Supposed to be an evolution of the Apple Silicon M1 chip, the M2 would ultimately be slower than its big sister in reading speed.
During WWDC 2022, Apple surprised everyone by unveiling a new version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro. While we thought the model with TouchBar was definitely put away, Apple unveiled a new computer with the Apple Silicon M2 chip, which is supposed to be faster and more powerful than its ancestor, the M1. At least in theory.
At length, during its keynote, Apple praised the merits of the new SoC M2. 4 billion more transistors, a 3.49 GHz CPU and a 10-core GPU, the new chip has everything to make you dream. And yet, according to youtuber Max Yuryev of Max Tech, this new chip would not be that powerful, at least not as powerful as the SoC M1.
The youtuber confronted a 2020 MacBook Pro M1 with a 2022 MacBook Pro M2, both featuring the same configuration: a 256 GB SSD and 8 GB of RAM. He opened rather heavy programs on both machines, such as Photoshop, Lightroom and Final Cut Pro, and used multitasking and file transfer.
In the first tests, Max Yuryev exported 50 42MP photos from Lightroom. On the MacBook Pro M1, this transfer took 3’36, while it was longer on the M2, taking 4’12. The RAM memory was distributed among the various applications used, while the SSD was used as virtual memory, which generally slows down the system.
Read speeds are 50% slower on the MacBook Pro M2 (1,446) compared to the M1 (2,900). Finally, the write speed is 30% slower on the M2 (1.463) than on the M1 (2.215).
A difference that is justified on the RAM
According to Max Yuryev, this difference in performance is explained by Apple’s choice of RAM modules. The MacBook Pro M2 has a single 256GB NAND flash storage, while the M1 model has two NAND flash storages of 28GB each. These allow faster operations and calculations using both strips.
But potential buyers of a MacBook Pro M2 can be reassured, this problem only affects the 256GB model. Those with higher SSD storage have multiple modules, drastically improving performance.
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