance leads to higher temperatures and more rapid performance throttling, which can affect the user experience.

💡Transistor Density

Transistor density refers to the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit, typically measured per unit area. Higher transistor density generally allows for more powerful and efficient chips. The video discusses the limitations of transistor density improvements, noting that the era of massive gains from one process shrink to the next is over.

💡Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)

Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) is the architecture of a computer's processor that defines the basic set of commands that the processor can execute. The video mentions Arm64 ISA as being more modern and efficient than x86, allowing for better performance and efficiency in Apple's M1 chips.

💡Unified Memory

Unified memory is a type of memory architecture where all the components of a computer system, such as the CPU and GPU, share a common memory pool. This allows for faster data transfer between components. The video highlights Apple's use of a unified memory pool as one of the factors contributing to the M1's impressive performance.

💡M1 Max

The M1 Max is a high-end version of Apple's M1 chip, featuring more powerful graphics and higher performance capabilities. It is part of the M1 series of chips and is used in some of Apple's high-end Mac models. The video compares the M1 Max to the M2 and M3 chips, noting that despite the advancements, the M1 Max still holds its own in certain performance metrics.

💡Snapdragon X Elite

Snapdragon X Elite is a laptop chip developed by Qualcomm, built on TSMC's 4nm process. It is designed to compete with Apple's silicon and features a high-performance CPU, GPU, and NPU. The video discusses the X Elite as a potential competitor to Apple's chips, noting its performance benchmarks and the strategic partnership with Microsoft.

💡Process Shrink

Process shrink refers to the reduction in the size of transistors on a chip, which allows for more transistors to be packed into the same area, leading to improved performance and efficiency. The video explains that the days of significant performance improvements from one process shrink to the next are over, and that the costs associated with newer nodes are higher.

💡Neural Engine

The Neural Engine is a dedicated hardware component in Apple's silicon that is designed to accelerate machine learning tasks. It is part of what makes Apple's chips so efficient at handling specific tasks. The video mentions the Neural Engine as one of the on-chip hardware blocks that contribute to the M1's superior performance.

💡Efficiency

In the context of the video, efficiency refers to the ability of a computer chip to deliver high performance while consuming less power. Apple's M1 series chips are praised for their efficiency, which has allowed for longer battery life and less reliance on active cooling systems. The video discusses the importance of maintaining this efficiency as other companies catch up to Apple's technology.

💡M3 Series

The M3 series refers to the next generation of Apple's custom silicon chips following the M1 and M2 series. The video discusses the expectations and performance of the M3 chips, noting that the improvements from the M2 to M3 were not as significant as those from the M1 to M2, indicating a potential slowdown in the pace of innovation.

Highlights

Over 5 years ago, Apple's Macs faced overheating issues due to high TDP Intel chips and inadequate cooling.

Apple silicon's introduction with the M1 chip was a significant shift from the problematic form factor of previous Macs.

The M1 chip allowed for 3.5x faster performance without the need for a fan and with a 50% longer battery life.

Apple maintained the price while delivering significant performance improvements.

The redesign of the MacBook Pro and M2 MacBook Air corrected past design flaws and enhanced various features.

Apple's M1 iMac and iPad Pro demonstrated efficiency across various form factors.

Apple's current computer lineup is considered one of the best ever from any company.

The M1's performance was driven by three main factors: modern instruction set architectures, dedicated hardware blocks, and deep vertical control.

The M2 chip improved on the M1 by using a refined process and increasing the number of transistors.

The M2, despite being more power-hungry, showed increased performance per watt.

The M3 chip's launch on TSMC's 3nm process did not yield the expected massive performance gains.

The era of significant improvements from process shrinks is over, with new nodes being more expensive.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite SoC is a new competitive force in the market, with promising benchmarks.

The X Elite chip is a custom laptop chip with high-performance CPU, GPU, and NPU, manufactured on TSMC's 4nm process.

Apple's focus on efficiency and performance with Apple Silicon faces new competition from Qualcomm and others.

Apple's MacBook lineup has become more uniform in design and features, lacking a machine that truly leverages Apple silicon's performance per watt.

There is a suggestion for Apple to innovate further by creating a thinner, lighter laptop or a more powerful 'gaming' laptop.

The M1 series is seen as a game-changer, but Apple needs to continue taking risks to stay ahead of the competition.

Transcripts

00:00

It's hard to believe that just over 5-years-ago,  I was ripping into the internals of brand-new Macs  

00:06

looking to hodge-podge a fix together, such that  they wouldn’t overheat and cause benchmark scores  

00:11

to plummet. High TDP Intel chips paired with  inadequate cooling made for a deadly combo—one  

00:17

that created the worst Macs in decades—but  then this happened: [insert M1 unveiling]

00:37

Apple silicon was a revelation to  what had been deemed an ill-suited  

00:42

form factor. Not only did they *keep* things  thin and light, but they launched with the  

00:47

literal identical MacBook Air chassis just  to prove—HEY—not only is this 3.5x faster,  

00:55

but we don’t even need a fan. Oh, and by  the way, we didn't touch the battery size  

00:59

at all but it lasts 50% longer than before.  Price increase? Nah. Send me a G and we coo.

01:06

The redesign of the MacBook Pro and M2 MacBook  Air righted the wrongs caused by the butterfly  

01:15

keyboard-sporting laptops of yore bringing  back MagSafe and other I/O, improving displays,  

01:20

speakers, keyboards, and more. Meanwhile, the M1  iMac and iPad Pro proved that no form factor was  

01:27

too small for this master-class in efficiency.  It’s not a stretch to say that Apple’s current  

01:32

computer lineup is not just Apple’s best ever,  but perhaps one of the best lineups ever from  

01:37

*any* company. But be warned, because changes  need to happen—and fast—if Apple wants that to  

01:44

continue being true into the future. Let's  tackle why the M3 series doesn't measure up  

01:49

to the almost physics-defying standards the M1  set at launch; and, how for the first time ever,  

01:54

real competition is just months away  from almost every PC maker imaginable.

02:00

I’ve talked a lot about why Apple silicon  has absolutely dominated since launch,  

02:06

but there were really three main drivers behind  M1’s incredible performance: (1) Arm64 itself uses  

02:15

significantly more modern (ISAs) instruction set  architectures that don’t carry the legacy baggage  

02:21

of x86—nerdy crap like weakly-ordered memory  models, a larger number of general-purpose  

02:30

registers for parallelizable code, etc., (2)  Apple’s dedicated on-chip hardware blocks like the  

02:37

video engines, Neural Engine, matrix coprocessor,  and unified memory pool, handle specific tasks  

02:51

vastly more capably than a general-compute  CPU or GPU, and, (3) deep vertical control  

02:59

from hardware to kernel to OS to application  helped eliminate cruft and streamline efficiency.

03:11

All of the work had to be paved for M1.  Sure, M2 and M3 benefit from that work,  

03:19

but they’ve been iterative—and Apple is now  somewhat limited in the same way everybody  

03:25

else is: transistor density. M1 launched  on TSMC’s 5nm process and unlike the 90s  

03:33

and 2000s when transistor density and node  naming actually correlated with one another,  

03:38

process names today like “5nm” don’t really mean  anything. There’s more to chips than logic gates  

03:43

and hardly any of those features precisely measure  at the marketed process size anyways. Regardless,  

03:50

the M1—not to even mention the M1 Max—was a an  enormous die that was not just the biggest TSMC  

03:58

5nm chip to date, but one of the largest Arm  chips ever produced period. So what do you do  

04:11

to get a faster chip like M2? There’s really  three options: (1) shrink the size and power  

04:19

consumption of the transistors so you can add  more of them in the same envelope, (2) keep  

04:27

the transistor size the same but increase the  number of them which makes for a larger die with  

04:33

greater heat and power drain, or, (3) keep the  transistor size and count the same but increase  

04:40

the voltage to push up the chip’s clock-speed  which creates even more heat and power drain.

04:47

M2 did a combination of options 1 and 2. They  were able to move to TSMC’s refined N5P process  

04:56

which netted both a 7% performance improvement  over N5 while drawing about 15% lower power;  

05:04

and then to speed things up even more, they  increased the total number of transistors  

05:08

from 16 billion to 20 billion. But this  increase didn’t come free. Do some shotty,  

05:16

“not really the full story” napkin math, and the  data would suggest the M2 is more power-hungry  

05:22

than M1—running hotter and drawing more energy  as a total package over its predecessor. And  

05:31

that’s not theoretical: we proved back when the  M2 MacBook Air launched that the chip was more  

05:36

difficult to keep cool and experienced more  rapid and more severe performance throttling  

05:41

due to those thermals. So why wasn’t this more  widely reported? Well, because M2’s performance  

05:51

per watt increased as well—not just total package  consumption. Imagine a high-performance sports  

05:58

car. The car runs hotter and consumes more fuel  when it reaches its top speeds, much like the M2;  

06:05

however, because it's so fast and efficient, it  can complete a 'race' much quicker than a regular  

06:12

car, reducing the total time it is running at  its hottest most fuel-consumptive state. So,  

06:19

while yes, the M2 consumed more total energy  at its peak, that extra compute was able to  

06:26

get tasks done more quickly—reducing time spent  at peak and therefore maintaining lower energy  

06:33

consumption per task relative to M1. Sounds  like a win-win—so what’s the problem? Sand, man.

06:51

When M3 launched on TSMC’s N3E 3nm process,  it was the first chip to do so—and performance  

06:59

expectations from pundits were high. I mean, doing  napkin math anew would suggest a 2.8x increase in  

07:05

transistor density—HUGE performance gains! But  then M3 came out and we got… a slightly better  

07:11

jump than we did from M1 to M2—and those on the  same process! Huh? Well, I guess we learned our  

07:19

lesson – using napkins for calculations can be as  messy as using a lipstick for math. First of all,  

07:30

TSMC’s 3nm node uses transistors that are  much physically larger than 3nm—they’re  

07:37

closer to 3.5. Okayyy, but even that would  suggest a 2x density increase. Ah, but only  

07:45

the logic density comes close at 1.7x.  SRAM and IO density barely increases at  

07:53

all. And chips—even magical ones—contain  all of these components. Realistically,  

07:59

there’s only about a 1.3x shrink. The era of  massive improvements from one process shrink  

08:05

to the next are over. The shrinks themselves are  now YEARS apart. And even worse, each new node  

08:14

is orders of magnitude more expensive than the  prior, per unit area. It’s estimated that Apple’s  

08:20

cost on these N3E chips is greater—not lesser—than  just using a bigger area on an older node. Alas,  

08:29

that would not yield the same  efficiency gains we’ve come to  

08:31

expect from Apple. More transistors on a  bigger chip means more heat. So what do?

08:45

We’ve spent several minutes getting really  nerdy and into the weeds on a lot of stuff  

08:48

that normal people don’t care about—and  at the end of the day, normal people buy  

08:56

the vast majority of Apple’s products. Sure,  the jump from M2 to M3 wasn’t as massive as  

09:01

expected and the jump from M3 to M4 will likely  be even smaller, but might I suggest something  

09:06

heretical for a minute? That’s OK! The silicon  isn’t the problem in Apple’s lineup any longer.

09:15

Look, Qualcomm invited me out to San Diego  a few weeks ago and I got to check out their  

09:28

reference design laptops (which basically  means they’re not real—they’re prototypes)  

09:33

for the Snapdragon X Elite SoC. You  may recall, a year-and-a-half-ago,  

09:41

we bought Microsoft’s Arm-based Windows  Dev Kit. It utilized the same Microsoft SQ3  

09:46

chip (which was just a rebranded Snapdragon  8cx gen3) found in a few quirky low-power,  

09:54

low-performance Windows laptops. No offense to  the folks at Qualcomm or Microsoft, but this thing  

09:59

sucked. Its performance under ideal conditions  was mediocre and ideal conditions were hard to  

10:06

come by because so much of the Windows experience  was wildly unoptimized for Arm—even after a decade  

10:11

following the original release of Windows RT.  But that was then—we live in the now. Not only  

10:18

has every single native app for Windows made  the transition to Arm, but massive quantities  

10:23

of 3rd party apps have too—including big ones—like  Google Chrome. Graphics APIs like DirectX, Vulkan,  

10:30

and OpenGL are said to work through mapping  layers and both Microsoft and Qualcomm have made  

10:36

huge efforts to ensure a smooth transition—they  were quick to volunteer that Apple is better at  

10:44

this than anyone and they hope to be compared to  them this summer when the X Elite laptops ship.

11:03

So, what is the Snapdragon X Elite? Well, they  gave me one in a cute little acrylic trading  

11:11

card. It is a bespoke laptop chip—not based on  a mobile chip—built on TSMC’s 4nm process coming  

11:20

with a 12 high-performance core CPU, Adreno  GPU, and in-house Hexagon NPU. Additionally,  

11:33

the on-board sensing hub houses an additional ISP,  on-board WiFi 7 by default, and the capability to  

11:39

be paired with up to 64GB of LPDDR5 memory,  a Snapdragon X65 5G modem, and NVMe storage  

11:46

over PCIe. The specs suggest Qualcomm is not  messing around—and from the benchmarks I saw,  

11:54

it consistently placed itself in between  the M2 and M3. Not shabby at all. Now,  

12:01

Apple is still certainly going to have the  upper hand with their Pro, Max, and Ultra chips,  

12:06

but this doesn’t aim to compete with those. While  OEMs can push the X Elite to run up to 90W for an  

12:12

extra performance boost, its reference-design  consumes just 24W peak. Very, very close to M3.

12:22

Now do I think that Qualcomm’s going to come out  blazing with the best laptop chips within the next  

12:27

3-years? Not really, no. But they’re hungry,  they’ve got Microsoft behind them, and they  

12:34

alluded to the fact that using heavy-duty GPUs  from NVIDIA or AMD wouldn’t be off the table in  

12:39

the future—something Apple has zero  aspirations for. And just like Apple, Intel,  

12:47

and everybody else, they’re really leaning into  their NPU for tasks that can use software-defined  

12:53

hardware for maximum efficiency and speed.  It’ll be exciting to see what form factors  

13:06

the Snapdragon X Elite embodies given its massive  power envelope available to OEMs—from netbooks to  

13:14

power-hungry beasts. Layer in the fact that this  is just their first foray into the X Elite line  

13:22

and that higher-performance chips are on the  roadmap, and well, we’ve got competition, baby.

13:28

So what’s Apple to do? Rush TSMC to the next  process shrink? Pivot to developing hotter  

13:34

more consumptive chips in the name of speed?  No. And Apple knows that’s not their core  

13:39

competency. Apple Silicon has always been about  sufficient performance with extreme efficiency,  

13:45

but physics are a cruel mistress and many  watching this channel don’t realize they’re  

13:50

already pushing up against boundaries that didn’t  exist for the M1 series. I still see comments that  

13:56

Apple silicon laptops are dead silent and  that’s just… dead wrong. We edit videos for  

14:06

this YouTube channel on a 14” M3 Max MacBook  Pro and the fans run at full-tilt nearly all  

14:13

the time—not just when exporting. And even with  fans ablaze, our NLE struggles to get exports  

14:21

out even close to the time the 16” MacBook  Pro can. It’s throttling—hard. Now, does it  

14:36

throttle to the point that it’s no faster than  an M3 Pro 14” MacBook Pro? No, but its sometimes  

14:44

slower than an M1 Max Mac Studio—something that  benchmarks would very much suggest is impossible.

14:54

My point here is that for years, Apple had  the exact same Intel chip SKUs as other  

15:02

computer makers. The silicon was never  their selling point. That is until M1,  

15:09

when that formula got flipped on its head and  Mac owners were—for the first time ever—able to  

15:15

be braggadocios about their computer’s speed. But  Apple is pushing against technological limits and  

15:21

others are catching up—so lets sit the silicon  aside for a minute and focus again on Apple’s  

15:27

hardware design. As I see it, the entire  MacBook lineup is basically the same. Sure,  

15:32

the Air has a lower-quality display and worse  speakers than the 14” MacBook Pro and the 15”  

15:37

Air is cheaper than the 16” Pro, but I mean  come on… these machines are closer in design,  

15:44

size, footprint, weight, and feature-set than  ever before. There’s no laptop that truly takes  

15:51

advantage of the form-factor provided by Apple  silicon’s insane performance per watt. Imagine  

15:58

a laptop even thinner, smaller, and lighter than  the 2015 12” MacBook—a computer that still feels  

16:04

impossible today—nearly a decade after its  release. Only this time, it doesn’t have to be  

16:10

hamstrung by a crappy low-TDP Intel chip and lousy  I/O. Would it be slower than an M3 Air? Sure. But  

16:20

how many people own—heck—a base M1 MacBook Air  and have never even approached the limits of that  

16:25

chip? I’d venture to say MOST—and if your silicon  can enable those impressive form factors… do it!

16:33

On the other end of the spectrum, why not  put an M3 ULTRA in a 16” laptop that’s a  

16:39

bit on the hefty-side—the style that gamers and  creators buy all the time on team Windows/Linux?  

16:44

A chip that just absolutely screams when  needed with the thermal headroom to do it,  

16:49

but while maintaining the excellent idle  efficiency offered by Apple’s low-power  

16:54

cores. It could be the first “gaming” laptop  with a battery that doesn’t die in like 4 hours.

17:00

What I'm getting at is this - when  Apple decided to make their own silicon,  

17:04

it was a bold, risky move. It paid off massively.  The M1 series will be remembered as some of the  

17:11

greatest computers ever. But it also feels like  that was the last time Apple really took a risk,  

17:19

and I think its time they stop sitting on  their laurels and get back to work before  

17:23

the rest of the industry catches up. What do  you think? Let me know in the comments below,  

17:28

but most importantly—and as always—stay snazzy.

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Apple SiliconM1 ChipTech InnovationPerformance EfficiencyCompetitionQualcommSnapdragonMacBook ProM2 MacBook AirTSMC ProcessHardware DesignIndustry Analysis
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