After months of silence about Apple’s impressive M1 chip, Intel just hit back with a carefully crafted withdrawal of the Arm-based chip. It’s not pretty.
Intel said its tests show:
- An 11th generation i7-1185G7 Core can greatly match or exceed the performance of the M1 on a MacBook Pro in native and non-native applications.
- In battery life, it’s practically a wash.
- The MacBook Pro would not pass the test to be certified as an Evo laptop.
- The M1 just doesn’t run much software.
- The new MacBooks have a number of compatibility issues, from multiple monitors to game controllers, as well as many documented software plug-in issues.
In the jargon of our time, they are “fired shots” once again, with Intel highlighting problems with competing products. In November, Intel did the same with AMD’s Ryzen 4000, which found that it had degraded performance when running on battery in many situations.
The normal reaction of external observers and diehard Apple fanboys is to dismiss these challenges as green grapes. Intel, however, says it has reference revenues. As we like a good fight on TV, we will detail Intel’s statements and tell you whether you should believe them or not.
IntelClaim: MacBook M1 is slower than Core i7
Intel claims that in the WebXPRT 3 test, using the same version of Chrome for the Core i7 system and also for the Arm native MacBook, Intel takes the lead. The Intel chip was way ahead of the WebXPRT 3, and the x86 chip was almost three times faster when finishing the photo enhancement test.
Intel doesn’t just use WebXPRT 3, however. It also shows the Core i7 hitting the M1 in a PowerPoint to PDF export and several Excel macros by a factor of 2.3x. And yes, Intel used the native versions of the Office Arm for its testing.
Our opinion: We would really need to run similar tests, but we don’t doubt the results. Yes, you might think that a multi-billion dollar company arguing publicly with another multi-billion dollar company means “they are all fake benchmarks”, but this is probably not the case due to the huge liability risk that Intel may face. That’s why Diet Coke doesn’t openly classify Diet Pepsi as unpalatable (though it is) garbage.
What you I can The question is whether Intel has chosen tasks that favor its own CPU design. But even if you believe that, it does not invalidate the test, because exporting to a PDF is as real – although boring – as you can imagine.
We would also be remiss if we did not point out that WebXPRT 3 gives domestic advantage to Intel, as the reference developer (Principled Technologies) and Intel have had a long-standing relationship. This, however, does not necessarily mean that the benchmark favors Intel, as AMD’s Zen 3 currently has the lead over Intel’s mobile CPUs. However, Apple fans will certainly say that some fouls have been missed by the referees here.
IntelClaim: Core i7 smashes M1 into AI
For content creation tasks, Intel showed that the Core i7 is about 1.12x faster than the M1 in performing a 4K AVC to HEVC / H.265 file conversion. In this benchmark, they had the MacBook using the native M1 version of Handbrake.
But the real destruction happens when you get to Topaz Lab’s Gigapixel AI and Denoise AI, with the Intel Core chip crushing the M1 in AI-based noise removal and amplification. Or maybe “smash” is a very good term, since it’s more like the Core i7 outperforms the M1 by a lot, the M1 wishes it had never been designed.
Our opinion: With regard to video conversion, we think it is very close to being called between the two platforms and it is probably not something we would boast about if we were Intel. However, in AI resources, we think the results are quite real, because we witness this in our own tests M1 vs Core i7 and Ryzen. The 11th generation of Core i7-1185G7 defeats AMD’s Ryzen 4000U and Apple’s M1 so completely that we thought about calling 911 for someone to come over and do a wellness check.
It should be noted that Topaz Lab applications are among the few (but impressive) applications that were designed to take advantage of hardware acceleration within Intel’s CPUs. When you optimize your hardware, you get tons of performance gains. This is the same magic that has made Apple phones shine for so long.
Claim: M1 does not support all features
Intel also excels in Adobe Premiere Pro, using the native M1 beta version in Auto Reframe, exporting to H.264 and H.265. These are decent victories, but come on, the code is still in beta for Mac. Having said that, Intel points out that important features like Content Aware Fill are completely disabled in the beta, and that is a concern. If the native version of Photoshop is released and essential features are missing from it, this will be a major problem for Apple (and Adobe).
IntelGames: you can’t be faster if you can’t run it
For games, we see a certain swing between the Apple M1 and the Core i7 in games that actually work on the MacBook. Intel doesn’t let that end there, however, and decides to further embarrass Apple, showing the various games where the MacBook marks 0 because there is simply no support for games. Intel points out that “countless more” games “don’t run on the M1” and so, for good measure, it pushes Apple’s bank with a list of 10 more games you can’t play on the M1 MacBook:
- Overwatch
- Crysis Remastered
- Halo MCC
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- PUBG
- Monster Hunter World
- Doom Eternal
- Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020
- Apex Legends
- Rainbow Six Siege.
Our opinion: OK, we understand. Macs suck at gaming. All we can do is say that no rational person would disagree. For games, the Mac M1 is actually about 10 feet below the bottom level as a gaming platform compared to the PC – unless you count on running GeForce Now cloud games on it?
Claim: MacBook would not earn Evo certification
Do you know that sophisticated Intel Evo program that tries to improve the performance of the laptop in the main areas that bother consumers? Well, Intel basically says that if Apple submitted the MacBook M1 to the same program that Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Acer and others use, it would be rejected.
The reason? Intel says the MacBook M1 is too slow to do things that irritate consumers, like “switching to Calendar” in Outlook, “starting video conferencing with zoom” and “selecting image menu” in PowerPoint.
Our opinion: We also don’t know about AMD-based laptops with Evo certification. So while Intel may think it is an insult to Apple to deny Evo certification, we suspect that Apple will not mind one less badge on its laptops.
IntelGreat battery?
Perhaps the most shocking statement that Intel has shown is battery life. While performance tests can be handpicked by those looking to prove a result, battery life generally cannot be disputed.
Apple’s official claim gives the MacBook M1 up to 18 hours of battery life using the Apple TV app to watch 1080p video with the brightness set to “8 clicks from the bottom”. Apple also claims up to 15 hours browsing 25 “popular” sites with the same criteria as “8 clicks”.
When Intel compared a MacBook Air M1 with an Acer Swift 5 to a Core i7-1165G7, however, it found both basically dead. The MacBook Air arrived in 10 hours and 12 minutes, and the Acer Swift 5 lasted 10 hours and 6 minutes.
The difference? Intel said it used Safari to watch a Netflix stream with the tabs open and the screen set to 250 nits relatively bright. On Acer, Safari was replaced by Chrome, but the brightness and Netflix remained the same.
Intel added that Apple’s “8 clicks” has about 125 nits of brightness on the MacBook Air, which is quite weak.
Our opinion: We agree that 125 nits is a pretty silly glow to use for video testing. After all, who wants to “watch” a movie on a laptop, but makes the screen so dark that you can’t Watch most of it?
Probably the biggest disconnect here may be the difference between the Apple TV app, which could possibly be highly optimized instead of Safari, but it’s hard to believe that Safari is no longer highly optimized. We really want to do additional tests here.
IntelAll kinds of things just don’t work on the M1
Intel has not just entered the performance of the M1. He also said he found that the MacBook Pro had serious shortcomings, such as the inability to use more than one screen with a Thunderbolt dock.
And while the PC can use gaming headsets, eGPUs, a third-party fingerprint reader, Wacom Drawing tablet and Xbox Controller, Intel said it found that the MacBook Pro just doesn’t work with eGPUs and has had several problems with other devices .
This is just hardware incompatibility. Intel’s rap battle with Apple also highlights problems with plug-ins for Ableton, Bitwig Studio, Avid Pro Tools, FL Studio, Motu and many others.
Our opinion: The fact that the MacBook can only use a single external display is a major problem. We would like to check it out for ourselves, but it is a serious weakness in this multi-monitor world. Fortunately, it’s just a bug in the new platform, but as far as we know, it’s a hardware limitation as well.
We have long said that the lack of eGPU is a major weakness, because who doesn’t want more performance for games? But to be fair: we have already emphasized that the Mac is worthless for games, so what exactly do you need this eGPU for?
Intel’s view of software issues is a little less problematic, we think. When you pull the game and tell all your developers to rewrite the software for another new architecture … well, things are going to break.
The good news for MacBook M1 users is that these applications and plug-ins are likely to be fixed eventually. Remember that this does not mean that everything will be fixed for free. We’ve seen developers use the opportunity (which can be justified) to fix problems in the next version that, by the way, you will have to buy again.
Intel lost acoustics
One point that Intel did not cover, and we know why, is the acoustics. One of the surprising and unique features of the new MacBook M1 is the almost absence of fan noise (it is there and you can start it using Topaz Lab products), but all reviews have properly praised Apple’s quiet operation. This is something that today’s PCs easily lose.
Conclusion
While some will say that Intel’s advances in Apple are unworthy, we disagree. Apple was the first to throw mud when it threw Intel into the sea unceremoniously, so it is within Intel’s right to throw mud back. However, we would like to test some of Intel’s most serious hardware compatibility and battery life claims.
IntelTake these pictures of people using black and white PCs, add an uplifting soundtrack and maybe insert the smooth voice of Matthew McConaughey’s narration, and you would have an Apple commercial.