Not sure any thread about win arm stuff yet. So I start a new one. Warning : I'm a nerd ( including a tendency to troll and lean toward a tech or another ..) Cubase 14 supposed to be released on arm t1 2025 ( not sure of schedule) Some plugins synth already. Steinberg makes Use of arm 64ec binary so can load some Intel binaries plugins and maybe they won't migrate all, keeping some of their own old Intel cubase DLL idk. It costs at least 20% perf ( no avx and other intrinsics VC++, limited registers to pass data to libs) but of course easier for everyone for compatilibty with Intel. Bitwig in beta , and full arm, plugins run in their own sandbox. Not fan of bitwig but how cool is that... Anyway not much asio arm drivers to what I knows except focusrite. Maybe some Steinberg ones somewhere... Reapers supposed to be released too. Sounds cool, still vaporware at this stage but promising. Never believed much into win arm but step by step it seems to be there. max raw 300w power would be still certainly to Intel and AMD but for most use case arm promise better power/heat/efficiency. for price right now those x elite cost an arm and a leg still... Even more expensive than mac, that's nonsense to me. But i digress.
Yeah, the value proposition for Windows-ARM isn't there at the moment. Qualcomm probably believed they had a blowout win for all of 2024-2025 on their hands and set prices accordingly, but AMD and Intel made serious efforts with their latest gens and are now pretty close to Qualcomm's perf per watt and often cheaper too. The convenience of x64 wins if there's no "wowzers" incentive. Sales numbers suggest QC's market share last quarter was 0.8% of all laptops (so 0.5-0.6% of all W systems). QC has adjusted their growth projections accordingly for 2025 and beyond (down). They'll have cheaper ~€700 models in 2025, but those will cut general performance considerably. (And that's pretty wtf, because the €700 price tag is pretty crowded with okay x64 laptops) The "problem" with WoA remains that MS isn't Apple. MS doesn't have the kind of tight control over the software / hardware stack that Apple does. MS can only add more conveniences (mostly for developers) as incentives (automatic x64-translation, hybrid ARM-x64 builds, ARM-on-x64 for testing, ...). And QC.. can only turn the perf per $ and perf per watt knobs in WoA's favour, but that cuts into margins, and QC loves margins. Realistically, I'm not expecting to have W-ARM builds for more than 2/3rds of my plugins by 2030. Don't count out x64 just yet either imo; AMD's latest (370) is surprisingly hot on the heels of both Qualcomm and Apple.
Interesting topic. When plugin developers start to optimize their code for ARM CPUs specifically, I'd be surprised if there was no obvious performance gain on Windows for ARM CPUs. IMO, MS slept a bit too long ignoring the ARM architecture and I'm more than curious to see what the market will look like in a few years. I'll enjoy my bags of popcorn for sure while watching the race between Intel, AMD and Apple.
What you write does not convince me, because I found the following text and I remain skeptical about ARM. Disadvantages of 64-bit ARM chips in the data center While the advantages of ARM chips with 64-bit architecture are certainly convincing from an energy efficiency perspective, ARM processors also have their disadvantages, as Marsh-Mossadeghi points out: "There are still problems with the lack of maturity of the software stack, which makes production systems challenging. While processor support is now available, the challenges lie more in the hardware peripherals, which can ultimately lead to problems with BIOS, boot loaders and kernel functions." Matthew Larbey, Product Strategy Director at Virtus Data Centres, shares this view: "Large parts of the operating system and application stack will have to be redesigned to really realize the benefits of the ARM architecture. Essentially, this is a chicken-and-egg problem where both sides, hardware and software, need to be sufficiently developed to make the new server architecture a success." According to Aaron Sullivan, Senior Director at Rackspace, 64-bit ARM systems may also require different approaches to error and storage management and monitoring: "If administrators are very attached to their array of independent disk controllers, network adapters and management tools, then switching to ARM will require some getting used to. The basic functions are certainly there, but the approach to configuration and management is different."
Yes, like you wrote, it's not about the processors but rather about the software to catch up. Just a matter of time.
I cant wait for a Dual ARM processor, because everyone needs 2 arms. Sorry that was terrible. I apologise to anyone who reads this!
Windows and ARM should not mix. Windows 11 works so poor on ARM. Also you have to watch out for the software compatibility on the processor. The AMD ARM is different from Intel ARM! You have to checkout which software works on which CPU. It will be a mess! Anyway ProTools is Win ARM ready.
It may start being a thing if Nvidia decides to release a pc with an all Nvidia solution. Most likely branded AI something lol. They do have their own ARM cpus after all and the pc scenery looks somehow ripe for a "hijacking", now that Intel's flailing and everybody "wants a lapdance with AI" hehe. On the other hand Qualcomm is more and more moving away from the traditional ARM design. They keep buying tech companies in order to do so. They even tried to buy Intel for fk's sake. But the future's not so bright for the marriage of ARM and PC, at least not yet. Those first Qualcomm X attempts were met with a lot of criticism, mostly because they can't run all soft no matter their bridge soft and as raw cpu power are inferior to both Intel and AMD offerings. But we 'll wait and see, i keep spare popcorn at all times :D Cheers
Ah yes, I forgot Nvidia. They also release their own ARM with their very own software compatibility. =D Like I said, it will be a mess!
