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Alder Lake Core i9 processor is faster than the M1 Max

macworld.com

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Re: Alder Lake Core i9 processor is faster than the M1 Max

#51
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With RTX 3080 Ti though. So yeah - I don't think it can match Apple M1 efficiency but reviews of P-series and U-series Alder Lake mobile CPUs are going to be interesting and what I am looking forward to.

> During the Cinebench R23 multi-core test, the Alder Lake laptop was consistently in the 100-watt range, with spikes between 130 and 140 watts. We haven’t tested the power draw of the M1 Pro/Max ourselves, but AnandTech did using Cinebench R23 and found that the M1 Max’s power draw was 39.7 watts versus over 100 for the 11th-gen MSI GE76 Raider. Cinebench is a pure CPU test though, so I feel the comparison is more o…

I was talking about video playback tests. Unless they disabled discrete GPUs during the test,a laptop using 3080Ti for video playback is not going to be efficient.

Re: Alder Lake Core i9 processor is faster than the M1 Max

#52

A lot of people are misinterpreting the results here (understandably, the article is pretty bad). They're benchmarking the CPU, but measuring the power draw of a whole laptop - including a dedicated 3080ti GPU which will still be drawing a decent amount of power even at idle. This benchmark is useful for measuring the speed and power draw of /this specific laptop/ vs an m1 MacBook, but not so much this new i9 in gene…

I’m guessing this is the first laptop Anandtech could get their hands on with this new chip.

That said I’ve been out of the PC space for quite a while. Do mobile discrete GPUs greatly draw much power when mostly idle (such as general desktop work)? Did others give up on switching the discrete GPU on and off a needed as Apple used to do (and gave up on IIRC)?

Re: Alder Lake Core i9 processor is faster than the M1 Max

#54
post #3

3.5%-5% increase in performance at more than double the wattage, for a chip that is not in consumers hands against a chip that basically hasn't changed and was released 14 months ago~ This is not the victory that the title implies. It's also a _little_ bit funny that the i9 laptop was double the price, given people usually rant loudly about how expensive Apple computers are.

I have a M1 in an entry-level Macbook Air I bought for $1000. Is Intel really having to compare its top of the line i9 to this chip now? Wow, I knew they were a bit behind but this is incredible. Price-wise, like you said, i9's are expensive.

Worse, the Microsoft ARM SQ1 in the Surface Pro X performs like 1/3rd the benchmark performance as the M1. I know synthetic benchmarks aren't very meaningful but we have some X's at work and I've played with them and they are all unusually and annoying slow while my Air feels like I'm using a high-wattage desktop.

The value of the M1 Macbook Air is pretty wild right now. The only thing keeping Intel's stock price above water is that Apple will never license this out to Windows laptop makers and Windows has monopolistic lock-ins so not everyone can just switch to Apple, especially businesses, so Intel is safe in the Windows world for now.

Re: Alder Lake Core i9 processor is faster than the M1 Max

#55
post #3

3.5%-5% increase in performance at more than double the wattage, for a chip that is not in consumers hands against a chip that basically hasn't changed and was released 14 months ago~ This is not the victory that the title implies. It's also a _little_ bit funny that the i9 laptop was double the price, given people usually rant loudly about how expensive Apple computers are.

I don’t think this is going to happen, but: It would be extremely funny if Apple strapped a heavy copper heatsink and a turbo fan to an M1 and just overclocked the ever-lasting crap out of it.

The crazy thing about using a Macbook Pro (with an M1 Pro or M1 Max CPU) is that, in single-threaded performance, it's really no faster than a dippy little Macbook Air. And at the end of the day, single-thread performance is more effective than multicore! TBH I think this tradeoff is the right one (that is, not overclocking Macbook Pros), but when the iMac Pro and the Mac Pro roll around… why not? Just go for it.

Re: Alder Lake Core i9 processor is faster than the M1 Max

#57
post #12
post #3

3.5%-5% increase in performance at more than double the wattage, for a chip that is not in consumers hands against a chip that basically hasn't changed and was released 14 months ago~ This is not the victory that the title implies. It's also a _little_ bit funny that the i9 laptop was double the price, given people usually rant loudly about how expensive Apple computers are.

> was released 14 months ago The M1 Max was only released 3 months ago... (Your other points stand though)

Same processor really just a yield thing.

Re: Alder Lake Core i9 processor is faster than the M1 Max

#59
post #3

3.5%-5% increase in performance at more than double the wattage, for a chip that is not in consumers hands against a chip that basically hasn't changed and was released 14 months ago~ This is not the victory that the title implies. It's also a _little_ bit funny that the i9 laptop was double the price, given people usually rant loudly about how expensive Apple computers are.

I don’t think this is going to happen, but: It would be extremely funny if Apple strapped a heavy copper heatsink and a turbo fan to an M1 and just overclocked the ever-lasting crap out of it. The crazy thing about using a Macbook Pro (with an M1 Pro or M1 Max CPU) is that, in single-threaded performance, it's really no faster than a dippy little Macbook Air. And at the end of the day, single-thread performance is mo…

Apple (if they were willing to expose a more wild side) should make an "M1 Pro Max Unlocked" board (or something like that) and just sell it as a bare, microATX board. It could cost exactly the same as the Mac mini for all I care, but if PC builders could use it in crazy cases and with liquid (or even liquid nitrogen) cooling, that would be so cool.

Re: Alder Lake Core i9 processor is faster than the M1 Max

#60

A lot of people are misinterpreting the results here (understandably, the article is pretty bad). They're benchmarking the CPU, but measuring the power draw of a whole laptop - including a dedicated 3080ti GPU which will still be drawing a decent amount of power even at idle. This benchmark is useful for measuring the speed and power draw of /this specific laptop/ vs an m1 MacBook, but not so much this new i9 in gene…

Can confirm those video cards draw a lot of power. I have a system76 with an nvidia 1060 (or some such). I can turn it off in and my battery life improves quite substantially. It doesn’t matter what applications are running it draws a lot. Maybe it’s a Linux problem.

On the plus side with that card and the machine plugged in it actually plays steam games quite well.

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