X86 emulation on M1, M1 Pro and M1 Max

I plan to buy an M1 macOS computer.

I do not know what to choose between M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max.

I need to run an x86 64-bit Windows. This is not for gaming or graphics purposes.

I know M1 Max contains a great GPU, but I do not need a great GPU.

Is there a value add for me to buy an M1 Max or M1 Pro for QEMU x86 emulation? I have read M1 Max has a double bus for memory, but I do not understand if this bus is for GPU or RAM memory access.

Solution 1:

None of the M1 are suitable for X86 workloads. You will want an Intel Mac if performance emulating X86 well enough to run windows (or macOS) virtually is your deciding factor.

That won’t stop people from trying, though.

All cores on the M1 line so far share memory so GPU and CPU don’t have to shuffle data to different systems. This removes some bottlenecks on other architectures and also drives some of the massive power savings.