Apple M4 Mac Mini With macOS vs. Intel / AMD With Ubuntu Linux Performance

[Forge]

According to Apple, the M2 Ultra-powered Mac Studio can use up to 295 W.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/102027

The only things in the case are the SoC, SSD, Ethernet phy, and a fan. So, that's pretty much all SoC. Even if we take it to be their "at the wall" figure and assume a power supply efficiency of 87%, that means the SoC is still using up to ~250 W.

Yeah, that's nuts. I'd seen as high as about 100W at max loaded peak draws, and the "Ultra" is basically two full SOCs, but that's more than I expected. For a total of 24 CPU cores, plus all the other doubled functions, it doesn't seem unreasonable, especially next to the latest Intel/AMD stuff that can dissipate 300W+ from a much smaller number of cores/EUs.

[unwind-protect]

Does anybody know for sure whether Apple Silicon chips have a L3 cache?

[gnattu]

Does anybody know for sure whether Apple Silicon chips have a L3 cache?

They don't have a strict speaking L3 only for CPU clusters like the x86 CPUs produced by Intel and AMD, instead they have an SLC, the SoC Level Cache which is the last level cache before memory shared by all components (CPU, GPU, NPU, etc) on the SoC.

[coder]

Yeah, that's nuts. I'd seen as high as about 100W at max loaded peak draws, and the "Ultra" is basically two full SOCs, but that's more than I expected. For a total of 24 CPU cores, plus all the other doubled functions, it doesn't seem unreasonable, especially next to the latest Intel/AMD stuff that can dissipate 300W+ from a much smaller number of cores/EUs.

I'd guess most of it is probably GPU power, plus that gnarly 2.5 TB/s (per direction) inter-die link. That's probably going to be using some tens of Watts. That amount of bandwidth is definitely there for the GPU, which was the first proper multi-die GPU.

By comparison, the M2 Max version of the Studio is rated at 145 W. At a hair less than half, that's almost linear scaling, although I wonder if the GPU frequency of the Ultra is a little reduced, in order to leave more power budget for the die-to-die interconnect.

[coder]

They don't have a strict speaking L3 only for CPU clusters like the x86 CPUs produced by Intel and AMD, instead they have an SLC, the SoC Level Cache which is the last level cache before memory shared by all components (CPU, GPU, NPU, etc) on the SoC.

Yes and also both their P-core and E-core clusters use shared L2. In Intel's case, only the E-core clusters share L2.

Some people claim Apple's M-series SoCs are only fast because they use a new node and lots of cache, but the M3 and Lunar Lake are both made on the same node and Lunar Lake actually has more overall cache!

Note that Michael didn't include Lunar Lake in these benchmarks, but that's okay because the M4 is on a yet newer node and has two more E-cores. The base M3 is what you really want to compare with Lunar Lake. Same node, same core count, both use on-package memory... Intel really has no excuse, in that matchup.

[unwind-protect]

Yes and also both their P-core and E-core clusters use shared L2. In Intel's case, only the E-core clusters share L2.

This might be another reason for the outstanding single core performance. A single P-core has access to all the L2 for the whole cluster.

[Volta]

This is why I can't see anyone buying one of these to install Linux, or any other OS for that matter, on these.

You lose way to much for what you gain.

What a clown. By installing Linux you'll get probably three times more CPU performance. Not to mention wonderful Linux features.

[dcdev]

I would like to see arm cpus for desktop with native Linux support.

BTW, why not CachyOS?

[sophisticles]

What a clown. By installing Linux you'll get probably three times more CPU performance. Not to mention wonderful Linux features.

Name 3 "wonderful Linux features" that you will get.

As for 3 times the performance, clearly you are wrong, because the AMD and Intel systems are running Linux and they are not 3 times faster.

So yes, you are a clown, and not a funny one at that.

[TheJackiNonster]

Name 3 "wonderful Linux features" that you will get.

- Proper package management.
- Access to Mesa drivers and Proton compatibility for gaming
- An operating system that can be trusted