The author is talking about multi-core performance rather than single core. Apple silicon only offers a low number of cores on desktop chips compared to what Intel or AMD offers. Ampere offers chips than are an order of magnitude faster in multi-core but they are not exactly "desktop" chips. But they are a good data point to say it can be true for ARM if the offer is here.

> Apple silicon only offers a low number of cores on desktop chips compared to what Intel or AMD offers.

* Apple: 32 cores (M3 Ultra)

* AMD: 96 cores (Threadripper PRO 9995WX)

* Intel: 60 cores (W‑9 3595X)

I wouldn’t exactly call that low, but it is lower for sure. On the other hand, the stated AMD and Intel CPUs are borderline server grade and wouldn’t be found in a common developer machine.