> A Core i7-3970X from 2012 is still comparable to a typical notebook processor, or the fastest smartphone chips today, including the one in the Meta Quest Pro that was just announced.
The M1 is more than twice as fast in many SPECint subtests, such as 403.GCC and 464.h264ref. That’s just integer code, nothing that would exercise the vector units or anything like that.
Sorry, I keep forgetting that a MacBook is considered a typical notebook here, I meant those $400 notebooks people buy for school and such. Obviously for 3 to 7 times as much money you get desktop-level performance, no argument there.