The new 24-inch M1 iMac significantly outperforms models with Intel chips
Customers should expect a significant speed improvement over the previous generation if early CPU scores for the latest 24-inch iMac powered by Apple's M1 chip are any indication.
Highlights from the story include:
- The new iMac and iPad Pro have identical benchmark ratings.
- Apple's M1 chip is used in both machines.
- The M1 iMac easily outperforms Intel-based models.
The new 24-inch M1 iMac from Apple is a beast
According to MacRumors and 9to5Mac, the first Geekbench scores have appeared online just as Apple's latest all-in-one desktop is getting ready to ship on May 21. The latest M1 iMac has a single-core score of about 1,724 and an overall multi-core score of 7,453, which is comparable to the M1 MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini Geekbench scores.
The M1 iMac's scores are based on three different benchmarks that are currently available.
According to the benchmarks, the M1 iMac in question is most likely a base model with an 8-core CPU running at 3.2GHz. The macOS Big Sur 11.3 program is installed on the computer, which has sixteen gigabytes of unified memory.
How does the latest iMac stack up against the previous 21.5-inch iMac with Intel's Core i7 processor?
The latest iMac M1 Geekbench scores are as follows:
- Single-core M1 iMac: 1,724
- Multi-core iMac M1: 7,453
The ratings for the previous-generation flagship 21.5-inch iMac model are as follows:
- Single-core: 1,109 on a 21.5-inch iMac (2019)
- Multi-core: 6,014 on a 21.5-inch iMac (2019)
In other words, the latest M1 iMac is 56 percent faster in single-core CPU performance and 24 percent faster in multi-core than the Intel-based 21.5-inch iMac it replaces from 2019.
27-inch Intel iMac vs. 24-inch M1 iMac
According to Apple, the flagship iMac 27-inch, which Apple has yet to update, has a single-core score and a multi-core score of 1,247 and 9,002, respectively.
Comments from MacRumors:
"The M1 iMac outperforms the current high-end 27-inch iMac in single-core performance, but it trails the tenth-generation i10 Comet Lake Intel chip in multi-core performance. The M1 iMac's single-core performance is 38 percent faster, but the multi-core performance of the Intel iMac is 25 percent faster.
Apple has yet to remove the Intel processor from the 27-inch iMac. When it does, the device is likely to use a beefed-up version of the M1 chip, or even a future Apple M2 chip, to drive the high-resolution screen and replace the discrete GPUs that currently power it.
"The M1 iMac will not be able to replace the high-end 27-inch iMac due to its multi-core capacity, but Apple is working on higher-end Apple silicon chips for desktop computers, and we're likely to see an even more powerful Apple-designed chip when Apple is ready to replace the 27-inch iMac with a new model."
In both single and multi-core performances, the new M1 iMac outperforms the 6-core Intel models in lower-end 27-inch iMacs. The new iMac has two more cores.
