Apple M1 vs Apple M2: What’s the Difference?

On the WWDC 2022 occasion, Apple lastly unveiled its flagship M2 chip after a niche of just about 1.5 years. The Apple M2 chip will energy the following era of Apple gadgets, together with the most recent MacBook Air and upcoming Macs and iPads. Now, if you’re questioning how a lot of a efficiency distinction Apple M2 brings compared to M1, nicely, we have now compiled all of the solutions for you. On this article, we evaluate the Apple M1 vs Apple M2 chip to search out out the enhancements in CPU, GPU, energy consumption, and extra. On that notice, let’s go forward and evaluate the most recent Apple M2 chip with the previous-gen M1 to search out out the variations.

Apple M1 vs Apple M2: In-depth Comparability (2022)

On this article, we have now totally in contrast the Apple M1 and M2 chips. We now have mentioned the CPU, GPU, unified reminiscence, and many different particulars. You’ll be able to develop the desk under and transfer to a piece of your alternative.

Apple M1 vs M2: Specs Comparability

Right here is the specs comparability between the Apple M1 and M2 chips. You’ll be able to look over the on-paper specs under and study what new upgrades Apple’s new M2 chip brings compared to Apple M1.

Apple M1 vs M2: CPU

In our comparability between Apple M1 vs M2, let’s speak concerning the CPU first. Apple introduced that it’s specializing in energy effectivity slightly than chasing superior efficiency at the price of battery life. So the Apple M2 chip is constructed on the 2nd-gen 5nm expertise, which is meant to carry higher energy effectivity. The Apple M1 can be developed on 5nm tech, however the 2nd-gen course of node comes with extra refinement and optimization.

The CPU cores on each Apple M1 and M2 stay the identical with 8 cores, nonetheless, the transistor rely has elevated to 20 billion on the M2, compared to M1’s 16 billion transistors. That is partly because of the bigger GPU core (extra on this under). The brand new 8-core CPU on the Apple M2 comes with 4 high-performance cores and 4 high-efficiency cores, similar to the Apple M1.

The underlying structure can be comparable, it appears. The high-performance cores on the Apple M2 have been developed on the Ultrawide microarchitecture with 192KB instruction cache, 128KB information cache, and a Shared 16MB cache. As compared, Apple M1 chip additionally shares the identical cache dimension, nonetheless, the Shared cache dimension is 12MB on the M1 in opposition to M2’s 16MB.

Shifting to the high-efficiency cores, each chips are constructed on the Huge microarchitecture having 128KB instruction cache, 64KB information cache, and a Shared 4MB cache. Mainly, the effectivity cores haven’t been revamped a lot, and efficiency cores have gotten a bigger Shared cache on the Apple M2.

To place these figures into perspective, the CPU on the Apple M2 is eighteen% sooner than Apple M1 in the identical energy envelope. It’s not a breakthrough improve, however Apple has maintained the identical energy consumption and offered 18% higher efficiency with out rising the 8-core rely. I might say that the Apple M2 has gotten an honest improve over the M1 when it comes to CPU.

Apple M1 vs M2: GPU

Now speaking concerning the GPU, the Apple M2 comes with a 10-core GPU (8-core on lower-end Macs), whereas Apple M1 has 8 GPU cores (on some Mac, 7 GPU cores in M1). Clearly, Apple is prepared to supply higher graphics efficiency with the Apple M2 chip. In accordance with Apple, the M2 chip provides 25% higher graphics efficiency than Apple M1 in the identical energy envelope. And when you push the Apple M2 GPU to its highest energy state, it might probably provide 35% higher efficiency. At this level, we will say that M2’s GPU is considerably higher than M1’s GPU.

The GPU on the Apple M2 includes a bigger L2 cache and may ship as much as 3.6 teraflops of efficiency, whereas the M1 GPU can solely do 2.6 teraflops. The M2 GPU can render as much as 55 gigapixels per second as in comparison with M1 GPU’s 41 gigapixels per second. So yeah, total, the Apple M2 GPU has gotten a meaty improve over its older sibling, and we’re excited to check it in opposition to the most recent Intel/ AMD GPUs. (Trace: Apple claims it’s nonetheless far forward).

Apple M1 vs M2: Unified Reminiscence

Aside from the CPU and GPU, let’s speak about Unified reminiscence on each the chips. The Apple M2 chip helps Unified reminiscence of as much as 24GB with a bandwidth of 100GBps, which is completely nice. For comparability, the M1 helps solely as much as 16GB of Unified reminiscence with a bandwidth of 68.25Gbps.

Effectively, that is partly as a result of the Apple M2 brings the LPDDR5 reminiscence interface, whereas the M1 had the older LPDDR4X reminiscence channel. To not point out, the Unified reminiscence is accessible to all the chip, and it has been custom-designed by Apple.

Apple M1 vs M2: Media Engine

Within the Media Engine division too, the Apple M2 has seen good enhancements. It has an up to date Media Engine that provides assist for ProRes, and it might probably each encode and decode. As well as, the brand new Media Engine helps 8K H.264 and HEVC movies, which ought to end in simultaneous 4K and 8K video streams. There may be additionally 6K exterior show assist, the identical as Apple M1.

Apple M1 vs M2: Safe Enclave and Neural Engine

There may be additionally the next-generation Safe Enclave on the Apple M2 chip to offer an additional layer of safety. And the most recent 16-core Neural Engine on the M2 can ship as much as 15.8 trillion operations per second (TOPS). The Apple M1 chip additionally has a 16-core Neural Engine, however it might probably solely attain as much as 11 TOPS. In essence, the up to date Neural Engine on the M2 is 40% sooner than M1’s Neural Engine.

Apple M1 vs M2 Chip: Apple’s New Silicon King

In order that rounds up our comparability between the Apple M1 and M2. For my part, the Apple M2 is just not a revolutionary breakthrough when you evaluate the chip with its in-house rival, the OG Apple M1. It doesn’t imbue the identical stage of pleasure that Apple M1 introduced when it was unveiled again in 2020. The CPU has gotten higher; the GPU, alternatively, has been noticeably improved. Different components have additionally obtained incremental updates, which is nice for customers.

The core structure is basically comparable. Nonetheless, the silver lining is energy effectivity, as Apple professed to start with. With the new-gen M2 chip, you may make certain that you’ll get unparalleled battery life (as much as 18 hours of video playback on the M2 MacBook Air) and efficiency. Anyway, that’s all from us. If you wish to evaluate Apple M1 vs M1 Professional vs M1 Max, comply with our linked article. And when you have any questions, tell us within the remark part under.