Now that the second-generation Apple Silicon for the Mac is out (albeit a machine that hardly anyone should buy), it’s time to see how the M2 performs against the M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra.
We don’t have any M2 benchmarks yet, but we can still learn a lot from Apple’s own statement…
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You can read a more detailed article on the M1 chip release, but here’s the potted history:
Apple launched the first M1 Macs, including the M1 MacBook Air, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro — all of which were well received. The company has since released its first desktop 24-inch iMac with an M1 chip, redesigned the MacBook Pro, introduced more powerful variants, the M1 Pro and M1 Max, its powerful Mac Studio with an M1 Ultra chip, and even Go beyond the 2019 Mac Pro.
Apple announced the M2 at WWDC, starting with a small upgrade to the 13-inch MacBook Pro, followed by the 2022 MacBook Air. Unless you’re in love with the Touch Bar, the latter will be worth buying.
M2 and M1 Pro/Max/Ultra
We need to wait for the M2 benchmark, but in the meantime Mike World Use Apple’s own claims about the performance offered by each chip for comparison.
M2 and M1 Pro
With more than twice the performance cores, it’s already a win for an upgraded version of an older chip.
The M1 Pro typically offers about 60% more CPU performance than the M1. Apple says the M2’s CPU is 18% faster than the M1, so there’s still a considerable gap. When the benchmarks arrive, we suspect the M1 Pro will still deliver about 35% more multi-core performance than the M2.
According to Apple, the M2’s GPU is 35 percent faster than the M1’s. But with up to 16 GPU cores and more memory bandwidth, the M1 Pro is about twice as fast as the M1. As such, the M1 Pro is still expected to be around 40% faster than the M2.
With the M1 Pro, you can also have more memory and get twice the memory bandwidth. One area where the M2 wins is the Neural Engine, where the second-gen chip is 40% faster — so if you’re working with AI applications, this might be a factor to consider.
M2 and M1 maximum
As you might expect, the comparison favors the M1 Max.
If the M1 Pro is faster than the M2 in most ways, the M1 Max certainly will. It has the same CPU, so the performance doesn’t change – it’s still probably 35% faster than the M2.
The GPU is twice as large as the M1 Pro, it offers twice the maximum memory and twice the memory bandwidth of the M1 Pro. The GPU performance is expected to be approximately 2.5 times that of the M2. The M1 Max has two media engines with similar capabilities but twice the performance of the M1 Pro or M2.
The same neural engine rider applies.
M2 and M1 Ultra
Not surprisingly, gluing two M1 Max chips together to create the M1 Ultra doubles the gap.
You actually have 20 CPU cores, so it will be more than 2.5 times faster than the M2’s CPU. The GPU has up to 64 cores and may be 5x faster than the M2. There are also four media engines.
In fact, the M1 Ultra will actually Every way, including the Neural Engine because it has two 16 core neural engine. While they each perform 11 trillion operations, the total of 22 trillion operations is still about 40 percent faster than the next-generation Neural Engine in the M2.
bottom line
Basically, if you’re buying now, and it’s not AI-based, there’s no arguing: buy a machine with an upgraded M1 chip. Of course, everything will change when the M2 Pro/Max/Ultra chip hits the ground, but whenever you buy it, there’s always a better machine out there.
View complete Mike World One more piece.
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