英特尔最终能在能效比上击败 ARM 吗？

Can Intel finally beat ARM on performance per Watt?

在最近的一段视频中，杰夫·吉尔林（Jeff Geerling）对“ARM 架构芯片（如 Apple Silicon）在能效上天然优于 x86 架构”这一长期以来的观点提出了挑战。通过将搭载 Intel Core 5 320 处理器的戴尔 XPS 13 与现代 MacBook 进行基准测试对比，吉尔林揭示了行业格局的惊人转变。在使用 HPL Linpack 测试中，戴尔 XPS 13 的能效达到了 6.21 Gflops/W，实际上超过了 MacBook 的 5.38 Gflops/W，并可与 M4 Mac Mini 的能效相媲美。这些发现表明，英特尔近期的架构改进已有效缩短了曾经定义该行业的功耗差距。尽管 MacBook 在集成显卡、音频和操作系统偏好方面仍具优势，但戴尔在待机或网页浏览等日常使用场景中展现出的能效，标志着 x86 架构达到了一个重要的里程碑。归根结底，吉尔林的测试支持了这样一种观点：能效更多取决于现代芯片设计，而非底层的指令集架构，这证明了英特尔再次成为能效桂冠的强力竞争者。

Hacker News 上的讨论围绕着“英特尔能否在单位功耗性能上最终击败 ARM？”这篇文章展开。用户们正在争论英特尔近期在与 ARM 架构芯片竞争方面的努力是具有里程碑意义，还是仅仅是在苦苦追赶。一位评论者表示怀疑，认为英特尔只是在追赶过时的技术，而非真正的创新；他并指出英特尔目前的发展轨迹所生产的是不适应未来的“遗产硬件”。相反，另一位用户则为英特尔辩护，将目前的质疑声与历史上人们对其他科技领域创新能力的怀疑进行了对比。他认为，这些轻视的评价忽略了硬件开发的迭代性质，并指出即使是像苹果芯片这样高性能的产品也需要频繁更新，因此过早下此定论显得有些严苛。总的来说，该讨论反映了科技界的一种普遍分歧：一些人认为英特尔渐进式的进步是停滞不前的迹象，而另一些人则将其视为重拾市场竞争力所必需且充满希望的一步。

With a title like “Intel Just Matched Apple Silicon. Seriously.“, the latest video from [Jeff Geerling] makes some pretty bold claims. But as we’d expect from [Jeff], he’s got the benchmarks up on GitHub for both the MacBook Neo and Dell’s latest XPS 13 to back it up.

We’ve embedded the full video below, which has [Jeff]’s comparative review of the two laptops. The Mac wins on iGPU, sound, and not shipping Windows, while the Dell gets points for being able to load Linux and having a backlit keyboard. But the figure we were hoping to see is the efficiency. After all, it’s ARM’s ability to crank out gigaflops on fewer watts that won them the mobile market and got Apple interested in that architecture in the first place. If Intel is catching up, that’s news.

On [Jeff]’s version of the Top500 benchmark — the same HPL Linpak test used for Supercomputers — the MacBook cranked out 57.012 Gflops at 10.6W, for 5.38 Gflops/W while the Dell managed 127.91 Gflops at 20.6W, for 6.21 Gflops/W. That’s just astounding, considering the historical data all goes the other way. This Dell also beats out both M4 and M3 Mac Studios, only failing to the M4 Mac Mini at 7.57 Gflops/W. Even when not crunching big numbers, say at idle or web browsing, the XPS matches the MacBook sip for sip in energy efficiency.

Some people have been saying for a few years now that ARM’s observed advantages in power consumption have more to do with the chips themselves than the instruction architecture, and it looks like the Core 5 320 chip in this Dell proves them right when it comes to x86.

While you might think you need to code in Assembly or C to maximize those efficiency gains, your choice of language may not be as important as you think.