Intel downplays Apple’s M1 chip with ‘carefully designed’ benchmarks

Almost three months after the launch of Apple’s highly rated Mac M1s, Intel fired back, but there are asterisks involved.

In a slideshow shared by PC World this week, Intel highlighted this PC 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 custom-designed M1 chip.

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

Intel also reported that Topaz Labs’ AI-based photo magnification software, Gigapixel AI, runs up to 6 times faster on the Core i7 system compared to the MacBook Pro M1. In that case, PC World said “the results are pretty real,” noting that Topaz Labs’ applications are designed to take advantage of hardware acceleration inside Intel processors.

When it comes to gaming performance, the results have been mixed, with Intel highlighting the well-established view that Macs are not ideal for gaming and lack support for “countless” games like Gear Tactics, Hitman 2 and others.

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

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

Apple’s website announces that the M1 MacBook Air provides up to 18 hours of battery life when continuously playing 1080p content in the Apple TV app with screen brightness set to 50% and up to 15 hours of battery life when browsing 25 popular websites in Safari over Wi-Fi with screen brightness set to 50%.

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

“M1-Hostile Benchmarks”

Apple columnist Jason Snell called Intel’s benchmarks “not compatible with M1” in a comment shared on his website Six colors.

“Inconsistent testing platforms, shifting arguments, omitted data and a not-so-weak smell of desperation,” Snell wrote. “Today’s M1 processor is a low-end chip for low-end systems, so Intel only has a small window to compare favorably to these systems before high-end Apple silicon Macs are released. delivered and only make his job even more difficult. “

Tom’s materialAndrew Freedman also cautioned that any benchmarks provided by the supplier should be taken with a grain of salt.

Apple claims the M1 chip delivers peak performance per watt, with the latest MacBook Air outperforming an Intel-based 16-inch MacBook Pro at its peak in Geekbench benchmarks. Rumors suggest that Apple will launch new models of the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro, a redesigned iMac and more with next-gen Apple silicon later this year.