Current x86 vs. Apple M1 Performance Measurements Are Flawed

“The “flaw” we’re going to talk about isn’t a problem with any specific benchmark or reviewer. It’s a difference in how the Apple M1 allocates and assigns resources versus how x86 CPUs work.”

tl;dr Extreme tech argues that, because x86 typically has SMT and M1 does not, single-threaded benchmarks are "flawed" (they can't take advantage of SMT).

Nonsense. The most prominently advertised benchmarks are generally the multi-threaded ones, which is fair. Then, single-threaded tests are often added because some applications don't parallelize as well (or at all). From an end-user perspective, it is useful information. They are arguing for performance-per-core tests. The only fair way to do that would be 2-threaded workloads. Sure, why not. But it does not invalidate the use of single-threaded workloads as a (maybe niche? but) relevant data point.