why was the M1 chip so revolutionary? What did it do that combined power with efficiency so well that couldn’t be done before?

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I ask this because when M1 Mac’s came I felt we were entering a new era of portable PCs: fast, lightweight and with a long awaited good battery life.

I just saw the announcement of the Snapdragon X Plus, which is looking like a response to the M chips, and I am seeing a lot of buzz around it, so I ask: what is so special about it?

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18 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The M1 chip allowed Apple to optimize it for their hardware and software ecosystem. Unlike traditional processors where the CPU, GPU, and RAM are separate components, the M1 integrates all these elements into a single chip. This unified memory architecture allows for faster communication between the CPU, GPU, and memory, reducing latency and improving performance. By having high-efficiency cores alongside high-performance cores, it could better balance power consumption and performance based on workload demands compared to the competition at the time. While it can’t compete with dedicated graphics chips, the M1 chip integrates a custom GPU designed by Apple, which delivers respectable graphics performance while also being energy efficient.

Imagine a powerful gaming PC as a heavy V8 muscle car that goes 0-60 in 2.8 seconds using brute force power and gets 16mpg and the M1 as a Mclaren turbo-charged V6 that is really dialed in and goes 0-60 in 3.2 seconds, but gets 30mpg. If you need a relatively powerful setup (not the most powerful) and long battery life, nobody can touch Apple with their custom silicon.

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