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Apple M1 vs Intel Core i7-8550U
Comparison of the technical characteristics between the processors, with the Apple M1 on one side and the Intel Core i7-8550U on the other side, also their respective performances with the benchmarks. The first is dedicated to the laptop sector, It has 8 cores, 8 threads, a maximum frequency of 3.2GHz. The second is used on the laptop segment, it has a total of 4 cores, 8 threads, its turbo frequency is set to 4.0 GHz. The following table also compares the lithography, the number of transistors (if indicated), the amount of cache memory, the maximum RAM memory capacity, the type of memory accepted, the release date, the maximum number of PCIe lanes, the values obtained in Geekbench and Cinebench.
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Specification comparison:
| Processor | Apple M1 | Intel Core i7-8550U | ||||||
| Market (main) | Laptop | Laptop | ||||||
| ISA | ARMv8.5-A (64-bit) | x86-64 (64 bit) | ||||||
| Microarchitecture | Firestorm, Icestorm | Kaby Lake | ||||||
| Core name | Firestorm, Icestorm | Kaby Lake Refresh | ||||||
| Family | M series | Core i7-8000 | ||||||
| Part number(s), S-Spec | APL1102, T8103 | FJ8067703281816, SR3LC | ||||||
| Release date | Q4 2020 | Q3 2017 | ||||||
| Lithography | 5 nm FinFET N5 | 14 nm+ | ||||||
| Transistors | 33,700,000,000 | - | ||||||
| Cores | 8 | 4 | ||||||
| Threads | 8 | 8 | ||||||
| Base frequency | 2.06 GHz | 1.8 GHz | ||||||
| Turbo frequency | 3.2 GHz | 4.0 GHz | ||||||
| Energy cores | 4x Apple Icestorm @ 2.06 GHz |
- | ||||||
| High performance cores | 4x Apple Firestorm @ 3.2 GHz |
4 Cores 8 Threads @ 1.58 / 4.0 GHz | ||||||
| Cache memory | 16 MB | 8 MB | ||||||
| Max memory capacity | 16 GB | 32 GB | ||||||
| Memory types | LPDDR4X-4266 (2133 MHz) |
DDR4-2400, LPDDR3-2133 | ||||||
| Max # of memory channels | 2 | 2 | ||||||
| Max memory bandwidth | 66.7 GB/s | 37.5 GB/s | ||||||
| Max PCIe lanes | - | 12 | ||||||
| TDP | 14 W | 15 W | ||||||
| GPU integrated graphics | Apple M1 GPU 8-Core | Intel UHD Graphics 620 (Kaby Lake) | ||||||
| GPU cores | 8 | - | ||||||
| GPU execution units | 128 | 24 | ||||||
| GPU shading units | 1,024 | 192 | ||||||
| GPU base clock | 1,278 MHz | 300 MHz | ||||||
| GPU boost clock | 1,278 MHz | 1150 MHz | ||||||
| GPU FP32 floating point | 2,617 GFLOPS | 441.6 GFLOPS | ||||||
| Socket | SoC | BGA1356 | ||||||
| AI accelerator | AI accelerator 16-core |
- | ||||||
| AI computing operations per seconds | 11 TOPS | - | ||||||
| Crypto engine | - |
AES New Instructions, Secure Key | ||||||
| Security | - |
Software Guard Extensions, Execute Disable Bit, OS Guard | ||||||
| Max display resolution | 6016 x 3384@60Hz (Thunderbolt), 3840 x 2160@60Hz (HDMI) |
4096 x 2304@24Hz (HDMI), 4096 x 2304@60Hz (DP), 4096 x 2304@60Hz (eDP) | ||||||
| Video decoding | H.265, HEVC, VP9 | - | ||||||
| Video encoding | H.265, HEVC | - | ||||||
| Connectivity | 2 Thunderbolt, 2 USB-C, 1 HDMI 2.0 | - | ||||||
| Cinebench R15 single thread | 197 | 162 | ||||||
| Cinebench R15 multi-thread | 1,063 | 634 | ||||||
| Cinebench R20 single thread | 412 | 376 | ||||||
| Cinebench R20 multi-thread | 2,104 | 1,139 | ||||||
| Cinebench R23 single thread | 1,503 | 971 | ||||||
| Cinebench R23 multi-thread | 7,794 | 3,097 | ||||||
| PassMark single thread | 3,721 | 2,057 | ||||||
| PassMark CPU Mark | 15,015 | 5,918 | ||||||
| (Mac OS X | Windows) Geekbench 4 single core | 5,792 | 4,194 | ||||||
| (Mac OS X | Windows) Geekbench 4 multi-core | 23,220 | 12,400 | ||||||
| (macOS | Windows) Geekbench 5 single core | 1,744 | 1,026 | ||||||
| (macOS | Windows) Geekbench 5 multi-core | 7,657 | 2,995 | ||||||
| (macOS | Windows) Geekbench 6 single core | 2,375 | 1,350 | ||||||
| (macOS | Windows) Geekbench 6 multi-core | 8,490 | 3,402 | ||||||
| (SGEMM) GFLOPS Performance | 203.4 GFLOPS | 191.5 GFLOPS | ||||||
| (Multi-core / watt performance) Performance / watt ratio | 1,659 pts / W | 827 pts / W | ||||||
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Note: Commissions may be earned from the links above.
We can better compare what are the technical differences between the two processors.
Price: For technical reasons, we cannot currently display a price less than 24 hours, or a real-time price. This is why we prefer for the moment not to show a price. You should refer to the respective online stores for the latest price, as well as availability.
The processor Apple M1 has more cores, the turbo frequency of Intel Core i7-8550U is bigger, that the PDT of Apple M1 is lower. The Apple M1 was designed earlier.
Performance comparison with the benchmarks:
Performance comparison between the two processors, for this we consider the results generated on benchmark software such as Geekbench.
| Cinebench R15 - Multi-Thread & Single Thread Score | |
|---|---|
Apple M1 |
197 1,063 |
| Intel Core i7-8550U |
162 634 |
In single core, the difference is 22%. In multi-core, the differential gap is 68%.
Note: Commissions may be earned from the links above. These scores are only an
average of the performances got with these processors, you may get different results.
average of the performances got with these processors, you may get different results.
Cinebench R15 evaluates the performance of CPU calculations by restoring a photorealistic 3D scene. The scene has 2,000 objects, 300,000 polygons, uses sharp and fuzzy reflections, bright areas, shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and so on. The faster the rendering of the scene is created, the more powerful the PC is, with a high number of points.
| Cinebench R20 - Multi-Thread & Single Thread Score | |
|---|---|
| Apple M1 |
412 2,104 |
| Intel Core i7-8550U |
376 1,139 |
In single core, the difference is 10%. In multi-core, the differential gap is 85%.
Note: Commissions may be earned from the links above. These scores are only an
average of the performances got with these processors, you may get different results.
average of the performances got with these processors, you may get different results.
Cinebench R20 is a multi-platform test software which allows to evaluate the hardware capacities of a device such as a computer, a tablet, a server. This version of Cinebench takes into account recent developments in processors with multiple cores and the latest improvements in rendering techniques. The evaluation is ultimately even more relevant.
| Cinebench R23 - Multi-Thread & Single Thread Score | |
|---|---|
| Apple M1 |
1,503 7,794 |
| Intel Core i7-8550U |
971 3,097 |
In single core, the difference is 55%. In multi-core, the differential gap is 152%.
Note: Commissions may be earned from the links above. These scores are only an
average of the performances got with these processors, you may get different results.
average of the performances got with these processors, you may get different results.
Cinebench R23 is cross-platform testing software that allows you to assess the hardware capabilities of a device such as a computer, tablet, server. This version of Cinebench takes into account recent developments in processors with multiple cores and the latest improvements in rendering techniques. The evaluation is ultimately even more relevant. The test scene contains no less than 2,000 objects and more than 300,000 polygons in total.
| PassMark - CPU Mark & single thread | |
|---|---|
| Apple M1 |
3,721 15,015 |
| Intel Core i7-8550U |
2,057 5,918 |
In single core, the difference is 81%. In multi-core, the differential gap is 154%.
Note: Commissions may be earned from the links above. These scores are only an
average of the performances got with these processors, you may get different results.
average of the performances got with these processors, you may get different results.
PassMark is a benchmarking software that performs several performance tests including prime numbers, integers, floating point, compression, physics, extended instructions, encoding, sorting. The higher the score is, the higher is the device capacity.
With Mac OS X:
| Geekbench 4 - Multi-core & Single Core Score - Mac OS X | |
|---|---|
| Apple M1 |
5,792 23,220 |
| Intel Core i7-8550U |
4,253 13,363 |
In single core, the difference is 36%. In multi-core, the differential gap is 74%.
Note: Commissions may be earned from the links above. These scores are only an
average of the performances got with these processors, you may get different results.
average of the performances got with these processors, you may get different results.
Geekbench 4 is a complete benchmark platform with several types of tests, including data compression, images, AES encryption, SQL encoding, HTML, PDF file rendering, matrix computation, Fast Fourier Transform, 3D object simulation, photo editing, memory testing. This allows us to better visualize the respective power of these devices. For each result, we took an average of 250 values on the famous benchmark software.
With macOS:
| Geekbench 5 - Multi-core & Single Core Score - macOS | |
|---|---|
| Apple M1 |
1,744 7,657 |
| Intel Core i7-8550U |
765 2,922 |
In single core, the difference is 128%. In multi-core, the differential gap is 162%.
Note: Commissions may be earned from the links above. These scores are only an
average of the performances got with these processors, you may get different results.
average of the performances got with these processors, you may get different results.
Geekbench 5 is a software for measuring the performance of a computer system, for fixed devices, mobile devices, servers. This platform makes it possible to better compare the power of the CPU, the computing power and to compare it with similar or totally different systems. Geekbench 5 includes new workloads that represent work tasks and applications that we can find in reality.
With macOS:
| Geekbench 6 - Multi-core & Single Core Score - macOS | |
|---|---|
| Apple M1 |
2,375 8,490 |
| Intel Core i7-8550U |
1,348 3,684 |
In single core, the difference is 76%. In multi-core, the differential gap is 130%.
Note: Commissions may be earned from the links above. These scores are only an
average of the performances got with these processors, you may get different results.
average of the performances got with these processors, you may get different results.
Geekbench 6 is a benchmarking platform that is capable of evaluating the performance of a device across multiple operating systems. The software evaluates processor power, with its ability to support different tasks, such as file compression, browsing; GPU computing capabilities, with image editing, video editing, gaming skills, machine learning workloads.
Equivalence:
Apple M1 Intel EquivalentApple M1 AMD EquivalentIntel Core i7-8550U AMD EquivalentSee also:
Apple M1 MaxApple M1 Pro (10 cores)Apple M1 Pro (8 cores)Apple M1 UltraApple M2Apple M2 MaxApple M2 Pro (10 cores)Apple M2 Pro (12 cores)Apple M2 UltraDisclaimer:
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Information:
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