Apple MacBook Air 2020 M1 Benchmarks: Should you get 7 or 8 GPU cores?

Both the M1 chip as well as macOS Big Sur are still very new, so not alle benchmarks are available as native apps yet, some benchmarks are still emulated Intel version. During our initial tests, this worked well in general, but there can still be some smaller issues.

The results of the two versions are usually very close to each other and we rarely see a difference of more than 10%. We have also included the results of the current MacBook Pro 16 with the Radeon 5500M, which is still faster, but the differences are not huge. Considering that the M1 chip inside the MacBook Air is completely passively cooled, these results are very impressive. The new A14 chip in the Apple iPad Air 2020 on the other hand is clearly beaten by the M1 chip.

We have decided to use the game Borderlands 3 for our initial tests, because it allows a fair comparison thanks to its integrated benchmark. The game is emulated, but it worked very well in general. The only problem was when we tried to end the game, when the system sometimes froze and required a restart. 

The low preset still shows a pretty big advantage for the 8-core GPU, but the results between the two models are very close in the more demanding quality presets. The comparison with the rivals is much more interesting. For starters, the old MacBook Pro 15 with the 560X is hardly any faster, and both the Nvidia GeForce MX350 as well as the Intel Xe Graphics (96 EUs) from the current Tiger Lake chips are clearly beaten in higher quality settings.

The performance of the M1 GPU was surprisingly stable in a first stress test, but we want to perform more benchmarks before we can give our final verdict on this topic. We will also test more games with the new M1 chip for our final review.

Our initial tests clearly show that Apple's new M1 chip offers a significant performance improvement over the old MacBook Air powered by Intel CPUs. The annoying chassis fan is finally gone as well, so the new MacBook Air is a completely silent device. It is also the only MacBook with dedicated function keys and no TouchBar.

The choice of the GPU (or the number of cores) does not really matter to be honest. It really depends on the storage you want. If 256 GB is sufficient for you, then you can go ahead and get the entry-level SKU with 7 GPU cores. If you prefer 512 GB, however, you can upgrade the entry-level SKU, but it would make more sense just to get the more expensive unit with the 8-core GPU instead.

We are currently working on the review of the new MacBook Air. The initial results are definitely promising. Please leave us a comment if you have special questions or suggestions for the review.