And by properly comparing, we don’t mean running Geekbench and calling it a day.
That doesn’t mean it’s better, it just goes about things in a different way.
There’s also lots of L2 cache and 24 MB of top level cache on the M1 Pro.
For our testing we purchased a 16-inch MacBook Pro with the full M1 Pro configuration.
There are, of course, some added challenges which we’ve spent the last week working through.
Namely, not all applications we benchmark are available on macOS.
Let’s get to the testing.
Also of note is the IntelCore i7-10875H.
However performance is more than 20% faster than the previous Intel CPUs Apple used to use.
Until Blender is updated with GPU support, MacBook Pros are not the best option.
I suspect these new MacBooks will be excellent for coders.
Microsoft Excel is available natively for Apple Silicon, and our number crunching benchmark works just fine.
The Core i9-11980HK is 23% faster, and the Ryzen 9 5900HX ends up slightly ahead.
However the tables turn when using 7-zip decompression.
PDF exporting is a single-threaded app and Acrobat Pro is only available via Rosetta 2 emulation on macOS.
FL Studio is a new addition to our benchmarking and something we’ve been exploring for some time now.
While there is a native Apple version of the app, unfortunately it runs terribly on the M1 Pro.
This is undoubtedly an excellent result, but let’s dive deeper into the subscores.
Then we get to the GPU score where performance is below that of the RTX 3050 as expected.
A new addition to our compute benchmarking is Gigapixel AI image upscaling, using Topaz Labs' popular tool.
We’re using the latest beta version of the app which has native Apple Silicon support.
Lastly we have Civilization VI, which we test using low options mostly for integrated graphics comparisons.
With more powerful GPUs it tells us about CPU limited performance.
First up we have Cinebench R23 multi-threading, which highlights the great efficiency of the M1 Pro.
Where Apple sees the biggest lead on its competitors in efficiency is in Cinebench single threading.
The M1 Pro is also exceptionally efficient while gaming.
What We Learned
From a pure performance perspective, the Apple M1 Pro is an impressive SoC.
On the whole though, you’re definitely getting modern cutting-edge performance.
Performance, while good, isn’t the star of the show though.
It’s the efficiency that elevates the M1 Pro into a class of its own.
The whole design is built around efficiency and the results are excellent for battery life.
With that sort of advantage, Apple should be ahead, and they are.
So the performance and efficiency of the M1 Pro are very good, but I do have some complaints.
Rosetta 2 works very well, but it costs you performance and efficiency.
Gaming is also somewhat laughable on macOS, both from a compatibility and performance standpoint.
Macs don’t have that versatility, and the M1 Pro is a poor choice for gaming.
Apple are reaming you for absolutely everything you’ve got with this release.
And I’m not even talking about more value oriented Windows laptops which are an entirely separate matter.
