The new iMac Pro 2021 with Apple M1 chip once again shows off the power of Apple's in-house silicon, winning over its Intel-based predecessor.

New benchmarks were released on Geekbench 5, where the octa-core M1-based iMac scored 1,736 for single-core and 7,429 for multi-core. Comparatively, the Intel processor-based 21.5-inch iMacs that the newer M1 iMacs replaced scored about 1,200 and 6,400, respectively.

Thus, 9to5Mac reports that the new iMac is 42% to 78% faster in single-core Geekbench 5 tests than its predecessors with Intel Core i3 and Core i7 chips. In multi-core tests, the difference between the Core i3 iMac and the M1 iMac reaches 128%, with the M1 chip 16% faster on the Core i7.

The M1 in the new iMac also compares favorably with the latest powerful Intel processors, with the Intel Core i7-10875H in the Razer Blade 15 Advanced delivering 1,287 single-core and 6,531 multi-core results.

In short, the iMac 2021 doesn't just offer a sleek new design, it is significantly more powerful than its predecessor. It should make the entire macOS experience feel more snappy, especially if you have many applications and browser tabs open. Apple's all-in-one computer should also be able to handle more demanding tasks like photo and video editing.

And all this is a good indicator that Apple is making a strong push to move away from Intel-based Macs. There is, however, a small problem.

According to MacRumors, the 27-inch iMac with Intel's 10th generation Comet Lake Core chip still beats the smaller M1 iMac; the Comet Lake CPU is a full-fat desktop processor, while the M1 chip is based on a mobile CPU architecture, which is not a big surprise given its flexibility to be used in the iPad Pro 2021 and larger machines. Therefore, powerhouse users seeking a macOS machine would be better off choosing the 27-inch iMac at this time.

However, that may not be the case for much longer, as there are rumors of a new 27-inch iMac 2021 on the horizon. It is expected to offer a new design and access to the rumored Apple M2 chip.

Speaking of which, the M2 chip is said to be built on a 4-nanometer manufacturing node rather than the 5-nm process used by its predecessor to provide more power and efficiency; it is expected to have 12 CPU cores, more than the M1, and 16 GPU cores, eight more than the M1 This will allow for higher processor and graphics performance. This could result in a significant increase in processor and graphics performance, making the M2 chip a serious contender against desktop-only processors.

We predict that such a chip would certainly improve performance over the M1 and could be adopted by Apple as a true competitor to the best processors from Intel and AMD.