Even though Apple was pushing its luck by having three consecutive year-end events, the company really did save the best for last. The announcement of Apple Silicon, its ARM-based M1 SoC (system-on-chip), took place alongside a whole laundry-list of claims that — if true — position Apple’s hardware as some of the best in the entire industry.
And while we’re feeling the serious urge to get down to testing those claims, someone else has managed to get there first. The first results for Apple Silicon have turned up on benchmarking app Geekbench and, while it’s not indicative of real-world performance, Apple’s new processor is extremely quick. At least, as far as the numbers go.
Apple Silicon Valley
Stuff often uses Geekbench to get a comparative idea of a mobile processor’s power. Less often, we’ll use it to test desktop or notebook hardware but it’s also possible to use it for those platforms. And, if the numbers, it’s are any indication, you’re not going to want Intel anywhere near your next MacBook.
The Mac Mini’s M1 returns figures of 1,682 and 7,097, which denote single-core and multi-core performance. These figures might seem low if you don’t know what you’re looking at but they position the M1 at the top of the logs for single-core performance. Multi-core… is another story, however. It’s got some ways to go before it dethrones the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X.
The M1-toting 13.3in MacBook Air scores 1,687 and 7,433 and the 13.3in Apple MacBook Pro manages 1,714 and 6,802. For single-core performance, Apple’s M1 is close to being the best notebook processor on the planet.
But, before you try and rub your (intended) pre-order in the Windows fans’ faces, that’s only single-core performance and it’s also still a notebook processor. For the seriously big numbers, multi-core desktop machines designed for gaming still rule the roost. The aforementioned Threadripper? That one’s multi-core performance ranking is over 25,000. Still, Apple’s new processors make all of Apple’s Intel machines looks slow. The previous best for notebook performance, the 16in Apple MacBook Pro with an Intel Core i9 9980HK? It attained a mere 6869 in Geekbench’s multi-core testing. We can’t wait to test the M1 Apple Silicon processor in the real world but, for now, the numbers look very encouraging indeed.
