The eight-core Apple M1 processor was faster than the new eight-core Intel Core i7-11700K in the PassMark test. Prior to the introduction of the M1 chip in the database of this synthetic benchmark, the single-core performance leadership remained with the Core i9-11900K and Core i7-11700K models on the Cypress Cove architecture, which outperformed the AMD Ryzen 5000 models on the Zen 3 architecture.

The Apple M1 processor is manufactured using TSMC’s 5nm process technology. It is Apple’s first proprietary processor for computers. It combines four high-performance Firestorm cores and four energy-efficient Icestorm cores. The Apple M1 chips are based on the ARM architecture.

In the single-core PassMark test, the Apple M1 processor scored 3550 points. The Core i7-11700K scored 3542 points in the same test. The difference in performance between the processors is only 0,2%, which can be attributed to an error. In addition, it is likely that the Rocket Lake-S representative will be able to perform better after the final BIOS version with support for the new processors is released for Intel 400 and 500 series motherboards. However, while the leadership remains with the decision of Apple, which is quite ironic against the background of recent events. 

The Apple M1 processor can certainly be called one of the most productive chips in single-threaded tasks, but in multi-threaded it lags far behind its competitors in the desktop segment. Yet the Apple chip does not have support for multithreading (virtual cores). Perhaps the Apple company will be able to correct this fact in the upcoming high-performance Apple M1X processor.