x86 Emulation on Arm CPUs - Better on Windows or macOS?

Both macOS and Windows can translate existing legacy x86 code into native ARM64 code. This allows apps written for Intel Macs to run on Apple Silicon (using Apple's Rosetta), and for Windows software written for Intel/AMD PCs to run on laptops or PCs running Windows for Arm. The question is, which one is better? macOS or Windows? Let's find out.
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00:00 - Intro
01:43 - Two things you should know
02:30 - Why does it matter?
03:08 - Snapdragon X Elite
04:31 - x86/x86-64 Emulation
07:03 - Testing can be tricky!
09:27 - Test 1
10:28 - Test 2
12:46 - Conclusion

#garyexplains

[soragranda]

Probably one of the most necessary videos for ARM enthusiasts.

[Hempage]

I imagine a lot of the skepticism of Windows' x86-64 emulation is a result of the slow processors that came on the first Windows-on-Arm laptops, which would make a task running twice as slow feel MUCH slower.

[btrewern]

As I remember, Rosetta 2 does some type of translation on the first run of an application. This takes a certain amount of time but is cached so the second run of any application will be faster than the first. This would be worth testing to see if affects your findings.

[antonior.revueltapuigdolle]

I’m almost an only Mac User since 1989 and I’m very grateful for this impartial review. Videos like this are the only way we have to assure that Apple keeps on improving their hardware. The more companies compete, the better products we’ll all have. It’s a win-win for Windows, Apple, Linux and other systems users. I’ve been following you for years and will remain doing so.

[nextlifeonearth]

I would like to see the Linux version of this video. Linux on ARM has also risen over the last few years and emulation of X86 has been a part of that too. I wonder how well that works.

[markholle]

The end-user experience is what matters. I’ve rooted for the Surface Pro X since its arrival. But the performance has been slower and software has been limited. While the back-end experience might be similar, the results in everyday use have been not. Snapdragon’s new chip has raised hopes once again (particularly when you see who created the new tech). But let’s see if the hardware will give us similar performance that we see on a M1 MBA.

[erikhaugan]

One of the claims Apple made about their emulation approach was that it would improve over time. The first time it translated X86_64 code it would be slow, but the second time it would be much faster. Can you think of a way to test this? 
The understanding I have of how this worked, is that the translated code would be stored, and re-used the next time it was needed.

[streakydanco]

I can't wait for ARM to take off on Windows. I'll definitely get an ARM Laptop, great battery life and decent performance is all I've always wanted on Windows.
I hope Microsoft encourages enough developers to port their apps over soon 😁😄

[espi]

I think the real advantage, that was confused as "better emulation", is just that Apple CPUs have been so much faster than the ARM CPUs Qualcomm has been using on their SoCs. It doesn't matter if your emulation layer is just as fast if your CPU is half as fast.

I hope Oryon competes 1:1 against Apple and makes Windows on ARM a solid product.

[themenon]

End of the day it depends on user preference. But love to see linux running on proper ARM platforms... that will just be amazing!

[gerdya]

I also did a few tests with box64 - the most popular Linux solution for x86-64 emulation for arm64. In all my test box64 was quite a bit slower than both Windows and MacOS provided emulation.

[prides]

Thanks for clearing up the misconceptions.

[marcinoo]

It would be a lot better if u have used latest insider build on windows 11 as some emulation improvements have been made there.

[rickkarrer]

Thanks for getting the hard numbers on this. I think because I ARM translation got off on a rocky start on Windows, it got a bad reputation. For example, a client of mine had all kinds of issues running x64 code on their Surface Pro years ago. Mostly it was just lack of compatibility, but those were early days. I think because Apple comes out the door 100% working, and has a very good hypenmarketing system, there's just a complete different perception in the two companies. Now, I'm watching this 6 months later, and Microsoft just announced a whole bunch of new ARM "Copilot" computers, two he translation and compatibility is probably even better now, or at least fully matured.

[soragranda]

Most people comments about microsoft x86 emulation might from before volterra, it was a mess at the beginning compared to apple, but it not only improve but also show us what can be done.

Wanna see what X elite can do, hopefully the game emulation scene can get as mature as apple's one is now.

[HappyFPV]

I really like to see the application you wrote for the test. Window is heavily using dll’s even for standard c library functions. So how sure are you that it didn’t use arm based code on windows?

[jeevana.]

It may be that the Windows emulation has improved over time. IIRC when the Surface X came out, benchmarks showed that emulated software performed much worse vs native. Then when the M1 Macbooks first came out, reviews were showing much better emulation performance vs. Windows. It also could have been the issue you mentioned where MacOS still runs apps with the Arm library, although it was so early in the Apple silicon lifespan that I'm not sure if the apps had a fat version at the time. I don't remember all of the reviews I watched covering both, but I remember LTT being one of them.

[SassInYourClass]

The “not actually emulating x86” revelation is major, and the new Snapdragon chip is a critically important recent update to consider surrounding this topic.

[spiderlily]

Now do linux vs win vs Mac arm emulation comparison for us 3% linux users.

[mukukakondowe]

Lovely, hope you do a an energy efficiency comparison between apple's m3 vs snapdragon x elite.