by Dan Moren
Putting the M1 chip to the test
Reviews of the M1-powered Macs are starting to filter out across the web, including our own, which you should definitely read, but if you’re looking for a more nuts and bolts look at the M1 chip powering those new Macs, Ars Technica’s Jim Salter has a good overview:
Although it’s extremely difficult to get accurate Apples-to-non-Apples benchmarks on this new architecture, I feel confident in saying that this truly is a world-leading design—you can get faster raw CPU performance, but only on power-is-no-object desktop or server CPUs. Similarly, you can beat the M1’s GPU with high-end Nvidia or Radeon desktop cards—but only at a massive disparity in power, physical size, and heat.
The piece gets a bit technical, and as Salter admits, the results are somewhat hampered by the small number of benchmarking suites available on the platform, but it does seem to largely bear out Apple’s claims, as other reviews corroborate.