The brand new Apple M2 chip that will equip the future MacBook Air and MacBook Pro in the short term has just been flashed on the Geekbench benchmark. The performances are better than announced and we finally know its operating frequency!
At WWDC in early June 2022, Apple unveiled its SoC M2, successor to the M1. We then took the opportunity to perform a versus with its predecessors thanks to the performance announced by Apple. However, we were missing some information, namely the operating frequency of the processor and the performance on single and multi-core. It’s ancient history since the Apple M2 has just been seen on Geekbench 5, the famous performance test tool.
The test, carried out on June 15, gives a score in single core (with a single processor core activated) by 1,919 points against 8,928 points in multi core (with all eight cores enabled). If we compare with the Apple M1, it is respectively 11.6% and 19.5% more performance. Apple had indicated 18% (surely in multi core), we are therefore slightly above.
A frequency of 3.49 GHz, up 9%
Geekbench also gives an interesting little detail about the Apple M2. The processor would be clocked at a maximum frequency of 3.49 GHz, compared to the 3.2 GHz of the Apple M1. It is precisely this information that was missing when Apple announced it, in order to know where the gain in performance on the processor part came from. The amount of cache memory and the memory bandwidth are higher on the Apple M2, but it is above all the increase in frequency (9%) which is responsible for most of the gains on a core. In multicore, the cache memory and the bandwidth can increase performance a little more.
Finally, software optimization and the use of new cores (if confirmed) would have a very slight impact on the performance increase. It wouldn’t be so strange, since the Apple M2 uses the same fine engraving as the Apple M1 (with however a new process, still at TSMC). This therefore prevents the Apple brand from offering a huge gain in performance without an increase in consumption.
A chip as powerful as an Intel CPU
The Geekbench score of the new Apple M2 is really impressive since in single core, it is placed in the top 3 of the Geekbench results, behind the Intel Core i9-12900K and Core i9-12900KF. In multi core, it’s still a long way off (the Core i9-12900K is approaching 20,000 points), but that’s without counting on consumption almost 10 times higher for the Intel chip and a frequency of around 5 GHz! But that’s without counting on Qualcomm with its Hamoa, which intends to come and hunt on Apple land in 2023.
As a reminder, the Apple M2 will equip the new MacBook Air, which we were able to take in hand in Cupertino, and MacBook Pro before surely ending up in the brand’s other devices.
Apple lets us know that its new 13-inch MacBook Pro, powered by the new M2 chip, will be available for pre-order this Friday.
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