Apple A18 Pro In MacBook Neo Beats All x86 CPUs In Single-Core Benchmarks

Apple made a splash earlier this month when it debuted a slew of new products, but the stand-out was undoubtedly the budget minded MacBook Neo, which one PC executive says sent a “shock” through the entire PC market. It’s the company’s most affordable MacBook, powered by the A18 Pro that debuted with the iPhone 16 Pro in 2024, which most expected to deliver relatively pokey performance. Early benchmarks, however, are showing it to be a fairly capable machine.

Notebookcheck ran some single threaded benchmarks using Cinebench 2024, and the A18 Pro didn’t just hold its own, it managed to post better scores than the best Intel, AMD and Qualcomm have to offer. The only chips that got better scores than the A18 Pro were Apple’s own M4 and M5 SoCs. This is an impressive result considering this isn’t even Apple’s fastest A series chip, that title goes to the A19 Pro.


So which x86 based chips managed to get the closest? For team red, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D was the flagbearer, scoring 139 points to the A18 Pro’s 147 points. Meanwhile, Intel’s Ultra 9 285HX was close behind with 135 points. Qualcomm’s best performer, the Snapdragon X Elite, only managed to score 127 points.

The MacBook Neo also appears to be a relatively competent casual gaming device. YouTuber Andrew Tsai ran several games on the machine and found that it holds up well for older titles such as Resident Evil 2 Remake and Control, but struggles to play any recent AAA title. However, for a fanless design that comes in at $599 it performed better than many anticipated.

Many wondered if Apple had potentially cut too many corners to ensure the MacBook Neo hit its price point, especially with its decision to use the A18 Pro. However, these early benchmarks should go a long way to address those concerns.