Apple still has yet to make the M2 processor official, but details have started to emerge that give us a clear picture of what Apple’s next-generation silicon is going to look like. Apple M2 processor. It includes a new MacBook Air, a new low end 14low-end 14-inch inch MacBook Pro, and a new low-end Mac mini. What’s going to change going from the M1 to the M2?
Apple is still going to use the A5 nanometer process and it will still be an 8-core chip. It will have the same 4 high-performance cores and four high efficiency cores to balance outperformance and battery life. Apple will seemingly upgrade the GPU though.
Right now Apple offers 2 flavors of the M1 processor. There’s a 7 core GPU or 8 core GPU. The M2 processor looks like it will go up to 10 cores. There will still be lower core options, maybe like a 9. Or option in a 10 core option, but it will Max out at 10 cores for the GPU. For the CPU cores, Apple might increase the clock speed just a little bit, but don’t expect a huge jump in performance going from the M1 to the M2 graphics would be the biggest thing that will improve upon compared to the original.
Will the M2 be better than the M1-based Pro in Max? Fortunately no, not really. If Apple does increase the clock speed of those eight cores. On the M2 chip, it will still perform below the 10 core chips of the M1 Pro and M1 Max since they are 10 cores versus 8 cores. Even if the M2 is slightly faster per core, the additional cores will still give a performance boost to the M1 PRO and M1 Max. And when we’re looking at GPUs, even though we’re going to a 10 core GPU option on the M2, which will be the highest-end option, then one pro can have 14 or 16. Orders for the GPU and the M1 Max can have either 24 or 32 cores for the GPU, so there’s a lot more wiggle room in the GPU even if the M2 gets bumped up from 7 or 8 to 9 or 10, the M1 Pro and M1 Max still have other benefits over the M1, and they’ll likely have them over the M2 as well. For example, the M1 is limited to only 8 or 16 gigs of RAM, while the M1 Pro can go up to 16 or 32 gigs. And the M1 Max can go 32 or 64. So you have a 64 gig RAM cap on the M1 Max. We’re not likely to see that with the M2 ALE could increase it a little bit, but I’m thinking it’s still going to stay with the 16 gig cap for the M2.
M1 Max even has dual engines on there and I don’t think that we’re going to see those coming to the M2. Apple could, but I think these are going to stay specialized to the pro units, at least for the time being. So maybe the M2 PRO and M2 Max, but they’re not going to show up in the M2. So when are we going to get Apple’s new M2 processor? I think we’re going to get our first look at the M2 processor and the second half of 2022. I’m thinking probably sometime in the fall when we’re going to see our first Max with the new. Set the first Max again and are going to redesign the MacBook Air. The new entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro and an updated base model of the Mac mini. I don’t think the 24 inch iMac will be upgraded until 2023 and otherwise, Apple is going to continue its rollout of the M1 Pro and M1 Max processors into a high end 27 inches iMac Pro don’t have something completely different to decide for a Mac Pro also debuting at the end of the year. So what do you guys? Think are you excited about the M2 processor? I don’t see. Its only big bump is going to be in the GPU options going up to 10 cores. Otherwise, it’s just going to be a marginally faster version of the same chip. It’s still going to be an upgrade, but it’s going to be better graphics for this lower-ender end machine.
