Thursday, October 21st 2021
Apple M1 Max Beats GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU in GFXBench 5.0, but Doesn't Shine in Geekbench
This should be taken with a fair helping of salt, considering GFXBench 5.0 is mobile device focused benchmark, even though the company behind claims it's a platform independent benchmark. Regardless of that, it looks like the new 32 core GPU in Apple's M1 Max SoC offers some pretty competitive performance, as it manages GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU in said test.
However, this is a median score for the GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU and many of the tests that make up GFXBench 5.0 aren't using DirectX, which is one likely reason for Apple's M1 Max GPU beating the Nvidia card. On the other hand, all tests seem to support Metal, which is Apple's 3D API, whereas the Nvidia card has to fall back to using OpenGL which tends to offer lower performance than DirectX in games. In most of the tests we're looking at an average performance advantage of less than 10 percent in favour of Apple, but it's nonetheless impressive considering that Apple hasn't been in the GPU business for very long.
On the other hand, in a Geekbench OpenCL test, the M1 Max is losing out against a GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU by quite some margin depending on the test. Neither is of course a real world scenario and we're going to wait a little while longer to see how well Apple's new SoCs really performs and more importantly, what the limitations are in terms of software compatibility.
Sources:
3DCenter, Geekbench
However, this is a median score for the GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU and many of the tests that make up GFXBench 5.0 aren't using DirectX, which is one likely reason for Apple's M1 Max GPU beating the Nvidia card. On the other hand, all tests seem to support Metal, which is Apple's 3D API, whereas the Nvidia card has to fall back to using OpenGL which tends to offer lower performance than DirectX in games. In most of the tests we're looking at an average performance advantage of less than 10 percent in favour of Apple, but it's nonetheless impressive considering that Apple hasn't been in the GPU business for very long.
60 Comments on Apple M1 Max Beats GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU in GFXBench 5.0, but Doesn't Shine in Geekbench
Love them or hate them, Apple is considered a key player in the consumer computing space. What they do matters, and the industry responds in kind. Just look at the non-Apple companies making ads attempting to lure Apple customers away. MS, Intel, Samsung, they all have such campaigns. If it’s such an “insignificant” segment of the computing space, why would they waste marketing dollars here? Because Apple has a really good handle on a particularly profitable section of the computing market. Despite the marketing material downplaying Apple, these companies actually don’t dismiss Apple so lightly. They just want you to.
Why would they pay Intel more, than HP does?Love it or hate it, they are niche company, selling fashion devices.
It's a lovely niche to be in, but there is next to no competition between that garden and the rest of the world.I have only seen Samsung mocking iphones (and it was hilarious)
Pretty much any major notebook brand has POPULAR models well into $2k and beyond. There is no direct competition between them and Apple.
Of course I’m not going to be able to provide you actual dollar values on marketing. That gets buried in the financial reports. However, the commercials exist beyond just the one you mention. Intel recently hired Justin Long. Microsoft is constantly comparing Surface to iPads and Macs. When companies go to the trouble of hiring actors and paying for airtime aimed at a particular company, that is pretty much the definition of direct competition. All your PC OEMs are far more selective on airtime, and Intel often subsidizes those commercials (if it ends with the Intel jingle, Intel helped pay for the ad). HP, Dell, etc, aren’t going to take on Apple here—no, they are busy competing with each other to land very good corporate contracts that choose Windows as the platform.
I think your arguments are tired and dated. My (large) company does pro work every day on iPads. Some of our employees only need an iPad for their field-based work. Studios use Macs for photography and video. If people are making a living using Apple products as tools, that makes them something more than “fashion devices.” That’s like saying every GPU buyer is a kiddie that plays games all day. Broad statements and hyperbole are only true for a subset of people, certainly not all. You can pretend all you want that Apple doesn’t influence the tech sector, but that doesn’t make it reality. Intel’s current CEO talked about Apple before his first day on the job, and still talks about Apple today. I guess he didn’t get the memo that fashion company Apple doesn’t actually matter.
I own S10 and it still has it.
Later phone does not indeed.
I'll vote with my wallet on this one.
Anyhow, to the point:
1) mocking competitor is an old way to compete
2) Samsung alone has bigger market share in mobile phones, than Apple, so, uh, well
3) nothing to do with computeWhat is Surface's market share? 1%?
Microsoft does weird things at times.
Having too much money, they can afford it.My daughter is using it (pushed by school).
Tablet that is so ugly, so heavy, it hurts.
Samsung Tab Galaxy's were wiping the floor with it, and are wiping the floor with it.
(S2 still rocking, S5 is amazing, bar dropped headhpone jack)
But it being a fashion device, note how it does not compete directly, spec for spec, feature for feature. It's for people who buy it anyway.
Mixed bag as expected not the 3080 killer it sounded.
It would be nice for a realistic review of this at some point, with reasonable testing etc
These hype trains don't help IMHO ,I like the news I won't lie, but I think it often dent's the end products reception.
Anandtech did a brief breakdown today, and possibly the most impressive real world feat they demoed was the ability to scrub 5k ProRes RAW video without lag through the specialized hardware, where a 5900X system was dipping into single digit FPS in a similar test. These Macs definitely seem to be aimed at video work. Interestingly, there is no official TDP on these chips, but rather performance is limited by thermals and the cooling. I suppose when you design the chip, chassis, and cooling solution, no TDP-rated cooler guidance is needed.
Darmok, his metaphor wide
There was also that wonder implication of that if Apple sells the same crap for more, it also shares that surplus with CPU/GPU manufacturers, for some unheard of reason.
Come on, people, look at what traditional OEMs are selling at well beyond $2k point. Lots of offering. Pretty much any premium is at about $1.5k mark.