Apple M1 vs A18 Pro (MacBook)

53 out of 100
Apple M1
VS
66 out of 100
Apple A18 Pro (MacBook)

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 3.2 GHz Apple M1 with 8-cores against the 2 GHz A18 Pro (MacBook) with 6-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
NanoReview Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between (MacBook) and M1
Advantages of Apple M1
  • Supports up to 16 GB LPDDR4X-4266 RAM
  • Has 2 more physical cores
  • Around 8.25 GB/s (14%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
Advantages of Apple A18 Pro (MacBook)
  • Newer - released 3 years and 10 months later
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 5 nanometers
  • 50% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3615 vs 2410 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
2410
3615
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
8547
File compression 941 MB/sec 1050 MB/sec
Clang compilation 68.2 Klines/sec 58.1 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 192.4 pages/sec 201.6 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 211.9 Mpixels/sec 214.8 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 250.8 pages/sec 318.8 pages/sec
Background blur 34.1 images/sec 41 images/sec
Photo processing 60.9 images/sec 91.5 images/sec
Ray tracing 9.74 Mpixels/sec 9.18 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 760 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
3673
4078
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Apple M1 +10%
14123
Integer math 33.2 GOps/sec 37.5 GOps/sec
Floating point math 35.5 GOps/sec 25.4 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 141M Primes/sec 132M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 21M Strings/sec 17.2M Strings/sec
Data encryption 8.5 GBytes/sec 8 GBytes/sec
Data compression 168 MBytes/sec 133.5 MBytes/sec
Physics 1359 Frames/sec 1380 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 7B Matrices/sec 6.5B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 10702 & 962 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Apple M1 +34%
95.27

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 37.5 PPW 70.2 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 610.5 PPW 922.5 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 1008.8 PPW 1281.2 PPW
Blender / Watt 6.81 PPW 7.1 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Apple M1
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-24 -> op1Geekbench 6 CPU2420 / 8793
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-06 (gaR)Geekbench 6 CPU2396 / 8763
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-11 (Ario)Geekbench 6 CPU2395 / 8820
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-11 (Ario)Cinebench 2024110 / 465
πŸ“˜ 2025-01-17 (Qianhe)Cinebench 2024110 / 525
Apple A18 Pro (MacBook)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-03 -> RennsportGeekbench 6 CPU3505 / 8840
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-24 -> RennsportGeekbench 6 CPU3505 / 8840

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M1 and A18 Pro (MacBook)

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released November 20, 2020 September 9, 2024
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv8 ARMv9
Codename Apple M1 Apple M4
Model number - APL1V07
Integrated GPU Apple M1 GPU Apple A18 Pro GPU
Successor - Apple M5 (10-Core) -

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 4 2
P-Threads 4 2
Base Frequency (P) 3.2 GHz 2 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) - 4.05 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 4 4
E-Threads 4 4
Base Frequency (E) 2.1 GHz -
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) - 2.42 GHz
Total
Total Cores 8 6
Total Threads 8 6
Multiplier - 40x
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 12MB (shared) 16MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors 16 billions -
Fabrication Process 5 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 14 W 10 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Custom
Laptop processors ranking (173rd and 70th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M1 GPU Apple A18 Pro GPU
GPU Base Clock 450 MHz -
GPU Boost Clock 1278 MHz 1490 MHz
Shading Units 1024 768
TMUs 64 40
ROPs 32 -
Execution Units 128 128
TGP 15 W -
iGPU FLOPS
Apple M1 +13%
2.6 TFLOPS
2.3 TFLOPS

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR4X-4266 - LPDDR5x-7500
Max. Memory Size 16 GB 8 GB
Memory Channels 8 4
Max. Memory Bandwidth 68.25 GB/s 60 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

PCI Express Version 4.0 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
31 (24.6%)
95 (75.4%)
Total votes: 126

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple A18 Pro (MacBook) or Apple M1?
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Avatar
Soc master March 21, 2026 at 07:41 PM
Who is here after macbook neo launch πŸ˜…
+20 Reply
Me-she August 26, 2026 at 08:10 PM
Melee. Also I wanted to see if buying a M1 mini would be more cost effective.
0 Reply