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Comment by geerlingguy | Hacker News Reader

Not only that, the efficiency (FP64, HPL) is also beating all the M4/M3/M2/M1 systems I've tested besides the M4 Mac mini: https://github.com/geerlingguy/top500-benchmark#results

I think the bigger news is Intel's made a chip that isn't just pushing clocks to hit some performance number, they've actually tuned clocks for efficiency... which also leads to much better battery life.

And the fan on the system in the original article[1] also allows the Intel system to run substantially faster for longer tasks (where the Neo thermally saturates and has to stay throttled).

(The iGPU is another matter... sadly still a bit lacking.)

I'm hoping Intel makes a follow-up to the N100-series chips with just four of their newer low power E-cores.

[1] https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2026/excited-for-intel-eff...

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Efficiency is one thing.

Efficiency and performance is another.

We've long known that pushing clock speeds results in diminishing efficiency, so it's about time we see Intel stop pushing the clocks (and power) so hard that the chip melts down and the battery drains quickly.

“But they can’t match Intels performance” used to be the rejoinder of the Intel crowd. Now we’ve come full circle.

Until Intel is capable of making a fanless laptop chip that also has industry leading single core performance, they aren't in the same ballpark.

Getting sustained single-core performance requires you to push the P-cores to junction temp. It's only efficient in bursty workloads, under load it will go back to Intel-tier efficiency.

Intel's actual problem was that their process fell behind TSMC's. That meant competing on performance per watt was out of the question and the best they could do was turn up the clock speed and try to stay on top for performance.

If they've managed to fix their process then they don't have to do that anymore.

They have finally prioritized buying leading edge Fab technology over stock buybacks, so their design team finally has a chance.

Ok so Intel managed to make a 20W TDP chip that gets 6.x Gflops/W. Call me back when they’ve got a chip that still gets 6.x Gf/W with a 200W 1,200Gflop package like the M3 next on your list. This little fellow is only 50% more efficient than my aging M1 Max!

It’s great that they are making progress. Competition is good. They certainly need good news right now. I have exactly one intel cpu in my house in a NUC I got off eBay and it’s about to be replaced by my M4 mini. My other x86 are Zen (threadripper, 5800x3d, 5950s).

Yeah, the first step is they realize pushing clocks is not the most important thing; second step is to apply that to other chips they make too! I want to see more desktop and server chips getting closer to Arm efficiency.

> I have exactly one intel cpu in my house in a NUC I got off eBay and it’s about to be replaced by my M4 mini.

Do some tests pre and post upgrade. It’s ridiculous how efficient the mini is. My power usage is about 1/12 what it was with a Nuc.

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