Apple is an existential threat to the PC

[Wesker]

Apple Studio Display is the monitor Apple could have sold 5 years ago at the exact same price point, since it is basically the same display they have been sold on iMac 5k since late 2015. I think it should have come with at least VRR(ProMotion for Apple).

The problem is that Thunderbolt 4 does not has enough bandwidth for 5K 120Hz. And applying VRR for <60Hz is pointless as it's a desktop monitor not a laptop one (where ProMotion can reduce refresh rates to save battery life).

Just for reference:
4K (3840*2160) @ 120Hz @ 8-bit: 35.83 Gb/s
5K (5120*2880) @ 60Hz @ 8-bit: 26.54 Gb/s (Studio Display)
5K (5120*2880) @ 120Hz @ 8-bit: 53.08 Gb/s
6K (6016*3384) @ 60Hz @ 10-bit: 43.97 Gb/s (Pro Display XDR)

Thunderbolt 4 provides a peak theoretical bandwidth of 40Gb/s. The only way that you can pipe 6K (60Hz; 10-bit) over TB is by using DSC. 5K @ 120Hz is unfortunately unattainable with current tech. It also explains why Apple can't provide a second TB port for daisy-chaining. There's just not enough bandwidth.

 

[PSman1700]

Apple have a fair chunk of business leasing iMacs to tech companies' software development teams. The big 12 and 18 core xeon ones. The compact form factor makes the Studio a viable replacement for these.

At least until they annonce M1 ultra based iMacs.

Cheers

For those the mac studio/pro are obvious choices. But that doesnt mean that every professional-user is going to replace their x86 workstation for a Apple machine, they both excell in different areas.

 

[Kaotik]

5K @ 120Hz is unfortunately unattainable with current tech.

No it's, not. It's called DisplayPort 2.0.
Already supported by AMD (Ryzen 6000) and Intel has it in Arc (launching for laptops by the end of the month)

 

[Pressure]

No it's, not. It's called DisplayPort 2.0.
Already supported by AMD (Ryzen 6000) and Intel has it in Arc (launching for laptops by the end of the month)

No one is currently manufacturing a panel that can do 5K@120Hz so it wouldn't matter either way. HDMI 2.1 could also support it but currently no Macs has that or DisplayPort 2.0.

Hopefully USB5 or TB5 would upgrade to DP 2.0

 

[wco81]

No one is currently manufacturing a panel that can do 5K@120Hz so it wouldn't matter either way. HDMI 2.1 could also support it but currently no Macs has that or DisplayPort 2.0.

Hopefully USB5 or TB5 would upgrade to DP 2.0

Yeah lack of HDMI 2.1 is a glaring omission.

Hell there are relatively cheap Mediatek SOCs used for TVs which support at least a couple of HDMI 2.1 ports with full 48 Gbps bandwidth. These are in TVs which will sell for a street price of $1500 or less.

 

[Wesker]

For those the mac studio/pro are obvious choices. But that doesnt mean that every professional-user is going to replace their x86 workstation for a Apple machine, they both excell in different areas.

No one is saying otherwise.

No it's, not. It's called DisplayPort 2.0.
Already supported by AMD (Ryzen 6000) and Intel has it in Arc (launching for laptops by the end of the month)

True, fair point.

I should’ve said that TB4 currently can’t support more than 40Gb/s.

 

[Pressure]

Looking at the power figures it's clear the power efficiency is something else. I am currently upscaling some old 720p videos to 1080p using Topaz Video Enhance AI, while browsing and driving two 3840x4320 displays (4k HiDPI). The peak package power is only 42.61W (average 41.81W). That's impressive and the system feels as responsive as always. I haven't seen the high-performance cores reach 3.2GHz once though. The upscaling application uses the neural engine (ANE) as well.

 

[BRiT]

Apple Console rumor pushed to own thread @ https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/apple-moving-into-console-gaming.62799/

 

[Wesker]

Interesting perspective from someone who seems equally competent on both macOS and Windows.

 

[Pressure]

At this point it seems clear that a lot of software is still lacking optimisation for the M1 architecture. Especially it seems Adobe is dragging their feet as usual. For a lot of tasks they still don't use more than 6 cores, like in Lightroom image stitching and HDR. Also be sure to get the amount of RAM you need as that will most likely have a bigger impact on performance than any other upgrade.

ArtIsRight have just put the M1 Ultra through his test.

 

[wco81]

I thought the video above showed that Studio outperformed a Threadripper rig on Adobe Premier as well as DaVinci Resolve.

 

[Wesker]

I thought the video above showed that Studio outperformed a Threadripper rig on Adobe Premier as well as DaVinci Resolve.

Discrepancy could be due to which version people are using.

Each update to third party software brings in big performance uplifts on Apple Silicon. A lot of optimisation still to be had.

 

[PSman1700]

It seems you guys still are intrested in Apple vs other architectures, atleast im seeing comparisons again. I will await and see if theres any more intrest in such videos, there are many new ones (Zen3 TR/3090 doing very, very well in pro benchmarks).

Some comments that are intresting:

''Kevin McKenna
The CPU is not being limited. The CPU performance cores are built in 4-core blocks that share cache. If only one of the cores is in use, it can run at 3.2 GHz. If two are in use, they run at 3.1 GHz, and if 3 or 4 are in use, they run at 3 GHz. This is how the M1 cores are designed to function. It's not being throttled, this is literally the peak performance that the SiP can achieve.''

''ronkemperful
Great comments. Way back in 1994 Apple released the PowerPC desktop. With RISC technology, this computer was supposed to beat X86 processors exponentially. However, the Copland OS that was promised, never came to fruition SO the early PowerPCs were grossly overpriced for the minuscule performance upgrade. I think the M1Max, Ultra will be different IF & WHEN the firmware, software, and Apple’s artificial restrictions resolve.''

 

[Wesker]

It seems you guys still are intrested in Apple vs other architectures, atleast im seeing comparisons again. I will await and see if theres any more intrest in such videos, there are many new ones (Zen3 TR/3090 doing very, very well in pro benchmarks).

What does this mean?

 

[Wesker]

Studio Display tear down.

What they've done to the PSU is bloody impressive.

 

[PSman1700]

 

[Wesker]

 

[PSman1700]

Razor Blade '22 coming very close, so if you're into build-in speakers, i guess thats your way to go if your on windows and want that kind of speaker quality. Most windows based machines lack in the audio quality but thats a very wide market, for mac-os on a laptop you have only one choice (macbook) while on Windows side theres Razor but many more choices.

 

[Wesker]

Apple has made nearly $100 billion so far this year
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/04/apple-has-made-nearly-100-billion-so-far-this-year/

These are the categories and how much they each earned in revenue during Q2:

• iPhone: $50.57 billion, up 5.5 percent year-over-year
• Services: $19.82 billion, up 17.28 percent
• Mac: $10.43 billion, up 14.73 percent
• Other Products: $8.82 billion, up 12.37 percent
• iPad: $7.65 billion, down 1.92 percent

EDIT: Apple press release:
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/04/apple-reports-second-quarter-results/

 

[PSman1700]

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/29/tech/apple-china-smartphone-sales-intl-hnk/index.html