I don't think Macs are inherently faster than PCs.
What Macs ? What PCs ? Doing what tasks ?
When my wife bought our first MacBook (2019 base Air), it felt slower compared to my Windows laptop (I believe back then I had an Acer Nitro). It took longer to start programs, the dock was slower to pop up than the Taskbar. I click on Explorer in Taskbar, it pops up. I click on Finder in Dock, there's a couple cute bounces and a spinning dot and only then it pops up. Same with Excel or browser. Didn't bother her so I didn't try to find ways to speed it up.
With my M2 Air (16/512) I actually took the time to find and disable / modify some start up delays built into the system (e.g. the default time it takes for the Dock to show up) and this made it as fast as any Windows machine. But it's definitely not faster than my custom built PC desktop.
The read / write speed to an external SSD is definitely faster with Windows when using a common drive format like exFAT. Which is what you will have to use in a cross-platform environment. Using APFS on one and NTFS on another, they feel about the same although I never actually ran the test. But the big issue with Mac is that if that external exFAT drive ever gets disconnected without being unmounted, the next time you connect it, system will automatically run a silent disk check (no prompt, no opportunity to cancel) that would render the disk unusable until it is competed (which may take 20-30 minutes depending on the size). In Windows, the disk check is announced and can be canceled. So, this makes it a whole lot faster. (And my Mac used to drop the exFAT SSDs without warning quite often).
Mac's biggest advantages - from my POV - is that it is equally fast whether it's plugged or unplugged. At least the M-chip versions. With power-hungry Intel chips, PC manufacturers have to drop performance in order to preserve battery time. But again, if I took that Nitro and set its power plan to maximum performance while on battery, it would be plenty fast. For the entire 2 or 3 hours.
I like my Mac not because it's faster than Windows (although it's pretty fast) but because its speed is always predictable and the battery life is long and predictable. No surprises, no overheating, no worrying about the remaining charge. The form factor is great for moving around. It integrates with my iPhone. As far as speed - it's fast enough and that's all I care about.
What Macs ? What PCs ? Doing what tasks ?
When my wife bought our first MacBook (2019 base Air), it felt slower compared to my Windows laptop (I believe back then I had an Acer Nitro). It took longer to start programs, the dock was slower to pop up than the Taskbar. I click on Explorer in Taskbar, it pops up. I click on Finder in Dock, there's a couple cute bounces and a spinning dot and only then it pops up. Same with Excel or browser. Didn't bother her so I didn't try to find ways to speed it up.
With my M2 Air (16/512) I actually took the time to find and disable / modify some start up delays built into the system (e.g. the default time it takes for the Dock to show up) and this made it as fast as any Windows machine. But it's definitely not faster than my custom built PC desktop.
The read / write speed to an external SSD is definitely faster with Windows when using a common drive format like exFAT. Which is what you will have to use in a cross-platform environment. Using APFS on one and NTFS on another, they feel about the same although I never actually ran the test. But the big issue with Mac is that if that external exFAT drive ever gets disconnected without being unmounted, the next time you connect it, system will automatically run a silent disk check (no prompt, no opportunity to cancel) that would render the disk unusable until it is competed (which may take 20-30 minutes depending on the size). In Windows, the disk check is announced and can be canceled. So, this makes it a whole lot faster. (And my Mac used to drop the exFAT SSDs without warning quite often).
Mac's biggest advantages - from my POV - is that it is equally fast whether it's plugged or unplugged. At least the M-chip versions. With power-hungry Intel chips, PC manufacturers have to drop performance in order to preserve battery time. But again, if I took that Nitro and set its power plan to maximum performance while on battery, it would be plenty fast. For the entire 2 or 3 hours.
I like my Mac not because it's faster than Windows (although it's pretty fast) but because its speed is always predictable and the battery life is long and predictable. No surprises, no overheating, no worrying about the remaining charge. The form factor is great for moving around. It integrates with my iPhone. As far as speed - it's fast enough and that's all I care about.