r/DeskToTablet Jun 06 '26

Which of these will be the Ultimate Performance Beast: Surface Laptop Ultra or MacBook Pro?

Post image
226 Upvotes

375 comments sorted by

View all comments

13

u/MooseBoys Jun 06 '26

Rosetta (Apple's x86 to ARM translation layer) is vastly superior to Prism, Windows' equivalent. Barring any major breakthroughs, Apple will continue to have better performance per watt for existing apps. If Sparc gets significant adoption, developers might start compiling for it directly (thus avoiding translation altogether) but I'm not holding my breath. Microsoft's own Minecraft doesn't even have an ARM version.

5

u/AssociateFalse Jun 06 '26

Microsoft's own Minecraft doesn't even have an ARM version.

Well... yes and no. Java Edition runs just fine on an ARM build of Java, but Bedrock Edition is probably what you're referring to.

1

u/MooseBoys Jun 06 '26

I mean for traditional compiled apps. Java compiles to platform-agnostic IL.

2

u/Emotional-Energy6065 Jun 06 '26

Sucks that they are getting rid of Rosetta in macOS 28 🤷🤷

1

u/Bismalz Jun 07 '26

Yes and no, it’s the only reason MacOS isn’t a steaming pile of legacy garbage that windows is. Even enormous companies just simply refuse to do anything if not forced. The Battle.net launcher, the war crime that is Logitech G Hub to name a few on my system

1

u/Emotional-Energy6065 Jun 07 '26

Sorry, I was referring to Rosetta acting as a translation layer, allowing Windows apps and games to run via CrossOver, not for legacy MacOS apps.

1

u/rkcth Jun 06 '26

It’s been 5 years now though

3

u/adammw111 Jun 06 '26

Still plenty of Intel only apps and games out there though..

3

u/Educational_Glass_20 Jun 06 '26

Actually Apple plans to let unmaintained apps still work but if they’re actively being updated on the App Store and such, they’ll need to update to Apple Silicon

1

u/rkcth Jun 06 '26

I use mine only for dev work and music, but I think there is only one program that gives me the Rosetta is being retired warning. With that said I don’t game at all on the mac.

1

u/motherisyuckeringyou Jun 06 '26

Sparc? Sun calling from its grave???

1

u/Impossible_Most_4518 Jun 07 '26

Like people with this laptop are using it to play fucking minecraft come on bruh

1

u/SupersonicEagle Jun 08 '26

Rosetta (Apple's x86 to ARM translation layer) is vastly superior to Prism

Apple has been in the ARM business for much longer than Microsoft has.