Intel responds to Apple’s M1 chips with handpicked benchmarks

The PC industry’s response to Apple’s new M1 chips has been quite silent so far. Intel is attacking Apple’s new MacBooks M1 with some benchmarks of its own, after the first reviews showed impressive performance and battery life for Apple’s ARM-based chips.

In benchmarks published by Tom’s Hardware, Intel compares its 11th generation Core i7 processor with the M1 CPU found on the latest MacBook Pro. Intel claims that its latest chips have outperformed Apple’s M1 by 30 percent in Chrome’s overall navigation tasks and in each of your carefully selected Office 365 tasks.

Image: Intel

Intel’s benchmarks also include comparisons between HandBrake transcoding, Adobe Premiere Pro exports, and tasks in Photoshop and Lightroom Classic. Intel’s 11th generation chips also beat Apple’s M1 in all of these tasks.

Intel also tested the games on both chips, mainly to point out that most games are not available on macOS. Of the games tested, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Hitmanand Borderlands 3 all run at higher average frame rates on the M1, however.

This range of benchmarks has clearly been handpicked to favor Intel chips, especially as some make use of Intel hardware acceleration. Most tests are not industry standard benchmarks, and Intel even switched the MacBook Pro it was testing to a MacBook Air specifically for battery life tests. Reviewers regularly found that the battery life of the MacBook Pro is longer than that of the MacBook Air and similar Windows laptops, but Intel used Air in its comparisons to show that it outperformed PCs in six minutes.

Image: Intel

Intel also argues that PCs offer more options, better peripheral compatibility and support for multiple monitors. These are particularly valid points, especially when you consider that the M1 MacBook Pro and Air support only a single external monitor.

What Intel’s hand-picked benchmarks don’t really cover is the experience of using an M1 device compared to existing Intel-based MacBooks. Apple’s latest laptops are quiet during most operations, with no loud fans, impressive battery and solid software compatibility. The transition from Apple’s processor to its own silicon was surprisingly smooth, and this is only the first generation of chips to hit the market.

Intel is clearly concerned about Apple’s first chips, and we are now expecting the company to respond with its own processors instead of benchmarks. The entire PC industry will need to respond to Apple at a time when laptop sales are booming. Intel’s new CEO Pat Gelsinger seems determined to fight Apple’s M1 chips for years to come, and he has already made it clear that Intel has to beat Apple in the future.