New benchmarks show the iPhone chip in the cut-price Apple MacBook Neo beating every single x86 PC processor for single-core performance

New benchmarks show the iPhone chip in the cut-price Apple MacBook Neo beating every single x86 PC processor for single-core performance | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these Gaming Laptops Best gaming laptop 2026: I’ve tested the best laptops for gaming of this generation and here are the ones I recommend Gaming Laptops Best gaming laptop 2026: I’ve tested the best laptops for gaming of this generation and here are the ones I recommend. 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When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Apple) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter PC Gamer Get the PC Gamer Newsletter Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday GamesRadar+ Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you’re going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. 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From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter We’ve already reported how Apple’s new MacBook Neo is putting the frighteners on PC laptop makers. Now comes news that early benchmarks show the chip beating every single x86 CPU currently available when it comes to single-core performance in Cinebench 2024. Yep, that includes desktop monsters like AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X and Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285HX.Notebookcheck ran the new budget laptop, which goes for $599 full retail or $499 with an education discount, through its paces. With a score of 147 points in the Cinebench 2024 rendering test, it beats every x86 out there and is only bested by other Apple CPUs.For the record, Notebookcheck puts the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X at 139 points and the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX on 135 points. Incredible for a phone chip? Yup. But arguably not surprising.Article continues below You may like Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X2 Arm CPU pops up in Geekbench and wallops the x86 laptop competition by over 30% in single-core performance Asus CFO Nick Wu thinks Apple’s MacBook Neo is ‘certainly a shock to the entire market’ As hardware prices make heads spin, Apple of all companies has just announced a new MacBook laptop for only $599 That’s because the A18 Pro iPhone chip used in the MacBook Neo is closely related to the Apple M4 used in various Mac computers. In short, it has the same Performance and Efficiency cores as the M4, just fewer of them with a lower power budget and clock speeds.Where the basic M4 has four P and six E cores, the A18 Pro has just two P cores and four E cores. But, again, they’re the same cores. So, that iPhone chip has the same single-thread IPC or instructions-per-clock capability as any M4 chip. (Image credit: Apple)Officially, the A18 Pro’s P cores max out at 4.04 GHz, while the basic M4 can hit 4.46 GHz on its P cores, the Pro