Apple M2 — Specifications and Blender benchmarks

Specifications Benchmarks Synonyms

Specifications

Technical data

Legacy catalog specifications; the original verification date is not recorded.

CPU generation and family

CPU group
Apple M2
Family
Apple M series
Generation
2
Name
Apple M2
Predecessor
—
Segment
Mobile
Successor
—

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

A-Core
4x Avalanche
B-Core
4x Blizzard
Base Frequency
3.5 GHz
C-Core
—
Core architecture
hybrid (big.LITTLE)
CPU Cores
8
CPU Threads
8
Hyperthreading / SMT
No
Overclocking
No
Turbo Frequency (1 Core)
No turbo
Turbo Frequency (8 Cores)
No turbo

Internal Graphics

DirectX Version
—
Execution units
128
Generation
2
GPU Frequency
3500 MHz
GPU name
Apple M2 (8 Core)
GPU Turbo
No turbo
Max. displays
3
Max. GPU Memory
16 GB
Release date
Q1/2022
Shader
0
Technology
5 nm

Hardware codec support

AV1
Decode
H.264 / AVC
Conflicting source values: Decode | Decode / Encode
h265 / HEVC (8 bit)
Decode / Encode
h265 / HEVC (10 bit)
Decode / Encode
JPEG
Decode / Encode
VC-1
Decode
VP8
Decode
VP9
Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

ECC
No
Max. Memory
16 GB
Memory channels
2
Memory type
LPDDR5-5500
PCIe lanes
—
PCIe version
4.0

Encryption

AES-NI
Yes

Thermal Management

Maximum Operating Temperature
—
TDP (PL1, legacy label)
15 W
TDP (PL2)
—
TDP down
10 W
TDP up
20 W

Technical details

Architecture
M2
Instruction set (ISA)
ARMv8-A64 (64 bit)
ISA extensions
Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation
L2-Cache
16.00 MB
L3-Cache
—
Part Number
—
Release date
Q1/2022
Socket
—
Technology
5 nm
Virtualization
None

Positions in all rankings

Common positions Apple M2 CPU in popular benchmarks, for comparison with other models.

No data

Blender Open Data

Official median of community submissions; higher is better. Blender versions, operating systems and compute backends remain separate.

Blender 5.2.0 / CPU / macOS: 101.070405 samples/min submissions: 17; snapshot: 2026-09-30 Official source

Snapshot date is the retrieval date, not the measurement date. Individual dates, RAM, drivers and power limits are unknown. This aggregates different user systems; it is not a test of a specific partner board and is excluded from the legacy composite index.

Benchmarks

Performance tests CPU

No comparable legacy benchmark results are available.

These are saved results from the earlier catalog. Measurement dates and test configurations were not recorded. Models with no comparable results are omitted.

Comparable benchmark results are required to suggest performance alternatives.

PL1 is the sustained processor power limit; PL2 is the short-term turbo power limit. They are not measured performance or efficiency.

The values are used to select the optimal cooling system and power supply.

Rate the processor
Apple M2