Do Apple silicon systems perform similarly/the same whether in a laptop or desktop form?

ellis2x wrote:

When comparison shopping intel based computers, model names or generations for processors might be shared between a desktop and laptop. However, the laptop version of the chip can be lower powered to make room for better cooling or battery life.

With Apple silicon systems (say a Mac Mini M2 vs a MacBook Air M2) how does this play out? Would similarly specced systems perform the same? Or does the laptop version receive some sort of handicap?

In terms of performance, they are nearly identical. The small difference is likely due to hardware configuration differences. However, under heavy loads, since the MacMini has a fan to keep things cooler, it can perform longer under those heavy loads before throttling due to heat.

So the only decision between the two would be do you need portability or not.

As @hcsitas mentioned, if your wallet is fat enough get both because of the Apple ecosystem, you can move nearly seamlessly between them.

With the Apple Silicon chips, single-core CPU speed of a 'base' M1, M2, or M3 chip will be about the same as that of its higher-end Pro, Max, and Ultra counterparts. (That is, assuming that it's equipped with enough RAM for the workload in question.)

That means an entry-level machine can be a great bargain if what you need most is single-core CPU performance; you can get enough RAM for your workload; and you can live with other aspects of the machine.

As you go up the line from 'base' to Pro to Max to Ultra, you get

• More CPU cores, and a better ratio of 'performance' cores to 'efficiency' cores
• More GPU cores
• More hardware video/encoding engines
• Support for more displays
• More Thunderbolt ports
• The ability to configure a system with more RAM
• More SoC-RAM bandwidth, to support the larger number of computing engines

To each his or her own and what’s outside, not inside. Not to mention how fat the bank balance is. If fat enough, I’d get both.

See https://www.creativebloq.com/features/mac-mini-vs-macbook-air for further guidance. Happy shopping!

This is old, but might be interesting. It's about the M1 Pro and M1 Max – higher-end M1-family chips that showed up in 14" and 16" MacBook Pros (in October 2021). The M1 Max later showed up in the lower-end version of the Mac Studio (in March 2022).

https://www.anandtech.com/show/17024/apple-m1-max-performance-review