I'll say again that good blades make all the difference. That's actually what's cutting the wood.
Bosch has this blade called a "Progressor". I bought a few just because they looked good. I put one in a 1581 a few days ago and was really impressed. I had to crosscut a 2-1/16" thick piece of red oak that was 6" wide. Out of curiosity, I timed the cut without crowding the blade. Twenty seconds to crosscut 6" in that oak. Not bad at all. The cut was amazingly smooth, too. I'll often use my saber saw when crosscutting to rough dimension because I don't have to move long stock from place to place.