Cinebench R23 gains support for Apple M1 SoC

While Apple made huge claims about the performance of its M1 SoC, we're obviously waiting for third-party benchmark results to verify if the ARM-based Mac computers can indeed match the performance of x86-based PCs in a variety of workloads.

Maxon just released a new version of its Cinema 4D rendering tool that supports the Apple M1 SoC and at the same time it also published a new version of its Cinebench benchmark that supports the M1. One important note here is that Cinebench R23 scores can not be compared with scores from earlier versions of Cinebench due to big changes in how the score is calculated.

Maxon, the leading developer of professional 2D/3D digital content creation and composting solutions, has just released Cinebench Release 23, an update to its industry-standard, cross-platform benchmarking application trusted by developers, analysts and users alike to evaluate hardware performance. Cinebench uses advanced algorithms to visualize and render a three-dimensional scene on a computer. Cinebench scores are used by hardware manufacturers to optimize CPUs during the development process, as well as press and consumers to evaluate systems.

This news follows the recent announcement that Cinema 4D, Maxon’s award-winning 3D animation software, is the very first professional 3D animation package available for Apple’s new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini powered by the revolutionary M1, the first in a family of chips designed by Apple specifically for the Mac.

“For more than a decade, Cinebench has been the go-to tool for hardware manufacturers and industry analysts to evaluate system performance,” said David McGavran, Maxon Chief Executive Officer. “Cinebench R23 delivers the most accurate and stable results for the latest hardware, including Apple’s recently announced M1-powered Macs, ensuring users are operating on the highest performing systems for demanding content creation and rendering workloads.”

Cinebench R23 feature highlights:

Cinebench is now based on the latest Release 23 code using updated compilers, and has a minimum runtime activated by default (previously hidden in preferences)

Cinebench R23 delivers more stable and accurate results for high-performance systems and allows users to check that the hardware is able to deliver the performance steadily, without throttling down due to thermal issues.

Users now have the option to directly test the single core performance without manually enabling the “Advanced benchmark” option. The “Advanced benchmark” allows users to set arbitrary minimum runtimes to stress test the hardware for even longer periods of time.

Because of the code and compiler changes, Cinebench score values are readjusted to a new range so they should not be compared to scores from previous versions of Cinebench.

Cinebench R23 leverages the same powerful 3D engine in Cinema 4D Release 23 (Cinema 4D R23) to accurately evaluate CPU rendering performance capabilities across various systems and platforms.