Apple M2 vs Intel Core i7 Comparison: Which Processor is Better?

Apple unveiled its all-new Apple M2-powered Macs at their recent WWDC 2022 event. Apple M2 is a new chipset that the company announced at the same event. The new M2 chipset powers MacBook Air and MacBook Pro notebook computers. Compared to the predecessor M1, the M2 offers up to 18% better performance and up to 50% more memory bandwidth. It’s a significant improvement over last year’s M1 chipset; let’s see how it compares to Intel’s Core i7 chipset.

The new Apple M2 is constructed using TSMC’s 5nm fabrication process and contains up to 20 billion transistors. It has an 8-core CPU and GPU support for up to 10 cores. The company also claims that its Neural Engine is up to 40% faster. When the M1 was released, Intel’s best CPUs were quite old, but that is no longer the case. Intel’s new 12th generation CPUs are latest enough to compete with AMD, Intel’s main rival, and Apple, its sidekick.

Update January 17, 2023: Apple has announced its two next-generation SoCs called M2 Pro and M2 Max. The M2 Pro delivers up to 12-core CPU, 19-core GPU, 16GB of fast unified memory, and a 16-core Neural Engine. The M2 Pro chip is manufactured using a second-generation 5-nanometer process technology. It consists of 40 billion transistors. Apple has compared the M2 Pro chip with the Intel Core i9 processor

• MacBook Pro with M2 Pro can process images in Photoshop up to 80 per cent faster than MacBook Pro with an Intel Core i9 processor.
• The M2 Pro can compile code up to 2.5x faster than MacBook Pro with an Intel Core i9 processor.

Read: Apple M2 vs M2 Pro vs M2 Max Chipset: What’s the Difference?

Apple M2 vs Intel Core i7 Comparison

To date, no report compares both the chipset and statistics on which one is faster. However, Apple compared the new M2 chipset to the Core i7 processor during the launch. The company has never defined its performance criteria publicly. We do not doubt that it is based on reality because public companies do not make things up to avoid lawsuits. And the comparison and based upon that only, so you can take it with a pinch of salt.

Apple compared with M2 chipset with the 10-core-based Intel Core i7-powered Samsung Galaxy Book 2 360 laptops. According to the comparison done by the brand, the M2 chipset is 1.9X times faster than the 10-core i7 chipset. The firm also claims that its chipset is less power-hungry, in fact very less, compared with the one present on Galaxy Book2 360. So this clarifies that the M2 chipset is reportedly faster and less power-hungry than the 10-core-based i7 chipset. Let’s move to the second comparison, which has pretty interesting results.

In the second comparison, Apple compared its M2 chipset to the 12-core Core i7-1260P in an MSI Prestige 14 Evo laptop. The comparison slide shared by Apple might surprise you. The 12-core-based Core i7 outperforms the M2 chipset in terms of performance but falls short in terms of power efficiency. Apple admits that the 12-core Core i7 processor is faster than the M2 chipset. However, the M2 chipset retains an advantage in terms of power consumption. Apple’s main point is that the M2 can provide exceptional performance while consuming a fraction of the power of an Intel Core i7-1260P CPU.

It’s worth noting that the Core i7 isn’t always power-hungry; it doesn’t consume more power when the chipset is used to its full potential. Intel recently pushed extremely high boost clocks to increase responsiveness for a few microseconds or milliseconds. The chipset would actually coast at low power consumption, and when you did click on a browser link, it could spike up to 55 watts for a fraction of a second before returning to low power consumption.

Final Verdict

So that was all for the comparison between the Intel Core i7 and Apple M2 chipset. While the M2 chipset was able to beat the 10-core-based i7 chipset, it reportedly failed to beat the 12-core-based i7 in terms of performance. This clarifies that the 12-core-based i7 chipset has an edge when it comes to performance. However, in both cases, the M2 was better at power consumption. What are your thoughts on this? Do let us know by dropping a comment in your words down below.