M1 iMac Beats 2019 Core i9 iMac in Early Benchmark Results

BY Sanuj Bhatia

Published 12 May 2021

M1 iMac benchmark results

Early benchmark results of 2021’s M1 iMac are out, and Apple’s latest iMac running its own custom M1 chip has (easily) managed to beat 2019’s 27-inch Core i9 iMac.

Apple introduced the newly redesigned iMac with the M1 chip last month. Apple M1 is the same chip powering the newly redesigned iMac, and the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro announced last year. But even before the iMac reaches customers’ hands, early benchmark results of the M1 iMac are out, and they’re not disappointing.

The entry-level 21-inch M1 iMac with an 8-core CPU, a 7-core GPU, and two Thunderbolt ports, manages to achieve an average single-core score of 1724 and an average multi-core score of 7453. This is on par with other Apple Macs running the M1 chip, including the M1 Mac Mini and even the smaller M1 iPad Pro.

When comparing these results to the last-generation 27-inch Core i9 iMac, which managed to score an average single-core and multi-core scores of 1,360 and 8,088, the single-core score is about 30% better, but, the multi-core is still lower by about 8%. But, we still have to keep in mind that the new iMacs are just 11.5mm thick.

The results are likely uploaded to Geekbench’s benchmark browser via the reviewers who are currently said to be testing them. Popular Apple leaker Jon Prosser claims first hands-on and reviews of the 21-inch M1 iMac should be out sometime next week. Keep an eye on our review rounds ups page where we’ll go through some of the best reviews of M1 iMac.

Our Take

2021 M1 iMacs are turning out to be one of the fastest home-computing machines yet. Keeping in mind that Apple does not target these iMacs to a ‘Pro’ user, the computing power reflected in results is quite overkill for an average user. Plus, the iMacs are only 11.5mm thick.

What are your thoughts on the M1 iMac Geekbench 5 benchmark results? Are you planning on getting a new iMac this year? Let us know in the comments section below!