No matter what the haters say, this is a good improvement gen on gen (think it is 40-45% improvement in MT which is massive). And that is what matters.
Now, in regards with Apple M1 Max, the fanboys forget a few things:
- Apple is using 5nm TSMC which is at least node better than the Intel 7 that it is used for ADL. That on its own brings an absolute huge improvement in efficiency; and Apple doesn't have any merit on that; at least Intel is engineering their own process;
- Apple is using ARM ISA which as we know it is more streamlined vs x86, plus it doesn't support ANY legacy app and more so it is a tweaked and improved version of the original ARM v8 ISA, so that on its own is one big reason why M1 max is more efficient; Sure, it is more efficient but you use only new software which is....................; plus you are stuck with Mac OS ecosystem;
- Apple has integrated everything into a very tight package, memory is on the same substrate and everything customized in the OS for this; Compare this to Windows which has to support a million configurations of hardware, old/new software, etc, etc, etc;
What I am trying to say here is that Apple efficiency is explainable, but for it you lose more (in terms of usability) than what you gain (in efficiency); for some cases this is fine, but the majority of people will not like the limitation of the apple platform.