Intel lowers Apple’s M1 chip with ‘carefully crafted’ benchmarks

Nearly three months after the launch of Apple’s rave reviews M1 Macs, Intel has shot back, but there are some starlets involved.

In a slideshow divided by Computer world this week, Intel emphasized some Computer world described as “carefully designed” benchmarks in an attempt to prove that laptops with the latest 11th generation Core processors are superior to those with Apple’s specially designed M1 chip.

For example, Intel said that exporting a PowerPoint presentation as a PDF file is up to 2.3x faster on a Windows laptop equipped with an 11th generation Core i7 processor and 16 GB RAM, compared to completing the same task on a 13-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 chip and 16 GB of RAM, Intel noted that PowerPoint ran natively on both systems.

Intel also reported that Topaz Labs’ AI-based photo magnification software Gigapixel AI performed up to 6x faster on the Core i7 system compared to the M1 MacBook Pro. In this case, Computer world said “the results are fairly real,” noting that Topaz Labs’ apps are designed to take advantage of the hardware acceleration in Intel’s processors.

In terms of gaming performance, the results were mixed, with Intel emphasizing the established view that Macs are not ideal for gaming and do not support “countless” games such as Gear Tactics, Hitman 2, and others.

Intel also ran a “real-world battery life test” and found that both the M1 MacBook Air and the Acer Swift 5 with an 11th generation Core i7 processor achieved nearly identical battery life of 10 hours when streaming Netflix with additional tabs open. Intel said both notebooks were set to a brightness of 250 nits, with the MacBook Air running Safari and the Acer Swift 5 running Chrome for testing.

It’s worth noting that Intel switched from the MacBook Pro for the performance benchmarks to the MacBook Air for battery life, and Intel also used a different Core i7 processor SKU for each of these tests.

Apple’s website advertises that the M1 MacBook Air has up to 18 hours of battery life when continuously playing 1080p content in the Apple TV app with the screen brightness set to 50%, and up to 15 hours of battery life when scrolling through 25 popular websites in Safari over WiFi with screen brightness set to 50%.

Intel added that its processors are not just about performance, but also about choice, as they power all kinds of devices, from traditional notebooks to tablets with features such as touchscreens and support for multiple external displays. Officially, the M1-based MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro only support one external display, but some users found that this limitation can be circumvented with DisplayLink adapters as an unofficial solution.

“M1-unfriendly benchmarks”

Apple columnist Jason Snell referred to Intel’s benchmarks as “M1-unfriendly” in comments on his website Six colors.

“Inconsistent test platforms, varying arguments, omitted data, and the not so faint scent of despair,” Snell wrote. Today’s M1 processor is a low-end chip for low-end systems, so Intel only has a small window to compare itself favorably with these systems before shipping the more expensive Apple Silicon Macs and making its job that much more difficult. “

Tom’s HardwareAndrew Freedman also warned that any benchmarks provided by the vendor should be taken with a grain of salt.

Apple says the M1 chip delivers class-leading performance per watt, with the latest MacBook Air outperforming a maximum Intel-based 16-inch MacBook Pro in Geekbench benchmarks. Apple is rumored to be launching new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, a redesigned iMac, and more later this year with next-generation Apple silicon.