Intel Core i5-8259U vs Apple M2. Specifications, performance, tests

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

• Segment
  Mobile Mobile
• Family
  Intel Core i5 Apple M series
• Generation
  8 2
• CPU group
  Intel Core i 8000U Apple M2

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
  2.30 GHz 3.50 GHz
• CPU Cores
  4 8
• Turbo (1 Core)
  3.80 GHz No turbo
• CPU Threads
  8 8
• Hyperthreading
  Yes No
• Overclocking
  No No
• Core architecture
  normal hybrid (big.LITTLE)
• A core
  -- 4x Avalanche
• B core
  -- 4x Blizzard

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
  Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 Apple M2 (8 Core)
• GPU frequency
  0.30 GHz 3.50 GHz
• GPU (Turbo)
  1.05 GHz No turbo
• Execution units
  48 128
• Shader
  384 0
• Max. GPU Memory
  32 GB 16 GB
• Max. displays
  3 3
• Generation
  9.5 2
• DirectX Version
  12
• Technology
  14 nm 5 nm
• Release date
  Q4/2017 Q1/2022

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 / Encode Decode
• AV1
  No Decode
• AVC
  Decode / Encode Decode
• VC-1
  Decode Decode
• JPEG
  Decode / Encode Decode / Encode

Types, channel quantity of RAM supported by Apple M2 and Intel Core i5-8259U. Depending on the motherboards, higher or lower memory frequencies may be supported.

• Memory type
  DDR4-2400 SO-DIMM LPDDR5-5500
• Max. Memory
  32 GB 16 GB
• ECC
  No No
• Memory channels
  2 2
• PCIe version
  3.0 4.0
• PCIe lanes
  16

• AES-NI
  Yes Yes

Compare the TDP requirements of TDP Intel Core i5-8259U and Apple M2 to select a cooling system. Note, the TDP value refers to thermal watts, not electrical watts.

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

Architecture, interfaces, additional instructions supported by Intel Core i5-8259U and Intel Core i5-8259U, virtual machine technologies and process technology.

• Instruction set (ISA)
  x86-64 (64 bit) ARMv8-A64 (64 bit)
• Virtualization
  VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d None
• ISA extensions
  SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2 Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation
• L2-Cache
  -- 16.00 MB
• L3-Cache
  6.00 MB --
• Architecture
  Coffee Lake U M2
• Technology
  14 nm 5 nm
• Socket
  BGA 1528 N/A
• Release date
  Q2/2018 Q1/2022