Thanks to its two additional GPU cores, the M2 chip significantly widens the gap with the M1 in games. Inevitably, in comparison, the generational gains for the CPU part seem a little duller.
A month ago, Apple unveiled its M2, a chip that notably powers the MacBook Pro 13 M2. For our part, we were amazed by the performance of Apple’s processor. Based on CineBench R23 results and game play Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the M2 offers, in fact, the best performance-energy efficiency ratio on an ultraportable PC of the moment. The YouTube channel Hardware Unboxed also reviewed the performance of the M2 within the same PC. Again, Apple’s chip made a very good impression.
The Ryzen 7 6800U beaten
The MacBook Pro 13 M2 runs an M2 with 8 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores, which is the best configuration available. During its presentation, Apple insisted on the graphics performance of its processor: the Apple brand advanced a 35% increase in GPU performance compared to the M1. This difference is explained by the increase in frequencies, but above all by the addition of two additional cores. Indeed, the M1 mobilizes 8 GPU cores. For the CPU part, these are 8 cores for both generations. Apple, however, promises an 18% performance improvement through architectural optimizations, higher clocks and the move to LPDDR5 memory.
The results obtained by Hardware Unboxed lead to the same conclusion as ours: in terms of its consumption, the M2 is doing very well in games. It even pays for the Ryzen 7 6800U in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The M2 offers a few more frames per second than the Ryzen 7’s Radeon 680M iGPU (12 RDNA 2 GPU cores). The difference is very slight, of the order of 2-3 IPS, but reduced to the framerate, this is equivalent to advances of 7-10%.
For comparison, Linus Tech Tips reported around 30 FPS for the M1 in the same game, at 1080p/Low.
Of course, these results are mainly indicative. If your priority is to play games locally, opt for a PC with a dedicated graphics card. And, to choose between the Ryzen 7 6800U and the M2 for this type of activity, the choice would also be quickly decided: most current PC games are not supported by macOS.
The queen of autonomy?
In the synthetic benchmarks that mainly put the CPU cores to the test, the M2 remains very efficient. Simply, as Apple’s figures suggested, the generational leap is less substantial.
The M2 is logically beaten by the M1 Pro in multicore, because the latter has two additional CPU cores. The hierarchy with the Ryzen 7 6800U is not clear. With rare exceptions, overall the gaps are quite small between the two chips. Too bad the results of the M1 are not filled in here.
© Hardware Unboxed
On the other hand, if there are two areas in which the Apple chip humiliates its rivals, they are those of consumption and autonomy.
© Hardware Unboxed
Source: Hardware Unboxed
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