Apple M2 vs Apple M1. Specifications, performance, tests

Background information about the processors being compared, series, generation and market segment.

• Segment
  Mobile Mobile
• Family
  Apple M series Apple M series
• Generation
  2 1
• CPU group
  Apple M2 Apple M1

Basic parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base and turbo frequency, and cache size. These parameters indirectly tell about the speed of the processor, the higher they are the better.

• Frequency
  3.50 GHz 3.20 GHz
• CPU Cores
  8 8
• Turbo (1 Core)
  No turbo No turbo
• CPU Threads
  8 8
• Turbo (8 Cores)
  No turbo No turbo
• Hyperthreading
  No No
• Overclocking
  No No
• Core architecture
  hybrid (big.LITTLE) hybrid (big.LITTLE)
• A core
  4x Avalanche 4x Firestorm
• B core
  4x Blizzard 4x Icestorm

Internal Graphics does not affect the performance of the CPU, performs the work of the graphics card in its absence or on mobile devices.

• GPU name
  Apple M2 (8 Core) Apple M1 (8 Core)
• GPU frequency
  3.50 GHz 3.20 GHz
• GPU (Turbo)
  No turbo No turbo
• Execution units
  128 128
• Max. GPU Memory
  16 GB 8 GB
• Max. displays
  3 2
• Generation
  2 1
• Technology
  5 nm 5 nm
• Release date
  Q1/2022 Q4/2020

Built-in codecs used to encode and decode content. Significantly speeds up the required operations.

• h265 / HEVC (8 bit)
  Decode / Encode Decode / Encode
• h265 / HEVC (10 bit)
  Decode / Encode Decode / Encode
• h264
  Decode / Encode Decode / Encode
• VP9
  Decode / Encode Decode / Encode
• VP8
  Decode Decode
• AV1
  Decode Decode
• AVC
  Decode Decode
• VC-1
  Decode Decode
• JPEG
  Decode / Encode Decode / Encode

Types, channel quantity of RAM supported by Apple M1 and Apple M2. Depending on the motherboards, higher or lower memory frequencies may be supported.

• Memory type
  LPDDR5-5500 LPDDR4X-4266
• Max. Memory
  16 GB 16 GB
• ECC
  No No
• Memory channels
  2 2
• PCIe version
  4.0 4.0

• AES-NI
  Yes Yes

Compare the TDP requirements of TDP Apple M2 and Apple M1 to select a cooling system. Note, the TDP value refers to thermal watts, not electrical watts.

• TDP (PL1)
  15 W 15 W
• TDP up
  20 W 20 W
• TDP down
  10 W 10 W

Architecture, interfaces, additional instructions supported by Apple M2 and Apple M2, virtual machine technologies and process technology.

• Instruction set (ISA)
  ARMv8-A64 (64 bit) ARMv8-A64 (64 bit)
• Virtualization
  None None
• ISA extensions
  Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation
• L2-Cache
  16.00 MB 16.00 MB
• Architecture
  M2 M1
• Technology
  5 nm 5 nm
• Socket
  N/A N/A
• Release date
  Q1/2022 Q4/2020