The Mac Mini Killer just got BETTER! - Minisforum @ Computex 2023

I've been waiting for this since the XBOX series X came out.  Granted, it is not a 12-teraflop SOC, but I have long wanted a powerful APU with good graphical performance.

I knew I wanted one when AMD announced this chip as the M-chip killer.  For gaming, it has a 5 teraflop performance.   You would have to buy an M2-pro model at $1300 to do just a little bit better.

I think that these chips were supposed to be out in February, but they kept getting delayed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86RfmMqBgkM

I'm not obligated to buy right now.  I have recently seen a couple of less powerful models on sale, for $289 and $320, both of which are still plenty powerful.  That's a big difference in price for computers that still have great performance.

This happens to the best of us

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KPyWHH-vHOY

Can a game look TOO real?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZNzGDljDws&t=854s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_5s4dGmgr8

Console Power Comparison Chart - TheGamingSetup

https://thegamingsetup.com/console-power-comparison-chart

I find this interesting.  The Nintendo 64 was an extremely popular system but it is at the bottom of the list.  I was surprised at just how low the number was.

My NES Classic has a System On a Chip that is 5 gigaflops, but it can't run all N64 games, which is likely a problem with the emulator.  The various Raspberry Pi models have similar levels of power and have similar problems.

My iPhone 10 is capable of 500 gigaflops.  This is the same as the current model of the Nintendo Switch.   It is rumored that Nintendo is going to come out with a new Switch with ten times the power.  They have been getting much competition from other handheld devices that are more powerful.

As the iPhone models go up to the iPhone 14, it gradually increases to 1,500 gigaflops.

The Apple M2 GPU is 3.6 teraflops.  This is 10% less than the Radeon Pro 570 on my 2017 iMac.  By today's standards, the M2 chip would be barely adequate for playing games.

Life Before the Internet… You had to do WHAT!

This should be self-evident, but I grew up (mostly) before computers, microwave ovens, CD's, DVD's, and VCR's. High tech was a stereo system, transistor radio, or color TV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_nb7LlLGzc

M2 Mac Mini

I have come to believe that the M2 Mac Mini is a con and this is what we have come to expect from Apple.  If you want the coolness of Apple products, then you have to pay the Apple Tax. The M2 Mac Mini is successful because Apple does a really good job of hyping its products.

I want a faster computer than what I have now, and the M2 is most definitely faster, but the base model has four times less memory and storage.  Upgrading is cost-prohibitive because of what Apple charges for those upgrades, which I think is an insult.  Once you buy it, you have a computer that is not upgradeable, won't run my Windows games, and could die in five years due to SSD failure that can't be repaired. 

I recently saw a gaming PC on sale for $700.  Not only did it have a faster processor, more storage, and 32 gigs of RAM, but those components can be replaced if they fail.  Any decent PC could last up to 10 years. 

There are mini PCs that can give the Mac Mini a run for its money. I'm holding out for the AMD 7940hs, which should be at least as powerful if not more so. 

There are use cases, like content creation or app development, where the M2 processor with a memory upgrade might make sense.

I tried using AI. It scared me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPhJbKBuNnA&t=393s

ChatGPT: explain the quantum theory to a child in the style of Snoop Dog

https://www.emergentmind.com/posts/explain-the-quantum-theory-to-a-child-in-the-style-of

Our Phones Are Full of Sh%t

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKg5NvlJVZw

Apple Working on 20.5-Inch All-Screen Foldable Notebook for 2025

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-working-on-20-5-inch-all-screen-foldable-notebook-for-2025.2379036/

it is still hard for me to get excited about tablet computers.  This is described as a notebook, so does that make it a laptop replacement?  If so, why would I need a laptop with no keyboard?

BUY The M2 Mac mini! (It's basically a $599 Mac Pro...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXHxY2i9w9Y

I'm a little frustrated. The $600 price is good, but the slower SSD, inadequate memory and storage are like a slap in the face. The excessive cost of upgrading is an insult. If they think that I am going to pay $200 for an additional 8 gigs of RAM or $200 for an additional 256 gigs of SDD, well count me out.

For the cost of the computer with upgrades, say an additional $400, I could get a really nice PC with more memory and storage.  

As good as the computer may be, I feel that it makes Apple look uncompetitive. In the year 2023 and beyond, having only 8 gigs of RAM or 256 gigs of storage are not valid options, unless you are just a basic computer user, in which case why are you buying an M2 chip? This mismatch between power, storage and memory is a paradoxical attempt to get you to spend more money.

The Story of Super Mario Kart | Gaming Historian

https://youtu.be/NDHZKYETDyU



Best wishes,

John Coffey

The Current State of Windows on ARM-Architecture (& Its Promising Future)

The industry is moving toward efficient ARM processors, in an effort to catch up to Apple.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psbucvxF-UU&t=468s

This video is talking about a future processor.  I saw another video claiming that Microsoft's current ARM-based devices fall way short of what Apple's M-series chips can do.

Although the video claims that there is no problem running X86 programs on ARM processors using emulation (https://youtu.be/psbucvxF-UU?t=195), reportedly many videogames have difficulty or don't work at all under emulation.  However, if we are moving toward two competing hardware architectures, I hope that many software makers will compile their software to work on both platforms.  For video games, it can be more complicated because the GPU hardware can be different.

I don't think that Intel will stand still as their processors get out-competed.  All they would need to do is come up with more powerful processors to recapture the market.  They also are planning to come out with 3-nanometer chips in a couple of years.

However, ARM's main strength is power efficiency, so it will remain popular on portable devices.

According to one video, the industry is moving away from PCs as we know them today, and toward System on a Chip devices like what Apple has done.  Although these tend to be more efficient, you can't change the hardware configuration, like the memory size, after you buy them.

iPad Pro M2: What Does "Pro" Even Mean?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_WbmIIy4vk

If you have a good smartphone, a tablet feels unnecessary.

The last thing I need is a tablet that is 2.5 times faster than my desktop computer.  This is the kind of power you want on a laptop or a desktop.

The M1 is only 7% slower than the M2.  

A couple of years ago, I bought the Amazon Fire tablet on Black Friday for $80, which is not a powerful tablet, but it works just fine as a portable Internet and streaming device.

4K Gamer Pro Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL9U6n4IixQ

I did some experimenting on my computer by playing video games and videos at resolutions from 720P up to 5K. With my eyesight, which is about 20/30, on a 27-inch screen, I could not tell a difference between 1080P and higher. We are talking about levels of detail that are hard to perceive. I personally like 1440P, not that it was really an improvement over 1080P. It is maybe for me more psychological that I think that 1440P is better.

Even if you have 20/20 vision and a 60-inch screen, you are going to be sitting further back, whereas I sit very close to my 27-inch screen. Can people really tell a difference with 4K on a big-screen TV?

Many years ago somebody made a video about how 4K was unnecessary because the resolution of the human eye was not going to tell the difference. If it is unnecessary on a 55-inch TV, then it is probably unnecessary on a smartphone. I bought an iPhone 10R, which has a sub-1080P resolution, yet I never notice the resolution being too coarse.

Sprites

The word "sprite" is interesting. It means elf, fairy, or ghost, although it can also refer to flashes of different color lights in clouds caused by lightning. The word originated in the middle ages from the word "spirit". When I hear the word, I think of the Disney character Tinkerbell.

In computers and video games, a sprite is an image that can move on top of a background. Usually, these are 2D objects moving on top of a 2D background, although a game like the original Doom had 2D objects moving on top of a 3D background. The mouse pointer on a computer screen is technically a sprite.

Back in the days when computers and video games were 8-bit and 16-bit, it was helpful to have hardware support for sprites, which allowed graphical objects to move around independently of the background. The reason this was helpful was that it was more taxing for the old slow computers without hardware sprites to manipulate the graphics on the screen. When I was writing games for the Timex Sinclair 2068 and Atari ST computers, I had to write software to make all the graphics move because there was no hardware support for sprites, which makes the task more technically challenging.

The early arcade video games used hardware sprites and so did all early home video game consoles. The sprites on the Atari 2600 are extremely primitive and very difficult to program, but the programmers knew how to make them work.

Many people have touted the Commodore 64 as the best 8-bit computer because it had hardware support for eight 8x8 sprites, although this is not very many compared to the Nintendo Entertainment System that came out later. I think that the Atari 8-bit computer had better graphical capabilities overall.

Once we had 32-bit processors, there was no longer a need for hardware sprites. These systems were powerful enough that it was not a huge challenge to manipulate graphics on a screen. Also, with 32-bit systems, there was a greater emphasis on 3D graphics instead of 2D graphics.

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Why 5G Sucks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRz6Kc_aqEg

How to Protect iPhone from Thieves

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1nz9und32kw

Fire Tablets

Right now Amazon is selling some of their Fire Tablets at half price. Although they are budget tablets, not nearly as powerful as iPads, I am pretty impressed with the value for the price.

I have argued that if you have a good smartphone then you might not need a tablet, but I have enjoyed my Fire Tablet while traveling. They are more useful if you subscribe to Amazon Prime.

How mobile games are designed to SCAM you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keoRX-Lni5s