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by maccard 1621 days ago
> Yes, definitely not true for all programmers. I guess with games, if you cannot get real time with instant compiles development experience with 120fps running 8k in debug mode, there is a room for improvement.

Day to day that doesn't matter. I work on multiplayer games, and being able to run 8/12/16 clients on one machine at 10 fps at ultra low graphics is far more important than being able to run stupid resolutions. You do bring up another point though - GPU performance. Apologies for the links but I'm on my phone, but [0] and [1] have 3dmark benchmarks for the M1 GPU and an RTX 3090 GPU - the 3090 scores twice what the M1 GPU does. This might not be important to you, but it is to some people.

> And for my workloads, the laptop is no more a limiting factor

Ultimately that's all it comes down to. If you're not limited by the form factor/performance of a laptop power to you, but some of us are!

[0] https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-M1-GPU-GPU-Benchmarks-an...

[1] https://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-3090-GPU-Be...
2 comments
Aeolun 1621 days ago
> the 3090 scores twice what the M1 GPU does

It helps that you can buy a maxed out macbook pro for the price of a single 3090 though.

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CobaltFire 1621 days ago
A 3090 is $2300 right now, even paying the scalper tax.

How much M1 MacBook Pro is that getting you?

That said, I do wish the M1 GPU could game; my downtime hobby is the only thing stopping me from buying one.

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jhickok 1621 days ago
>A 3090 is $2300 right now, even paying the scalper tax.

Where can you find that? lowest I can find is 2800 new. There are some pre-owned for 2700 and some open auctions at roughly 2300 but those will land substantially higher than 2300 I would imagine.

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maccard 1621 days ago
I can buy a high spec showhorse for $40k, or a new mid range sedan for $40k. That doesn't mean that the maxed out showhorse will work for commuting to work every day.
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Shorel 1621 days ago
The 3090 is such an overpowered (and expensive) card, that another GPU doing half of what the 3090 can do is still damn right impressive. And in a Laptop!
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amatecha 1621 days ago
Yeah that's actually a serious compliment to the M1 GPU if the 3090 is merely double the scores?! I expected it should be like 4x or more! That's awesome.
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