Apple M1 vs Intel Core i3-1125G4 vs Apple M2 Max
Apple M1
► remove from comparisonThe Apple M1 is a System on a Chip (SoC) from Apple that is found in the late 2020 MacBook Air, MacBook Pro 13, and Mac Mini. It offers 8 cores divided in four performance cores and four power-efficiency cores. The big cores offer 192 KB instruction cache, 128 KB data cache, and 12 MB shared L2 cache. According to Apple the performance of these cores should be better than anything on the market (in late 2020). The four efficiency cores are a lot smaller and offer only 128 KB instruction cache, 64 KB data cache, and 4 MB shared cache. The efficiency cores (E cluster) clock with 600 - 2064 MHz, the performance cores (P cluster) with 600 - 3204 MHz.
The M1 is available in two TDP variants, a passive cooled 10 Watt variant for the MacBook Air and an active cooled faster variant for the MacBook Pro 13 and Mac Mini. Those should offer a better-sustained performance according to Apple.
The integrated graphics card in the M1 offers 8 cores (7 cores in the entry MacBook Air) and a peak performance of 2.6 teraflops. Apple claims that it is faster than any other iGPU at the time of announcement.
Furthermore, the SoC integrates a fast 16 core neural engine with a peak performance of 11 TOPS (for AI hardware acceleration), a secure enclave (e.g., for encryption), a unified memory architecture, Thunderbolt / USB 4 controller, an ISP, and media de- and encoders.
The Apple M1 includes 16 billion transistors (up from the 10 billion of the A12Z Bionic and therefore double the amount of a Tiger Lake-U chip like the i7-1185G7) and is manufactured in 5nm at TSMC.
Intel Core i3-1125G4
► remove from comparisonThe Intel Core i3-1125G4 is a 28 W quad-core SoC for laptops and Ultrabooks of the Tiger Lake family (UP3) that was introduced in September 2020. It integrates four Willow Cove processor cores (8 threads thanks to Hyper-Threading). Each core can clock from 2 GHz (guaranteed base speed @ 28 W) to 3.7 GHz (single-core boost). All cores at once can clock at up to 3.3 GHz. The faster Core i7 models offer more Level 3 cache (12 versus 8 MB in the i5) and higher clocked cores.
Another novelty is the integrated Xe GPU based on the completely new Gen 12 architecture. In the i3-1125G4 Intel names the GPU UHD Graphics and offers only 48 of the 96 EUs clocked at 400 - 1250 MHz. The GPU and CPU can together use the 8 MB of L3 cache.
Furthermore, Tiger Lake SoCs add PCIe 4 support (four lanes), AI hardware acceleration, and the partial integration of Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 and Wi-Fi 6 in the chip.
Performance
While we have not tested a single laptop built around the 1125G4 as of October 2023, we expect the chip's multi-thread performance to be 10% to 20% lower than that of the Core i5-1135G7 (4 cores, 8 threads, somewhat higher clock speeds).
Your mileage may vary depending on how high the CPU power limits are and how competent the cooling solution of your system is.
Power consumption
This Core i3 series chip has a default TDP of 12 W to 28 W, the expectation being that laptop makers will go for a higher value in exchange for higher performance. Either way, that's a little too high to allow for passively cooled designs.
The i3-1125G4 is manufactured on Intel's third-gen 10 nm process marketed as SuperFin for average, as of early 2023, energy efficiency.
Apple M2 Max
► remove from comparisonThe Apple M2 Max is a System on a Chip (SoC) from Apple that is found in the early 2023 MacBook Pro 14 and 16-inch models. It offers all 12 CPU cores available in the chip divided in eight performance cores (P-cores) and four power-efficiency cores (E-cores). The E-cores clock with up to 3.4 GHz, the P-Cores up to 3.7 GHz (mostly 3.3 GHz in multi-threaded workloads and 3.4 GHz in single threaded).
The big cores (codename Avalanche) offer 192 KB instruction cache, 128 KB data cache, and 36 MB shared L2 cache (up from 24 MB in the M1 Pro). The four efficiency cores (codename Blizzard) are a lot smaller and offer only 128 KB instruction cache, 64 KB data cache, and 4 MB shared cache. CPU and GPU can both use the 49 MB SLC (System Level Cache).
The unified memory (32, 64, or 96 GB LPDDR5-6400) next to the chip is connected by a 512 Bit memory controller (400 GB/s bandwidth) and can be used by the GPU and CPU.
The CPU performance should be quite similar to the M2 Pro as only the higher memory bandwidth and bigger L3 cache could make a difference for some workloads.
The integrated graphics card in the M1 Max offers a 30-core GPU or a GPU with all 38 cores.
Furthermore, the SoC integrates a fast 16 core neural engine (faster than M1 Max), a secure enclave (e.g., for encryption), a unified memory architecture, Thunderbolt 4 controller, an ISP, and media de- and encoders (including ProRes).
The M2 Max is manufactured in 5 nm at TSMC (second generation) and integrates 40 billion transistors. The power consumption of the CPU part is up to 36 Watt according to powermetrics. When fully loading the CPU and GPU cores, the chip uses up to 89 Watt and the CPU part is limited to 25 Watt.
Model | Apple M1 | Intel Core i3-1125G4 | Apple M2 Max | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series | Apple Apple M-Series | Intel Tiger Lake | Apple Apple M2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series: Apple M2 |
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Clock | 2064 - 3220 MHz | 2000 - 3700 MHz | 2424 - 3696 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
L1 Cache | 2 MB | 320 KB | 3.3 MB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
L2 Cache | 16 MB | 5 MB | 36 MB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
L3 Cache | 8 MB | 8 MB | 48 MB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cores / Threads | 8 / 8 | 4 / 8 | 12 / 12 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Transistors | 16000 Million | 67000 Million | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technology | 5 nm | 10 nm | 5 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Features | ARMv8 Instruction Set | DDR4-3200/LPDDR4x-3733 RAM, PCIe 4, 4 GT/s bus, DL Boost, GNA, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, AVX2, AVX-512, BMI2, ABM, FMA, ADX, VMX, SMX, SMEP, SMAP, EIST, TM1, TM2, Hyper-Threading, Turbo, SST, AES-NI, RDRAND, RDSEED, SHA, TME | ARMv8 Instruction Set | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
iGPU | Apple M1 8-Core GPU | Intel UHD Graphics Xe G4 48EUs (400 - 1250 MHz) | Apple M2 Max 38-Core GPU | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Architecture | ARM | x86 | ARM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Announced | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Codename | Tiger Lake-UP3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TDP | 28 Watt | 79 Watt | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
max. Temp. | 100 °C | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Socket | BGA1449 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manufacturer | ark.intel.com |