Macworld - USA (2021-12)

DECEMBER 2021 MACWORLD 55

BLACKMAGIC DISK TEST

Read

2,854

2,560

5,797

2,756

HIGHER SCORES ARE BETTER

14-inch MacBook ProM1 Pro 10-core (2021)

16-inch MacBook Pro2.4GHz 8-core Core i9

13-inch MacBook ProM1 8-core (2020)

24-inch iMacM1 8-core (2021)

BLACKMAGIC DISK TEST

Write

2,598

2,670

5,321

2,274

HIGHER SCORES ARE BETTER

14-inch MacBook ProM1 Pro 10-core (2021)

16-inch MacBook Pro2.4GHz 8-core Core i9

13-inch MacBook ProM1 8-core (2020)

24-inch iMacM1 8-core (2021)

CINEBENCH R23

Single-core

1,513

1,531

1,520

HIGHER SCORES ARE BETTER

14-inch MacBook ProM1 Pro 10-core (2021)

13-inch MacBook ProM1 8-core (2020)

24-inch iMacM1 8-core (2021)

CINEBENCH R23

Multi-core

7,7 78

12,381

7,785

HIGHER SCORES ARE BETTER

14-inch MacBook ProM1 Pro 10-core (2021)

13-inch MacBook ProM1 8-core (2020)

24-inch iMacM1 8-core (2021)

results, like the Geekbench single-core
CPU results, were basically the same
across the Apple silicon Macs we tested.
Apple touts 7.4GBps read speeds with
the SSD in the new MacBook Pro, which is
more than twice the 3.3GBps that it claims
with the SSDs in M1 Macs. We didn’t get
those numbers when testing with
Blackmagic’s Disk Speed Test (fave.
co/3pfHyVn) with the 1TB SSD in our eval
unit, but we did see an improvement of
more than 100 percent over the M1 Pro
while performing reads—the M1 Pro’s SSD
was 126 percent faster than the SSD in the
2019 16-inch Intel MacBook Pro.
We also ran the AmorphousDiskMark
(fave.co/3CLP2p6) benchmark on the M1
and M1 Pro. In this test, the M1 Pro came

closer to Apple’s spec, with a read of

6.77GBps. The M1 posted a read rating of

2.4GBps. Using another SSD benchmark

tool, Stibium (fave.co/3nUboOR), the M1

Pro had a 7.05GBps rating, while the M1’s

read was 2.06GBps.

This test involved converting a 4K

video to 1080p. When using the H.265

x265 setting, the M1 Pro showed a 155

percent speed improvement over the M1

and a 91 percent improvement over the

2019 16-inch Intel MacBook Pro. When

using the H.265 VideoToolbox setting, the

improvements of the M1 Pro over the M1

were marginal, while it posted a 14 percent

boost over the Intel MacBook Pro.

Another test we ran involved Topaz

Labs Gigapixel AI (fave.co/2YgmNQr). This