Intel benchmarks say Apple's M1 isn't faster: Reality checked claims
pcworld.com
pcworld.com
Source: https://newsroom.intel.com/news/11th-gen-h35-processors-fast...
There's some realistic stuff here, like exporting a Powerpoint presentation to PDF, but it seems likely that these examples were chosen from many more that favoured the M1.
I also wonder if part of this is use of the Intel optimising compiler (which I've heard very good things about). Maybe the PDF code in Office is just compiled for Intel x86? Does that make the Intel processor better than the M1? Arguably yes, but is software an easier gap to close than hardware?
As Apple expand their range it will be interesting to see where the M1 lands in their line-up. Is it the i7 rival, or is it the i3/i5 rival? I'd expect it to end up as the latter.
Benchmarks have been critical to Intel marketing its chips over 30 years, regardless as to whether or not they improve user experience (Netburst, the death of Ghz growth).
And intel's business practices show it will stop at nothing, business or technical, to enhance monopoly and reduce competition. Intel's compilers are a great example of of the yin and yang of intel's history: unquestioned technical value, but laced with noisome monopolistic practices.
Pieces like this are inevitable, given the media reach of Intel, and the basic practice of a large behemoth of distraction and denial when broadsided with a genuinely new and dangerous weapon: slow the adoption until some response can be mustered.
What is clear from the reviews of M1 is that Apple has achieved something Intel really hasn't in a decade: tangible improvement to the user experience between temperature, battery life, and startup time.
Which is really a benchmark of Windows Office vs. Mac Office. Mac Office is a dumpster fire.
Expect an m2 or other variant to challenge i7 in middle and high end devices.