Apple's claims about the M1 Pro's and M1 Max's performance seem legitimate, as more benchmarks emerge. Redditor GFXBench scores for M1 Max were found to be around 25% faster than Nvidia RTX 3070. This places it in line with Apple's charts as presented.
Reddit user senttoschool posted first M1 Max GFXBench scores to the r/Hardware section. These results are not surprising, but it is prudent to be skeptical. The submission to GFXBench was made using Apples Metal API. This is in contrast to the Nvidia/AMD results using OpenGL on Windows.
Comparing M1 Max results with the RTX 3080 Mobile (the same GPUs Apple used in its presentation), shows that the Apple Silicon is either outperforming or within striking distance of these GPUs when looking at offscreen results.
It is quite amazing to compare the Aztec Ruins Normal Tier Offscreen results with other GPUs. The M1 Max is more powerful than many desktop graphics cards including the Radeon RX 6800 XT and RTX 2080 Super. However, the M1 Max's ability to keep up with desktop components is a major game changer.
These benchmarks aren't the only ones that support the M1 Max's performance. We reported just a few days back on the early Geekbench scores of the M1 Max. The benchmark showed that the M1 Max scored 1,749 on the single-core test, and 11,542 in the multi-core test. The M1 Max performs almost 60% better in multicore performance than Apple's M1 silicon found in the MacBook Pro 13.-inch.
Raw power is not the only thing that can be achieved here. These performance gains were achieved despite the M1 Pro Pro and Max using 70% less power than Intel's offerings. The maximum wattage that can be used to charge the new MacBook Pro 16" is 140 watts. Only the desktop RTX2080 Super has a 250W TGP.
It is important to be skeptical about these numbers, as I have said before. Apple's Metal API is better than OpenGL because it is tailored for Apple hardware.
This also means that apps made specifically for Apple Silicon may see greater performance. Apple has alerted Intel, AMD, and Nvidia to its massive vertical integration advantage. It will be interesting for them to counter this.
Recommendations of Editors
