It’s hard to get a relatively accurate idea of the performance of the new Apple M1 Pro SoC when the Apple brand is always in verbal overkill to describe its products. Comparing then an ARM SoC with X86 processors remains a not totally reliable exercise where the interpretation is preponderant to the detriment of a clear and definitive comparison of the figures. But if we put aside gamers for whom the choice is quickly made, in the creative world, is the M1 Pro SoC implemented in the MacBook Pro 16 really more powerful than the Intel and AMD products currently implemented in laptops? That’s what Techspot set out to analyze.
Until now, comparing an Apple SoC with an X86 CPU was, for many, a matter of running Geekbench… In this case, the method used will totally ignore Geekbench. Instead, using a range of real-world cross-platform applications and comparing the performance of the best laptop chips available today, all running under fair and equivalent conditions, will provide the insight. For this exercise, the reference machine is a 16-inch MacBook Pro with the full M1 Pro configuration with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. A reference with a starting price of 2749€. To evaluate the multithreading which is a key benchmark for productivity tasks, Cinebench R23 is used. It should be noted that this is a native Apple Silicon application. The M1 Pro is slightly faster than the Ryzen 9 5900HX. This makes the M1 Pro 4% faster, although it consumes less power. In fact, the M1 Pro is more like a 35W-class processor, compared to the 5900HX’s 45W; the M1 Pro is 12% faster than AMD’s best 35W processor, the Ryzen 9 5980HS. Apple has an even bigger lead over Intel, where the M1 Pro is 14% faster than Intel’s best 45W silicon, the Core i9-11980HK. Obviously, at this point no testing is done on not yet launched Alder Lake CPUs.
In Single Thread, there is not much that separates the M1 Pro from the best processors from Intel or AMD today. Apple’s chip falls between the Ryzen 9 5980HS and the Core i9-11980HK. However, the performance is more than 20 percent faster than the previous Intel processors that Apple used. And again, the power consumption is more favorable to the Apple SoC.
Other tests allow us to dig a little deeper, especially with Handbrake (again, a native application for Apple), Blender 2.91 or Adobe Premiere Pro. Our colleagues also tried to evaluate the M1 Pro in some games, but there the results are not really convincing against dedicated chips on X86 systems.
What is the verdict on the M1 Pro?
In conclusion, the Apple M1 Pro is an SoC that is very competitive with the best x86 laptop processors from Intel and AMD. It can noticeably gain the upper hand when it benefits from applications optimized for the M1 Pro’s specific features, like its extreme memory bandwidth. But it’s mostly on efficiency that the M1 Pro makes its mark. In heavy multithreaded CPU applications, performance can be similar to a Ryzen 9 5900HX, but power consumption is at least 10W lower. This is also why the new 16-inch MacBook Pro is almost silent even during 3D rendering. But everything is far from being rosy… Away from an electrical outlet, the MacBook Pro 16 and its M1 Pro are kings…The situation becomes much more complicated when we talk about maximum performance, i.e. with the charger connected. However, the real difference is objectively made when you have to take out your wallet. Because at this price level (more than 2700€) ALL X86 laptops are equipped with a powerful dedicated GPU and the GPU part of the M1 Pro is far behind in this respect. For productivity and especially for creation, the association of a CPU and a powerful GPU is crucial. In this respect, the M1 Pro does not compromise. On “optimized” applications, it will hold its own, on others it will be far behind (and we’re not talking about games). A situation that makes it difficult to recommend because of its lack of versatility. Finally, if we put aside fanboyism, the price, which is often the main criticism of Apple, is even more so in this case, since we can find X86 configurations that are much more rewarding and versatile. This is a shame when we know that the switch to its own SoC has considerably improved Apple’s margins. However, one should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. As we noted earlier, this M1 Pro is impressive and we’ll have to gauge the M1 Max next. On efficiency, it allows Apple to set new standards far from its former partners AMD and Intel. The 5nm of TSMC has helped. We will now have to watch the future AMD APU in 5nm and the new copy of Intel… Things will still move and probably very quickly.
