My M1 MacBook Pro arrived today. Chances are you have various questions, but I think a whole lot is summed up in this 50-second video. (Alt text, because Twitter still doesn't make this easy: Xcode 12.3 beta unzips in 5 minutes on an M1, vs 13 minutes 22 seconds on an Intel i9)
It's clear why Apple mentioned coding in the keynote – M1 is screamingly fast for developers. I almost feel sorry for Intel!
My Unwrap project (13k lines Swift, 10k Obj-C, more) was 19.5s on Intel vs 11.7 on M1.
AudioKit (39k C, 27k Swift, 12k C++) was 73s on Intel vs 31 on M1.
My Unwrap project (13k lines Swift, 10k Obj-C, more) was 19.5s on Intel vs 11.7 on M1.
AudioKit (39k C, 27k Swift, 12k C++) was 73s on Intel vs 31 on M1.
Keep in mind this comparison is deeply unfair: my 16-inch MacBook Pro was literally maxed out just a year ago – 8 cores, 64GB RAM, and much more, costing $6000.
In comparison the M1 costs just $2000 and manages to hammer the Intel machine with a quarter of the RAM.
In comparison the M1 costs just $2000 and manages to hammer the Intel machine with a quarter of the RAM.
Even more astonishingly, if you hadn't told me the M1 MBP had a fan I really wouldn't know – it's almost silent from what I can tell, and the chassis is cool to the touch. In comparison, my Intel i9 often sounds like it's taking off, and can get uncomfortably hot on my lap.
Before you jump into an upgrade, three things to consider.
First, these max out at 16GB RAM. For pure compilation that's fine, but add one or two simulators, Safari, Slack, etc, and you'll feel the crunch. Given that Mac Pro maxes at 1.5TB I guess this will be addressed soon.
First, these max out at 16GB RAM. For pure compilation that's fine, but add one or two simulators, Safari, Slack, etc, and you'll feel the crunch. Given that Mac Pro maxes at 1.5TB I guess this will be addressed soon.
Second, the new Rosetta is really incredible and completely transparent, but some programs just don't work with it. For example, I was trying out exporting from ScreenFlow and found it would often just crash the Mac.
Third, Homebrew is far from ready for Apple Silicon – they have a really big job ahead of them, and I really struggled to get what I wanted out of it. They've said "there won’t be any support for native ARM Homebrew installations for months to come."
Regardless, it blows my mind not only that this is Apple's first desktop CPU, but that it's running on a comparatively inexpensive Mac. I can't begin to imagine the performance on an iMac or Mac Pro, or what M2/3/4 might bring 🤯
I don't have a SoundCloud, but I do have a Black Friday sale on all my Swift books and bundles 😀 hackingwithswift.com/offers 
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