Benchmarks are out for Intel’s Alder Lake Core i9 chip. The raw numbers look like a win for PC users, even when compared with Apple’s M1 Max. However, as Macworld pointed out, there is a bit more to consider when making comparisons.
Geekbench 5’s OpenCL graphics benchmark results look dramatic. The PC laptops PCWorld tested have expensive discrete GPUs that offer peak performance, and it shows in the results. But a more applicable comparison is to examine the results for the integrated GPUs. In this case, the M1 Max and its 32-core GPU posts a 183 percent increase over the Alder Lake’s integrated GPU, an Iris Xe.
Check It Out: Apple M1 Max vs Intel Alder Lake Core i9 – Who Wins?
The key factor is Thermal Design Power (TDP), which means 3x more battery life for ARM-based Apple Silicon microprocessors versus Intel x86 ones, sides cost, heat, energy consumption, weight and dimensions of computer, etc, etc, etc.
Why would you ignore the “expensive discrete GPUs”. They are there, and PC users can use them while Mac users can’t. What matters to users is the overall performance of the system. The best tests boil down to getting real work done.