Apple's M1 MacBook Air smashes Windows on ARM in new benchmarks
A benchmark test published on Tuesday shows a massive performance gap between Mac computers powered by Apple's M1 chip and Windows on ARM machines running the latest 64-bit x86 apps via an official emulator.
Conducted by PCWorld, the evaluation pits a Microsoft Surface Pro X against the new M1 MacBook Air, two devices that incorporate ARM processors.
As noted by the publication, there are precious few ARM-based Windows boxes from which to choose as only two chips -- Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8cx and Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 -- power the platform. Microsoft's derivative SQ1 and SQ2 processors, designed in partnership with Qualcomm, are in the Surface Pro X.
PCWorld's Windows testbed relied on a first-generation SQ1, though any gains derived from the more recent SQ2 are thought to be insignificant.
The MacBook Air crushed the Surface Pro X in both single- and multi-score Geekbench 5 testing. Apple's new laptop scored 1730 points in the single-core process, beating Surface's score by just over 1000 points. Multi-core testing revealed an even larger disparity, with MacBook Air clocking 7454 points to Surface's 2734 points.
Results from Maxon's Cinebench also gave the M1 a commanding lead with single- and multi-core scores landing at 1496 and 6838, respectively, handily beating Surface Pro X's 371 and 1604.
Moving on to open source video transcoding tool Handbrake, MacBook Air finished transcoding a 12-minute 4K video into a 1080p H.265 file six times faster than the Surface.
It should be noted that Microsoft's 64-bit x86 emulator is still in beta. Still, even with a concerted software development effort, Windows on ARM lacks the hardware chops to catch up with Apple's macOS and M1 integration.
The first in an expected line of in-house designed Mac chips, the M1 debuted in November and currently powers the new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini. Early benchmarks, and AppleInsider's own reviews, have revealed blazing compute speeds and extremely high levels of power efficiency compared to legacy Intel models.
With high performance chip designs on the horizon, Apple Silicon could soon represent a paradigm shift in personal computing.
Conducted by PCWorld, the evaluation pits a Microsoft Surface Pro X against the new M1 MacBook Air, two devices that incorporate ARM processors.
As noted by the publication, there are precious few ARM-based Windows boxes from which to choose as only two chips -- Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8cx and Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 -- power the platform. Microsoft's derivative SQ1 and SQ2 processors, designed in partnership with Qualcomm, are in the Surface Pro X.
PCWorld's Windows testbed relied on a first-generation SQ1, though any gains derived from the more recent SQ2 are thought to be insignificant.
The MacBook Air crushed the Surface Pro X in both single- and multi-score Geekbench 5 testing. Apple's new laptop scored 1730 points in the single-core process, beating Surface's score by just over 1000 points. Multi-core testing revealed an even larger disparity, with MacBook Air clocking 7454 points to Surface's 2734 points.
Results from Maxon's Cinebench also gave the M1 a commanding lead with single- and multi-core scores landing at 1496 and 6838, respectively, handily beating Surface Pro X's 371 and 1604.
Moving on to open source video transcoding tool Handbrake, MacBook Air finished transcoding a 12-minute 4K video into a 1080p H.265 file six times faster than the Surface.
It should be noted that Microsoft's 64-bit x86 emulator is still in beta. Still, even with a concerted software development effort, Windows on ARM lacks the hardware chops to catch up with Apple's macOS and M1 integration.
The first in an expected line of in-house designed Mac chips, the M1 debuted in November and currently powers the new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini. Early benchmarks, and AppleInsider's own reviews, have revealed blazing compute speeds and extremely high levels of power efficiency compared to legacy Intel models.
With high performance chip designs on the horizon, Apple Silicon could soon represent a paradigm shift in personal computing.
Comments
Surely there are some native apps for Windows for ARM. How about Microsoft Office which just announced support for M1 Macs today. Is there a Microsoft Office for Windows for ARM yet? That would be a pretty good comparison.
I was expecting to see Parallels or another emulator running Windows better.
My 2012 Mini runs Windows better than most dedicated Windows machines.
UPDATE: the PCWorld comparison used the new (beta) emulator.😳
iPhone smashes knockoff iPhones
iPad smashes knockoff iPads
Airpods smashes knockoff Airpods
Edit:
I realize people will come and defend the knockoff Mac software because they have a squirt of originality compared to most knockoffs. My point wasn't that they're knockoffs but that Apple always smashes the followers. Doesn't surprise me here either.
Anyway, the Geekbench results are all native.
In Cinebench the MacBook app is running native, but we can use the Mac mini Cinebench under Rosetta scores from Anandtech: 999 and 5257 (single and multi). Still miles away.
Edit:
Martin Nobel run Cinebench R23(x64) in Windows inside a virtual machine running on a Mac M1. The single core score was 495!!!!!!! Still ahead even though it is running in a non-optimised virtual machine. Amazing.
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2020/11/16/performance-of-rosetta-2-on-apple-m1/
You all should know that Roseta will smoke any other x86 emulations for long as M1 has unique features speeding x86 emulation. dont remember what exactly but was something with memory ordering or task scheduling....
even if MS does port Windows to ASi it will still lack native software unless the individual developers cross-compile. Would they do that for such a small target audience if they aren’t being forced to do so is the question. Here’s where Microsoft gets screwed by its primary selling point—backwards compatibility. They will have to sacrifice that if they want to make a forced-march to a different ASI, and they must make a forced March if they want their developers to go along. My money says they never leave x86, for better or worse.
it will be interesting to see what solutions Arm is able to bring to the table, but they are even more compromised by their architecture.
One such advantage is in how memory is utilised on the ARM based Macs, which is why a laptop with just 8GB of ram is able to run not just professional software, but not slow down while using that software in rapid switching between different applications. This is simply not possible for Windows and Android on comparable hardware. This effect is already noticed on smartphones, where the iPhones need less ram to perform the same functions and can always rapidly switch between apps.
As Apple make the hardware and software, they have also tailored the system to take advantage of these differences, generating these further gains which aren't trivially measured with a benchmarking tool, but experienced in real world use.
I think MS problem isn‘t being unable to force-march developers, it’s not giving good incentives for developers to program for ARM. There is no strategy for a broad ARM ecosystem of Windows computers, from tablets to workstations. If there aren’t ARM machines for power users and there is no Windows ARM machine that really disrupts what Intel machines offer, then most developers will not see why is it worth investing time and money supporting these ARM machines, even more so when there is x64 emulation.
I mean, if no one tries to sell an ARM Windows machine arguing it has better performance than an Intel alternative, then no consumer that buys it will really care too much about wether the app is native or not... it’s not like they will have high expectations.
1. Rosetta is not emulation (as others have pointed out). It translates x64 code so that it can run natively on the M1's CPU and GPU cores. That translation happens when the application is installed or run for the first time after an update. It can also happen JIT (just in time) when arbitrary x64 code is executed.
2. The point of the comparison wasn't about the performance of the hardware (M1 vs. SQ1), it was about the real world performance of the system, including the operating systems. This is the performance a user can expect to get out of the system.
The Mac user, even at the debut of the machine, appears to have to make few, if any, real compromises. The machine is so fast it runs software that's not complied for its processor at very acceptable speeds. Most software just works. Software that is compiled for it runs really quickly. Benefit = superfast machine for most software. Best in class battery life. Lots of other ARM related benefits that we all know about.
The PC user wanting to experience the benefits of ARM is hugely compromised. Microsoft is well behind the curve here and this issue is not likely to be fixed in the short term. The machine is expensive, extremely slow, with loads of software compatibility issues and the battery life is probably half what the Mac user is getting. All in all, it's an absolute turkey.
It does though help to highlight the fantastic job Apple is doing here. This is not easy. I'm sure next year will see some new form factors that take further advantage of Apple Silicon and Apple's excellent industrial design know-how.