In this article, we will talk about that M2 delivers new levels of power-efficient performance and capabilities to the completely redesigned MacBook Air and updated 13-inch MacBook Pro

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today announced M2, beginning the next generation of Apple silicon designed specifically for the Mac. Built using second-generation 5-nanometer technology, M2 takes the industry-leading performance per watt of M1 even further with an 18 percent faster CPU, a 35 percent more powerful GPU, and a 40 percent faster Neural Engine.1 It also delivers 50 percent more memory bandwidth compared to M1, and up to 24GB of fast unified memory. M2 brings all of this — plus new custom technologies and greater efficiency — to the completely redesigned MacBook Air and updated 13-inch MacBook Pro.

“M2 starts the second generation of M-series chips and goes beyond the remarkable features of M1,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. “With our relentless focus on power-efficient performance, M2 delivers a faster CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine. And along with higher memory bandwidth and new capabilities like ProRes acceleration, M2 continues the tremendous pace of innovation in Apple silicon for the Mac.”

More Transistors and More Memory

The system-on-a-chip (SoC) design of M2 is built using enhanced, second-generation 5-nanometer technology, and consists of 20 billion transistors — 25 percent more than M1. The additional transistors improve features across the entire chip, including the memory controller that delivers 100GB/s of unified memory bandwidth — 50 percent more than M1. And with up to 24GB of fast unified memory, M2 can handle even larger and more complex workloads.

Faster Power and Efficient Performance

The new CPU features faster performance cores paired with a larger cache, while the efficiency cores have been significantly enhanced for even greater performance gains.

Together, they deliver 18 percent greater multithreaded performance than M1, so M2 can rip through CPU-intensive tasks using very little power, like creating music with layers of effects or applying complex filters to photos.

1 Compared with the latest 10-core PC laptop chip, the CPU in M2 provides nearly twice the performance at the same power level. And, M2 delivers the peak performance of the PC chip while using just a quarter of the power.2 When compared to the latest 12-core PC laptop chip — which needs dramatically more power to deliver an increase in performance and is therefore found in thicker, hotter, more noisy systems with less battery life — M2 provides nearly 90 percent of the peak performance of the 12-core chip while using just one-fourth the power.3A chart showing the CPU performance and power usage of M2 compared to M1.

A chart showing the CPU performance and power usage of M2 compared to the latest 10-core PC laptop chip.A chart showing the CPU performance and power usage of M2 compared to the latest 12-core PC laptop chip.