[Preliminary] Apple M1 Pro (10 core) vs Apple M1 Pro (8 core) – the difference is bigger than expected

LaptopMedia.com Comparisons [Preliminary] Apple M1 Pro (10 core) vs Apple M1 Pro (8 core) - the difference is bigger than expected

From: Severin Kolakov 25 October 2021 / 03:25 0

The M1 Pro and M1 Max SoCs from Apple will for sure create a rift in the mobile CPU market, as they want to dominate the space. This will not bode well for AMD and Intel as they are used to only fighting each other, so when a new player enters the scene, everything is up for grabs.

However, Apple is still as confusing as ever, offering both an 8-core and a 10-core version of the M1 Pro, while also having the 10-core M1 Max. It’s all a tad confusing and that’s without entering the GPU territory.

With that said, today we are comparing the 10-core M1 Pro against its 8-core variant.

However, keep in mind that we are using preliminary results, which will be updated as soon as we get our hands on the MacBook Pro 14 and 16.

You can learn more about both CPUs here: M1 Pro (10-core) / M1 Pro (8-core)

Specs table

	M1 Pro (10-core)	M1 Pro (8-core)
Process Node	5nm	5nm
Transistors	33.7 billion	33.7 billion
CPU Cores	10	8
GPU Cores	14 or 16	14 or 16
Memory Bandwidth	204.8 GBps	204.8 GBps
Maximum Memory	64GB	64GB

CPU benchmarks

Here we see that both CPUs share identical Single-core scores, as they do use the same cores. Moving onto the Multi-core scores, the higher core count does make the difference, with the CPU having a lead of 20%.

Geekbench 5	Single-core	Multi-Core
Apple M1 Pro (10-core)	1768	11680 (+20%)
Apple M1 Pro (8-core)	1768	9731

In the Cinebench R23 benchmark, we have the same thing happening where the Single-core scores are the same. As expected, the 10-core M1 Pro performs better in the Multi-core test, with the lead this time increasing to 41%.

Cinebench R23	Single-core	Multi-Core
Apple M1 Pro (10-core)	1562	12370 (+41%)
Apple M1 Pro (8-core)	1562	8769

Conclusions

As expected the higher core count version of the M1 Pro delivers more performance. The amount is also quite significant, drawing some lines between them, thus making it easier for you to choose between them, depending on your workflow and needs.