AnandTech notes that placing the RAM on the side of the processor die, rather than on top of it, ensures effective cooling of the chips. The M1 is supposed to use a 128-bit DRAM bus, similar to the latest A-series chips. The new processor uses four high-performance Firestorm cores and four energy-efficient Icestorm cores. After examining the snapshot of the M1 shown during the presentation, AnandTech came to the conclusion that it has 12 MB of L2 cache, as opposed to 8 MB in the A14, which makes sense when you consider that the new processor has four high-performance cores, and not two, like a chip for tablets and smartphones.

In addition, AnandTech compared the performance of the M1 to current Intel and AMD processors. The website reported that Apple’s claim that it created the world’s fastest processor seems extremely plausible. After running a series of tests on the Apple A14 chip in the SPECint2006 benchmark, the source compared the results with the Intel Core i7-1185G7 – Intel’s most powerful mobile chip, as well as with the desktop flagship Core i9-10900K. As a result, the performance was described as stunning and it was concluded that the A14 is able to compete with the best solutions from the x86 world.

And when you consider that the M1 has not two, like the A14, but as many as four high-performance Firestorm cores, the chipset has every chance of getting the title of the most productive processor for consumer computers this year. But here it is important to remember that these are only synthetic tests, moreover, within the framework of one benchmark, so the real situation may turn out to be completely different. But what we see now cannot but rejoice. 

Separately, the Internet resource AnandTech noted the pace with which Apple is increasing the performance of branded processors. While Intel has increased the performance of its chips by about 28 percent over the past 5 years, Apple has achieved a 198 percent increase over the same period.