Intel Reportedly Plans to Launch a More Efficient CPU than Apple’s M1 Pro/Max by Early 2024

BY Anu Joy

Published 24 Feb 2022

M1 Max

A roadmap detailing Intel’s 15th Gen Arrow Lake processor touted to surpass Apple’s M1 Max has been leaked on Twitter. The chip maker is reported to release the CPUs by late 2023, almost two years after the M1 Max chips were released.

With Arrow Lake, Intel could be looking to prioritize mobile over desktop to compete with Apple’s next-gen MacBooks, according to Wccftech. The leaked roadmap indicates that the first samples of Intel’s 15th Gen mobility CPUs could be ready to launch by late 2023 or early 2024.

The image also shows that Intel will use TSMC’s 3nm process. The upcoming Arrow Lake-P (portable) processors will use 14 cores, whereas the desktop Arrow Lake-S will have up to 40 cores.Intel Roadmap

Currently, Apple’s latest chips utilize the 5nm process, although reports suggest that its chipmaking partner TSMC has already started test-producing M3 chips built on its 3nm process. The iPhone maker’s 3nm chip will most likely debut in 2023 and is rumored to have a 40-core CPU. For context, M1 Max and M1 Pro chips have a 10-core CPU, whereas the M1 chip has an 8-core CPU.

At the beginning of this year, in its efforts to one-up Apple, Intel claimed that its new i9-12900HK is the “fastest mobile processor ever.” The company compared the i9’s performance to the M1 Max by compiling binaries with the SPEC CPU 2017 benchmarking suite. The graph shows that the i9 offers better performance per watt than the Apple chip. However, although Intel’s chip is faster, it won’t sustain a consistent performance for prolonged durations due to the thermal limitations of laptops. In other words, the chip maker’s offering suffers when it comes to battery life, compared to Apple’s M1 Max chips.

Apple’s M2 chips are expected by June this year, and the M2 Pro and M2 Max are said to show up by 2023 alongside the M3 chip. With these chips in the works, the iPhone maker is likely to turn the tables on Intel and surpass its upcoming 15th Gen Arrow Lake processors.

[Via Wccftech]