Apple M1 Benchmark, Test and specs

Last updated:
The Apple M1 has 8 cores with 8 threads and is based on the 1. gen of the Apple M series series. The processor was released in Q4/2020. The Apple M1 scores 1,742 points in the Geekbench 5 single-core benchmark. In the Geekbench 5 multi-core benchmark, the result is 7,650 points.
Apple M1

CPU lineage

The segment in which we have classified the Apple M1. Here you can see if it is a desktop processor or a mobile processor or which processor may be the successor of the Apple M1.

Name: Apple M1
Family: Apple M series
CPU group: Apple M1
Segment: Mobile
Generation: 1
Predecessor: --
Successor: Apple M2

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Apple M1 has 8 CPU cores and can calculate 8 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Apple M1 is 3.20 GHz. The number of CPU cores greatly affects the speed of the processor and is an important performance indicator.

CPU Cores / Threads: 8 / 8
Core architecture: hybrid (big.LITTLE)
A-Core: 4x Firestorm
B-Core: 4x Icestorm
Hyperthreading / SMT: No
Overclocking: No
A-Core Frequency: 3.20 GHz
B-Core Frequency: 2.06 GHz

Internal Graphics

The Apple M1 has integrated graphics, called iGPU for short. Specifically, the Apple M1 uses the Apple M1 (8 Core), which has 1024 texture shaders and 128 execution units. The iGPU uses the system's main memory as graphics memory and sits on the processor's die.

GPU name: Apple M1 (8 Core)
GPU frequency: 1.30 GHz
GPU (Turbo): No turbo
Execution units: 128
Shader: 1024
Max. GPU Memory: 8 GB
Max. displays: 2
Generation: 1
Direct X: --
Technology: 5 nm
Release date: Q4/2020

Hardware codec support

A photo or video codec that is accelerated in hardware can greatly accelerate the working speed of a processor and extend the battery life of notebooks or smartphones when playing videos.

h265 / HEVC (8 bit): Decode / Encode
h265 / HEVC (10 bit): Decode / Encode
h264: Decode / Encode
VP8: Decode
VP9: Decode / Encode
AV1: No
AVC: Decode
VC-1: Decode
JPEG: Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The processor can use up to 16 GB memory in 2 (Dual Channel) memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 68.2 GB/s. The memory type as well as the amount of memory can greatly affect the speed of the system.

Memory type: LPDDR4X-4266
Max. Memory: 16 GB
Memory channels: 2 (Dual Channel)
Bandwidth: 68.2 GB/s
ECC: No
PCIe: 4.0
AES-NI: Yes

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the processor is 15 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently. The TDP usually gives a rough idea of the actual power consumption of the CPU.

TDP (PL1 / PBP): 15 W
TDP (PL2): --
TDP up: 20 W
TDP down: 10 W
Tjunction max.: --

Technical details

The Apple M1 is made in 5 nm. The smaller the manufacturing process of a CPU, the more modern and energy-efficient it is. Overall, the processor has 16.00 MB cache. A large cache can greatly speed up the processor's speed in some cases such as games.

Technology: 5 nm
Chip design: Chiplet
Socket: --
L2-Cache: 16.00 MB
L3-Cache: --
Architecture: M1
Operating systems: macOS
Virtualization: Apple Virtualization Framework
Instruction set (ISA): ARMv8-A64 (64 bit)
ISA extensions: Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation
Release date: Q4/2020
Release price: --
Part Number: APL 1102
Documents: --

Benchmark results

Verified Benchmark results
The benchmark results for the Apple M1 have been carefully checked by us. We only publish benchmark results that have been created by us or that have been submitted by a visitor and then checked by a team member. All results are based on and fullfill our benchmark guidelines.

Screenshots:

Cinebench R23 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600G AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
6C 12T @ 4.40 GHz
1504
AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 5650G AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 5650G
6C 12T @ 4.40 GHz
1504
Intel Core i7-1165G7 Intel Core i7-1165G7
4C 8T @ 4.70 GHz
1504
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
1503
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
1503
AMD Ryzen 7 6800H AMD Ryzen 7 6800H
8C 16T @ 4.70 GHz
1499
AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H
8C 16T @ 4.70 GHz
1498
Show all Cinebench R23 (Single-Core) results



Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.

AMD Ryzen 5 6600U AMD Ryzen 5 6600U
6C 12T @ 3.80 GHz
8018
Intel Core i7-8700 Intel Core i7-8700
6C 12T @ 4.30 GHz
7969
Intel Core i7-8700B Intel Core i7-8700B
6C 12T @ 3.20 GHz
7969
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
7759
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
7759
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 AMD Ryzen 5 2600
6C 12T @ 3.70 GHz
7555
Intel Core i7-1255U Intel Core i7-1255U
10C 12T @ 2.70 GHz
7545
Show all Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core) results



Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The single-core benchmark only evaluates the performance of the fastest CPU core, the number of CPU cores in a processor is irrelevant here.

Intel Core i5-12600 Intel Core i5-12600
6C 12T @ 4.80 GHz
2386
Intel Core i5-13400F Intel Core i5-13400F
10C 16T @ 4.60 GHz
2375
Intel Core i5-13500 Intel Core i5-13500
14C 20T @ 4.80 GHz
2375
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
2369
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
2369
Intel Core i9-12950HX Intel Core i9-12950HX
16C 24T @ 5.00 GHz
2349
Intel Core i9-11900KF Intel Core i9-11900KF
8C 16T @ 5.30 GHz
2349
Show all Geekbench 6 (Single-Core) results



Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The multi-core benchmark evaluates the performance of all of the processor's CPU cores. Virtual thread improvements such as AMD SMT or Intel's Hyper-Threading have a positive impact on the benchmark result.

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
8C 16T @ 4.00 GHz
8693
Intel Core i5-12400F Intel Core i5-12400F
6C 12T @ 4.00 GHz
8668
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X AMD Ryzen 7 3800X
8C 16T @ 4.20 GHz
8611
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
8576
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
8576
Intel Core i5-1240P Intel Core i5-1240P
12C 16T @ 2.70 GHz
8481
Intel Core i9-10910 Intel Core i9-10910
10C 20T @ 3.60 GHz
8439
Show all Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core) results



Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.

Intel Core i5-13500H Intel Core i5-13500H
12C 16T @ 4.70 GHz
1743
Intel Core i5-13500HX Intel Core i5-13500HX
14C 20T @ 4.70 GHz
1743
Intel Core i5-13505H Intel Core i5-13505H
12C 16T @ 4.70 GHz
1743
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
1742
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
1742
AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 5645 AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 5645
6C 12T @ 4.60 GHz
1739
Intel Core i3-12300 Intel Core i3-12300
4C 8T @ 4.40 GHz
1739
Show all Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core) results



Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.

AMD Ryzen 7 4700S AMD Ryzen 7 4700S
8C 16T @ 3.60 GHz
7745
Intel Xeon E5-1660 v3 Intel Xeon E5-1660 v3
8C 16T @ 3.20 GHz
7713
Intel Core i9-11900T Intel Core i9-11900T
8C 16T @ 3.60 GHz
7680
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
7650
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
7650
AMD Ryzen Embedded V2546 AMD Ryzen Embedded V2546
6C 12T @ 3.00 GHz
7647
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
6C 12T @ 4.20 GHz
7612
Show all Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core) results



iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)

The theoretical computing performance of the internal graphics unit of the processor with simple accuracy (32 bit) in GFLOPS. GFLOPS indicates how many billion floating point operations the iGPU can perform per second.

AMD Ryzen 5 7640HS AMD Ryzen 5 7640HS
AMD Radeon 760M Graphics @ 2.60 GHz
3120
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
Qualcomm Adreno SD 8 G2 @ 1.00 GHz
3000
Apple M2 (8-GPU) Apple M2 (8-GPU)
Apple M2 (8 Core) @ 1.40 GHz
2840
Apple M1 Apple M1
Apple M1 (8 Core) @ 1.30 GHz
2610
Intel Core i7-8706G Intel Core i7-8706G
AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL Graphics @ 1.01 GHz
2588
Intel Core i5-8305G Intel Core i5-8305G
AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL Graphics @ 1.01 GHz
2588
Intel Core i7-8705G Intel Core i7-8705G
AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL Graphics @ 1.01 GHz
2588
Show all iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS) results



Blender 3.1 Benchmark

In the Blender Benchmark 3.1, the scenes "monster", "junkshop" and "classroom" are rendered and the time required by the system is measured. In our benchmark we test the CPU and not the graphics card. Blender 3.1 was presented as a standalone version in March 2022.

Intel Core i7-10850H Intel Core i7-10850H
6C 12T @ 3.40 GHz
119
Intel Core i7-8700 Intel Core i7-8700
6C 12T @ 4.30 GHz
118
Intel Core i7-8700B Intel Core i7-8700B
6C 12T @ 3.20 GHz
118
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
117
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
117
Intel Core i5-10500 Intel Core i5-10500
6C 12T @ 4.20 GHz
116
Intel Core i7-10750H Intel Core i7-10750H
6C 12T @ 3.20 GHz
114
Show all Blender 3.1 Benchmark results



Estimated results for PassMark CPU Mark

Some of the CPUs listed below have been benchmarked by CPU-monkey. However the majority of CPUs have not been tested and the results have been estimated by a CPU-monkey’s secret proprietary formula. As such they do not accurately reflect the actual Passmark CPU mark values and are not endorsed by PassMark Software Pty Ltd.

Intel Xeon E-2276M Intel Xeon E-2276M
6C 12T @ 2.80 GHz
14536
Intel Core i7-1260P Intel Core i7-1260P
12C 16T @ 3.10 GHz
14508
Intel Core i7-8086K Intel Core i7-8086K
6C 12T @ 4.30 GHz
14503
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
14463
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
14463
Intel Xeon E-2186M Intel Xeon E-2186M
6C 12T @ 2.90 GHz
14444
Intel Xeon W-2133 Intel Xeon W-2133
6C 12T @ 3.90 GHz
14396
Show all Estimated results for PassMark CPU Mark results



Blender 2.81 (bmw27)

Blender is a free 3D graphics software for rendering (creating) 3D bodies, which can also be textured and animated in the software. The Blender benchmark creates predefined scenes and measures the time (s) required for the entire scene. The shorter the time required, the better. We selected bmw27 as the benchmark scene.

AMD A10-6800K AMD A10-6800K
4C 4T @ 4.40 GHz
309.5
AMD Ryzen 5 1600 AMD Ryzen 5 1600
6C 12T @ 3.40 GHz
313
Intel Core i7-5930K Intel Core i7-5930K
6C 12T @ 3.60 GHz
313.2
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
314
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
314
Intel Core i5-9600KF Intel Core i5-9600KF
6C 6T @ 4.30 GHz
315.5
Intel Xeon E5-1650 v3 Intel Xeon E5-1650 v3
6C 12T @ 3.70 GHz
318.4
Show all Blender 2.81 (bmw27) results



V-Ray CPU-Render Benchmark

V-Ray is a 3D rendering software from the manufacturer Chaos for designers and artists. Unlike many other render engines, V-Ray is capable of so-called hybrid rendering, in which the CPU and GPU work together at the same time.

However, the CPU benchmark we used (CPU Render Mode) only uses the system's processor. The working memory used plays a major role in the V-Ray benchmark. For our benchmarks we use the fastest RAM standard approved by the manufacturer (without overclocking).

Due to the high compatibility of V-Ray (including Autodesk 3ds Max, Maya, Cinema 4D, SketchUp, Unreal Engine and Blender), it is a frequently used software. With V-Ray, for example, photorealistic images can be rendered that laypeople cannot distinguish from normal photos.

AMD Ryzen 5 4500 AMD Ryzen 5 4500
6C 12T @ 3.60 GHz
5430
Intel Core i5-10500H Intel Core i5-10500H
6C 12T @ 2.50 GHz
5353
Intel Core i5-9500 Intel Core i5-9500
6C 6T @ 3.00 GHz
4949
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
4935
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
4935
Intel Core i7-7700K Intel Core i7-7700K
4C 8T @ 4.20 GHz
4873
Intel Core i7-6800K Intel Core i7-6800K
6C 12T @ 3.40 GHz
4855
Show all V-Ray CPU-Render Benchmark results



Benchmarks


News and articles for the Apple M1


The Apple M1 is Apples first ARM chip for Macs. It is based on and is similar to Apples mobile A processors, but has four times more level 2 cache than the Apple A14 Bionic (16 MB to 4 MB in the Apple A14 Bionic). It combines 4 fast and large Firestorm cores with 4 efficient and smaller Icestorm cores. The core structure is built in the big.LITTLE design, which makes the chips very strong but also energy-saving at the same time.

Like the Apple A14 Bionic, the Apple M1 is also manufactured in 5 nm at TSMC, making it the first series chip for mobile and desktop devices to be manufactured in 5 nm. The finer the manufacturing structure, the more energy-efficient the processors can be. The processor is operated at 3.2 GHz and can be used passively (without active ventilation) or actively with a fan. The TDP is 10 to 15 watts.

The Apple M1 comes with a very fast iGPU with 7 or 8 GPU cores. The 8-core variant of the iGPU achieves an FP32 raw performance of 2.6 TFLOPGS (2600 GFLOPS). In addition, the SoC is equipped with 16 AI / ML cores for machine calculations such as video or image processing. There is also an ISP for optimizing images and recordings via the notebooks webcam. The chip supports hardware-accelerated AES and can thus encrypt the data on the SSD built into the system quickly and efficiently.

Up to 16 GB LPDDR4X / LPDDR5 main memory is supported, which in the Apple M1 is integrated in a dense DRAM package directly in the SoC, which greatly increases the bandwidth and the associated data throughput. The iGPU, which also uses the main memory as graphics memory, benefits to a large extent from this. That is enough for the processor to currently secure first place in the Geekbench 5 - single core benchmark. But even in multi-core benchmarks, the 15 watt processor achieves scores that were previously only reserved for 45+ watt processors.


Leaderboards

In our leaderboards, we have clearly compiled the best processors for specific categories for you. The leaderboards are always up to date and are regularly updated by us. The best processors are selected according to popularity and speed in benchmarks as well as the price-performance ratio.


Popular comparisons

1. Apple M1 Intel Core i9-9900K Apple M1 vs Intel Core i9-9900K
2. Apple M1 Apple A14 Bionic Apple M1 vs Apple A14 Bionic
3. Apple M1 Intel Core i7-10875H Apple M1 vs Intel Core i7-10875H
4. Apple M1 Intel Core i5-1038NG7 Apple M1 vs Intel Core i5-1038NG7
5. Apple M1 Apple A12Z Bionic Apple M1 vs Apple A12Z Bionic
6. Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple M1 Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) vs Apple M1
7. Apple M1 Intel Core i7-1185G7 Apple M1 vs Intel Core i7-1185G7
8. Apple M2 Apple M1 Apple M2 vs Apple M1
9. Apple M1 AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Apple M1 vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
10. Intel Core i7-1165G7 Apple M1 Intel Core i7-1165G7 vs Apple M1
11. Apple M1 AMD Ryzen 7 4800H Apple M1 vs AMD Ryzen 7 4800H
12. Apple M1 Intel Core i9-10900K Apple M1 vs Intel Core i9-10900K
13. Apple M1 AMD Ryzen 9 5900X Apple M1 vs AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
14. Apple M1 AMD Ryzen 9 5950X Apple M1 vs AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
15. Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 16-GPU) Apple M1 Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 16-GPU) vs Apple M1


back to index