Apple M1 Max vs Intel Core i7-5850HQ

Apple M1 Max

The Apple M1 Max is a System on a Chip (SoC) from Apple that is found in the late 2021 MacBook Pro 14 and 16-inch models. It offers all 10 cores available in the chip divided in eight performance cores (P-cores with 600 - 3220 MHz) and two power-efficiency cores (E-cores with 600 - 2064 MHz). There is no Turbo Boost for single cores or short burst periods. The cores are similar to the cores in the Apple M1.

The big cores (codename Firestorm) offer 192 KB instruction cache, 128 KB data cache, and 24 MB shared L2 cache (up from 12 MB in the M1). The four efficiency cores (codename Icestorm) are a lot smaller and offer only 128 KB instruction cache, 64 KB data cache, and 4 MB shared cache. CPU and GPU can both use the 48 MB SLC (System Level Cache). The efficiency cores (E cluster) clock with 600 - 2064 MHz, the performance cores (P cluster) with 600 - 3228 MHz.

The unified memory (32 or 64 GB LPDDR5-6400) next to the chip is connected by a 512 bit memory controller (200 GB/s bandwidth) and can be used by the GPU and CPU. This is the main difference to the M1 Pro and the CPU performance is quite similar.

The biggest difference to the M1 Pro is the bigger integrated GPU with 24 or 32 cores (up from 16).

Furthermore, the SoC integrates a fast 16 core neural engine, a secure enclave (e.g., for encryption), a unified memory architecture, Thunderbolt 4 controller, an ISP, and media de- and encoders (including two ProRes engines).

The M1 Pro is manufactured in 5 nm at TSMC and integrates 57 billion transistors. The peak power consumption of the chip was advertised around 30W for CPU intensive tasks. 

Intel Core i7-5850HQ

The Intel Core i7-5850HQ is a fast quad-core processor based on the Broadwell architecture, which has been launched in June 2015. In addition to four CPU cores with Hyper-Threading clocked at 2.7 - 3.6 GHz (2/3/4 Cores: 3.6 GHz as well), the chip also integrates an Iris Pro Graphics 6200 GPU with on-package eDRAM and a dual-channel LPDDR3-1866/DDR3L-1600 memory controller. The Core i7 is manufactured in a 14 nm process with FinFET transistors.

Architecture

Broadwell represents the "Tick" in Intel's Tick-Tock model, which means a shrink of its predecessor Haswell. The new 14 nm manufacturing process with three-dimensional FinFET transistors allows not only improvements in energy efficiency, but also a significantly smaller die size fit for more compact packages and devices.

Further advantages result from the revised microarchitecture of Broadwell. Due to its improved branch prediction, bigger buffer sizes (1500 instead of 1000 entries in the L2 TLB) and other tweaks, the performance per clock has been increased by more than 5 percent over its predecessor. There are also some new instruction set extensions designed for cryptographic applications.

Performance

Thanks to its improved architecture, the Core i7-5850HQ offers a performance similar to the Haswell-based Core i7-4900MQ (2.5 - 3.7 GHz). Thus, the CPU has sufficient power for demanding applications, modern games and intense multitasking.

Graphics

The integrated Iris Pro Graphics 6200 (GT3e) offers 48 Execution Units (EUs) clocked at 300 - 1100 MHz, which can access 128 MB of dedicated eDRAM memory. For an integrated graphics solution, the Iris Pro Graphics 6200 achieves remarkable performance levels and competes with low-end or mid-range graphics cards such as the GeForce 940M. Nevertheless, demanding games as of 2015 will be playable only in low or medium settings.

Broadwell is the first Intel chip to fully support DirectX 11.2 as well as OpenCL 1.3/2.0 and OpenGL 4.3. Video will output natively via DisplayPort 1.2 or HDMI 1.4a. However, the new HDMI 2.0 standard is not supported.

Power Consumption

The i7-5850HQ is rated at a TDP of 47 W including the graphics card, memory controller and VRMs. Thus, the CPU is best suited for laptops 15-inches or greater.