The Apple M2 chip is officially here, and it was worth the wait.
Though the tech giant's M2 processor was overshadowed these past several months by the unveiling of the M1 Ultra during Apple's March Event, now with the WWDC 2022 announcement it's the Apple M2's time to shine.
The Apple M2 chip is an 8-core SoC, featuring a 4+4 core configuration, with four performance cores and four efficiency cores, running with a TDP around 10-15 watts. The second generation of Apple silicon is designed on an enhanced 5nm process, with 5 billion transistors, 100GB/s of memory bandwidth, and up to 24GB of unified memory.
After the success of the M1 chip powering Apple's many other laptops. such as the MacBook Air (M1), 13-inch MacBook Pro (M1), 14-inch MacBook Pro (2021), and 16-inch MacBook Pro (2021), it's understandable that people want to see what Apple has planned for it's next generation of silicon.
It's also behind other devices like the Apple Mac Mini (M1), 24-inch iMac (2021), Apple iPad Pro (12.9-inch, 2021), and the latest iPad Air 5, so the M-series chips are becoming essential to several Apple product lines going forward.
These are all nearly unanimously best-in-class devices, so seeing what these devices are capable of with an Apple M2 chip is definitely an exciting prospect. And with the reveal of the Apple M2 featuring a number of superpowered GPU cores, the best Mac games will really stand out.
With Metal API integration into Unreal Engine 5, developing games for the Mac is easier than ever (though whether developers will actually do so remains to be seen). An Apple M2 chip will definitely incentivize that development.
With Intel Alder Lake chips showing the awesome potential of big.LITTLE architecture when it comes to performance and both Intel Raptor Lake and AMD Zen 4 are expected to be released later this year, the Apple M2 is facing some stiff competition. So what do we know about the next generation of Apple silicon? Let's dig into all the nitty-gritty details.
Apple M2 chip announced at WWDC22
Apple M2 chip: Cut to the chase
- What is it? Apple's next generation of mainstream Mac and iPad processors
- How much will it cost? The chip won't sell on its own, so it will depend on the price of the device it powers.
- When is it out? It was announced at WWDC 2022 on June 6, 2022. Devices release dates and availability will vary.
Apple M2: Release date
The Apple M2 was announced during the company's WWDC 2022 event on June 6, 2022. The chip will not sell on its own, with the first two products set to feature the Apple Silicon being the MacBook Air 2022 and a new MacBook Pro 13-inch 2022.
Apple M2: Price
The Apple M2 won't sell on its own – although can you imagine if that was Apple's big play for 2022? That would be a trip.
No, the Apple M2 will only be sold as part of one of its products, so it's those device price tags that we'll be looking out for.
Prices from a lot of hardware manufacturers in the past year have steadily increased. Whether we want to chalk that up to companies getting a fast one over on consumers, or it's because costs have actually gone up enough to drive up the prices on the finished products, things are just more expensive in 2022, and tech products especially so.
The most affordable offering will be the MacBook Air 2022 with prices starting at $1,199, and the more premium MacBook Pro 13-inch at $1,299. Thats more expensive than the last generation of hardware, though thankfully both the M1-powered variants of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13-inch will still be available at their original MSRP.
Apple M2 specs and performance
While the number might be bigger, the Apple M2 is clearly not meant to outperform the most recent M1 Pro and M1 Max chips (much less the M1 Ultra).
Those were specifically made for professional workstations and as we can now confirm that MX designations will power consumer devices, while the MX Pro and MX Max chips will power the higher-end professional devices, while the MX Ultra will power desktop workstations like the Mac Studio and the new (Mac Pro 2022).
The Apple M2 chip is an 8-core SoC, featuring a 4+4 core configuration, with four performance cores and four efficiency cores, running with a TDP around 10-15 watts. The second generation of Apple silicon is designed on an enhanced 5nm process, with 5 billion transistors, 100GB/s of memory bandwidth, and up to 24GB of unified memory.
This will likely only matter in terms of the graphics and neural processing components of the SoC, which a MacBook Air or an iPad Pro don't need nearly as much as a MacBook Pro, useful for video editing or 3D modeling work.
The M2 features a 10-core GPU, and a neural engine capable of 5.8 trillion operations per second, more than 40% more operations than on the M1 according to Apple.
- Check out the best MacBook and Macs of 2022
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