PC Laptop that compares to M1 Pro/Max?

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PC Laptop that compares to M1 Pro/Max?

Post by portthames »

Looking for a laptop that can match the M1 Pro/Max.

Currently have a Macbook Pro with Bootcamp, but it struggles. The upside is is the older ones have Bootcamp which the new ones do not.

Can you direct me to PC Laptops that compare in performance with the M1 Pro/Max

Cheers
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Re: PC Laptop that compares to M1 Pro/Max?

Post by Lancelot A »

I think some of the AMD Ryzen based laptops might be in the same general area re performance but if you start to compare all features - especially fan noise and low energy I'm not sure there is a direct competitor? I think it's also best to work from first principals - ie. what do you need it to be able to do and why do you need a PC that's as powerful as the m1 pro/max not many people actually do - unless they are producing mega huge/complex projects. Depending on how old your MacBook Pro is you might find something like a Mac mini surprisingly capable.
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Re: PC Laptop that compares to M1 Pro/Max?

Post by merlyn »

At the moment there aren't Windows laptops that compare with an M1 pro based laptop.

I have a Ryzen 3900x and it gets better benchmarks than an M1 pro in multi-threaded performance, but it's a desktop chip. To keep things quiet I have a massive cooler on it. There is no way a 3900x is going in a laptop.

The M1 pro isn't far behind a 3900x but an M1 pro only uses 15 Watts. A 3900x uses 105 Watts. How is this possible?

The transistors are smaller on an M1 and, more importantly, an M1 uses a reduced instruction set, or RISC, while the 3900x uses a complex instruction set, or CISC. RISC is far more efficient.

An M1 pro is similar to a chip in a phone. An overclocked, overvoltaged phone chip with fast memory. Add a fan to that and we have something with performance without using a lot of power.

Until Windows runs on ARM (a phone chip) Windows laptops will use more power and therefore be harder to cool and keep quiet to get in the same performance ballpark.
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Re: PC Laptop that compares to M1 Pro/Max?

Post by tea for two »

Next years Pastel coloured White bezeled MacBook Air redesign is on my radar. Hopefully with M1Pro 10Core cpu option with 14Core graphics and fanless. My 2010Macbook could do with a companion.

2018 Lenovo Mixx 630 runs wind10 ARM on mobile Snapdragon 835 processor. Surface Pro X also has ARM processor.

If ms released a stripped down wind that's only for creative software that runs on ARM then it could become more adopted by the industry.
(NOT windows R from nearly a decade earlier that ran on ARM.
If only ms was clearer in their thinking they would made windows R a proper wind, just stripped down).

::

I purchased an AMD Ryzen5 3500U 4Cores 8Threads touchscreen Hp laptop earlier this year.

It's the touchscreen I like so much : changing dial settings on Ik Multimedia T-Racks is a lot more fun immediate than a bloomin mouse lol.

I would recommend the next gen laptop Ryzen5 4500U it's approx 30% better performer and longer battery life compared to 3500U Ryzen5.
(Latest gen is 5500U).

HP Ryzen5 4500u models with EH as model number are touchscreen fhd full hd 1920*1080.
Such as HP EH0009na, EH0511sa, EH0523sa all touchscreen fhd 15inch with a 10Gbps USB C for DisplayPort 1.4, Power delivery. They are around £550 odd new.

As is known Ryzen5 is AMD's mid range. There's Ryzen7 Ryzen9 high performance laptop chips.

::

I went with AMD Ryzen as it offered higher performance, draws lower power than intellmelies lol.
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Re: PC Laptop that compares to M1 Pro/Max?

Post by merlyn »

tea for two wrote: Tue Nov 30, 2021 8:21 am Next years Pastel coloured White bezeled MacBook Air redesign is on my radar. Hopefully with M1Pro 10Core cpu option with 14Core graphics and fanless.

No, it's going to have an M2 chip, which is going to be a lighter consumer oriented chip.

2018 Lenovo Mixx 630 runs wind10 ARM on mobile Snapdragon 835 processor. Surface Pro X also has ARM processor.

I see. I should revise my statement above to '... until Windows runs on ARM on steroids ...'

This requires a manufacturer (Qualcomm or whatever) to produce an ARM on steroids chip. It's an 'eat your cake and have it' scenario as the point of ARM is to be low power -- there is no fan or heatsink in a phone, tablet or Raspberry Pi. Manufacturers aim to reduce power consumption to increase battery life.

But I would think RISC is the future, and there is the open RISCV standard as an alternative to ARM.

The M1 isn't the first time Apple have gone down the RISC road. If you remember PowerPC, that was a RISC chip.
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Re: PC Laptop that compares to M1 Pro/Max?

Post by resistorman »

If Windows ever does run well natively on ARM, it's going to be a long time from now, its codebase is inherently incompatible, and even though Microsoft has taken a couple of runs at a compatible rewrite, their priorities are in the cloud. Intel and AMD are actually in competition now, so x86 has a future for the time being. At any rate, you need to look at your workload and buy accordingly.
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Re: PC Laptop that compares to M1 Pro/Max?

Post by merlyn »

To answer the OP's question Ryzen 9 mobile processors are in the same performance ballpark.

The most powerful one is a 5980HX and it uses 45 Watts, which isn't too bad, but remember these laptops usually also have a beefy graphics card, which also produces heat. There is also the more efficient 5980HS, and going down the range 5900HX and 5900HS.

One advantage of a Windows laptop is that it can take more RAM than an M1. You do have to wonder though if a Ryzen 5980HX is overkill for most people's music production.
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Re: PC Laptop that compares to M1 Pro/Max?

Post by spjessop »

merlyn wrote: Wed Dec 01, 2021 11:39 am To answer the OP's question Ryzen 9 mobile processors are in the same performance ballpark.

The most powerful one is a 5980HX and it uses 45 Watts, which isn't too bad, but remember these laptops usually also have a beefy graphics card, which also produces heat. There is also the more efficient 5980HS, and going down the range 5900HX and 5900HS.

One advantage of a Windows laptop is that it can take more RAM than an M1. You do have to wonder though if a Ryzen 5980HX is overkill for most people's music production.

The closest I could find was an Asus Zephyrus G14. I ended up going for an M1 Pro as I want a laptop with better battery life, but will be still looking at Intel/AMD when video cards are back in stock for a desktop build.
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