TDP (putting aside that it's not the same as power limit) is typically not a limiting factor when it comes to single core performance. Even just 10 W is quite a lot for a single core. Of course, there is more than just a core running.
QuoteOn the other hand, M1 is able to outclass the Core i7-1185G7 by 20% despite featuring only four high performance cores.
And how many cores does the 1185 have? The M1 has four additional cores. The impressive part is that it can produce those scores while being passively cooled. That's truly impressive. Managing to post competitive single threaded scores is also remarkable for an ARM processor. Scoring 20 % more when you have four extra cores (meaning twice as much), albeit of lower performance, isn't in itself impressive. Icestorm cores aren't that weak. So, M1 performs like an exceptional four core processor. It can't bear comparison with good eight core processors. Except for single core/ thread tests which eliminate the difference. But then you shouldn't be surprised it does well.
That brings me to another detail. Single core tests are often single thread tests. Meaning that cores supporting SMT can't take any advantage of that. That's why MP ratios can be higher than core count. Firestorm cores don't support SMT. It's fair if you want to see single threaded performance. But you need to be careful if you want to compare performance of cores. If a core supports multiple hardware threads, you might need multiple threads to reach peak performance, to realize the full potential of that core. In something like Cinebench, SMT can easily make up 30 %.
This also explains why is M1 "only" 20 % ahead of a 1185. I believe Icestorm cores should perform at around 50 % of Firestorm cores. So, M1 should roughly correspond to a 6 core processor with no SMT. If you have a 4 core processor with SMT and you count with 30 % gain from SMT, it's going to be equivalent to 5.2 cores. +20 % and you're at 6.2. The right ballpark. A processor like the 1185 can also be though of as having a kind of 4+4 configuration. The problem with SMT is that the result is very much workload dependent. The impact can even be negative.