M1 Ultra benchmarks ship as analysts praise Apple’s chips
Apple introduced the Mac Studio, Studio Display, iPad Air 5 and iPhone SE 5G at its spring 2022 event. It also announced a fourth M-series chip, which reinforced the perception that Apple’s silicon development teams are the most important contributors to the company’s current success.
M1 Ultra: The benchmarks ship
The M1 Ultra basically consists of two M1 Mac processors working together thanks to the highly performance UltraFusion silicon interposer. This lets the M1 Ultra chip handle 114b transistors, 16 performance and 4 efficiency cores and 64GPU cores. It can also use up to 128GB of memory, which is huge.
Apple reeled off a range of statistics around its new processor, available as a $3,999 option in the Mac Studio, including claiming the chip to be 1.9 times more powerful than the latest Intel Core i9.
Now newly leaked Geekbench data suggests these claims are true – M1 Ultra delivers a single-core score of 1,793 and a multi-core score of 24,055. That compares favorably with what AMD’s best chip, Threadripper 3990X achieves (25,133 multi-core and 1,213 single-core).
In other words, Apple’s chip is one of the best available processors money can buy. Given the chip also integrates built-in GPU cores, in use it may far exceed even the best alternative chips.
What the analysts say
Ped30 is doing an admirable job collecting analyst information, and for a wide zoom on analyst reaction to the entire event, look there. But analysts also seem pretty excited by Apple’s new chips.
Here’s what CCS Insight analyst, Ben Wood had to say:
“Apple’s events are becoming an ever more diverse mix of news spanning chips, devices, software, content and services,” he wrote.
“This event was no different, but the star of the show was not the iPhone SE or even the new Mac Studio but the silicon these products are built on.”
‘Redefining expectations in computing’
Wood continued to tell me:
“The performance of the new M1 Ultra chip is remarkable. It is a reminder of Apple’s prowess in semiconductor design and Apple Silicon’s pivotal role in the “finished product” advancements it enables. The move to Arm’s architecture with the M1 is not new but the speed of the transition has been startling. The products it is enabling are a reminder of Apple’s end-to-end control and competitive advantage. ”
“Apple is redefining expectations in computing with M1 and today’s event is a sign of what that will enable in the coming years in terms of performance, battery life and new form factors.”
‘A staggering technology achievement’
Daniel Ives at Wedbush called the M1 Ultra a “staggering technology achievement,” describing it as a shot at existing chip developers such as Intel. “Apple heats chip companies at their own game on the desktop front,” he said.
At Creative Strategies, Ben Bajarin called the new chip “super clever”, praising that it “basically doubles overall performance”.
His colleague, Carolina Milanesi (who purchased a Studio Display as soon as it was announced) also said Apple Silicon will prove the most significant for the future of Apple as it impacts across multiple product categories.
https://twitter.com/BenBajarin/status/1501264295778078725?s=20&t=qxQ87fYvEzfL60QbH8U0Aw
Speaking to IT Pro, Forrester VP and principal analyst Julie Ask noted that Appe’s chips offer the company “inherent advantage in performance such as speed, latency, and on-device features”.
She also said:
“Their silicon strategy also allows them to deliver power-efficient devices with slim form factors. Fundamentally, designing and owning their chipsets will give them long-lasting advantages for performance, power-efficiency and cost.”
https://twitter.com/BenBajarin/status/1501271230598434820?s=20&t=qxQ87fYvEzfL60QbH8U0Aw
Intel stresses its partnerships
But perhaps it’s what Intel had to say that most illustrates Apple’s achievement. CNet reports that company reasserted its focus on building world-class CPUs that will “outperform anything else.”
It also drew attention to its wider partner ecosystem to say, “We’re confident we can provide industry-leading hardware performance and a superior software experience in the years to come.”
Apple, of course, doesn’t sell its processors to partners.
Please drop me a line if you come across additional analyst observations you think should be included in this piece.
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