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We already know that new Macs powered by the M1 chip have impressive performance that outperforms almost all current Macs with Intel processors, but what about Windows PCs? PC world compared Microsoft’s Surface Pro X to Apple’s new MacBook Air M1, and the results put the Surface tablet far behind the Mac.
Although Windows runs on ARM-based machines, not many of them are currently available to consumers. Microsoft’s Surface Pro X tablet is one of them, with an ARM chip created in partnership between Microsoft and Qualcomm.
As pointed out PC worldA major limitation of Windows on ARM machines is that the operating system was restricted to running emulated 32-bit X86 software. In other words, the system was unable to emulate and run 64-bit applications built for AMD and Intel processors.
32-bit software runs at significantly lower performance, and Apple got rid of them in 2019 with macOS Catalina. At the same time, Apple has introduced Rosetta 2 technology for the new Mac M1s, which basically translates every software created for Mac Intel into an ARM binary that works best on Apple Silicon computers.
Microsoft recently released a beta version of Windows that features emulation for 64-bit X86 software, but still the performance isn’t even close to that of newer Macs with the M1 chip. In a Geekbench 5 test, the Surface Pro X was outclassed by the new MacBook Air M1 and also lagged behind a cheap HP Pavilion laptop with an Intel Core i5 processor.
Another test was done with HandBrake, an open source software for transcoding videos. While the new M1-chip MacBook Air converted a 12-minute 4K video to 1080p H.265 format in about 23 minutes, the Surface Pro X ARM took 2 hours to complete the same operation.
The SQ1 raced at a speed of about one frame per second, and it took about two hours to transcode a 12-minute 4K video, Tears of Steel, into a 1080p H.265 format. Apple’s MacBook M1 just beats the Surface Pro X.
At the end of the day, even with the improvements Microsoft has been making to Windows, the ARM machines are at a disadvantage compared to the Mac M1s. Based on your tests, PC world says that “Windows on Arm needs a miracle” to achieve the performance of the new Mac with Apple Silicon chip.
But it’s hard to believe that further development will bridge the huge performance gap between Windows on Arm and Apple’s M1-based Macs. In six months, Microsoft can boast that its emulation performance has improved considerably. But without the combined miracle of a much better CPU from Qualcomm or another Arm chipmaker and continued improvements from Microsoft, the future of Windows on Arm looks bleak.
Interestingly, the developers were able to emulate Windows 10 on Mac M1 and the Mac performed better in a Geekbench test than Surface Pro X with Windows 10 natively on ARM.
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