Apple’s latest M2 system on a chip has been around for a month now and has undergone several benchmark tests against the competition in that time. The last tests of HardwareUnboxed surprised everyone when the M2 outperformed the Ryzen 7 6800U GPU in gaming but was lackluster in CPU benchmarks.
The Apple M2 was made up against the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U with the RDNA 2 iGPU in a game test with Shadow of the Tomb Raider. This is a graphics-intensive game, and Apple’s previous-generation M1 chip could only handle it on low settings. The M2 was a different story.
The M2 outperformed the Ryzen 7 6800U by up to 10% on the highest settings. The M2 averaged 28 frames per second (fps) at 1200p, while AMD’s Ryzen 7 managed a maximum of 25 fps.
The story stayed the same at medium and low settings, with the M2 hitting 33fps on medium and the Ryzen 7 hitting 30fps. Apple’s M2 chip did all this while using 48% less power than the Ryzen 7.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has said the new M2 is a new era of gaming for MacBooks† At WWDC 2022, he explained that Apple was courting AAA developers to the new Metal 3 framework so they could take advantage of the M2. Games like No Man’s Sky and Resident Evil Village are expected to land on Mac this year.
Gamers and game developers have historically ignored Apple machines and Windows PC machines have dominated the game market for decades. The M2 proves that Apple is ready for gaming.
But gaming is the one area where the M2 chip shines. In all other CPU benchmarks, the M2 was outclassed by both Intel’s Alder Lake and Ryzen’s 6000 series chips. For example, the 12th gen Intel i7 and i9 outperformed the M2 in Cinebench multi-threaded tests. The Ryzen 7 6800U also outperformed and drank even less power than the M2.
Handbrake tests showed similar results, with both Intel and AMD beating Apple in multi-threaded tests. The M2 outperformed the Ryzen 7 in single-core tests, but Intel’s Alder Lake chips were the fastest.
Apple claims that the M2 has 25% more processing power than the M1, with 18% more multi-core performance. However, these tests question Apple’s claims.
Part of the problem may be due to the fact that Apple still uses the same 5nm processor as the M1 chip. The M2 was expected to be a new 3nm chipbut supply problems and lockdowns in China have disrupted production.
The M2 still delivers excellent gaming performance, despite being a bit slower in processing. The question remains whether it is worth upgrading from the M1.
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