How operating frequencies of CPU cores used by the latest base M5 chip compare with those from previous families in the M series, and what that means. Complete with updated tables for all current chips.
M1
Why is an M2 Pro or Max preferable to an M1 Pro or Max? Is 8 GB of memory sufficient? Can I extend the internal SSD with an external drive? Can I buy and upgrade?
Running older macOS, support for Intel apps and kernel extensions, booting from an external drive, Boot Camp and Windows support, cloning, and startup key combinations.
Apple refers to Energy Modes and Power Modes, and despite older MacBook Pro models offering Low Power mode, tells us that isn’t what Low Power mode is now. Here are the observations and explanations.
How macOS controls CPU P core cluster frequency according to the cluster total active residency, in synthetic in-core tests, compression and when running virtual machines.
In-core performance compared across P and E cores in M1, M3 and M4 chips shows substantial performance improvements, particularly in vector and matrix computation.
Explains the three different settings, including Permissive Security, why you might need to reduce security, and how to do so using Startup Security Utility.
If you don’t know your M2 from an M3, here’s a short summary of the timeline of their release, and their major differences, before we all get our heads around the coming M4 Macs.
Simply having a boot volume group with a System snapshot in it won’t get your Mac to start up from that disk, particularly if it’s an Apple silicon model. Some details.
Secure Boot and its 5 stages, the SSV, support for external bootable disks, the SEP, Recovery, and lightweight virtualisation.
The Eclectic Light Company 