Apple Announces M2 Chip With Support for Up to 24GB Memory

[MacRumors]

Apple today announced the M2 chip, the second-generation Apple silicon chip for the Mac, offering improved efficiency and performance, as well as support for up to 24GB of memory.

M2 is built using second-generation 5nm technology with 20 billion transistors, 25 percent more than the M1 chip. M2 features a 18 percent faster CPU, a 35 percent more powerful GPU, and a 40 percent faster Neural Engine compared to the M1 chip.

The M2 supports up to 24GB of LPDDR5 unified memory and features four performance and four efficiency cores. The chip supports 100GB/s of unified memory bandwidth, up 50 percent from the M1.

Apple says the M2 is significantly faster at lower power usage levels than the competition. The M2 offers 18 percent greater performance at the same wattage and has up to a 10-core GPU, with two more cores available over the M1 chip. The M2 delivers 87 percent of the peak performance of a 12-core PC laptop chip with just one-quarter of the power usage.

M2 also includes an improved media engine with a higher-bandwidth video decoder, supporting 8K H.264 and HEVC video, a ProRes video engine to playback multiple streams of 4K and 8K video, Apple's latest Secure Enclave for enhanced security, and a new image signal processor (ISP) that delivers better image noise reduction.

The M2 chip debuts in the new MacBook Air and the 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Article Link: Apple Announces M2 Chip With Support for Up to 24GB Memory

 

[Paradoxally]

Only 4 colors for the new MacBook Air..sadge.

 

[_Spinn_]

Was not expecting the M2 today.

 

[Think|Different]

Absolutely incredible. The hits keep coming!

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

That's awesome. I was not expecting that today. M1 Chip seems so outdated now already.

 

[dgdosen]

24GB of RAM! - not 32, but I think I could be OK with that. That's pretty powerful for a laptop for the masses...

18% perf improvement - I'll bet Geekbench single core > 2000

 

[kerr]

M2 announcement saved me from falling asleep

 

[Paradoxally]

That's awesome. I was not expecting that today. M1 Chip seems so outdated now already.

The performance gains aren't huge. This is just to get people to buy the new Air.

If you're on M1 Pro or higher it isn't an upgrade.

 

[Ploki]

Does it do thunderbolt5?
I’ll likely wait for M2 pro because my M1 13” isn’t really holding me back but i’m waiting for 80gbps thunderbolt

 

[dandeco]

Let's hope with the autumn event they announce an M2 Mac Mini (maybe even an M2 Pro to go with it).

 

[Brien]

The performance gains aren't huge. This is just to get people to buy the new Air.

If you're on M1 Pro or higher it isn't an upgrade.

True, but the implications for the higher end M2 chips is promising.

 

[Blackstick]

Does it support more than one external display? ...

 

[neoelectronaut]

Put it in the iMac and I'm there, baby.

 

[bradman83]

The performance gains aren't huge. This is just to get people to buy the new Air.

If you're on M1 Pro or higher it isn't an upgrade.

It's not meant to be an upgrade over the M1 Pro or higher. There will no doubt be an M2 Pro/Max/Ultra that are even more powerful.

The M2 is clearly based on the A15 so the performance gains are in line with that. The biggest leap users will experience will be going from Intel to Apple Silicon, otherwise we'll probably see gains of 10-20% per generation (which is in no way bad!)

 

[Paradoxally]

I will say though, 24 GB is a welcome addition to M2.

16 GB is becoming tighter for the modern web. Brave takes up easily 10-12 GB on my 32 GB machine.

 

[headlessmike]

Does it support more than one external display? ...

That’s my main concern too. I have a 14” M1 Pro MBP on (back)order mainly because I want to be able to use two external displays. If the M2 can do it then I’d rather get the new Air.

 

[Woochoo]

So the rumoured M1.5. Same node, 18% bump which is even less than A14 to A15 perf improvement (about 22%, and both were 5nm like M2), just 3 months before A16 is here, couldn't they just skip it based on A15 at all?. And before anyone says M1 is good enough, some professionals can't have enough cores for working and reendering, and this M2 is what M2 Max, Pro and Ultra will be based on in 2023.

 

[Tom W in AZ]

Mac mini should have been included in the M2 Line-up.

 

[Diode]

Does it support more than one external display? ...

No

MacBook Air 13- and 15-inch with M3 or M2 - Tech Specs

See all technical specifications for the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air with M3 chip and the 13-inch MacBook Air with M2 chip.

www.apple.com

 

[Mizouse]

They’re still selling the Intel Mac Mini.

 

[freedomlinux]

24GB. Wha?

So in Pro/Max/Ultra configurations would this have maximum RAM of 48, 96, 192GB

 

[Duncan-UK]

I will say though, 24 GB is a welcome addition to M2.

16 GB is becoming tighter for the modern web. Brave takes up easily 10-12 GB on my 32 GB machine.

Then the modern web is a shambolic bloat fest!

 

[jav6454]

That's awesome. I was not expecting that today. M1 Chip seems so outdated now already.

Not really. M1 is still leaps and bounds ahead of many Intel chips.

 

[jav6454]

I will say though, 24 GB is a welcome addition to M2.

16 GB is becoming tighter for the modern web. Brave takes up easily 10-12 GB on my 32 GB machine.

Agreed, I would have paid for 24GB as even with 16GB of memory, I find Swap peaking it's ugly head.

 

[ufomism]

No single core improvement?