Night Mode on iPhone: Everything You Need to Know

 Should I buy an Intel Mac today or wait for an Arm-based Mac to be purchased?

Apple revealed its plan to switch away from Intel processors to Macs powered by its own Apple Silicon chips beginning in late 2020 at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple says it will be able to create better Macs that will boast better performance while still being more energy efficient by using its own Arm-based processors.

The WWDC 2020 announcement by Apple was planned, but the timing of the move left many people on the market for a new Mac wondering whether they should buy one now, or wait until the first Apple Silicon-powered Macs arrive. Then keep reading if you count yourself among those facing the same dilemma. The most salient points to remember are outlined in this post.

Where Have I Heard of Arm Before?

Apple is no stranger to Arm-based architecture, and you probably own a device powered by Arm chips if you're already married to the Apple ecosystem. Instead of Intel chips using the CISC instruction set, iPhone , iPad , Apple Watch, and Apple TV all use Advanced RISC machine (Arm-based) processors.

In reality, Apple-designed Arm processors are already equipped with the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac Pro, Mac mini, and Mac Pro, in the form of T1 and T2 chips that power the Touch Bar, Secure Enclave, and other features on these machines.

In fact, one of the reasons the company has decided that it's time to make the wholesale move for its desktop and notebook machines is Apple 's knowledge of the architecture.

Will Arm-Based Macs Be Better Than Intel Macs?

Apple says it has been working on its desktop and notebook Macs on a family of system-on - chip processors that will usher in a new collection of features and offer "incredible results."

Apple loves superlatives, but the details are still thin, so it's difficult to know exactly what gains are in store for performance. But there are some advantages we can be sure of, based on past and current architecture.

It's fair to say that we can expect a better balance of high performance and low power consumption, thanks to Apple's years of experience honing power-efficient chips for its Apple Watch and iOS devices. The Secure Enclave, along with high-performance graphics capabilities for professional apps and games, will also provide Apple's custom chips with best-in - class security.

Neural Engines and Machine Learning Accelerators will also have Apple Silicon chips, making Macs suitable for machine learning platforms. Other feature-set technologies include a high-quality camera processor, performance monitoring, high-performance DRAM, unified memory, and acceleration of cryptography.

In addition , Apple has built many custom innovations that can incorporate the device into 'Apple Silicon' and further improve the capabilities of the Mac, making it stand out from the competition. In current Macs, only take the T2 chip that incorporates the device management controller, the image signal processor, the SSD controller, and a hardware-based encryption engine with a protected enclave, not to mention the Touch Bar and Touch ID.

Apple is increasing its ability to monitor both the apps and the hardware by going all-in on its own silicon, much as it does with iPhones and iPads, which could allow for an improved user experience overall. Not only that, when the first Mac with an Apple-made chip is released, apps designed for the iPhone and the iPad will work natively on Apple Silicon.

How much quicker are Apple Silicon Macs going to be?

The truth is that we really do not know. Apple seems confident in its Arm-based Macs' future performance. Apple is currently offering a Developer Transition Kit for developers, which is a 'Mac mini' with an A12Z iPad Pro chip. This is based on a 2019 Arm CPU that was developed for the iPad, so what Arm Mac output would eventually be should not be seen as symbolic.

Current Intel Mac software will be translated under Rosetta due to the shift in CPU architecture — this means that unoptimized software output will be slower before developers have a chance to support the latest Arm processors.

Early benchmarks demonstrate how the developer kit operates with unoptimized applications and provides benchmarks that are nearly on par with MacBook Pros from 2013 to 2015.

However, it is worth noting that in single core and multi-core benchmarks, the Arm-powered 2019 'iPad Pro' running Arm-native benchmarking software is faster than the 13-inch' MacBook Pro '(2019).

Overall, these early benchmarks seem positive, given that Apple Arm-based Macs running Apple Silicon would have new chips specifically designed for the Mac and based on the A14 chip produced with a 5-nanometer process for the 2020 iPhone lineup.

When are the first Silicon Macs from Apple due to launch?

Apple said at WWDC in June that by the end of 2020, the first Mac that uses 'Apple Silicon' will be launched. Beyond that, the company did not give any further information, but reports say that Apple is developing at least three Mac processors, all of which in the upcoming 2020 iPhones are based on the A14 chip.

Known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that a revised 13.3-inch MacBook Pro and a 

revamped 24-inch iMac would be the first Macs to implement Apple's custom chips, with the 

new computers to be released in the fourth quarter of 2020 or early 2021.

Ming-Chi Kuo, an Apple analyst, also said that by the end of 2021, Apple plans to release at least six 

Mini-LED devices, including 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro versions, so these new Macs could be 

among the first to run on Apple Silicon.

Apple has already confirmed that its Apple Silicon Macs will continue to support the 

Thunderbolt USB-C standard, so in the new machines, after all, there will continue to be an 

Intel element.

What Does Apple Silicon 

Mean for Intel-Based Apps?

After the move to Apple Silicon is complete, Apple has said it will continue to support Intel 

Macs for years, so if you purchase an Intel-based Mac today, you can expect to receive 

software updates over the life of the system.

Apple expects most developers to immediately begin building native apps, as indicated by its 

Developer Transition Kit. However, thanks to Rosetta 2, a translation process that runs in the 

background and is invisible to the user, users will still be able to run Intel apps on Arm-based 

Macs.

With applications and games, Apple has demoed Rosetta 2 and demonstrated that there is no noticeable 

difference between running an Intel app on an Intel computer versus an Apple Silicon machine. All 

works as you would expect, but it might take some time for all your software to be modified to suit the 

new processors if performance is essential to you.

The good news is that Apple has given Adobe early access to its Arm-based architecture if 

you rely on Adobe software, and Photoshop and Lightroom are reportedly both running 

smoothly on Apple Silicon.

What If I Need My Mac to 

Run Windows?

Unfortunately, on Macs running Apple Silicon, Boot Camp will not be usable, and current 

virtualization solutions will also not support running Intel Windows. Even if that support were to be 

provided by VMWare or Parallels, it would suffer from slower performance due to the various CPU 

architectures involved.

On its Surface Pro X, Microsoft has its own native Arm version of Windows that it uses, but it 

is only open to producers who resell Microsoft products under their own name and branding. 

There are no existing plans, as far as we know, to make an Arm-based version of Windows 

available for Macs. It has its own compatibility and performance problems with traditional 

Intel Windows applications, even if it were to become available for the Mac.

Should I Buy a Mac Now or 

Wait for Apple Silicon?

Long into the future, Apple is committed to supporting Intel-based Macs, and even claims it 

has new Mac models in the pipeline running on Intel processors.

Moreover, the existing Mac lineup of Apple has never looked in better shape. In particular, the 

16-inch MacBook Pro and the recently updated 13-inch MacBook Pro are well-rounded 

machines that give very impressive across-the-board performance.

If running Windows is an important factor, then buying a current generation Intel Mac makes 

more sense than waiting. Intel Macs will be supported for years to come with new Intel Macs 

still in the pipeline.

Moreover, if you are looking to purchase a higher end Mac with unique software that is 

important to you for results, it may also not be worth waiting for. Apple Silicon 's early Macs 

do not replace the top-of-the-line for some time and it will take some time for native apps to 

arrive.

If you don't need to purchase a new Mac right away, and you are intrigued by the possibility 

of 'Apple Silicon,' it may be worth holding out for a little longer to see how things develop. 

The first Arm-based Mac, Apple reports, is expected to be launched before the end of 2020.

That said, Apple has also suggested that it would take two years for its entire Mac lineup to 

change to Apple Silicon, so you could be in for a long wait, depending on what kind of Mac 

you choose.