When Apple transitioned its Mac lineup from Intel processors to its own Apple Silicon chips starting in 2020, benchmarks showed dramatic performance improvements. But for the specific task of downloading videos using a browser-based tool like Vid1080, the performance difference between Intel and M-series Macs is much smaller than you might expect. Here's an honest breakdown of what matters — and what doesn't — when comparing these two Mac generations for video downloading.
The Core Truth: Your Internet Is the Bottleneck
When you download a video using Vid1080, your Mac's CPU is doing very little work. The heavy lifting — extracting the video stream, encoding the download, packaging the file — happens on Vid1080's servers. Your Mac is simply receiving data over the network and writing it to disk. This means a 2017 Intel MacBook Pro on a 500 Mbps fiber connection will download faster than a 2024 M4 MacBook Pro on a 25 Mbps home DSL connection. The chip barely matters for this task.
How to Download Videos on Either Mac — Step by Step
- 1Open Safari (best for battery life) or Chrome on your Intel or M-series Mac.
- 2Find the video you want to download and copy its URL (Command+C).
- 3Open a new tab and visit vid1080.com.
- 4Paste the URL into the input box (Command+V) and click Download.
- 5Wait for Vid1080 to process the video — typically 5–15 seconds.
- 6Select your quality preference: 4K, 1080p, 720p, or lower.
- 7Click the download link and allow the file to save to ~/Downloads.
- 8Open Finder and navigate to ~/Downloads to find your video.
Where M-Series Macs Actually Win: Wi-Fi Speed
The most tangible real-world advantage of M-series Macs for video downloading is Wi-Fi capability. MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models with M2 chips support Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), and M4 models support Wi-Fi 6E. Older Intel MacBooks typically top out at Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac). On a Wi-Fi 6 or 6E compatible router, M-series Macs can achieve significantly higher wireless throughput — meaning faster downloads of large 4K files over Wi-Fi. If you're on a gigabit internet connection with a Wi-Fi 6 router, this difference is noticeable.
Where Intel Macs Still Perform Well
Intel Macs connected to the internet via Ethernet (using a USB-C to Gigabit Ethernet adapter) can achieve speeds just as fast as M-series Macs on wired connections. Gigabit Ethernet is 1000 Mbps regardless of what chip is in your Mac — both Intel and M-series handle the data at the same wire speed. For users with wired home networks, an Intel MacBook Pro from 2018–2021 is perfectly capable of fast video downloads and still runs every modern browser without issues.
- Intel Mac on Wi-Fi 5 + 500 Mbps internet — still fast for 1080p, adequate for 4K
- M-series Mac on Wi-Fi 6 + 500 Mbps internet — faster wireless throughput for 4K
- Either Mac on Gigabit Ethernet — performance is essentially identical
- M-series Mac battery advantage — longer sessions without plugging in
- Intel Mac compatibility advantage — some older browser extensions still Intel-only
- M-series Mac future-proofing — longer software support lifecycle from Apple
Battery Life for Long Download Sessions
If you download videos frequently and often work unplugged, M-series Macs have a meaningful battery advantage. An M2 MacBook Air offers up to 18 hours of battery life; an Intel MacBook Air from 2019 offered around 11–12 hours. Running browser-based downloads is a light workload for either chip, but M-series Macs are significantly more efficient. If you're batch-downloading a playlist of videos over an afternoon, an M-series Mac will last the session without needing a charge.