Apple ARM vs Intel, Will Your CPUs Have Enough Performance?

Although it has been official for months, this whole issue of the change that Apple is going to carry out with Intel and the ARM chips is bringing queue following the first data of Tiger Lake-U . And it is that the latest from Intel is surprising in all aspects and apparently they will arrive with high frequencies and with equally low consumption. Was Apple wrong? Will their new ARM chips compete with the so-called Tiger Lake?

As we see it is a quite interesting debate that surely will not leave anyone happy. Opinions are very diverse and we will try to analyze all the points where Apple and Intel can be really strong separately to try to understand the movement of those from Cupertino.

Apple ARM vs Intel, Will Your CPUs Have Enough Performance

Does Apple need that much power for their Mac? Can an ARM chip supply it?

Perhaps it is the most pertinent question. Apple has been characterized by doing more with less based on software as optimized as it is insecure for its users. Although they are gradually carrying everything related to applications and operating system to host better performance with ARM as the main architecture, the truth is that the hardware requirements are still fairly high.

It is true that its new CPU will have 12 cores and they will try to take the frequency one step further to overcome the deficiencies of ARM compared to X86, but this can serve the common user, as well as it works for their smartphones. The problem here is that its users are used to being able to work professionally with “low-cost” equipment, which implies using in some cases AVX-256 instructions or even the new AVX-512 .

Not to mention the increased power of the blue giant’s X86 cores, as well as its IPC. It is still too early to discern if it will be enough, but everything points to the fact that in certain scenarios Apple will clearly lose.

The iGPU Gen 12, another reason for debate that ARM cannot solve

It is certainly a cause for concern for those who occasionally used their Apple devices to play PC games. ARM GPUs are far behind what Intel is going to present with Gen 12 Xe , to the point that they can compromise the performance of AMD Vega iGPUs.

They will double their performance in a single generation without increasing consumption and Apple ARM today can not even dream of competing directly with the two greats. At this point, other needs must be met, such as Thunderbolt as an image port for external monitors, will they reach an agreement with Intel or will it end up vetoing its use?

History supports Apple, but this movement may have detractors

Apple-ARM-Mac

If we look back, far behind, Apple left IBM and its Power PCs for an Intel in high hours, a highly criticized decision that has finally brought very clear benefits to the company and that has allowed it to be truly competitive. Now after the jump to ARM you will have a clear advantage over Intel and AMD: their instruction decoder is much faster.

The problem is that this is only a part of the CPU and does not determine the final performance as such but the set of instructions, registers and algorithms of each architecture. Last but not least, we have to take into account the efficiency of your next chips.

This is a section that has brought the company down the street of bitterness, since Intel has been very late in its 10 nm and its chips at 14 nm ++ have not satisfied those of the apple. The problem is that the moment of change is perhaps the worst chosen, since Intel has entered the dynamics of its lithographic processes again and does not plan to take its foot off the accelerator, first, because it cannot, and second, because it needs to lead again. in leadership of nanometers and their density / cost to compete with TSMC.

Only time will tell if Apple has been successful, but the truth is that the movement comes at the worst possible time for those of Cupertino, with an Apple ARM technology yet to be revealed that will, yes, force every programmer and company to compile for said architecture if they want to offer their products for MacOS.