WWDC22: Apple Unveils The M2 Chip, With Improved Performance To M1

Today at Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC22), Apple introduced the new M2 chip. After the successful reign of the M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra chips, Apple is all set for a more powerful M2 chip, with big promises of performance, improvements and incredible abilities. M2 starts the second generation of Apple’s M-series chips and supersedes the remarkable features of M1.

With few similarities with the original M1 chip, the new M2 uses Apple’s custom Arm silicon and builds on a 5nm process complete with 20 billion transistors, that’s 25 per cent more than the original M1. All of these transistors combined will boost performance significantly, and Apple is promising that the M2 will have an 18 per cent faster CPU, and 35 per cent faster GPU compared to the original M1.

According to Apple, that performance is 1.9x faster than the “latest 10-core PC laptop chip.” To deliver better performance over the M1, Apple introduces new performance and efficiency cores to the M2 chip, alongside 100Gbps of memory bandwidth and 24GB of unified memory — that estimates about 50 per cent more bandwidth than the M1, which gives the advantage to handle even larger and more complex workloads with ease. On the M2, Apple showcases four high-performance cores, with four high-efficiency cores, with a shared 16MB cache on the performance cores and a shared 4MB cache on the efficiency ones.

The new M2 chip also features a next-generation secure enclave and neural engine. Also, an updated media engine which has the ability to support 8K H.264 and HEVC video. Systems powered by Apple’s M2 chips have the ability to play multiple streams of 4K and 8K video simultaneously.

A look at the GPU side and you can confirm that Apple has once again improved things with the M2 chip, there are now up to 10 cores, that’s two more than the original M1. A larger cache and higher memory bandwidth should boost graphics performance here, and Apple is promising up to 35 per cent better performance at the M2’s max power compared to the original M1.

This new chip brings even more performance and capabilities to Apple’s most popular Mac notebooks — the MacBook Air and the 13-inch MacBook Pro. The M2 chip begins the next generation of Apple silicon designed specifically for the Mac. The MacBook Air’s wedge shape this time has been switched up for a thinner profile and equipped with MagSafe charging. The new MacBook Air will ship with a bigger 13.6-inch display, a better camera, and a promise of 18-hour battery life. MacBook Pro features incredible performance, ProRes acceleration, up to 24GB of memory, and up to 20 hours of battery life. 

According to Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing “We’re so excited to bring our new M2 chip to the world’s two most popular laptops — the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro.”