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"When compared to Intel-based systems, it delivers up to 86x faster AI performance" I'm imagining the engineers responsible for running the tests finely tuning
by eth0ws 11mo ago
"When compared to Intel-based systems, it delivers up to 86x faster AI performance"
I'm imagining the engineers responsible for running the tests finely tuning the test suite for days and days so they could get that number into the press release, lol. There's no way that's a coincidence and someone definitely advocated for that line being the way it is.
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/10/apple-unveils-new-14-inch-macbook-pro-powered-by-the-m5-chip/ https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/10/apple-unveils-new-14-...
- jdiff 11mo agoI'm quite upset I have nobody I know in real life who will appreciate this line.
- bigyabai 11mo agoWe've come a long ways from insidious-but-clear "I'm a Mac" ads, to groanworthy-and-confusing "86x faster performance" promotional metrics.
- 827a 11mo agoTo be fair: They have the internal metrics on how many people are still on Intel-based Macs, and its very possible that this influences the types of comparisons they choose to make. There's still so many Intel macs out there.
- bigyabai 11mo agoThe targeted snark isn't the issue. The issue is that even well-informed techies ignore Apple's metrics until they can read the fine-print. And the average Intel Mac owner probably doesn't even know what "x86" means. The target audience is almost nobody.
- jdiff 11mo agoI don't think it's meant to be a marketing point, just an in-joke. Like you said, the target audience is quite small.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- hyperadvanced 11mo agoGod bless them if so
- Aperocky 11mo agoWhat does AI performance even mean for intel based mac systems.. The last one was like 5 years ago?
- XelNika 11mo ago> production 1.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-based 13-inch MacBook Pro systems with Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645, 16GB of RAM, and 2TB SSD https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/#footnote-4 https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/#footnote-4 So yes, that is compared to a very old 14 nm design, presumably the i7-8557U per Wikipedia.
- zingar 11mo agoYour comment implies that it’s obviously not this spec that they compare against. Could you spell it out for the ignorant like me? What about that config makes it definitely not the thing that is 86x slower?
- jdiff 11mo agoI don't see anything in the GP that implies that. It's simply a CPU that was released before an entire AI economic bubble was a twinkle in Jensen Huang's eye. Of course it has piss-poor AI performance vs something with hardware dedicated to accelerating that workflow. It's not that the comparison is incorrect, just that it's a silly and unenlightening statement, bordering on completely devoid of meaning if it weren't for the x86 pun.
- Aperocky 11mo agoThey'll be the only people running this thing in 2030 so they can produce 286x and 386x and maybe 80286x performance gains by then.
- bapak 11mo agoCheck all the comparisons on their website. They're not comparing their products to the previous gen, they're comparing them to years-old system. They could sell you a downgrade and still stay 2x M1 Pro performance (it was 4x from last year) Apple is a marketing company made to sell stuff.