Reality-checking the benchmarks: Intel’s Alder Lake Core i9 vs Apple’s M1 Max

Intel’s Alder Lake processor is beginning to grow to be out there in PC laptops and which means one factor: benchmarks! Macworld’s sister publication, PCWorld, posted a evaluation of one of many first laptops with the Core i9-12900HK processor (code-named Alder Lake), and it inevitably received us eager about Apple’s M1 Professional and Max.

To be clear, PCWorld didn’t embrace Apple silicon in its evaluation—they’re reviewing Home windows-based laptops and evaluating Alder Lake to its predecessor and a brand new 8-core Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU. Lots of the benchmark applications PCWorld used aren’t even out there on the Mac or shouldn’t have native M1 variations, however PCWorld did run Geekbench and Cinebench, two benchmarks Macworld additionally makes use of. And we discovered lots from them.

First, let’s take a look at the specs for the laptops:

• 14-inch MacBook Professional M1 Professional: 10-core M1 Professional (8 efficiency and a couple of effectivity); 16-core GPU; 32GB of DDR5/6400 RAM; 1TB SSD; Liquid Retina XDR show with ProMotion (120Hz max refresh charge)
• 14-inch MacBook Professional M1 Max: 10-core M1 Max (8 efficiency and a couple of effectivity); 32-core GPU; 64GB of DDR5/6400 RAM; 4TB SSD; Liquid Retina XDR show with ProMotion (120Hz max refresh charge)
• MSI GE76 Raider: Twelfth-gen Intel 14-core Core i9-12900HK (6 efficiency cores and eight effectivity cores); Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop computer GPU; 32GB of DDR5/4800 RAM; 2TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSDs; 1080p show with a 360Hz refresh charge

is a common, general utilization benchmark that we use to check all of Apple’s chips in Macs and iPhones. In Geekbench 5’s multi-core CPU take a look at, the Alder Lake Core i9 has a 5 % lead over Apple’s processor. Within the single-core take a look at, Alder Lake’s enchancment was 3.5 %. That’s mainly a draw. Alder Lake has a slight edge, nevertheless it many circumstances, you received’t even discover a distinction.

Geekbench 5’s OpenCL graphics benchmark outcomes look dramatic. The PC laptops PCWorld examined have costly discrete GPUs that supply peak efficiency, and it reveals within the outcomes. However a extra relevant comparability is to look at the outcomes for the built-in GPUs. On this case, the M1 Max and its 32-core GPU posts a 183 % enhance over the Alder Lake’s built-in GPU, an Iris Xe.

One other well-liked benchmark is , which performs 3D modeling and is a multi-threaded take a look at, so the extra cores a CPU has, the higher. It additionally places fixed stress on the CPU and isn’t supposed to gauge efficiency bursts. On this take a look at, we don’t have numbers for the M1 Max; our outcomes come from an M1 Professional in our evaluation of the 14-inch MacBook Professional. Right here, Alder’s Lake’s benefit is extra obvious, posting a end result that’s a 29 % enchancment over the M1 Professional.

What about energy effectivity?

PCWorld ran a few checks to gauge the facility draw of the Alder Lake-equipped laptop computer. In the course of the Cinebench R23 multi-core take a look at, the Alder Lake laptop computer was constantly within the 100-watt vary, with spikes between 130 and 140 watts. We haven’t examined the facility draw of the M1 Professional/Max ourselves, however used Cinebench R23 and located that the M1 Max’s energy draw was 39.7 watts versus over 100 for the Eleventh-gen MSI GE76 Raider. That’s lots lower than Alder Lake.

In PCWorld’s testing, the MSI GE76 Raider received 6 hours of offline video playback, a far cry from the MacBook Professional’s 17 hours. That’s an enormous distinction, particularly on a laptop computer. Granted, the MSI GE76 Raider received’t enterprise too removed from an influence outlet and has fully completely different calls for than the MacBook Professional, however Apple has managed to ship speeds which can be almost as spectacular as Intel’s greatest with out sacrificing effectivity.

A win for Intel with an asterisk

PC followers will certainly take these first spherical of outcomes and use them to brag and that’s tremendous. However Intel’s win right here is filled with caveats. For one, there are energy consumption issues and battery life. For an additional, the laptop computer examined prices $3,999 and represents absolutely the top-of-the-line Intel has to supply in a laptop computer. Apple’s 14-inch M1 Professional MacBook Professional prices half as a lot and performs almost as properly.

In the long run, although, evaluating Alder Lake and the M1 finally ends up being a easy tutorial train that doesn’t quantity to a lot. Rumors have popped up stating that Apple may proceed to supply Intel processors in a Mac Professional to accommodate these energy customers who depend on Intel-native software program, so there’s some relevance there. However in any other case, Apple’s Mac lineup goes to be fully M-based by the tip of this 12 months, so who cares how Intel processors do? If something, the outcomes reaffirm that Apple silicon on the Mac is the way in which to go—even for PC customers.