Despite Apple's claims and charts, the new M1 Ultra chip is not able to outperform Nvidia's RTX 3090 in terms of raw GPU performance, according to benchmark testing performed by The Verge.
When the M1 Ultra was introduced, Apple shared a chart that had the new chip winning out over the "highest-end discrete GPU" in "relative performance," without details on what tests were run to achieve those results. Apple showed the M1 Ultra beating the RTX 3090 at a certain power level, but Apple isn't sharing the whole picture with its limited graphic.
The Verge decided to pit the M1 Ultra against the Nvidia RTX 3090 using Geekbench 5 graphics tests, and unsurprisingly, it cannot match Nvidia's chip when that chip is run at full power. The Mac Studio beat out the 16-core Mac Pro, but performance was about half that of the RTX 3090.
But it seems that Apple just simply isn't showing the full performance of the competitor it's chasing here.
It's sort of like arguing that because your electric car can use dramatically less fuel when driving at 80 miles per hour than a Lamborghini, it has a better engine -- without mentioning the fact that a Lambo can still go twice as fast.
The M1 Ultra is otherwise impressive, and it is unclear why Apple focused on this particular benchmark as it is somewhat misleading to customers because it does not take into account the full range of Nvidia's chip.
Apple's M1 Ultra is essentially two M1 Max chips connected together, and as The Verge highlighted in its full Mac Studio review, Apple has managed to successfully get double the M1 Max performance out of the M1 Ultra, which is a notable feat that other chip makers cannot match.
I suppose it is possible that in the chart displayed in this article, Apple is saying an M1 Ultra at ~100 watts matches a 3090 at ~300 watts. However, pushing the 3090 to it's near-500W maximum would allow it to pull significantly ahead as the benchmarks run by The Verge showed.
Forget the actual results. The worrisome part for Nvidia is Apple has a chip that is quite good and might overtake them at sometime even though it is not a discrete graphic card. I mean this stuff is built into the chip. Everyone used to laugh at built-in graphics. Not so much anymore.
Evidence that Apple is testing the M2 Apple silicon chip, expected to debut first in a new MacBook Air and refreshed 13-inch MacBook Pro, has been spotted by a developer ahead of Tuesday's "Peek performance" Apple event.
As reported by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman in his latest Power On newsletter, a "developer source" has informed him that in recent weeks, Apple has been testing a chip with an...
Wednesday March 2, 2022 9:03 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today announced that it will be holding its first event of 2022 on Tuesday, March 8 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time at the Steve Jobs Theater on the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. As with the 2021 events, Apple's first event of 2022 will continue to be a digital-only gathering with no members of the media invited to...
Apple today at its "Peek Performance" event announced a new Mac Studio desktop computer with a companion Studio Display monitor.
With a 3.7-inch tall enclosure, the Mac Studio looks like a larger Mac mini, but it is far more powerful. The computer can be configured with the same M1 Max chip as found in the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro or the just-announced M1 Ultra chip, which features a...
Tuesday March 15, 2022 12:38 pm PDT by Juli Clover
The Mac Studio isn't set to launch until Friday, March 18, but a French Apple fan was able to secure his new machine today due to a store error. As relayed to Mac4Ever, an unnamed store gave the customer the Mac Studio early, and he has shared an initial photo of the new device.
According to Mac4Ever, the customer, Simon, will be providing additional photos of the Mac Studio later today, but ...
Wednesday March 9, 2022 10:31 am PST by Juli Clover
The Mac Studio comes in two varieties, one with the same M1 Max chip used in the 2021 MacBook Pro models and a second featuring an M1 Ultra chip, which is two interconnected M1 Max chips that operate as a single chip.
Following yesterday's event, Apple's technical specifications for the Mac Studio went live, and there was a curiosity - the M1 Ultra version of the Mac Studio is a full two...
Apple today introduced the Mac Studio, an all-new Mac that's a hybrid between a Mac Pro and a Mac mini, with the new machine equipped with M1 Max and M1 Ultra chips.
Priced starting at $1999 for the M1 Max version and $3999 for the M1 Ultra version, the Mac Studio can now be ordered from Apple's website.
Alongside the Mac Studio, Apple introduced the new 5K 27-inch Studio Display, which...
The first benchmark for Apple's M1 Ultra chip popped up on Geekbench following today's event, confirming that the doubled-up M1 Max is indeed able to outperform the highest-end Mac Pro as Apple claims.
Labeled Mac13,2, the Mac Studio with 20-core M1 Ultra that was benchmarked earned a single-core score of 1793 and a multi-core score of 24055.
Comparatively, the highest-end Mac Pro with...
Today's "Peek Performance" event was more exciting than we initially thought it would be, with Apple debuting a new Mac Studio machine and Studio Display alongside a 5G version of the iPhone SE with A15 chip and an M1 iPad Air with 5G chip.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. It took Apple an hour to go over all of today's announcements, but we've summarized all of the ...
Wednesday June 22, 2022 12:38 pm PDT by Juli Clover
The iPad will no longer be able to be used as a home hub following the launch of iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS Ventura, and the HomePod 16 software this fall, Apple confirmed today.
As discovered in iOS 16 code by MacRumors contributor Steve Moser, Apple says that the iPad will no longer be supported as a home hub. This information will be displayed in the Home app after updating to iOS 16.A home ...
Wednesday June 22, 2022 6:34 pm PDT by Juli Clover
CEO Tim Cook this week did an interview with China Daily, where he once again commented on on the future of augmented reality and hinted at Apple's work on an AR/VR headset. Render via designer Ian Zelbo Cook said that Apple is excited about the opportunities available with augmented reality, which is not too far off from prior comments that he's made, but he went on to say that people should ...
Wednesday June 22, 2022 2:16 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today seeded the second betas of iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 to developers for testing purposes, and the new betas introduce new features and refine some of the changes that Apple made with the first iOS 16 release.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Lock Screen Photo Wallpaper Customization
When customizing a photo on the Lock Screen, there are two new DuoTone and...
Since the release of iOS 14.2 in 2020, the iPhone has included a built-in Music Recognition feature in Control Center powered by Shazam. And with iOS 16, and also the iOS 15.6 beta, the feature has received a small but useful upgrade.
As noted by Twitter user @someone_andrew, songs identified with Music Recognition in Control Center finally sync with the Shazam app.
It also remains...
Apple today launched its annual "Back to School" promotion for college/university students in the United States and Canada. This year's promotion offers a free Apple gift card with the purchase of an eligible Mac or iPad, rather than free AirPods like last year. Apple is also offering students 20% off AppleCare+ plans during the promotion.
Apple is offering a $150 gift card with the purchase ...
Wednesday June 22, 2022 10:07 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the updates coming two weeks after Apple unveiled the new software at WWDC and released the initial betas.
Registered developers can download the iOS and iPadOS 16 profiles from the Apple Developer Center, and once installed, the betas will be available over the air. Given...
Apple is "likely" to announce its long-rumored mixed-reality headset as soon as January 2023, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has reiterated.
Concept render based on purported leaked information by Ian Zelbo In a detailed post on Medium, Kuo explained that Apple's headset will be a "game-changer" for the augmented-reality and virtual-reality market. Describing some of the headset's...
Apple on May 16 released iOS 15.5 and iPadOS 15.5, bringing improvements for Podcasts and Apple Cash, the ability to see Wi-Fi signal of HomePods, dozens of security fixes, and more.
Top Rated Comments
M1 Ultra energy cost: £148/year
Even if it’s half the speed that’s a win.