Apple’s M2 processor will surpass Intel’s top CPUs but it won’t be able to beat Intel’s fastest chips. This was the news that Apple announced at Monday’s WWDC keynote.
The 8-core M2 processor is available in the redesigned MacBook Air and in the new MacBook Pro laptops. Apple claims that the M2 has 50% more memory bandwidth than M1 and is 18% faster in CPU performance.
Apple claims that the new M2 is slower and more efficient than Intel’s best chips, despite having developed 850, 880m TSMC, and 20 billion metric transistors.
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Apple clearly didn’t stress that narrative. However, the performance slide below shows the M2 beating an Intel Core i7-1255U Galaxy Book 2 360.
Apple believes that the M2 is faster than the M1. We don’t know if any company has ever publicly defined its performance criteria. The reality is that public companies cannot make up performance criteria in fear of lawsuits. We have made this point.
The Core i7-1255U is the new rival for the Apple iPhone M2.
Apple
The M1’s latest update was widely available. Today’s Intels use older CPUs, which is a change from the past. Intel’s 12th-gen CPUs are highly competitive against AMD and Apple’s key rivals.
This is evident in Apple’s second slide. Apple acknowledges that the M2 is slower than the MSI Prestige 14Evo 12-core Core i7-1260P. Apple deserves to be praised for showing both the full performance graph in order build the M1 Ultra, as well as the truncating performance. So, yes, surprise. Apple actually claims that the Intel Core i7 runs faster.
Although the M2 can’t beat Intel Core i7-1260P performance, it will offer a significant power advantage.
Apple
Apple isn’t just concerned with raw performance. The main point of Apple’s argument is that if you don’t consume an Intel Core i7-1260P processor, the M2 will provide better performance. This is the Apple’s greatest strength, as it cannot rely on any other type of faster argument.
Although a 5nm chip has a much better performance than a 10nm chip, I am not arguing that it is faster. A MacBook is the best choice, as it has a longer battery life.
To make it clear, everyone agrees that the Core I7-1260P is an all-power hog. In recent times, the Intels have been pushing high boost clocks for just a few milliseconds or microseconds to increase responder’s ability. MSI Prestige 14 Evo would cruise at low energy usage. If you click on a link to the browser, it can climb to 55 watts for just a fraction of second, then resume low power usage.
I prefer not to argue for Apple, and instead show the split wins of Apple versus the M2 competitor. Graphics is one of the areas where Apple seems to be dominant. Apple claims that it can outperform the Samsung Galaxy Book 2360 equipped with a Core i7-1255U graphics processor by 2.3x, while using less power.
Apple
It is worth praising Intel’s Iris Xe graphics. Although they are older than its UHD-designed graphics, this is something to be proud of. AMD fans will be disappointed by this last point. They are eager to see the performance of the Ryzen 6000-series. It can easily surpass Intels Iris Xe with its RDNA2 graphics cores, 6nm process and RDNA2 graphics processors.
What would the M2 look like with an AMD 7 6800U processor? It’s interesting to see.
M2 will be a huge success and the M2’s complex integration of hardware/software is very useful. It’s been a great experience for mac lovers who have not yet switched to M1.