Corel Painter, one of the world’s leading creative apps, runs twice as fast on the Mac M1 as on Intel-powered machines, which shows even better performance on the latest version M1 Max and M1 Pro MacBook Pro.
The artist’s large Mac painting
That’s according to Corel, who told me today that the introduction of a completely original version of Apple Silicon’s Painter 2022 unlocked a “significant” performance gain. These are particularly remarkable when you consider what the app does – since the early 90s it has strived to be the digital equivalent of the art tool; it’s already in most tool bags for digital advertising.
Corel says artists upgrading to Painter 2022 on M-series Macs will see “significant improvements in brush engine performance, and we’re excited about what these upgrades will mean.” for artists who work and live on time”.
Corel, which tested its software on the entry-level 2020 MacBook Pro with the M1 chip and the Intel-based 2019 MacBook Pro, highlighted two key metrics:
- Users can expect up to 4.7x faster overall brush motor performance on a Mac with an M1 chip than when running on the same Mac with a Rosetta 2.
- Users can also expect software to run twice as fast when compared to Intel-powered Macs.
That makes sense, but there’s likely to be more to digital ads when considering investing in a brand new MacBook Pro. Apple told us What to expect from those machines?, equipped with the M1 Pro and M1 Max processors.
With a 30-year history on the Mac, Painter is one of those unique apps that has gone through three major processor transitions with Apple. It was on the original AIM Alliance Macs, made its way to Intel Macs, and now it’s running on M-series Macs. That shared story means you can think of it as a barometer for performance. Mac performance.
(I’m lucky enough to be working with a new 16-inch MacBook Pro. Right now, and while I’m not ready to write a review, I can say the battery life and computing performance it delivers. is a phenomenon.)
Performance machine, Apple’s ‘big beast’
We’ve also seen some additional benchmarks leaked that show the kinds of speed and performance benefits Apple pros can expect from these machines.
Most recently, we’ve seen Passmark place Apple’s Mac M1, M1 Pro, and M1 chips in top four positions its performance benchmarks. Previously, Geekbench data revealed the great advantages of these new chips, which can compete with high-end gaming PCs, but require less power and deliver more demand.
Apple’s Silicon Development Team seems to have figured out how to make those billions of transistors work for you.
Of course, Corel’s claims are not surprising. Apple made similar statements of his own when introducing the new Mac, claiming the 16-core GPU in the M1 Pro and the 32-core GPU in the M1 Max (in the 14-inch MacBook Pro) provides:
- Render 4K up to 9.2x faster in Final Cut Pro with the M1 Pro and up to 13.4x faster with the M1 Max.
- Combined raster and vector GPU performance is up to 5.6x faster in Affinity Photo with the M1 Pro and up to 8.5x faster with the M1 Max.
- Effects render up to 3.6x faster in Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve Studio with M1 Pro and up to 5x faster with M1 Max.
16-in. models deliver even more performance, including up to 1.7x faster Final Cut Pro rendering and up to 4.9x faster subject tracking in a 16-core chip.
Apple also cites battery life improvements, meaning third-party apps will work faster and last longer on a single charge.
More improvements in pipeline
We already know the Adobe Creative Cloud apps run twice as fast on a Mac M1and that performance achievement will only increase on the new M-series chips on the MacBook Pro. With Apple said to be planning to introduce a new processor in 2022 iMac Pro and with anticipation surrounding the next release of a Mac Pro– perhaps with multiple processors – this seems like a really good time to be a creative pro using a Mac.
I wanted to learn more about the level of computing performance that other mission-critical application developers are experiencing as they move to Apple Silicon – especially on Apple’s latest MacBook Pro. Anyone for time is money will definitely want to consider this.
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