HiSilicon Kirin 980 vs Apple M2. Specifications, performance, tests

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

• CPU group
  HiSilicon Kirin 980 Apple M2
• Family
  HiSilicon Kirin Apple M series
• Generation
  7 2
• Segment
  Mobile Mobile

Core counts, threads, cache and clock modes describe the CPU configuration. Performance depends on the workload and comparable measured results.

• A-Core
  2x Cortex-A76 4x Avalanche
• B-Core
  2x Cortex-A76 4x Blizzard
• Base Frequency
  1.8 GHz 3.5 GHz
• C-Core
  4x Cortex-A55 -
• Core architecture
  hybrid (Prime / big.LITTLE) hybrid (big.LITTLE)
• CPU Cores
  8 8
• CPU Threads
  8 8
• Hyperthreading / SMT
  No No
• Overclocking
  No No
• Turbo Frequency (1 Core)
  1.9 GHz No turbo
• Turbo Frequency (8 Cores)
  2.6 GHz No turbo

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

• DirectX Version
  12 -
• Execution units
  10 128
• Generation
  Bifrost 3 2
• GPU Frequency
  720 MHz 3500 MHz
• GPU name
  ARM Mali-G76 MP10 Apple M2 (8 Core)
• GPU Turbo
  No turbo No turbo
• Max. displays
  2 3
• Max. GPU Memory
  4 GB 16 GB
• Release date
  Q3/2018 Q1/2022
• Shader
  160 0
• Technology
  7 nm 5 nm

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

• AV1
  No Decode
• H.264 / AVC
  Decode / Encode Conflicting source values: Decode | Decode / Encode
• h265 / HEVC (8 bit)
  Decode / Encode Decode / Encode
• h265 / HEVC (10 bit)
  Decode / Encode Decode / Encode
• JPEG
  Decode / Encode Decode / Encode
• VC-1
  Decode / Encode Decode
• VP8
  Decode / Encode Decode
• VP9
  Decode / Encode Decode / Encode

Types, channel quantity of RAM supported by Apple M2 and HiSilicon Kirin 980. Depending on the motherboards, higher or lower memory frequencies may be supported.

• ECC
  No No
• Max. Memory
  8 GB 16 GB
• Memory channels
  4 2
• Memory type
  LPDDR4X-2133 LPDDR5-5500
• PCIe version
  - 4.0

• AES-NI
  No Yes

Compare the TDP requirements of TDP HiSilicon Kirin 980 and Apple M2 Power specifications describe different manufacturer limits. TDP, base power and maximum turbo power are separate values; they do not establish measured system consumption.

• TDP (PL1, legacy label)
  6 W 15 W
• TDP down
  - 10 W
• TDP up
  - 20 W

Architecture, interfaces, additional instructions supported by HiSilicon Kirin 980 and Apple M2, virtual machine technologies and process technology.

• Architecture
  Cortex-A76 / Cortex-A55 M2
• Instruction set (ISA)
  ARMv8-A64 (64 bit) ARMv8-A64 (64 bit)
• ISA extensions
  - Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation
• L2-Cache
  - 16 MB
• L3-Cache
  2 MB -
• Release date
  Q4/2018 Q1/2022
• Technology
  7 nm 5 nm
• Virtualization
  None None