Every number here was measured on hardware we own. The method is printed next to it.
A single Activity Monitor glance tells you nothing, because the numbers move constantly. A 0.52 second script that logs the four figures that matter turns guesswork into a trend line.
The memory compressor is doing 2.58 to 1 on live data right now, and it is the reason Apple can ship machines with memory configurations that look too small on paper. Here is the ratio, measured.
Every Linux answer wraps long-running commands in timeout. macOS has never shipped it. Four replacements, and the one that behaves correctly when the command exits on its own.
How one piece of Apple’s system actually behaves
You cannot pin a thread to a performance core on Apple Silicon. You can tell macOS how important the work is, and that decision cost this benchmark a factor of three.
A task run end to end, timed
A single Activity Monitor glance tells you nothing, because the numbers move constantly. A 0.52 second script that logs the four figures that matter turns guesswork into a trend line.
One failure, its exact error text, and the fix
Every Linux answer wraps long-running commands in timeout. macOS has never shipped it. Four replacements, and the one that behaves correctly when the command exits on its own.
A claim put on the clock
The memory compressor is doing 2.58 to 1 on live data right now, and it is the reason Apple can ship machines with memory configurations that look too small on paper. Here is the ratio, measured.
MacBook Pro Apple M4 Pro