Maximum PC - USA (2022-04)

or built-in software, both OSes

offer a huge array of utilities

and apps. Mail clients, photo

viewers, screenshot tools, contact

managers, you name it, both

platforms include it. As for features

unique to either, Microsoft includes

items such as Sticky Notes, Skype,

and Xbox gaming, while MacOS

has the GarageBand music app, a

far superior video editor, and a full

productivity suite, including the

Pages word processor, Numbers

spreadsheet, and Keynote

presentation creator.

As for browsers, arguably MacOS

has the edge both literally and

figuratively. After all, Microsoft’s

Edge browser is available for

MacOS as well as Windows, but

Apple discontinued its Safari

browser for Windows back in 2012.

Meanwhile, alternatives such as

Chrome and Firefox are available

on both platforms.

Thanks to the far greater adoption

of Windows PCs, the supporting

ecosystem of third-party software

is inevitably larger on the PC.

There’s little in software terms that

doesn’t exist for Windows. MacOS

counters with one or two exclusive

killer apps, such as Apple’s own

Final Cut Pro video editor.

Some apps available on both

platforms are also better integrated

with and optimized for the Mac.

Some would argue the Adobe suite

of creative software falls into that

category. Of course, that cuts

both ways. The majority of serious

business software is only available

on PC.

as Apple’s hot new in-house

silicon, namely the M1, M1

Pro, and M1 Max made the Mac the

fastest personal computer on the

planet? In outright performance

terms, that will be an easy no. When

it comes to both multi-threaded

throughput and peak single-core

performance, the PC still reigns

supreme.

By way of examples, two of the

most popular rules of thumb for

CPU performance are Geekbench 5

and Cinebench R23. In both metrics,

Intel’s latest and greatest desktop

PC processor, the Core i9-12900K

processor wallops Apple’s fastest

M1 Max chip. The 12900K cranks out

around 1,950 points in single-core

Geekbench and just under 2,000

points in single-core Cinebench.

By comparison, the M1 Max is good

for roughly 1,750 and 1,500 points

respectively. In multi-threaded

software, it’s no contest at all, partly

thanks to the 12900K large core-

count advantage, with 16 cores to

the M1 Max’s 10.

What that comparison doesn’t

capture is the impressive

IPC (instructions per clock)

performance of the M1 chips. The

M1 Max peaks at 3.2GHz, whereas

the 12900K hits 5.2GHz. Normalize

the two architectures for clock

speed and the Apple processor

does far more work per cycle. Of

course, we’ve yet to see any Apple

silicon implemented in a truly high-

performance desktop machine.

What’s more, the higher-spec

M1 models combine unprecedented

CPU and GPU power in a single chip

and back that up with an incredibly

advanced shared memory

architecture delivering an epic

400GB/s of theoretical memory

bandwidth. The M1 Max’s GPU, in

particular, obliterates any existing

integrated PC graphics. With a peak

performance of 10.4 teraflops, it’s

only slightly behind the 12.8TFLOPS

of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060

desktop GPU and well ahead of

the 7.5TFLOPS of the previous-

generation RTX 2070.

The fastest comparable PC

integrated graphics to the M1 Max’s

GPU is found in the shiny new AMD

Radeon 6000 series APU, also

known as Rembrandt. The fastest

version of that chip tops out at

SOFTWARE PERFORMANCE

F WINNER H

WINNER

MacOS has

better built-in

apps, but it’s the

epic Windows

ecosystem

FTW... for now.

The PC is

still the

performance

king, the only

question is

for how much

longer?

3.7TFLOPS in terms of raw GPU

power. Incidentally, the integrated

GPU in the new SteamDeck, also

made by AMD is good for just

1.6TFLOPS. Imagine an M1 Max

in the Steamdeck. In pure power

consumption terms, the M1 Max

may be comparable with the Steam

Deck’s APU. But it’s so much more

powerful graphically. What a thing

that would be.

Of course, the fastest desktop

GPU today, which can’t be had in a

Mac of any kind, is the 40TFLOPS

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti. So,

for now, it’s the same old story. In

outright performance terms, the

PC rules supreme. It’s also worth

noting that the M1 Pro and Max

chips contain additional processing

blocks including a 16-core neural

processing unit and video decode

and encode engines.

For certain specific video

production tasks, the latter engines

in particular are capable of stellar

performance that not many

general-purpose CPUs can match.

Mac has always had better commercials but, ultimately,

the joke is on Apple as the PC has dominated the market.

Where it all began: The original

1985 Apple Macintosh

PC vs Mac

52 MAXIMU MPC APR 2022

© APPLE