A pro photographer has tested Apple’s M1 MacBook Pro and found that it beats ‘exceptionally powerful’ Windows desktop in an Adobe Lightroom test.
Intel-based Photoshop, via Rosetta 2, took 50.3 seconds to align the layers and 1 minute, 37 seconds to merge them. I compared that to an exceptionally powerful Windows desktop PC that was built with an AMD Ryzen 9 3950 X CPU, Nvidia RTX Titan graphics and 128GB RAM, specifically to be a beast with editing photos and 8K video. The PC took 20 seconds to align the layers and 53 seconds to merge them — a clear victory for the PC. I then ran the same tests on the beta version of Photoshop that supports Apple M1. It took 22 seconds to align the layers and 46.6 seconds to merge them — a faster overall time than my immensely powerful editing rig was able to achieve.
In the M1-supported version of Lightroom, it took the MacBook 6.4 seconds to import 100 raw images, edging out the PC’s time of 7.1 seconds to complete the same task.
The story was similar when it came to exporting video in Premiere. The Intel-based version of Premiere took 6 minutes, 25 seconds to export on the M1 MacBook, but the optimized M1 beta version took about half the time, at 3 minutes, 24 seconds. For reference, my desktop did the same export in 1:20…
Even when running unoptimized versions of apps, the M1 MacBook Pro still puts up a hell of a fight against a superpowered editing PC, and the fact that it’s able to outperform the PC on some tests when using M1-optimized beta apps is astonishing.
MacDailyNews Take: Not bad for a “lifestyle company,” huh, Intel?
Apple’s obviously living stylishly in the fast lane.
Apple’s M1 MacBook Pro beats a so-called ‘exceptionally powerful’ Intel-powered -hobbled Windows PC desktop in Lightroom and Premiere tests. That’s embarrassing.
If Intel were actually any good a making chips, they wouldn’t have been deposited into the dumpster by a “lifestyle company” whose very first crack at a personal computer chip runs rings around Intel’s outmoded, antiquated, ever-simmering, fan-revving, power-sucking escargots.
See also: M1 benchmarks prove Apple Silicon outclasses nearly all Intel Macs — January 13, 2021