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[-] simple@lemm.ee 47 points 4 months ago

Most of the reviews I've seen so far are a bit lukewarm. Performance and bettery is good, but they're barely better than what Intel and AMD offer. They promised 20+ hours battery life, we get around 12-13 which is in line with other chips.

The screenshots in the article are from Dave2D's video which compared gaming laptops to the X Elite. Laptops without a dedicated GPU could outperform it in battery, and are usually cheaper. Not to mention the new generation of chips are reportedly way more efficient. Kind of underwhelming.

[-] wewbull@feddit.uk 30 points 4 months ago

I think people believe that the ARM ISA brings a power efficient design but what really made Apple able to sip power on the M1 was a decade of phone processor design experience and full control of the software stack.

[-] simple@lemm.ee 21 points 4 months ago

The people working on Snapdragon X Elite are supposedly the same people that worked on the M1 and M2 chips. They made their own company to make ARM chips before being acquired by qualcomm. I was hoping for similar gains...

[-] wewbull@feddit.uk 38 points 4 months ago

...but you've got Microsoft writing the OS.

Power draw is not all hardware.

[-] GamingChairModel@lemmy.world 14 points 4 months ago

I've been a general skeptic of exactly how much the power and performance to power stats are attributable to the ARM instruction set or architecture versus the fact that Apple just locks up TSMC's latest and greatest node for a year before everyone else. AMD's CPUs are still x86_64 but achieve similar performance per watt as the Apple silicon on the same node and similar TDPs.

So if it turns out that TSMC has the secret sauce, then maybe we don't need to move laptops over to ARM at all.

[-] MonkderDritte@feddit.de 1 points 4 months ago

I thought it was the deal with (what was it, TSMC?), they got the new nm generation first?

[-] wewbull@feddit.uk 2 points 4 months ago

It's a mixed bag. The smaller nodes have bigger problems with static leakage power, Vs dynamic switching power (which goes down)

[-] golli@lemm.ee 8 points 4 months ago

Performance and bettery is good, but they're barely better than what Intel and AMD offer.

And both AMD and Intel have pretty exciting new architectures coming soon with zen5 and lunar lake.

[-] filister@lemmy.world 40 points 4 months ago

I wonder what's the Linux experience/support on this laptop

[-] ptz@dubvee.org 29 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Literally what I was wondering, lol. My first thought was "how well does it run Debian?"

OTOH, I really don't want to contribute to a sale that may make MS or the hardware manufacturers think people want this AI crap. I just want a beefy ARM laptop that runs Linux lol.

[-] Kidplayer_666@lemm.ee 30 points 4 months ago

They’re apparently working on it. Tuxedo already got a prototype and Qualcomm has been apparently contributing code to the mainline Linux kernel to guarantee support

[-] ptz@dubvee.org 6 points 4 months ago

Good to know! Will keep an eye out for sure.

[-] Blaster_M@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Well, actually, what if I want AI "crap" capability with my Linux ARM laptop?

The TOPS on those systems are no joke. Consider that it's 1/2 the performance of an RTX 2060 in a slim laptop form factor.

Edit: The performance variance is still the same. 2060 can do almost 13 TFLOPS fp16 or about 102 TOPS measured (this figure is on other sites too, this is what I can find atm). SD Elite X can do 45 TOPS. Not bad, considering existing x86_64 CPUs with an NPU do 10-16 TOPS.

[-] wewbull@feddit.uk 5 points 4 months ago

Don't confuse TFLOPs and TOPs. Especially when the latter is 4-bit integer operations.

So the way MS is using it is incredibly dumb, but hardware wise, it’s just a NN-optimized tile on the CPU. That is going to be a great thing for democratizing access to serious machine learning hardware. In that respect, it’s actually pretty awesome, despite the fact that It’s annoying that the initiative is tied so closely to MS.

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 19 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I wanted an Arm based Linux netbook or laptop for many years ever since the multi-core Smartphones came out around 2008.
Already back then the Intel based Netbooks were laughably bad compared to Arm, and couldn't even play video properly, while you could do that with ease even on early smartphones with Arm at 1080p.

But for some reason Arm has given Linux very little love with their GPU drivers, and AFAIK they still don't support it well, so now I say go fuck yourself.
Arm is NOT a good company for Linux. How they missed that opportunity for a strong market entry for over a decade I simply cannot fathom.

If AMD made an Arm CPU with Radeon graphics, that would be cool. Because AMD has good open source drivers on Linux, and has generally good Linux support.

[-] aniki@lemm.ee 15 points 4 months ago

You're right. We shouldn't use proprietary bullshit and hope the corporations do the right thing.

RISC-v is the way.

[-] Matty_r@programming.dev 13 points 4 months ago

Framework just announced a RISC-V motherboard you can get which is pretty awesome. Obviously designed for developers etc, but its a good step.

[-] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Even the RPi, which has major Linux support has a blob for its graphics driver (at least the last time I checked). And I wouldn't exactly say Broadcom is falling over themselves to support Linux. Qualcomm, less so.

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

In theory yes, in practice I'm not so sure. Risc-V is BSD, so whatever company chooses to make it, can change it as they like and completely ruin compatibility.
I don't think it will work, because the BSD license doesn't protect it from whatever abuse any maker feels like.
I do follow it as a potential alternative, and alternatives are always nice.

[-] aniki@lemm.ee -1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

That makes absolutely no sense. No company is going to go through all the trouble of making an entirely different processor that will need all new toolchains when risc-v is free. It's a monumental undertaking. MAYBE china, but who cares? Don't buy chinese chips.

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

They will make it incompatible exactly for the purpose of it being incompatible for proprietary purposes, the history of IT is riddled with examples of this being the goto strategy to maintain complete control of the ecosphere you create Apple is probably the best example of this. CPU has been an exception only because they traditionally aren't designed by the product companies.

[-] aniki@lemm.ee 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)
[-] wewbull@feddit.uk 1 points 4 months ago

Why would AMD make an ARM CPU? The power efficiency isn't related to the instruction set.

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Yes that's what Intel has been preaching for 2 decades now, but I don't believe it, if it were true, then how come Intel could not compete spending more than Arms entire revenue for 10 years to try to make a better CPU than Arm? They failed for 10 years with $10 billion in losses trying, and then they simply gave up, because they were basically no closer after 10 years than they started out with. And that was back when they still had a production process advantage!!!

But apart from that AMD would make an Arm CPU because it's become a huge ecosystem competitive in scope to X86. AND I have zero doubt that if they do, they will prove to have better power efficiency than their X86 offerings.
AMD was at it before, but that was when they were near bankrupt, now AMD is hugely profitable, and can easily afford the extra R&D, but of course they will only do it, if they believe they can capture Arm marketshare enough for it to be profitable.

[-] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Internally, AMD got pretty far along in making an ARM architecture called K12, but it got scrapped because they didn't have the money to make two architectures, so they focused on Zen.

And AMD is likely working on ARM stuff right now.

Reportedly, they recently restarted their efforts on an ARM SoC design in order to try to get Nintendo to switch (heh) to them for the Switch 2. Nintendo stuck with Nvidia because they could guarantee 100% backwards compatibility with the Switch and AMD couldn't.

Again reportedly, AMD didn't shut their new ARM group after this, seeing that Microsoft is opening up Windows to non-Qualcomm ARM SoCs (believe it or not, MS did give Qualcomm an exclusivity deal for Windows on ARM). AMD wants in on that before others take up a piece of that pie.

[-] Telodzrum@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago

BIOS locked to Windows keys. Tuxedo is promising a Linux version of the same SOC soon, though.

[-] MonkderDritte@feddit.de 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Can we please make vendor-locked bootloaders illegal, for repairability and consumer choice and all that? There's literally no reason for it, except to lock in customers.

[-] orangeboats@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

If history is any indication then more lock-in will be the future trend. And they will sugarcoat it with reasons such as "this is more secure".

[-] just_another_person@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

Qualcomm paid Canonical a hefty sum to make sure chipsets were supported. It went upstream to kernel, but I don't think it's even in the 6.10 release last I checked. DKMS job for now I'm assuming?

https://canonical.com/blog/qualcomm-and-canonical-announce-strategic-collaboration

[-] MonkderDritte@feddit.de 1 points 4 months ago
[-] interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 months ago

Surely they're not going to give the game away on the first generation ?

To end the PC and turn it into a phone. Surely they would let people run linux for gen 1 & gen 2 and only then lock the bootloader. And maybe keep a triple priced version with an unlockable bootloader until the alternative OS community dies of attrition.

[-] NutWrench@lemmy.world 23 points 4 months ago

I'm not interested in anything that's "Co-Pilot enabled."

[-] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

So, you're done with computer hardware?

[-] hark@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

There's always Linux.

[-] laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 months ago

Are you suggesting that all computer hardware is going to be branded as such?

[-] soulfirethewolf@lemdro.id 2 points 4 months ago

Okay but what about app compatibility?

[-] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

They have something akin to Apple's Rosetta 2 that's pretty much the same hit performance-wise.

[-] simplejack@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Yeah, I’m curious to see how this plays out Rosetta 2 was scary good.

[-] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It exists and has already been benchmarked, it works just as well as Rosetta 2.

[-] aBundleOfFerrets@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago

Rosetta 2 was so good because M1 had hardware to help with x86 emulation. Presumably qualcomm can do the same thing.

[-] gianni@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I think the wave of hype sort of overshadowed a couple of key points about these chips:

  • Performance & efficiency aren't leaps & bounds ahead of the Intel & AMD crowd
  • ARM Windows laptops are still Windows laptops

Battery life is hardware and software.

[-] enleeten@discuss.online 0 points 4 months ago

Man, that's a bummer. I've been really unimpressed with Intel's laptops the past few years.

[-] LaughingM0n@lemmynsfw.com 8 points 4 months ago
[-] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago

Maybe they were tryna reply to the other comment saying the chip isn't that good

this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2024
148 points (96.8% liked)

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