Apple M1 7-Core GPU vs Intel UHD Graphics 617

Apple M1 7-Core GPU

The Apple M1 GPU is an integrated graphics card offering 7 cores (1 deactivated core in the entry MacBook Air) designed by Apple and integrated in the Apple M1 SoC. According to Apple it is faster and more energy efficient as competing products (like the Tiger Lake Xe GPU). The peak performance of the high end variant with 8 cores is 2.6 teraflops, therefore the 7 core version should offer around 2.3 teraflops. Thanks to the unified memory architecture it should have fast access to the RAM.

The Apple M1 is manufactured in the modern 5nm process at TSMC and should offer an excellent energy efficiency.

Intel UHD Graphics 617

The Intel UHD Graphics 617 (GT2) is a low-end integrated graphics unit, which can be found in the Y-series of the Amber-Lake generation. This "GT2" version offers 24 Execution Units (EUs) clocked at up to 1050 MHz (depending on the CPU model). Due to its lack of dedicated graphics memory or eDRAM cache, the UHD 617 has to access the main memory (2x 64bit DDR3L/LPDDR3). Compared to the old HD Graphics 615 in Kaby-Lake-Y CPUs, the UHD 617 is the same GPU with slightly different clock speeds (depending on the model) and slight power/performance improvements due to the improved 14nm++ process. Compared to the similar UHD Graphics 615 in other Amber Lake models, the 617 looks to be higher clocked (+50 MHz) and has more headroom due to the higher TDP of 7 versus 5 Watt.

Performance

The 3D performance of the UHD 617 depends on the CPU model and the cooling / TDP-setting of the laptop. Furthermore, the used main memory (single channel, DDR3(L), amount) is influencing performance. On average the UHD graphics 617 should be very similar to the Kaby-Lake HD Graphics 615 due to the same architecture and similar speeds. That means that only low demanding games like Farming Simulator 17 or Rocket League are playable in lowest detail settings.

Features

The revised video engine in the HD 615 and UHD 615 / 617 now supports H.265/HEVC Main10 profile in hardware with 10 bit colors. Furthermore, Googles VP9 codec can also be hardware decoded. The UHD 617 should support HDCP 2.2 and therefore Netflix 4K. HDMI 2.0 however is still only supported with an external converter chip (LSPCon).

Power Consumption

The UHD Graphics 617 can be found in Y processors with 7 W TDP  and is therefore suited for very thin, mostly passively cooled subnotebooks like the MacBook Air 2018.