[Preliminary] Apple M1 vs Intel Core i9-9980HK – Apple’s first entry in the CPU markets performs 50% better than the Core i9 in Single-core and 13% in Multi-core

From: Severin Kolakov 27 November 2020 / 06:17 | 0

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With the introduction of the Apple M1, the first things that people saw were the outrageous claims that the Cupertino-based company had stated.

But as we saw from our previous preliminary comparisons, some of which we will leave down below, the M1 is a serious contender to be a top CPU in the market, taking victories against other processors, which on paper, look more powerful, but in reality, tend to perform worse than this new Apple CPU.

You can look at our Top Laptop CPU Ranking to find the best-performing CPUs for laptop devices.

Below are some of our preliminary comparisons of the Apple M1 against other popular CPUs.

Apple M1 vs Intel Core i7-1165G7

Apple M1 vs AMD Ryzen 7 4800H

Here is some more information about both CPUs: Apple M1 / Intel Core i9-9980HK

Specs table

	Apple M1	Intel Core i9-9980HK
Cores / Threads	8/8	8/16
TDP	10W	45W
Cache	16MB	16MB
Lithography	5nm	14nm

CPU benchmarks

In the Geekbench 5 Single-core test the Apple M1 won convincingly with a 50% increase in performance. When it came to the Multi-core test, scores were closer, when all of the cores and threads in the Core i9 kick in. However, it wasn’t enough, and the Apple M1 won again this time with a 13% lead.

Geekbench 5	Single-core	Multi-core
Apple M1	1687(+50%)	7433(+13%)
Intel Core i9-9980HK	1123	6566

Conclusion

Even Intel’s monster in the face of the Intel Core i9-9980HK wasn’t able to survive against the Apple M1. In Single-core the M1 ripped apart the Core i9 and had an increase in performance of 50%. While the Multi-core scores were closer, there still was a 13% lead in favor of the M1.