Apple M1 vs Intel Core i9-10880H vs Intel Core i5-10300H

Apple M1

The 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 i9-10880H

The Intel Core i9-10880H is a high-end processor for laptops with eight cores based on the Comet Lake architecture (CML-H, 4th generation of Skylake). The processor clocks at between 2.3 and probably around 4.9 GHz and can execute up to sixteen threads simultaneously thanks to Hyper-Threading. The processor is still manufactured in the old 14nm (14nm++) process. Compared to the predecessor, the Core i9-9880H, the 10880H probably offers only increased clock rates.

The Comet Lake architecture is similar to Coffee Lake and offers the same features and is produced in the same 14nm process. Other than the improved clock rates, the memory controller now also supports faster DDR4-2933 RAM. More information on Comet Lake and all the models and articles on it can be found here.

Performance

The performance of the Core i9-10880H should be only slightly higher than the old Core i9-9880H. Thanks to the 8 cores and high Turbo speeds, even demanding applications should run very good on the CPU. However, long term performance is always depending on the laptop cooling system and system configuration. At the time of announcement, the i9-10880H is the second fastest Comet Lake-H CPU behind the Core i9-10980HK.

Graphics

The integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 iGPU is supposed to offer a similar performance as the UHD630 in the Core i7-9880H. As a  low-end solution it will only run current games smoothly at reduced details - if at all.

Power Consumption

Intel specifies the TDP with 45 watts and therefore the i9 is only suited for big laptops with good cooling solutions. Using cTDP-down, the CPU can also be configured to 35 Watt resulting in a reduced performance.

According to our information, the Core i9-10880H was not released but split up into the Core i7-10875H and Core i9-10885H.

Beware, the CPU was not yet released at the time of writing and the information is based on leaks and early information.

Intel Core i5-10300H

The Intel Core i5-10300H is a fast processor for laptops with four cores based on the Comet Lake-H series (4th generation of Skylake architecture). The processor clocks at between 2.5 and 4.5 GHz (up to 4.2 with 4 cores) and can execute up to eight threads simultaneously thanks to Hyper-Threading. According to Intel, the CPU is manufactured in 14nm (14nm++) process. Compared to the predecessor, the Core i5-9300H from 2019, the 10300H is clocked slightly higher (+100 MHz Base, +400 MHz Boost) and supports faster DDR4-2933 RAM.

The Comet Lake architecture is similar to Coffee Lake and offers the same features and is produced in the same 14nm process. Other than the improved clock rates, the memory controller now also supports faster DDR4-2933 RAM. More information on Comet Lake and all the models and articles on it can be found here.

The Core i5-10300H supports no vPro, TXT or SIPP. These business features are available in the faster Core i5-10400H (2.6 - 4.6 GHz) that was released at a later date.

Performance

The average 10300H in our database matches the AMD Ryzen 5 3550H in multi-thread performance. While not a poor result per se, it is indicative of an entry-level H-class CPU that is unlikely to meet the needs of hardcore gamers, professional videographers and similar clientele.

Your mileage may vary depending on how high the CPU power limits are and how competent the cooling solution of your system is.

Graphics

The integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 iGPU is supposed to offer a similar performance as the UHD630 in the Core i5-9300H. As a low-end solution it will probably only run current games smoothly at reduced details - if at all.

Power consumption

The Core i5 has a default TDP (also known as the long-term power limit) of 45 W, a value that laptop makers are free to reduce slightly, 35 W being the lowest Intel-recommended value. Doing so would result in lower clock speeds and lower performance. Either way, a proper cooling solution is a must for a CPU like this.

The i5-10300H is manufactured on one of the old 14 nm Intel processes for lower-than-average, as of late 2022, energy efficiency.