Earlier quoted context omitted.
The AMD Threadripper 3990X costs about $5,000 and I'm guessing that's cheap compared to the Xeons.
An AMD Ryzen 9 5950X cost $700 and is almost 2x faster than an m1 max in multi core.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/17024/apple-m1-max-performanc...
The 5950X is only 55% faster than the M1 Max on multi-threaded integer benchmarks. The M1 Max is even 26% faster than the 5950X on multi-threaded FP benchmarks (maybe it has two AMX units?).
The M1 Max is really in 5900X/5950X territory... in a laptop.
I agree on the pricing (I also have a 5900X and a 5950X machine). But it is fantastic that we can have that kind of performance in a mobile device and still have many hours of battery life.
We should complement both AMD and Apple and be happy that we finally have serious competitors to Intel. AMD has managed to compete with and outrun Intel from the an initial position of an also-ran underdog. I think the M1 line is more impressive technically than Ryzen, given the very low TDPs. But Apple has vastly more budget and much more opportunity for vertical integration.
Both companies have done impressive work the last few years.