Apple MacBook Pro M1 vs Intel Core i5: A Performance Comparison for Designers

As designers, we're always on the lookout for the latest and greatest tools to help us create stunning visuals and efficient workflows. In recent years, Apple has made a significant shift towards its own M1 chip, raising questions about the performance difference between this new technology and Intel's Core i5 processor. In this article, we'll dive into a comparison of the 13-inch MacBook Pro with both M1 and Intel Core i5 chips to see which one comes out on top.

Dan Grabham, former associate editor at Pocket-lint, has extensive experience writing about computing, mobile, and internet topics. He's worked across features, news, and reviews, and is well-versed in the capabilities of various devices. For this comparison, he pitched the Apple M1 chip against the Intel Core i5 processor, using a 13-inch MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM and a 2TB SSD.

The comparison was undertaken to identify which processor provided better performance for designers, particularly those who rely heavily on Adobe Creative Cloud apps. And the results are striking – Adobe has released data showing an average 83% performance uplift when using the M1 chip, rising to a whopping 88% in Photoshop. This is significant, as expert Andreas Pfeiffer's benchmark report showed that features utilizing Adobe's Sensei machine-learning technology saw around a 4-6 times uplift in performance.

In conclusion, for designers who rely on Creative Cloud apps, the Apple MacBook Pro M1 chip provides significantly better performance than its Intel Core i5 counterpart. With an average 83% performance uplift and up to 88% improvement in Photoshop, it's clear that Apple's new technology is a game-changer for those working with visual content.

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