Apple hammered Intel with its first M1 chips. It offered a rare step-change in performance with the 2020 MacBook Air and 13 inch MacBook Pro. It is already competing with Nvidia and AMD's best GPUs less than a year later. The M1 Max and M1 Pro MacBook Pros offer a glimpse into how Apple's M1 chips scale to deliver raw performance comparable to discrete graphics cards found in Windows-powered laptops.
Nvidia has tried to win many Apple's creative and professional customers through its Studio laptops. But Apple has not only fixed the mistakes it made in its MacBook port selection and keyboard selection, but has also increased the performance of its M1 chips to match the expectations of laptops with 14- and 16 inch screens. It is easy to see why creative professionals are excited about the result.
Windows laptops have been increasingly attractive to Mac users over the past five year, but Apple's new M1 Pro/M1 Max chips change the balance, especially in the GPU realm. These chips look like early warning shots of Nvidia and AMD-powered competitors. Apple is confident that it can provide the same performance as top discrete graphics cards while using a lot less power. Apple's ambitious plan to switch its Mac lineup completely to Apple Silicon by 2022 is part of this. This is just a small glimpse of what Apple must have in mind for its most powerful Mac Pro, the Mac Pro.
Apple proudly displayed its M1 Max chip against two high-end Windows laptops last Wednesday. The M1 Max can use 100W less power and provide the same relative performance as Nvidia's GeForce GTX 3080 mobile chip. The M1 Max is Apple's largest chip, but it still integrates the graphics into a system on a chip (SoC) architecture. This is in contrast to the separate RTX3080 cards.
There are some caveats but it was not just talk. Early reviews support some of Apple's claims. Anandtech discovered that the M1 Pro as well as the M1 Max are capable of performing well under productivity-focused loads. A GFXBench test even showed it beating an RTX3080 laptop with Intels Core i9-1180HK flagship notebook processor. These are the kinds of loads that you would expect the M1 Max will perform well in, given Apple's ongoing efforts to improve its chips for productivity tasks.
YouTuber Dave2D discovered that the M1 Max performed slightly slower than a comparable RTX 3080 system when Adobe Premiere Pro tasks were being done. The M1 Max's performance is dependent on how much work is involved. In Dave2Ds testing, a render of Adobe Premiere Pro took 10 minutes 17 seconds. A similar render was completed in just 4 minutes 16 seconds using Apples Final Cut Pro software.
Gaming is where the M1 Max & M1 Pro really fail. The M1 Max performs in Shadow of the Tomb Raider like an RTX 3060. Midrange gaming is impressive for an SoC but it's disappointing compared with Apples claims. An RTX 3060 laptop is a significant step down from an RTX 3070 or an RTX 3080. Anandtechs testing also showed that the M1 Max flagship laptop performed less than the RTX3080 in Borderlands. While we are still reviewing Apple's new MacBook Pros, the M1 Max has been found to be comparable to an RTX3060 notebook for gaming.
It's not surprising that the M1 Max is struggling in this area, considering most macOS cross-platform apps are still x86. Another way to look at it is that Apples already matching RTX 3060, even without game developers optimizing for the M1 chips. Even though Apple has made a great start, there is no guarantee that Macs will be able to attract optimized games.
This is especially impressive considering the thermal headroom and power draw involved. The difference that a fan makes on the MacBook Pro 13 inch model is already evident compared to the fanless MacBook Air. We are now seeing how it performs with a 140W power adapter, a larger 14- or16-inch chassis to heat dissipate heat. Apple could do a lot with an iMac and Mac Pro with lots of time and space to create a bigger and more powerful GPU with fewer power and thermal constraints.
Anandtechs Andrei Frumusanu writes that it is clear that Apple's continued experience with GPUs has paid off. The new M1 SoCs are a clear demonstration that Apple can create the powerful GPUs they require for high-end computers. AMD and NVIDIA are not required to apply.
Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman claims that bigger chips are already in development. Apple has designed two versions of the next Mac Pro with 2x and 4x more CPU and GPU cores than the M1 Max. This will put Apple's ability to scale its M1 advantage to the test.
The new Mac Pro desktop will be available in two versions: 4X and 2X the amount of GPU and CPU cores than the M1 Max. This means that the high-end will have up to 40 CPU cores, and 128 GPU cores. Mark Gurman (@markgurman) October 18, 2021
AMD supplies Radeon Pro GPUs in Apple's Mac Pro models. If Apple's core count and performance can scale well on GPU side, then it is easy to see how Apples GPUs could surpass AMDs Radeon Pro W6000X cards. Apple has already achieved mobile RTX 3080s for some tasks using the M1 Max. We are eager to see what Apple's chip designers can do to make it more efficient in cooling its hardware to maximize performance.
Apple's desktop chips could deliver the performance improvements weve seen with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips. If software and games are optimized for the M1 Pro chips, Apple could redefine desktop PC performance expectations, much like it did with laptop chips last year.
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