[Comparison] Intel Core i7-1250U vs Apple M1 – Good longevity on the side of Apple

The 9W Core i7-1250U is made for ultra-thin enterprise devices that want to remain powerful and well-performing under all conditions. With the lower wattage, there’s less pressure on the chip to perform, as it can boost up and clock higher if conditions allow it.

The Apple M1 is another low-TDP SoC, which comes in at just 10W. Also, it can be found for a relatively good price, as the MacBook Air 13 starts off at just $999, which is a decent starting point to enter the Apple ecosystem.

Today we’re comparing the Intel Core i5-1250U against the Apple M1, to see what

You can take a look at our Top Laptop CPU Ranking, where we showcase the best and the newest laptop processors.

You can find more information about both CPUs here: Intel Core i7-1250U / Apple M1

Specs table

Intel Core i7-1250UApple M1
ArchitectureAlder Lake UApple M-series
Cores / Threads10/128/8
Clock Speeds – Base/Boost0.80 – 4.70GHz2.06 – 3.20GHz
Cache12MB16MB
Lithography10nm5nm
TDP9W10W
Memory type

LPDDR5-5200, LPDDR4x-4267

LPDDR4X-4266 MHz SDRAM
Integrated GPUIntel Iris Xe Graphics G7 (96EU)Apple M1 GPU (8-core)

CPU benchmarks

The Core i7-1250U comes in with a 42% lead in Cinebench 20, while Cinebench 23 scores are close to being dead even. Lastly, when comparing Geekbench 5 single and multi-core tests, the M1 comes in with 40% higher score in single-core and 68% higher score in multi-core.

Results are from the Cinebench R23 CPU test (the higher the score, the better)

Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the better)

Geekbench 5SingleMulti
Intel Core i7-1250U
1237
4492
Apple M11727 (+40%)7564 (+68%)
Cinebench R23
Intel Core i7-1250U7766
Apple M1 7782

GPU benchmarks

The Apple M1’s GPU scores 53% higher in 3DMark Wildlife Extreme.

3DMark Wildlife Extreme
Intel Core i7-1250U – Iris Xe Graphics G7 (96EU)3082
Apple M1 4719 (+53%)

Conclusion

The M1 SoC houses an efficient CPU and GPU combo with good performance, especially in actively cooled MacBook Pro laptops. Both when it comes to computational and graphics performance, the Core i7-1250U gets outclassed. On the other hand, laptops with the Intel chip will probably come a  bit cheaper, as you can check prices below of available devices with both the Core i7 as well as the Apple M1.

All laptops with the Intel Core i7-1250U:


All laptops with the Apple M1:

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