In 2020, Apple introduced the M1 chip, a revolutionary new chip that was designed specifically for Macs. The M1 chip was a huge leap forward for Apple, and it helped to make Macs some of the most powerful and efficient laptops on the market.

In 2022, Apple introduced the M2 chip, the successor to the M1 chip. The M2 chip features a number of improvements over the M1 chip, including faster CPU and GPU performance, more memory bandwidth, and a larger cache.

So, is the M2 chip better than the M1 chip? The answer depends on your needs and priorities.

Performance

The M2 chip offers a significant performance boost over the M1 chip. The M2 chip has a 18% faster CPU than the M1 chip, and it can be configured with up to a 10-core GPU, which is 35% faster than the M1 chip.

In terms of real-world performance, the M2 chip can handle demanding tasks like video editing and gaming with ease. It can also handle everyday tasks like web browsing and productivity applications with ease.

Memory

The M2 chip has a 50% higher memory bandwidth than the M1 chip. This means that the M2 chip can access memory more quickly, which can lead to improved performance in some applications.

The M2 chip also supports up to 24GB of unified memory, which is double the amount of memory supported by the M1 chip. This can be useful for tasks that require a lot of memory, such as video editing and machine learning.

Cache

The M2 chip has a larger cache than the M1 chip. This can improve performance by storing frequently used data in memory, which can reduce the need to access slower storage.

The M2 chip has a 100MB L2 cache, which is double the size of the L2 cache on the M1 chip. It also has a 4MB L1 cache, which is 50% larger than the L1 cache on the M1 chip.

Conclusion

The M2 chip is a significant improvement over the M1 chip. It offers faster performance, more memory bandwidth, and a larger cache.

If you need a powerful and efficient laptop for demanding tasks, the M2 chip is a great option. It can handle video editing, gaming, and other demanding tasks with ease.

However, if you are happy with the performance of the M1 chip, there is no need to upgrade to the M2 chip. The M1 chip is still a very capable chip, and it can handle most tasks with ease.

Other factors to consider

In addition to performance, there are a few other factors to consider when choosing between the M2 chip and the M1 chip.

Price: The M2 chip is more expensive than the M1 chip.
Battery life: The M2 chip has slightly less battery life than the M1 chip.
Availability: The M2 chip is only available in the latest MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models.

If price, battery life, or availability are important to you, the M1 chip may be a better option.