The true power of the MacBook Air 2022 and MacBook Pro 2022 may have been revealed early thanks to some Geekbench results (via Vadim Yuryev of Max Tech on Twitter) which demonstrate the performance of the new Apple M2 chip.
Apple itself claimed the M2 offered an 18% CPU performance boost and a 35% compared to the M1 chip at WWDC 2022. And the good news is these figures seem to surpass the official estimate. Compared to the Geekbench average scores of the MacBook Pro with M1 from 2020, we can see the new chip offers 12% faster single-core performance and 21% greater multicore performance.
Over on Geekbench's Metal graphics benchmark for the same device, there's a meaty 46% increase in power. That's no doubt fuelled by the higher available core count on the M2, which offers up to 10 GPU cores compared to the M1's 8 cores.
These numbers don't match up to the Apple M1 Pro chip or Apple M1 Max chips found in the MacBook Pro 2021, but that makes sense. Rumors of an Apple M2 Pro chip are already circulating, and it seems likely that we're going to see M2 Max and M2 Ultra variants of this chip, too, which will be the true successors to the most potent M1 SoCs.
We'll have to wait for more leaked benchmarks (or for our own results when we start testing M2 MacBooks ourselves) to see if this also applies to the M2's NPU and media processing performance. Geekbench doesn't directly test these, but Apple has promised a 40% increase in NPU speeds.
We're also curious how Apple's promises of more efficient performance bear out. We loved how the M1 series of chips gave previous M1 MacBooks incredible battery life, so we're hoping for even better longevity from the M2 MacBooks.
Currently, you'll only find the M2 chip in the new MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro models. The MacBook Pro is open for pre-orders tomorrow (June 17), whereas the Air is still on hold until an unknown point in July. We'll be bringing you our own results from benchmarking and real-life testing of these new Macs as soon as we can.
In the meantime, check out our MacBook Air 2022 hands-on review, and see our MacBook Air 2022 vs MacBook Pro 2022 comparison to see which new Apple laptop is right for you.
