Intel minimizes Apple M1 chip with “carefully crafted” benchmarks

Nearly three months after the launch of Apple’s revised M1 Macs, Intel has pulled back, but there are a few asterisks involved.

In a presentation presented by PCWorld this week, Intel highlighted what PCWorld described as “carefully crafted” benchmarks in an attempt to prove that laptops with the latest 11th-generation Core processors are superior to those with Apple’s M1 chip.

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

Intel also indicated that Topaz Labs’ AI-based photo enlargement software, Gigapixel AI, ran up to 6 times faster on the Core i7 system compared to the MacBook Pro M1. In this case, PCWorld said “the results are quite real,” noting that Topaz Labs applications are designed to take advantage of hardware acceleration in Intel processors.

In terms of game performance, the results were mixed, with Intel emphasizing the well-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 performed a “real battery life test” and found that both the M1 MacBook Air and the Acer Swift 5 with an 11th generation Core i7 processor achieved a virtually longer battery life. identical for 10 hours when streaming Netflix with additional tabs open. Intel said both notebooks were set to the brightness of the 250-nits display, 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 performance standards to the MacBook Air for the battery life test, and Intel used a different Core i7 processor SKU for each of these tests as well.

The Apple website advertises the M1 MacBook Air as having up to 18 hours of battery life when continuously playing 1080p content in the Apple TV app with the display brightness set to 50% and up to 15 hours of battery life when browsing on 25 popular Wi-Fi Safari websites with display brightness set to 50%.

Intel added that its processors are not only performance, but also choice, because it powers all kinds of devices, from traditional notebooks to tablets with functions such as touch screens and support for several 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 bypassed with DisplayLink adapters as an unofficial solution.

“M1-Friendly landmarks”

Apple reporter Jason Snell referred to Intel’s benchmarks as “unfriendly to M1” in comments posted on its website Six colors.

“Inconsistent testing platforms, changing arguments, omitted data and the not-so-faint smell 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 favorably with these systems before shipping high-quality Apple Silicon Macs and to it makes the job much harder. ”

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

Apple says the M1 chip delivers industry-leading performance per watt, with the latest MacBook Air surpassing an Intel-based 16-inch MacBook Pro at Geekbench benchmarks. Rumors suggest that Apple will launch new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, a redesigned iMac and many more with next-generation Apple silicon later this year.