Chrome ran 80% faster after being updated to the Apple M1, completely beating the Ryzen Pro 4750U

Not long after Apple released new Mac models running its own M1 chip, Google yesterday also updated a new version of Chrome browser optimized for M1 chip and ARM architecture.

It should be noted that, prior to the Google update, the Chrome browser (which was built for the x86 architecture) can still work properly on new Mac models with ARM chips, since Apple has integrated it for macOS. Big Sur Rosetta 2 tool with the ability to “translate” x86 applications to be able to run on ARM platforms.

Naturally, this translation will affect the application’s performance more or less. Therefore, the release of Chrome optimized for M1 version by Google is very much expected news. In addition, it also gives us a chance to see what the performance improvement of an application before and after the M1 update will be.

Through testing by ArsTechnica, the performance of the Chrome browser after the update is significantly improved compared to before. On some browser benchmarks like Speedometer 2.0, Jetstream 2 and MotionMark 1.1; The new ARM version of Chrome scored 70-80% higher than the emulated x86 version via Rosetta 2. Still, Safari, as the “offspring” of Apple, remains the leading browser.

Besides Safari and Chrome running on Apple M1, ArsTechnica also compared an HP Elitebook with AMD Ryzen Pro 4750U chip, one of the most powerful ultrabook chips today with 8 cores 16 threads. If before the update, Chrome x86 on Apple M1 only gave performance on par, even slightly inferior to the Ryzen Pro 4750U; then after the update, the Ryzen Pro 4750U was “inhaled” by Apple M1 when the performance was only half.

With Chrome updated to the Apple M1, all three of the most popular browsers on the Mac right now, Safari, Chrome, and Firefox have all been completely optimized for the new chip platform. Recently, Microsoft also said it will soon update its Edge browser to be compatible with Apple M1.