Apple M1 ARM Performance With A 2020 Mac Mini

Written by Michael Larabel in Computers on 20 November 2020 at 12:22 PM EST. Page 7 of 7. 206 Comments.
Apple M1 macOS 11.0 Big Sur Benchmark Comparison
Apple M1 macOS 11.0 Big Sur Benchmark Comparison
Apple M1 macOS 11.0 Big Sur Benchmark Comparison
Apple M1 macOS 11.0 Big Sur Benchmark Comparison
Apple M1 macOS 11.0 Big Sur Benchmark Comparison
Apple M1 macOS 11.0 Big Sur Benchmark Comparison
Apple M1 macOS 11.0 Big Sur Benchmark Comparison
Apple M1 macOS 11.0 Big Sur Benchmark Comparison

Overall the raw performance of the Apple M1 was impressive compared to what we have been used to seeing in the past out of ARM desktop performance generally lacking. Not only is the M1 performance very good but Rosetta 2.0 has shown so far to be very capable for running existing x86 64-bit software on the Apple Silicon Macs.

For those wondering what this Mac Mini M1 performance looks like in relation to Intel Tiger Lake and AMD Renoir on Linux, I ran some quick comparison data points via this OpenBenchmarking.org result file. Depending upon the workload, the M1 on macOS Big Sur can generally compete -- and in some cases outperform -- Tiger Lake and Renoir on Ubuntu Linux.

More Apple M1 benchmarks to come over the weeks ahead as well as looking at the viability of being able to run Linux bare metal on the hardware and through virtualization.

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Michael Larabel

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.