First Tests of Apple M2: How This New CPU Charts Apple Silicon's Future

pcmag.com:

We just tested and reviewed the 2022 MacBook Pro 13-inch, which has the first available instance of Apple’s recently announced M2 processor inside. While there’s plenty for us to discuss in the review about features and design (see the review here), it was also our first opportunity to dig into what the M2 chip could really do, testing its performance across several dimensions of performance.

So how does the new M2 processor stack up against the original M1, and other M1 members of the Apple Silicon family?

Confused by all the M2 and M1 talk you’ve been seeing around Apple products lately? Here’s a quick refresher.

In early June, Apple held its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, WWDC 2022. During the opening keynote for the multi-day event, the company announced the first second-generation Apple Silicon processor for Macs, the M2 processor.

The new CPU benefits from a new production process, which Apple calls its “second-generation 5-nanometer process.” We’ll dig into the specifications in a moment, but the new M2 chip offers several advancements over the M1 processor from 2020, including more transistors, higher memory bandwidth, and support for higher allotments of RAM.

Then there's Apple's uptick claims. The company says that the new chip, versus the original M1, offers 18% more CPU performance using the same wattage, significantly improved graphics performance with two additional graphics cores, and a 40% faster Neural Engine. The bigger question is how the M2 chip fits in with the existing CPU lineup Apple offers. As the followup to the M1, we expected it to be better than the M1 in terms of simple performance. But how does it stack up against the M1 Pro, the M1 Max, or even the M1 Ultra?

Equally important,