Intel has a hot (probably very hot) new mobile chip out and we’re very happy with it. The casually named Core i9-13980HX promises a lot, and early benchmarks show it’s a bit of a computing beast, especially compared to Apple’s own M1 Max.
Of course, the M1 Max is the obvious comparison for the new chips. It’s Intel’s top-of-the-line mobile silicon, as opposed to the best Apple portables can have. But is that comparison really fair?
So many cores, so little time
First, test.
People at PCWorld can get their hands on an MSI laptop running the new CES-repairing Intel Core i9-13980HX and run Cinebench benchmarks just to see what numbers the machine can handle was allowed.
As a result, a score of about 31,000 is really impressive. This is a figure that greatly exceeds the M1 Max’s multi-core score of about 12,000.
But how fair is that comparison?
The Intel Core i9-13980HX has more cores than your average apple orchard (24 to be exact). Apple’s M1 Max is 10.
With that in mind, it’s safe to say that Intel’s chips are expected to be around 2.4x faster. Looking at the numbers, it’s a little higher than that.
Then Intel However announced a new mobile chip, but you can’t buy anything if you just installed it. The M1 Max was announced over a year ago in October 2021. We’re waiting for Apple to announce the M2 Max anytime soon, which will likely be faster per core than the older model. You can expect it.
So after all, Intel’s chips actually score higher in Cinebench than Apple’s.
Apple’s best MacBook chip doesn’t seem to be competing with its Core i9-13980HX anytime soon. But something else to watch is the price of the MSI laptops PCWorld tested. Priced at around $4,300, it makes the 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro look as cheap as his $3,500.