In June 2022, Apple unveiled the new M2 chip. This is the next-generation chip that follows the M1 chip. Is it as powerful as everyone makes it out to be?
This article will help you understand everything about the M2 chip and if it is worth the hype.
What Is the M2 Chip?
The new M2 chip has been developed, especially for use in iPads and Macs. This is as per Apple’s continued effort to move away from Intel chips used in MacBooks until 2020.
The M2 is referred to as a “system on a chip.” It includes several components, such as the GPU, CPU, RAM, secure enclave, neural engine, image signal processor, thunderbolt controller, SSD controller, encode/decode engines, and more. All these components will power various functions of the Mac.
Before the introduction of the M2, Apple used different chips for different functionalities. This is why the M2 is much faster. It has a unified memory architecture, and the system can now access different functionalities without swapping memory pools.
The unified memory architecture in the M2 means that the GPU, CPU, and other components don’t have to copy data from each other. They can now access the same data pool.
What Is Included With the M2?
Just like the M1, the new M2 chip will come with an 8-core CPU. It, however, supports more than that (9 or 10 cores), unlike 7 or 8 cores with the M1. The M2 has four cores that are high-performance and four that are high-efficiency. High-performance cores offer top performance for single-threaded tasks that are power-intensive. All eight cores work together when it comes to multi-threaded tasks.
For all tasks that don’t need as much power, such as browsing the web, the system uses high-efficiency cores. These cores use just 1/10th of the power and preserve the battery life. As per Apple, the M2 chip is built with 5-nanometer next-gen technology. It delivers better performance per watt. It also delivers 25% more than the M1, with over 20 billion transistors.
The M2 is almost 1.4 times faster than the M1, with a 40% faster neural engine. As far as multi-core performance goes, Geekbench has confirmed that M2 is almost 20% faster. It runs at 3.49GHz as compared to the M1, which runs at 3.2GHz.
Battery life
With the M2 chip, the battery in the MacBook Air lasts up to 18 hours. In the MacBook Pro, it lasts for up to 20 hours. Despite the high power that the M2 brings, it is more battery-efficient than any other Mac chip.
Security
All Intel Macs came with a T2 chip built-in that was responsible for handling security on Macs. However, with the M1 and M2 chips, no secondary chip is needed for security. The M2 chip comes with a built-in secure enclave. This manages touch ID and other features.
M2 Pro & M2 Max
After Apple released the M1, they also released M1 Pro, M1 Ultra, and M1 Max, and the same can be expected with M2. Apple is working on M2 Pro and M2 Max, which are expected soon.
