DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

Real-world Apple M1 Mac vs Intel PC performance comparison for photographers and filmmakers

Jul 19, 2021 by John Aldred 6 Comments

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

There has been so much written about the technical specs and raw performance of Apple’s M1, particularly as compared to its Intel-based Mac counterparts but also Intel-based Windows PCs that it’s enough to make your head spin. But a chart with numbers only tells you so much. Real-world performance is often a little different, especially as new software is released that becomes more or less optimised for one platform vs another.

It’s that real-world performance that Chris and Jordan at DPReview TV look at in this video, which puts Jordan’s M1-based 24″ iMac against Chris’s Windows PC laptop to see how they perform for a variety of tasks. No benchmarking software that just presents a number, just the photo and video editing apps we all use on a daily basis to see how long it takes for the two to perform the same tasks.

Chris’ PC in this case is the Gigabyte Aero 15 YB, with an 11th Gen Intel i9 CPU, 32GB RAM and NVIDIA RTX 3080 GPU with 8GB RAM. Coming in at $3,499 (although it’s currently available for $2,999), it’s not an inexpensive machine, by any stretch of the imagination. Jordan’s 24″ M1 iMac, on the other hand, is significantly less expensive. It’s half the price of Chris’ laptop, at $1,699 and features an 8-core M1, 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD.

With that massive price difference, it seems a bit of an unfair comparison, really. But is it? The Windows laptop hammered the M1 desktop in the Lightroom test. It was basically twice as fast (which you’d expect if you’re paying twice as much). When it came to Capture One, though, the results were a little closer. The PC still won, but not by as much.

I think this lends itself well to demonstrating how well optimised certain applications are for specific platforms. Obviously, in these first couple of examples, Lightroom is optimised more for Intel-based systems while Capture One’s M1 optimisation is very impressive.

When it comes to video, DaVinci Resolve was the main comparison between the two. They didn’t test Premiere Pro, because apparently, they’re not big fans of Premiere Pro. To put them to the test, though, they threw some 5.9K 24fps, 10-bit 4:2:0 footage from the Panasonic S1H at them with some multitrack picture-in-picture. There were some noticeable performance slowdowns with both systems, but neither really performed any worse than the other.

For rendering a 30-second clip containing two 5.9K 24fps 10-bit 4:2:0 files, sampled down to 4K 24fps H.264 was sent to both machines and they were left to render. The Intel PC managed it in a very speedy 56 seconds. The M1 iMac wasn’t far behind though, at a minute and 4 seconds.

What was impressive, and an area where the M1 won by default because it’s not available on the PC, was Final Cut Pro performance. Performing the same edits as Resolve, there was no slowdown at all scrubbing through the timeline and the final render came out at 47 seconds – faster than DaVinci Resolve on either system.

They also did some stuff with gaming, if that’s your thing. Surprisingly, the M1 actually seemed to perform quite well, if you put all the settings sliders down to “Potato”.

It was interesting to see a real-world comparison like this. I still can’t see myself switching over to Apple just yet. It’s very exciting to see what will come in the future from Apple, but with ARM-based Windows finally getting x86 64-Bit emulation Windows might be able to catch up on performance per dollar. And given that NVIDIA owns ARM now, there should be some much tighter and more optimised GPU integration in the future, too.

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

Intel enters commercial drone market with the Intel Falcon 8+ for North America This hands-on review looks at Canon 1DX Mark III performance in real world use to shoot NFL $1,600 Ryzen based PC has double the performance in Photoshop than a $5,200 Mac Pro. Mac users can now get Lightroom directly from the Mac App Store

Filed Under: Gear Tagged With: Apple M1, Apple Silicon, comparison, Mac vs PC, windows

John Aldred: from diyphotography.net

About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

« This 3D printed film canister turns any old camera into a Raspberry PI digital camera
I analysed 50 top landscape photographers selling NFTs on foundation. Here’s what I learned »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Here’s a bullet time video booth you can build yourself
  • Ricoh has discontinued the HD PENTAX-DA 21mm F3.2AL Limited silver lens
  • This “stellar flower” unravels the twilight’s evolution in 360 degrees
  • Strobes vs Continuous LEDs – Which is right for you?
  • Wave goodbye to Apple’s My Photo Stream next month

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy