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- Intel CPU with HD 620 integrated graphics (OS must be Windows 10, 64-bit and running Zoom client version 5.0.4 or higher and driver version 26.20.xx.xx or higher) i7 2 cores; or i5 2 cores with major version 26.20 or higher and minor version 7323 or higher.
- The CPU used in the video System Specs (at the time of filming) CPU: Intel Pentium G4500 Motherboard: Asus B150M-K (LGA-1151) RAM: 8GB.
Starting later in 2020, Apple is making a big change to its Mac lineup. Although Macs have used processors from Intel since 2006, future Macs will begin using Apple-designed chips like the ones in iPhones and iPads. Apple says that using its own chips will improve graphics performance and battery life for Mac laptops and will provide other less-tangible benefits relating to security and privacy. The first Mac using “Apple silicon” will be available by the end of the year (though we don’t know which Mac model that will be), and Apple expects its full lineup of Macs to complete the transition within the next two years.
This sets up a years-long transition period in which Apple supports both Intel Macs and Apple-silicon Macs with new features and software updates for a while but eventually drops Intel Mac support in favor of focusing on the newer, faster models with its own chips. So the question is: In the early phase of this transition, where we know Intel Macs will fade out but Apple-silicon Macs don’t exist yet, is it still a good idea to spend money on an Intel Mac right now?
The answer differs depending on the work you’re doing, but for most people we think it’s still pretty safe to buy an Intel Mac rather than waiting for one with Apple silicon. But we’ll keep this guidance up to date as the transition to Apple chips plays out and as the company makes more public comments about how much support Intel Macs will receive over the next few years.
What’s the problem?
Apple’s processors and Intel’s processors can’t just run the same software. Each uses a different “instruction set,” meaning (very simply) that software needs to talk to them in different ways to get them to perform the same tasks. Because of this, software developers will need to do extra work to optimize their applications to run well on both Intel and Apple processors. Eventually, as Intel Macs age and Apple-silicon Macs become more prevalent, those developers may stop working to make their apps run on Intel Macs at all.
If you’ve been using Macs since the turn of the millennium, you might remember something similar happening when Apple transitioned from PowerPC chips to Intel processors in the mid- to late 2000s. Apple and third-party app developers supported both PowerPC and Intel Macs for a couple of years, but the last PowerPC Macs didn’t get updates for nearly as long as the earlier PowerPC Macs, a development that shortened their useful lifespans. The concern is that history will repeat itself, and that the last few Intel Macs will be worse investments than both the Intel Macs that preceded them and the Apple-silicon Macs that will follow.
Most people should buy what they need right now
Our long-standing advice to people who need a new computer right this minute is to buy one. There’s always something new coming around the corner, but you never know how long you’ll need to wait for it or what features it will include. As of this writing, the 2020 MacBook Air and Pro lineups are as good as they’ve been in years, with much more comfortable keyboards than on previous models, more generous storage, and solid performance. Those computers aren’t suddenly bad now that Apple is changing processors, and they’ll be supported with new software updates “for years to come.” Apple won’t say exactly how many years that is (we have some guesses), but Macs typically receive new software updates for six or seven years after their release, and security patches for a couple of years after that.
That said, if you’re on the fence about buying a new Mac—maybe the one you have is working fine but getting old, or you bought a model with one of the old low-travel keyboards and want to upgrade to a better one—you should wait at least six months or a year to see how Apple handles the early phase of this transition. We don’t think the first Apple-silicon Macs will differ dramatically from current Intel Macs in how they look or work, but going forward you can expect Apple to introduce more and more features exclusively for Apple-silicon Macs.
When you should definitely buy an Intel Mac
If you’re looking to buy a Mac desktop instead of a Mac laptop, it’s better not to wait for Apple-silicon Macs. Apple confirmed that it still has some Intel Macs on the way, and the aging iMac is the most likely candidate for an Intel-reliant refresh right now. We also know that Apple’s current iPad and iPhone chips are a better fit for smaller, power-efficient laptops rather than high-performance desktops, which suggests that the iMac, iMac Pro, and Mac Pro will drop Intel processors closer to the end of that two-year transition period than to the beginning.
And if you run Windows on your Mac in any form—either by shutting down macOS and booting up Windows via Apple’s Boot Camp software or by running Windows on top of macOS using virtualization software like Parallels or VMware Fusion—you’re also safer buying an Intel Mac. Boot Camp won’t be available on Macs with Apple processors at all. Virtualization software may be updated to run Windows on Apple silicon eventually, but the Rosetta emulation software that Apple will use to run Intel apps on Apple chips explicitly does not support virtualization. At best, the makers of virtualization apps may be able to come up with their own workarounds, but Windows will likely run slower on Apple chips than it does on Intel chips.
When you should definitely wait for Apple silicon
One thing that Apple-silicon Macs will be able to do that Intel Macs can’t: download and run iOS and iPadOS apps and games directly from the App Store. Software developers can already get their iPad apps running as Mac apps that will work on Intel or Apple chips, but it requires extra effort that most developers haven’t put in.
Right now, it’s hard to think of an iOS or iPadOS app that would be worth delaying a Mac purchase—most productivity apps are already available on both, and the Mac-specific versions will still work better with a keyboard and mouse and be more consistent with the rest of your Mac apps. But it’s an intriguing option for phone or tablet games, and it’s likely to be just the first of a steadily growing list of things that Apple-silicon Macs will be able to do that Intel Macs can’t.
How long will Intel Macs get new updates?
Apple CEO Tim Cook has promised software updates for Intel Macs “for years to come,” but that’s a pretty vague statement to hang a multi-thousand-dollar purchase on. Apple is also notoriously secretive about its future plans. But what we can do is look at Apple’s last processor transition and its current support policies to come up with a good guess.
Apple announced the transition from PowerPC to Intel processors at its developer conference in June 2005. The company then released the first Intel Macs in 2006 and completed the hardware end of the transition by the end of that year, ahead of its original schedule. That meant you could still buy PowerPC Macs as late as 2006. Three years later, the Mac OS X 10.6 update dropped support for PowerPC Macs entirely, and those computers stopped getting new features or access to then-new apps like Google Chrome. PowerPC Macs did receive security updates until 2011, five years after they had last been sold, but no new features or other upgrades.
More recently, when Apple has dropped support for older Mac models in new versions of macOS, it has stuck to its timelines for “vintage and obsolete products.” For purposes of hardware and software support, Apple considers a product “vintage” if it’s between five and seven years old and “obsolete” if it’s more than seven years old. Macs on either of these lists are the most at risk for being dropped when new macOS versions are released; for example, when macOS Big Sur comes out this fall, Apple will drop support for all Macs released in 2012 and a handful from 2013.
Without confirmation from Apple, we can’t say how long Intel Macs will continue to be updated. But in a worst-case scenario, you ought to be able to get at least three years’ worth of active updates and security updates for a couple of years after that. At best, an Intel Mac bought in mid-2020 could see new macOS releases for six or seven years. Apple has also sold many, many more Intel Macs than it ever sold PowerPC Macs, so third-party software developers should be inclined to support Intel Macs for longer.
Footnotes
PC processors from Intel and AMD use an instruction set called “x86_64” or just “x86,” a reference to the original Intel 8086 processor used in some of the earliest modern PCs. Phone and tablet processors from companies like Apple, Qualcomm, and MediaTek use an instruction set called “ARM,” a reference to the company that invented it.
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About your guide
Andrew Cunningham
Andrew Cunningham is a senior staff writer on Wirecutter's tech team. He has been writing about laptops, phones, routers, and other tech since 2011. Before that he spent five years in IT fixing computers and helping people buy the best tech for their needs. He also co-hosts the book podcast Overdue and the TV podcast Appointment Television.
Further reading
The Best Wi-Fi Router
by Joel Santo Domingo
We’ve tested the latest Wi-Fi routers to find the best ones—from budget options to top of the line—to make your wireless network faster and more responsive.
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Development Team
- Windows*: Joe Olivas, Timo Kleimola, Mark Price, Timothy McKay
- MacOS*: Patrick Konsor
Previous Contributors
- Windows*: Seung-Woo Kim, Karthik Krishnan, Vardhan Dugar, Joseph Jin-Sung Lee, Jun De Vega
Introduction
Intel® Power Gadget is a software-based power usage monitoring tool enabled for Intel® Core™ processors (from 2nd Generation up to 10th Generation Intel® Core™ processors). Intel® Atom™ processors are not supported. It is supported on Windows* and macOS* and includes an application, driver, and libraries to monitor and estimate real-time processor package power information in watts using the energy counters in the processor. With this release, we are providing functionality to evaluate power information on various platforms including notebooks, desktops and servers. Windows 7* and 32-bit versions of the Intel® Power Gadget for Windows* has ceased development from 3.0.7. Starting with version 3.5 and going forward, only the 64-bit version and Windows 8* will be supported.
Background
Traditional methods to estimate power/energy usage of the processor has always been a cumbersome task that included special purpose tools or instrumentation on the platform along with third party equipment. The motivation for the tool was to assist end-users, ISV’s, OEM’s, developers, and others interested in a more precise estimation of power from a software level without any H/W instrumentation.
New Features
In version 3.0 there are additional features that include estimation of power on multi-socket systems as well as externally callable APIs to extract power information within sections of code. The multi-socket support essentially evaluates the Energy MSR on a per-socket basis and provides an estimate of power draw per socket. The API layer is a set of libraries and dlls that can be called and offers the flexibility to build the tool within code sections of an application. Latest release also includes support for Windows 10*.
Brief Description (Windows*)
Intel® Power Gadget 3.5 consists of the following components. Set of driver and libraries which access and post process the processor energy counter to calculate the power usage in Watts, temperate in Celsius and frequency in GHz (default install directory will be ~Program FilesIntelPower Gadget 3.5). A command line version of the tool (PowerLog3.0.exe) is also included
System Requirements (Windows*)
- Windows 8*
- Windows 10*
- Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2012
- Microsoft .NET* Framework 4
- Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 Redistributable package
- 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ Processor or later, older processors not supported
- Single socket
- Multi-socket
System Requirements (MacOS*)
- macOS* 10.11 or later
- 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processor or later
Known Limitations / Issues
- Graphs will not appear if your processor does not have the appropriate hardware counters
- Discrete graphics cards are not supported and GPU graphs will not appear unless Intel graphics is in use
- Windows 7* supported builds are below in the Archive section
Installation / Setup (Windows*)
- Run the msi package as an administrator. Accept the UAC, if one appears
- Follow the installer prompt instructions to complete installation
- .Net Framework 4 (will automatically be downloaded from Microsoft* site if not yet installed in your system) needs Internet connection
- Microsoft* Visual C++ 2017 Redistributable Package (will automatically get installed if not yet installed)
Installation / Setup (macOS*)
Mac Air I7 Processor
- Double click the downloaded DMG (Intel Power Gadget.dmg)
- Double click the package (Install Intel Power Gadget.pkg)
- Follow the installer prompt instructions to complete installation
On recent macOS versions, after installation users need to explicitly allow the Power Gadget driver to load:
- Open System Preferences, and click on 'Security and Privacy'
- Click the lock at the bottom of the page to unlock changes
- Click 'Allow' to allow system software from Intel Corporation:
- Restart your computer to apply the changes
On macOS Catalina (10.15), users may need to perform additional steps to enable the Power Gadget driver to automatically load (this is due to a bug in macOS).
- Open the Terminal application
- Enter the following command, and press Enter (requires a password to complete):
- Restart your computer to apply the changes
Usages (Windows*)
Common use of Intel® Power Gadget is to monitor energy usage of the processor
- Provides processor power (Watts), temperature (Celsius) and frequency (MHz) in real-time via graph displayed in the GUI
- Let you log the power and frequency measurements and save it in a csv format.
- Double click on the desktop shortcut and the GUI will launch
- Drag to move the GUI.
- Right click the GUI and a pop-up menu will show up allowing you to choose options or close the application. Options have the following parameters. Click “Start Log” button in the GUI to start logging. Press the same button “Stop Log” to stop logging. While it’s logging, red label “REC” will blink in the power chart area.
- You can choose to add time-stamp to the log file name or not.
- You can choose the log file name.
- You can choose to resize the GUI from 100% to 300% by dragging the slider and testing the new size with the “Apply Size” button and accept the changes by pressing “Ok”.
- Screen Update Resolution lets you change how often the GUI is updated at runtime. This may range from 50 ms to 1000 ms. (Default set to 1000 ms)
- Log Sampling Resolution lets you change the logging sampling resolution ranging from 1 ms to 1000 ms. (Default set to 100 ms)
- In a multi-socket system, you can choose which package information to display in the GUI. The log will record all package information in a csv file.
- Click 'Start Log' button in the GUI to start logging. Press the same button 'Stop Log' to stop logging. While it's logging, red label 'REC' will blink in the power chart area
Using Intel® Power Gadget 3.0 in a script
In order to start and stop the logging in a script, first launch the GUI as usual.
- At the beginning of the script, call 'IntelPowerGadget.exe -start' and it will trigger the logging in the GUI.
- At the end of the script, call “IntelPowerGadget.exe -stop” and it will stop the logging.
Mac Os For Intel Processors
The parameters for the log are based on the options set in the GUI.
PowerLog3.0
PowerLog3.0.exe is the command line version of Intel® Power Gadget in logging power usage
Usage:
- Log power data to logfile for a period of time:
- Start a command a log power data to logfile until the command finish:
Logfile data
Logfile will include the elapsed timed, package power limit, processor frequency, GT frequency, processor temperature, average and cumulative power of the processor
- Processor Energy (Total energy of the processor) = IA Energy + GT Energy (if applicable) + Others (not measured)
- IA Energy (Energy of the CPU/processor cores)
- GT Energy (Energy of the processor graphics) – If applicable , some processors for desktops and servers don’t have it or may have use discrete graphics
Only works on 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processor family or newer. Atom processors not yet supported.
Use only 32-bit installer for 32-bit OS and 64-bit installer for 64-bit OS
Application may hang after running for a long period of time (just close and restart application)
Mac Intel Cpu
Contact your local Intel sales office or your distributor to obtain the latest specifications and before placing your product order.
This document contains information on products in the design phase of development.
All products, platforms, dates, and figures specified are preliminary based on current expectations, and are subject to change without notice. All dates specified are target dates, are provided for planning purposes only and are subject to change.
This document contains information on products in the design phase of development. Do not finalize a design with this information. Revised information will be published when the product is available. Verify with your local sales office that you have the latest datasheet before finalizing a design.
Code names featured are used internally within Intel to identify products that are in development and not yet publicly announced for release. Customers, licensees and other third parties are not authorized by Intel to use code names in advertising, promotion or marketing of any product or services and any such use of Intel's internal code names is at the sole risk of the user.
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*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
Copyright © 2019, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.
Intel® Power Gadget also provides a C/C++ Application Programming Interface (API) for accessing this power and frequency data in your program; the API is supported on Windows and Mac OS X. For more information on the API's, see:
For Mac Using the Intel® Power Gadget API on Mac OS X
For Windows Using the Intel® Power Gadget API on Windows
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Mac Os X Supported Intel Processor
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