Comparing the M1 Ultra GPU to Nvidia was misleading

When Apple compared the performance of the M1 Ultra GPU to the most powerful Nvidia graphics card at the time, the chart and quote from the company were technically correct, but rather misleading, writes Macworld.

Apple was under the impression that the M1 Ultra outperformed the Nvidia RTX 3090, but that wasn’t the case – and will be even less so when Nvidia released the 3090 Ti…

Background

This month, Apple unveiled its most powerful Apple Silicon chip to date, the M1 Ultra. This is available in the new Mac Studio and combines two M1 Max chips in one.

The specs of the M1 Ultra are really impressive, and Apple illustrated this with a chart (above) comparing the performance of the M1 Ultra GPU to the Nvidia RTX 3090, the most powerful PC GPU at the time. Apple backed up the chart with a very carefully worded quote:

For the most demanding graphics-intensive tasks such as 3D rendering and complex image processing, the M1 Ultra is equipped with a 64-core GPU – 8 times more than the M1 – delivering faster performance than even the most powerful PC GPU, while still consuming 200W less power. .

M1 Ultra GPU vs Nvidia RTX 3090

Both the diagram and the quote show two things. First, the M1 Ultra is significantly more power efficient than the Nvidia card. This part is absolutely correct. Second, the M1 Ultra is more powerful than the Nvidia RTX 3090. It’s not, says Macworld, and Nvidia’s latest release will leave the M1 Ultra even further in the dust.

Apple achieved this misleading comparison by cutting off the graph before the Nvidia GPU got close to its peak performance.

The M1 Ultra maxes out at 215W compared to the RTX 3090’s 350W. In the chart, Apple is trimming the RTX 3090 to around 320W, severely limiting its potential.

see also

Let the graph hit 350W and Nvidia wins by the mile, as shown by The Verge in their Mac Studio review. And Nvidia doesn’t stop there.

Now there’s the RTX 3090 Ti, which costs the same as the M1 Studio and promises to outperform the M1 Ultra even more. In particular, it can draw a staggering 450W of power, more than double that of the M1 Ultra. We haven’t seen benchmarks yet, but they’re about to outshine the RTX 3090, which already handily beats the M1 Ultra to its full potential. The comparison with the RTX 3090 Ti will be extremely one-sided. I don’t know if there is any graphics card that can really compete with Nvidia’s latest behemoth, but that’s definitely not what Apple is doing.

So yes, if you want great GPU performance and power efficiency, nothing beats Apple Silicon. Similarly, if you want a lot of power at a relatively affordable price. But if raw power is your priority, Nvidia is still in the lead – and looks set to remain so for the foreseeable future.

Reading now