The big question surrounding this week’s launch of Apple Silicon (specifically, the M1 chip) is a simple one: will it be any good?
Of course, answering this is tough and relies on a multitude of factors, but we’ve just got our first clue that things might be heading in the right direction. Yep, I’m talking about the first ever Apple Silicon Geekbench results.
Basically, Geekbench is a benchmarking program. The software runs a series of tests and tracks how long a processor takes to complete them. These results are then turned into scores, with the higher being better.
And, damn, are the Apple Silicon Geekbench results high. Here are the results (single core / multi-core) of the base models of each machine:
To put that in perspective, all of these results would top the current overall single core processor benchmarks on Geekbench:
The Apple Silicon Geekbench results also blow the 2019 16″ i9 MacBook Pro out of the water. That scored: 1118 / 6762. Yes, the new M1 MacBook Air is meant to be faster than last year’s TOP laptop model.
Does this mean we should all leap around and celebrate? Well, yes and no.
The scores for the M1 chips are undoubtedly impressive and show that Apple is definitely onto somehing. That should be lauded. But there are still a lot of questions that need answering.
The Apple Silicon Geekbench results are based on perfect world conditions and performance is likely to be different when people begin using them day-to-day. There are also big questions about how software that’s been designed for Intel chips will function on Apple Silicon.
In other words, nothing has been decided yet. All we have at the minute are some numbers.
If you’re interested in following this rabbit hole further (and, damn, does it go deep) there are some fantastic articles out there. This one from AnandTech is gloriously in-depth, and I enjoyed this from Stratechery too.
As is the way of the internet, there are a lot of people raving about these Apple Silicon Geekbench results, alongside a lot of naysayers about the M1 in general — and that’s fine. The world would be boring otherwise. This news is simply confirmation that Apple is moving in the right direction and I, for one, can’t wait to see what the next few months hold.
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Published November 12, 2020 — 09:14 UTC
