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Pemalite said:
Bofferbrauer2 said:

But if you want more CPU performance in gaming, X86 is still the way to go.

Don't bet on it.

Bofferbrauer2 said:

Nintendo choose ARM because it was the only possible choice for their hybrid form factor. But if you want more CPU performance in gaming, X86 is still the way to go.

Not exactly. There are other chips Nintendo could have opted for.

However... nVidia likely gave Nintendo a deal that was to good to pass up... But even before the Switch released there were chips available that could have beaten the old Maxwell Tegra.

Bofferbrauer2 said:

Also, don't get too hyped over the performance for Apple's new Laptop chips.
First, they're one process in front of AMD and 2 in front of Intel with the 5nm process, so they had more headroom from that.
Second, comparisons with x86 CPUs get a bit unfair at this point: Apple emphasized the singlecore performance - but was actually comparing their singlecore vs Intel's singlethread performance. if you fill the core with 2 threads to make a correct core vs core comparison, then the old Intel chip still stayed in front.
Third, the new MacBook Air comes with a hefty 68W PSU, implying that the chip doesn't pull less power than their previous Intel chips (which had PSUs that were only rated to 62W)

The new Apple silicon is great, no doubt about that. But it's not the be all, end all that you seem to make out of it.

I'm not an Apple fanatic, far from it.
However... Let's not get facts in the way of a good story.

In general the Apple M1 is beating the Ryzen 4700u in integrated graphics performance.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/16252/mac-mini-apple-m1-tested/3

Apple's M1 Firestorm cores is showcasing some very impressive floating point capabilities as well in single threaded workloads.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/16252/mac-mini-apple-m1-tested/4


The Firestorm cores are also dominating Intels best mobile chips in multi-threaded scenarios and trades places with AMD depending on test.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/16252/mac-mini-apple-m1-tested/5

Some more mixed benchies:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/16252/mac-mini-apple-m1-tested/2


In general... If the dataset is very cache and bandwidth heavy, x86 will definitely win... x86 also has the advantage of higher powerlevels to fall back into... But for all intents and purposes... We cannot confused Apples Firestorm cores as your typical ARM cores, they are very wide, high performant cores with many of the large x86 core design philosophies backing it, with much less of a power penalty.


You are right that the TSMC 5nm process does give Apple an advantage over AMD and especially Intel though.

Apples M1 chip is damn impressive, able to be competitive/beat Intel and AMD at a much smaller powerlevel.

At bolded: I was purely talking about CPU performance, since that is what the initial question was about. I know the GPU is much stronger than the one in the 4800U. But for the CPU, if we really compare core vs core and not core vs thread, then the M1 loses the CPU benchmarks despite being more modern.

At italic: Like I said, the new AMcBook Air has an even stronger PSU than the old one, so much smaller power level doesn't exactly sounds true. More likely is that due to the size of the SoC, it's much easier to cool. The old MacBook Air had a 45W rated cable, the new one is rated 61W, so the whole SoC definitely can pull more power if needed.