Apple’s new M1 chipset has been blowing away rival Intel chips in CPU performance benchmarks, and it doesn’t stop there. It turns out Apple Silicon can give many graphics cards a run for their money, too.
New tests reveal the M1 easily outperforms the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and AMD Radeon RX 560 in graphics benchmarks. It could make gaming on a Mac better than ever.
Gaming on an Intel-based Mac has never been a particularly exciting experience. Even those with dedicated graphics chips are tailored toward creative workloads, like video editing, rather than games.
But thanks to Apple’s incredible new M1 chip, integrated graphics are now giving dedicated video cards a run for their money in performance benchmarks. And that’s super-exciting.
M1 chip blows dedicated GPUs out of the water
Graphics tests spotted by Tom’s Hardware reveal the M1 outperforms a number of midrange GPUs from both AMD and Nvidia, including the GTX 1050 Ti and RX 560, in many benchmarks.
The M1 pushes significantly more frames per second (fps) in most GFXBench 5.0 tests. It maxed out at 130.9 fps in one 1440p test, with the GTX 1050 Ti taking second place with 127.4 fps.
The M1 actually comes close to competing with the newer and more powerful Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650. Its ability to deliver up to 2.6 teraflops of throughput isn’t far off the GTX 1650’s max of 2.9 teraflops.
Granted, the cards the M1 can outperform are older models. But not too long ago, these were very respectable GPUs, and it’s significant that Apple has built an all-in-one chipset that can easily beat them.
No surprise?
As always with tests like these, there are some caveats. Benchmarks aren’t the best reflection of real-world graphics performance, and these tests were performed using a tool designed for smartphones.
But we only have to look at the kind of graphical performance offered by Apple’s latest iPhone and iPad models, which also run custom ARM chipsets, to see what the M1 chip might be capable of.
iPhone and iPad have been powering graphically intensive games, including big names like Fortnite and Call of Duty, for years now — and they do it better than most Intel-based Macs.
If you’re been dreaming of a Mac that can play the latest games just as well as its PC counterparts, then, Apple Silicon should make you very excited for what’s to come.
