Apple announces M2 silicon with even more graphs to annoy Intel

pcgamer.com:

Apple has just announced its next-generation Apple silicon, Apple M2. This is a new chip with enhanced CPU cores, GPU power, and a fancy new second-generation 5nm process node—totalling over 20 billion transistors in total. All of which it says once again will kick Intel's comparative chips. But of course it would say that.

If you missed all the Apple/Intel drama, long story short: Apple kicked Intel processors out of most of its laptops and replaced them with a chip of its own design, named Apple M1, back in 2020. This original M1 chip was later iterated on with the M1 Pro and M1 Max, two powerful processors in their own right but essentially chips created out of the fundamental M1 silicon. 

Today, Apple has announced its second-generation silicon with some key improvements that differentiates it from the M1 silicon altogether. M2 offers up to an eight-core CPU comprised of both high-performance and high-efficiency cores, not unlike the first M1 or Intel's latest Alder Lake 12th Gen chips, however Apple says its high-performance cores are faster and come with more cache. Its high-efficiency cores are also more efficient. Neat.

And here come the 'screw you Intel' graphs. Apple has previously put some impressive(opens in new tab) (and occasionally idealistic(opens in new tab)) graphs together showing how its processors stack up against Intel and Nvidia, and it's done the same here today. At least it's only gunning for ex-bedmate Intel this time around.

Apple says the M2 is able to deliver around 120% of the performance of Intel's Core i7 1255U(opens in new tab) while using less power. It also says the chip is admittedly worse performing than Intel's 12-core Core i7 1260P(opens in new tab) but that it requires a lot less