A benchmark test released Tuesday shows a huge performance gap between Mac computers powered by Apple’s M1 chip and Windows on ARM machines running the latest 64-bit x86 apps through an official emulator.
Carried out by Computer world, the evaluation pits a Microsoft Surface Pro X against the new M1 MacBook Air, two devices with ARM processors.
As noted in the publication, there are very few ARM-based Windows boxes to choose from, as only two chips – Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx and Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 – power the platform. Microsoft’s derivative SQ1 and SQ2 processors, designed in collaboration with Qualcomm, reside in the Surface Pro X.
PCWorld’s Windows testbed relied on a first-gen SQ1, although any gains from the more recent SQ2 are considered insignificant.
The MacBook Air crushed the Surface Pro X in both single and multi-score Geekbench 5 tests. Apple’s new laptop scored 1,730 points in the single-core process, beating Surface’s score by just over 1,000 points. Multi-core testing showed an even greater disparity, with MacBook Air clocking 7454 points against Surface’s 2734 points.
Results from Maxon’s Cinebench also gave the M1 an impressive lead with single and multi-core scores landing at 1496 and 6838 respectively, handily beating the Surface Pro X’s 371 and 1604.
Moving on to the open source video transcoding tool Handbrake, MacBook Air completed transcoding a 12-minute 4K video into a 1080p H.265 file that is six times faster than the Surface.
It should be noted that Microsoft’s 64-bit x86 emulator is still in beta. But even with a coordinated software development effort, Windows on ARM lacks the hardware chops to catch up with Apple’s macOS and M1 integration.
The first in an expected line of in-house designed Mac chips, the M1 debuted in November and is currently the engine of the new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini. Early benchmarks, ed From AppleInsider own assessments, have revealed astonishing computer speeds and extremely high levels of energy efficiency compared to older Intel models.
With high-end chip designs in the offing, Apple Silicon could soon be a paradigm shift in personal computing.