Apple’s M1 chip can apparently outperform some AMD and Nvidia graphics cards

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All that on a chip?

Apple’s M1 chip can apparently outperform some AMD and Nvidia graphics cards
Apple’s M1 chip can apparently outperform some AMD and Nvidia graphics cards (Image credit: Apple)
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If you saw the Apple ‘One More Thing (opens in new tab)’ event last week then you’ll have heard the rather grand promises made for the new silicon M1 (opens in new tab) SoC (system on a chip). We’re still a tad skeptical, but new benchmarking scores have revealed that the M1 can outperform older generation dedicated GPUs (graphics processing units) like the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and AMD Radeon RX 560. 

 M1 chip benchmark results 

Apple Silicon M1 GPU benchmark

(Image credit: Toms Hardware)

The GFXBench 5.0 (opens in new tab) benchmarks revealed that the M1 often outperforms the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and AMD Radeon RX 560. According to Apple, the M1's 8-core GPU can juggle up to 25,000 threads, with the potential to deliver up to 2.6 TFLOPS of throughput. This is the same TFLOPS achieved by the Radeon RX 560, and just below the GeForce GTX 1650 (opens in new tab)'s 2.9 TFLOPS. We would love to see the M1 actually tested against old favorites like the GTX 1650 due to its performance boost over the GTX 1050 Ti, but sadly this isn’t available at the time of writing.

Before we get too excited about what this could mean for chipset advancements, we need to point out that GFXBench 5.0 is usually used for benchmarking smartphone devices and isn't exactly the optimal tool for testing graphics cards. 

The tests were also run under Apple's Metal API, so there aren't exactly a lot of non-Apple product comparisons available, but this could change when more people get their hands on the new MacBook Pro (opens in new tab), MacBook Air (opens in new tab), and Mac mini (opens in new tab).

You could be quick to dismiss this achievement with the recent release of the Nvidia GeForce 3000 series, or the AMD Radeon HD 6000 graphics cards, but having this level of graphics performance on a SoC shouldn’t be overlooked. 

You won’t be using your new MacBook Air 2020 to play Assassins Creed Valhalla at 4K with 60 frames per second, and nor should you want to. For gaming experiences, Mac still has a long way to go to dethrone PC. 

Via Toms Hardware (opens in new tab)

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed

Jess is TechRadar's Computing writer (@Zombie_Wretch on Twitter), where she covers all aspects of Mac and PC hardware, including PC gaming and peripherals. She has been interviewed as an industry expert for the BBC, and while her educational background was in prosthetics and model-making, her true love is in tech and she has built numerous desktop computers over the last 10 years for gaming and content creation. She also likes to dabble in digital art and 3D printing, and can often be found playing games of both the Video and Tabletop variety, occasionally streaming to the disappointment of everyone.
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