Enough people just look at the "longer, better" bars and that's more than enough. Intel - and others - know that. They know better to include/show all the variables. Even Apple will shade their little graphs/charts, but I think they know they don't really need to, such a degree.
It's a certain type of user/mindset that constantly chases their tails over the "biggest, fastest" and are swayed/impressed by such graphics. I've maintained for 15+ years (you can probably find the comments here, and in those AppleInsider threads, prior to 2004) that it's the system/OS I've bought into, and that I would still use a Mac if the processor was a Bic lighter glued inside a Folger's coffee can. Everything's going to get bested/leapfrogged at some point. I'm not changing computers (and platforms) every four months just because of something Intel says they're coming out with.
But for the builders, tinkerers and modders, they eat that stuff up. More power to 'em (literally).
But our stuff, being welded shut with a lightsaber, we're not able to play in that sandbox to such a degree. We buy the Mac that suits us, tricking it out as much as we're able on day of purchase, and then enjoy it for 2-5 (or 11
) years.
Here's the only thing I kinda wonder/think about...without Apple's efforts on the M1 (and beyond), would Intel being moving forward in such a way? Did it take Apple doing what they did to light a fire or push them a bit harder? Had Apple never announced the move to their own stuff two years ago, what would the Mac w/ Intel situation be like now, May 2022? In other words, was Intel capable of this sort of thing all along and just felt no real push/drive, or have they gone out and hired a bunch of new, aggressive and envelope-pushing engineers and designers in the past 18-24 months, realizing "oh shit..."?
Because we seem to hear/see a lot of this stuff from them now, and really didn't 3-5 years ago. They seem to be flying their flag a little louder and more vigorously today. Is that a result of them realizing "we can't screw around...we're no longer the 800lb. monkey on this stuff? We can't sit on our thumbs and casually dribble stuff out on our timetable"?
What would currently-shipping Macs be using right now had AS never been announced/implemented? Would it be drastically ahead of what Intel was providing in 2019-2020? I don't follow that end of things as much, so I know know...I'm asking.
