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A comment on Rendering on the Apple M1 Max Chip. Parent comment

Re:Rendering on the Apple M1 Max Chip by rob74 on Monday October 25, 2021 @11:58PM (#28996246)
Yeah, your quote is a bit unfair to x86 - after all the x86 architecture is hampered by having to maintain compatibility not only with the original 8086, but also with most other instruction set extensions that Intel and/or AMD came up with during the last 40 years. Compared to that, the M1 is almost a "clean sheet" design. So, while still a great achievement, its dramatically better efficiency is not that surprising. I wonder however if Apple leading the way will also enable the PC (Windows/Linux) platform to leave its x86 past behind. Microsoft has been trying to sell ARM-based tablets for years, but without a lot of success, because there's not enough native software available.
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Re:Rendering on the Apple M1 Max Chip by josephg on Tuesday October 26, 2021 @12:43AM (#28996479)
> So, while still a great achievement, its dramatically better efficiency is not that surprising.

Is it? I was under the impression modern CPUs translate x86 instructions do on the fly translation to something else anyway. I’d be very surprised if that hardware translation process was making their chips 4x less power efficient (or whatever the number is).

Also as a consumer, the reasons why x86 stayed around as long as it did sound like a bunch of excuses. If x86 is really as inefficient as you say, then it’s about time the industry started sidelining Intel and moving to a better architecture with or without them. I’m hoping AMD follows suit before long and starts selling competitive arm or risc-v chips.

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Re:Rendering on the Apple M1 Max Chip by zamadatix on Tuesday October 26, 2021 @12:32PM (#29002482)
Windows ARM failure to take of so far seems more likely to do with the relative underperformance of Qualcomm chips not the lack of software. Especially since in recent years you've been able to run x86 software anyways.

Windows 10/11 on an M1 Mac via parallels however has been the best Windows ARM device I've ever used and I have no trouble using it daily as my main work laptop.

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