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    Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

    (www.macrumors.com)
    1080 points antipaul | 17 comments | 12 Nov 20 00:56 UTC | HN request time: 0.511s | source | bottom
    1. throwaway888abc ◴[12 Nov 20 02:41 UTC] No.25065824[source]▶
    Dell Inc. XPS 15 9575 vs MacBookAir10,1

    https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/compare/4654605?baselin...

    Opinion: Pretty and impressive story

    replies(9): >>25065878 #>>25065882 #>>25065898 #>>25065902 #>>25065907 #>>25065967 #>>25065979 #>>25066185 #>>25066192 #
    2. adamnemecek ◴[12 Nov 20 02:52 UTC] No.25065878[source]▶
    The MacBook has 8 cores vs 4 (hyperthreaded) in the Dell.
    replies(3): >>25065896 #>>25065904 #>>25065927 #
    3. ◴[12 Nov 20 02:53 UTC] No.25065882[source]▶
    4. nkirsch ◴[12 Nov 20 02:56 UTC] No.25065896[source]▶
    M1 doubled it on single core performance.
    5. prawn ◴[12 Nov 20 02:56 UTC] No.25065898[source]▶
    Not sure if this is in any way a useful comparison, but it's what I currently use and am looking to replace:

    Mid-2015 15" MacBook Pro vs MacBookAir10,1 https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/compare/4643216?baselin...

    replies(1): >>25066255 #
    6. auslegung ◴[12 Nov 20 02:56 UTC] No.25065902[source]▶
    This seems more relevant to me, 2019 16" MBP vs 2020 13" MBA https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/compare/4651583?baselin.... It is quite close! Not sure how significant it is that these tests were done on different versions of geekbench, so maybe caveat?
    7. abc_lisper ◴[12 Nov 20 02:56 UTC] No.25065904[source]▶
    Single core scores are indicative too
    8. akhilcacharya ◴[12 Nov 20 02:57 UTC] No.25065907[source]▶
    The cache comparison is especially striking. Wow.

    I’d love to see one of these go head to head compiling a large project etc.

    9. raverbashing ◴[12 Nov 20 03:00 UTC] No.25065927[source]▶
    Not really. It's 8 big/small cores, so only 4 are "fast" ones

    Which makes it even more impressive.

    10. gaul ◴[12 Nov 20 03:08 UTC] No.25065967[source]▶
    Note that this laptop uses Kaby Lake based on the older Skylake design. Newer laptops use Sunny Cove based on Ice Lake and have improved single-core performance.
    11. jaas ◴[12 Nov 20 03:09 UTC] No.25065979[source]▶
    The Intel chip in that comparison was released in Q1 2018, almost three years ago now. How is this a helpful comparison?

    https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/130411/...

    replies(1): >>25075184 #
    12. ◴[12 Nov 20 03:45 UTC] No.25066185[source]▶
    13. bosswipe ◴[12 Nov 20 03:46 UTC] No.25066192[source]▶
    A better comparison would be the new XPS 13 which beats it at single core but only has 4 cores to MacBookAir10's 8 https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/compare/4309589?baselin...
    replies(1): >>25070434 #
    14. bocklund ◴[12 Nov 20 03:55 UTC] No.25066255[source]▶
    This is definitely compelling. I’m still going to try holding out until the Apple Silicon 16”, but my computer is more and more reminding me how long ago 2015 was.
    replies(1): >>25066449 #
    15. prawn ◴[12 Nov 20 04:28 UTC] No.25066449{3}[source]▶
    In the same boat. My 2015 is great but for the fact I do a lot of video and photo editing these days, and those apps push this machine to its limits. My fan runs at the highest speed all day.
    16. kllrnohj ◴[12 Nov 20 14:49 UTC] No.25070434[source]▶
    The M1 is a 4+4 big.little core configuration. It only has 4 fast cores, not 8. In a multi-threaded workload those little cores will still help, sure, but not nearly as much.

    Hence why in that multi-core result the 4c Intel is way closer to the 8c M1 than it "should" be.

    17. noahtallen ◴[12 Nov 20 21:18 UTC] No.25075184[source]▶
    The 2019 16” MBP (the one many pros will spring for) is still running the 9th gen intel. So a lot of people will either still have these chips, or will still be considering them in an upgrade.