Apple M2 MacBooks are available and ready for chess;)

[Magnum]

https://www.apple.com/apple-events/

https://www.apple.com/mac/

[Modern Times]

The M1 was already a very good CPU, M2 will be even better. What impresses me is the performance per watt and the fact that they can run passively cooled in laptops. If I could put one in my own choice of motherboard, own choice of RAM, own choice of graphics card, own choice of case etc etc, or alternatively available to the likes of HP, Dell, ASUS etc to put in and run Windows 11 laptops at more acceptable pricing, I'd certainly consider it.

[smatovic]

from an Apple M1 user:

Hi!

I would like to know the results for my ProteusSF RBE 008a Stockfish 15-dev derivative, but I have issues with my poor hardware. Could somebody with a powerful PC kindly test it for me? https://banksiagui.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=132#p132

On my Windows 11 ARM64 running on a Mac M1 using 1 CPU I can reach only 500 kN/S (with all 4 CPUs it becomes too hot).
How many seconds are allowed in this case for solving each position? A good Ryzen 9 PC calculates 60 Mn/s, so I think in my case 1 hour for position would be fair (now limiting time to 6 minutes: Analyzing... 26 of 44 matching moves Rated time: 2:14:29

Thanks in advance!
Alex

https://talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic. ... 68#p926668

According to your links, the M2 is up to 1.4x faster than M1, and it is currently only the entry-level models.

IMHO, running pro computer chess on laptops/mobiles is simply a no go, you will fry your hardware on multiple levels.

"How many of you have fried your laptop with computer chess?"
https://talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=79081

--
Srdja

[Ras]

from an Apple M1 user:

The fanless M1 does not overheat, but throttles instead. Here a test with repeated Cinebench runs with regard to the performance drop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-dOB326mlY&t=404s. The performance drop from the first to the worst run is 15% while the P core cluster power drow went down by 26%. However, it might be concerning to see a CPU temperature of about 95°C, that's what the poster mistook for overheating.

This is why Macbook Pro laptops do have fans, because they are meant to be used for long running, heavy tasks and no thermal throttling. It's also why the Macbook Air models come only with the regular M1 (and now M2). The M1 Max is left for the Macbook Pro because that would be pointless without fan, and the M1 Ultra is not available in a laptop at all.

[wickedpotus]

18% faster than M1 and at least 18% slower (according to Apple's own sales material) than an entry-level i7-1260P-based laptop.

Battery-times. Yeah, maybe a selling point. But if performance is secondary to battery time, then why not just settle for a modern phone, phablet, or tablet also with a mobile-type ARM CPU. like Current 4nm Mediatek CPUs instead. More portable has less heat and longer battery life than a macbook. An Intel gen 12 laptop (or Ryzen for that matter) will hump along with great battery time if casual browsing, video, etc. and will still have that extra horsepower for chess when needed compared to Apples M2.

But that said, I guess there are still plenty of fools around to buy a non-upgradable 8GB/256GB port-challenged LCD netbook for +$1000 these days LOL. Butt I guess these are more of the poser, blogger, café type than the Chess, +IQ, programmer types out there

[Ras]

Battery-times. Yeah, maybe a selling point.

IMO not really - a 13.6" screen in the MBA doesn't have the screen estate for useful work. Sure, it does have the resolution, but things become unreadable if you use native font size. That leaves convenient transport between docking stations as main use case, and then battery life is irrelevant.

There is a 16" MBP that could be useful, but at 2750 EUR and then only with 16GB RAM (shared for graphics!) and 512 GB SSD, it's overpriced IMO. Not to mention that spec'ing it up to 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD lands you at a whopping 3900 EUR.

That kind of pricing makes only (some) sense for folks who have painted themselves into a vendor lock-in corner with macOS.

[Magnum]

Battery-times. Yeah, maybe a selling point.

IMO not really - a 13.6" screen in the MBA doesn't have the screen estate for useful work. Sure, it does have the resolution, but things become unreadable if you use native font size. That leaves convenient transport between docking stations as main use case, and then battery life is irrelevant.

There is a 16" MBP that could be useful, but at 2750 EUR and then only with 16GB RAM (shared for graphics!) and 512 GB SSD, it's overpriced IMO. Not to mention that spec'ing it up to 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD lands you at a whopping 3900 EUR.

That kind of pricing makes only (some) sense for folks who have painted themselves into a vendor lock-in corner with macOS.

The M1 doesn’t cost much money and is amazing.
http://ipmanchess.yolasite.com/amd--int ... ckfish.php
6.510.247 Apple M1 @3.2Ghz ddr4 4266 8cores pop-neon Disservin 12.5b
But probably you should buy the M1 Ultra:)

[Ras]

The M1 doesn’t cost much money

Still an overpriced joke with the measly RAM/SSD baseline, still obscenely expensive RAM/SSD upgrade, still soldered SSD, still tied to macOS (no full GPU support under Linux, and ARM Windows is a failure anyway). The M1 hasn't become cheaper, the M2 is just even more expensive.