Mack Pro 2010 vs MacBook Air (2020, M1)

[mdav43]

I tested the difference between two machines (see title) on a network that has -> Pihole -> Unbound. The Unbound service was hot - so I don't believe cache is an issue.

I was getting consistently slow requests across all providers on the new MacBook Air. Anyone else?

Note

• MacBook Air - Tx Rate (104Mbps,802.11n)
• MacBook Pro - Tx Rate (73Mbps, 802.11n)
• The results below were repeated several times, without much change on each machine

On the new MacBook Air

*192.168.10.104    60 ms   47 ms   47 ms   47 ms   46 ms   46 ms   47 ms   48 ms   47 ms   48 ms   49 ms   47 ms   47 ms   49 ms   48 ms     48.20*
cloudflare        48 ms   48 ms   48 ms   47 ms   48 ms   48 ms   47 ms   47 ms   48 ms   48 ms   48 ms   48 ms   48 ms   48 ms   49 ms     47.86
level3            49 ms   49 ms   49 ms   1000 ms 54 ms   51 ms   1000 ms 56 ms   1000 ms 1000 ms 1000 ms 52 ms   51 ms   52 ms   1000 ms   430.86
google            57 ms   53 ms   50 ms   51 ms   52 ms   51 ms   51 ms   56 ms   52 ms   51 ms   50 ms   51 ms   50 ms   53 ms   49 ms     51.80
quad9             52 ms   52 ms   51 ms   50 ms   50 ms   181 ms  52 ms   54 ms   51 ms   51 ms   51 ms   50 ms   155 ms  50 ms   51 ms     66.73
freenom           50 ms   51 ms   51 ms   50 ms   53 ms   380 ms  57 ms   172 ms  49 ms   190 ms  81 ms   49 ms   250 ms  54 ms   580 ms    141.13
opendns           55 ms   53 ms   53 ms   51 ms   51 ms   177 ms  55 ms   53 ms   58 ms   54 ms   55 ms   52 ms   53 ms   61 ms   56 ms     62.46
norton            51 ms   51 ms   52 ms   50 ms   49 ms   51 ms   50 ms   49 ms   50 ms   52 ms   50 ms   51 ms   49 ms   51 ms   79 ms     52.33
cleanbrowsing     103 ms  51 ms   51 ms   51 ms   53 ms   50 ms   51 ms   51 ms   51 ms   51 ms   51 ms   50 ms   51 ms   51 ms   52 ms     54.53
yandex            202 ms  196 ms  203 ms  196 ms  311 ms  201 ms  197 ms  202 ms  197 ms  219 ms  1000 ms 364 ms  226 ms  188 ms  260 ms    277.46
adguard           167 ms  167 ms  181 ms  167 ms  172 ms  167 ms  167 ms  173 ms  174 ms  176 ms  166 ms  167 ms  170 ms  182 ms  179 ms    171.66
neustar           56 ms   51 ms   50 ms   50 ms   52 ms   50 ms   50 ms   50 ms   50 ms   52 ms   51 ms   50 ms   51 ms   52 ms   294 ms    67.26
comodo            57 ms   49 ms   50 ms   51 ms   50 ms   51 ms   49 ms   50 ms   50 ms   52 ms   52 ms   77 ms   50 ms   48 ms   48 ms     52.26

Old MacBook Pro 2010

                  test1   test2   test3   test4   test5   test6   test7   test8   test9   test10  test11  test12  test13  Average 
*192.168.10.104    13 ms   15 ms   13 ms   18 ms   12 ms   15 ms   12 ms   11 ms   11 ms   12 ms   12 ms   11 ms   11 ms     12*
cloudflare        15 ms   13 ms   16 ms   11 ms   12 ms   11 ms   14 ms   27 ms   12 ms   13 ms   13 ms   13 ms   12 ms     14
level3            1000 ms 11 ms   1000 ms 16 ms   1000 ms 11 ms   15 ms   11 ms   11 ms   1000 ms 15 ms   1000 ms 11 ms     392
google            12 ms   12 ms   11 ms   11 ms   11 ms   12 ms   15 ms   11 ms   12 ms   15 ms   15 ms   11 ms   100 ms    19
quad9             11 ms   12 ms   12 ms   16 ms   12 ms   13 ms   12 ms   11 ms   16 ms   62 ms   15 ms   15 ms   11 ms     16
freenom           13 ms   11 ms   12 ms   13 ms   40 ms   26 ms   11 ms   560 ms  787 ms  11 ms   207 ms  35 ms   189 ms    147
opendns           11 ms   14 ms   11 ms   13 ms   16 ms   11 ms   12 ms   11 ms   236 ms  11 ms   68 ms   12 ms   14 ms     33
norton            11 ms   12 ms   17 ms   11 ms   11 ms   11 ms   14 ms   42 ms   11 ms   15 ms   31 ms   11 ms   16 ms     16
cleanbrowsing     11 ms   12 ms   12 ms   12 ms   11 ms   12 ms   11 ms   16 ms   13 ms   11 ms   12 ms   12 ms   11 ms     12
yandex            329 ms  396 ms  331 ms  205 ms  187 ms  201 ms  196 ms  197 ms  361 ms  389 ms  210 ms  200 ms  246 ms    265
adguard           170 ms  164 ms  167 ms  171 ms  164 ms  164 ms  166 ms  167 ms  165 ms  168 ms  169 ms  170 ms  168 ms    167
neustar           11 ms   14 ms   13 ms   11 ms   23 ms   16 ms   12 ms   12 ms   11 ms   11 ms   11 ms   12 ms   15 ms     13
comodo            14 ms   12 ms   12 ms   18 ms   15 ms   14 ms   11 ms   15 ms   18 ms   20 ms   13 ms   12 ms   15 ms     14
unbound           11 ms   14 ms   11 ms   11 ms   13 ms   14 ms   11 ms   11 ms   11 ms   11 ms   13 ms   12 ms   11 ms     11
pihole            12 ms   11 ms   11 ms   13 ms   12 ms   12 ms   11 ms   15 ms   13 ms   11 ms   11 ms   15 ms   11 ms     12

[val123456]

Same OS version?

[mdav43]

Big Sur and High Sierra.

I ran the tests on a windows 10 box (under WSL) and get similar results to the Macbook Pro. There is a distinct lag or delay of c.40ms in Big Sur for me.

[thomasmerz]

This doesn't look like a dnsperftest issue. @cleanbrowsing , close this!?

[cleanbrowsing]

Agree, not much we can do here.

[natesilva]

Dead thread, but I found that the version of dig provided with BIND gives better results on a Mac.

Verify that you are using the correct dig by typing which dig at the command prompt.

• /usr/bin/dig - macOS built-in version, was slow on all providers
• /opt/homebrew/bin/dig is faster

After running brew install bc bind and restarting my shell, it was using /opt/homebrew/bin/dig and I got better results.

I am guessing that there is additional macOS-specific name resolution being done by the system-provided dig command, and therefore may not be an accurate representation of DNS performance. This is just a hunch.

[0x-2a]

@natesilva THANK YOU. I thought I was losing my mind debugging dns perf end-to-end. The native macos dig seems to bottom out at 40ms on m3 mac Sonoma 14.2.1., where as I'm finally seeing 0ms on cache hits with brew dig...

brew install bc bind
/opt/homebrew/bin/dig foo.com # 34 msec to 8.8.8.8
/opt/homebrew/bin/dig foo.com # 0 msec