Results uploaded to Geekbench show that Apple Silicon M1 scores higher than every previous Mac in the single core benchmark, even when the M1 is emulating x86
The first native benchmarks of Apple's M1 chip appeared on the Geekbench site last week showing impressive native performance.
Context & Ripple Effects
The Geekbench uploads are the first public confirmation of what Apple's own chip roadmap implied: AnandTech's analysis of the A14 had traced a near-3x single-thread climb over five years and predicted M1 would be formidable against x86, and the M1's scores now land on that curve. The striking detail is that even under x86 emulation — a translation layer, not native code — the M1 outscores every previous Mac running native Intel silicon.
This continues a benchmark lineage Apple has been building since the A11 Bionic beat the i5 MacBook Pro in 2017, and the Mac mini deep-dive two days later confirms the pattern holds in shipping hardware, with the fan-cooled M1 beating Intel chips and matching AMD's Zen 3. The M4 Max crossing 4,000 single-core in 2024 shows the lead was not a first-generation fluke but the start of a compounding advantage.
First-order effects
- Intel-based Macs immediately lose the single-core performance crown they held across the entire prior Mac lineup, with Apple's own transition the direct casualty — and beneficiary — of the comparison.
- Rosetta-style x86 emulation is validated as a viable bridge, since emulated M1 scores alone beat every native Intel Mac, de-risking the migration for software that has not been recompiled.
Second-order effects
- Intel's Mac business faces a benchmark deficit it cannot answer with its current roadmap, while AMD's Zen 3 becomes the only x86 line in the coverage performing on par with M1 — pressuring both to respond on single-thread efficiency rather than core counts.
- Developers gain a concrete incentive to ship Apple Silicon native builds quickly, since the emulation penalty is small enough that the M1 wins even without their porting work.
Third-order effects
- If the A14-to-M1 trajectory holds, the Mac becomes an ARM-first platform where Apple's mobile chip cadence, not Intel's, sets the PC performance pace — a structural reversal of the x86 era.
- Benchmarks like Geekbench harden into the public scoreboard for the transition, making single-core efficiency the metric x86 incumbents are judged by and accelerating the industry-wide shift toward heterogeneous, efficiency-core designs.
The trend: Apple is converting its mobile chip cadence into a compounding single-core lead over x86, with Geekbench scores serving as the public scoreboard for the Mac's ARM transition.