Apple has released PCs equipped with Apple M1 chips. Many people may want to know the difference between the M1 chip and the Intel CPUs. In this post, MiniTool Partition Wizard introduces M1 vs Intel to you.
Since 2020, Apple has begun to offer PCs equipped with Apple M1 chip, Apple’s self-developed processor-on-chip system (SoC) based on the ARM architecture. These products include MacBook Air, Mac Mini, MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and iMac.
Although Apple also offers these products equipped with Intel CPUs, it’s obvious that Apple plans to abandon Intel CPUs once software environment around M1 chip is built well. Then, comparing Apple M1 chip vs Intel CPUs, which is better? Keep reading to know more about this topic.
![[5 Layers] Gaming CPU Hierarchy Charts: Intel and AMD](https://images.minitool.com/partitionwizard.com/images/uploads/2020/08/cpu-hierarchy-thumbnail.png)
Apple M1 vs Intel i7
Intel i7 series has many CPU products. Which i7 CPU should I choose? According to Notebookcheck website (data is updated in July 19, 2021), the best i7 CPU for laptop is Intel Core i7-11850H. Therefore, in this part, I will compare Apple M1 vs Intel i7-11850H.
1. M1 chip is usually used in laptops, so I will choose a mobile Intel CPU for comparison.
2. CPU hierarchy results from various CPU benchmark institutes may be a little different. But after analyzing these CPUs’ rankings and their parameters offered by Intel, I choose the CPU hierarchy result from Notebookcheck website as the final result.
The M1 vs i7-11850H specs are as follows:
| CPU | i7-11850H | Apple M1 |
| Lithography | 10 nm | 5nm |
| Core | 8 (16 threads) | 8 |
| Frequency | 2.50 GHz | 3.20 GHz |
| Max Turbo Frequency | 4.80 GHz | No Turbo |
| Bus Speed | 8 GT/s | N/A |
| Cache | 24 MB (L3) | 16 MB (L2) |
| TDP | 45 W | 15W |
| GPU | Intel UHD Graphics | 8-core GPU |
| GPU Base Frequency | 350 MHz | 3.20 GHz |
| GPU Max Dynamic Frequency | 1.45 GHz | N/A |
| GPU Execution Units | 32 | 128 |
| ISA | x86-64 (64 bit) | ARMv8-A64 (64 bit) |
Of course, they have more different points. If you want to know about their detailed parameters, you can refer to their official website page.
Then, comparing Apple M1 chip vs Intel i7-11850H, which is better? According to CPU-monkey benchmark results, the Intel i7-11850H is better in Cinebench R23/20/15 single-core and multi-core tests, which indicates that the Intel CPU is still the best CPU for gaming.
However, the Apple M1 chip performs better in Geekbench 5 64bit single-core and multi-core tests, which indicates that the M1 chip has better image processing and digital computing capabilities.
Apple M1 vs Intel i9
The best mobile Intel i9 CPU is i9-11980HK. Its specs are as follows:
- Lithography: 10 nm
- Core: 8 (16 threads)
- Frequency: 30 GHz
- Max Turbo Frequency: 5 GHz
- Bus Speed: 8 GT/s
- Cache: 24 MB
- TDP: 65 W
- GPU: Intel UHD Graphics
- ISA: x86-64 (64 bit)
Comparing i9-11980HK and i7-11850H, the two has almost no difference except that the former has higher frequency and more power consumption. As for the test results, they are similar to those of Apple M1 chip vs Intel i7-11850H.
Apple M1 vs Intel CPU Conclusion
Intel CPU is more suitable for gaming and has wide compatibility with various peripheral devices. However, the Apple M1 chip is only used on Apple devices and Apple can make the best optimization for the chip. Therefore, it can have better performance in Apple devices.
But please note that the M1 chip needs to use Rosetta 2 for software compatibility, because it is based on ARM architecture. This will affect performance a little.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Linda has been working as an editor at MiniTool for 5 years. She is always curious about computer knowledge and learns it crazily. Her articles are simple and easy to understand. Even people who do not understand computer can gain something. By the way, her special focuses are disk management, data recovery and PDF editing.