Difference between Apple M1 Pro & Apple M2 chipsets
Apple has launched the new M1 chip for the Macbook. But the company is rumoured to be working on another chip called the M2 chip.
M1 Pro Chipset
The M1 Pro chip could pack a lot more GPU cores
The M1 Pro chip is confirmed to feature 16 GPU cores, making the graphics performance significantly faster than what the existing M1 chipset has to offer.
The M2 GPU specs haven’t been revealed or hinted at yet, but it’s expected that it will feature a similar 8 GPU core count to the M1.
With this in mind, the M1 Pro should have substantially more GPU power, which is no surprise considering it’s being designed for intense tasks such as 3D rendering.
M2 Chipset
It’s important to note that the Apple M1 Pro chipset is not directly competing or replacing the M1 chip. It’s merely a more powerful variation that’s designed for pro-level and high-intensity work, like video editing or 3D modelling.
Since it isn’t replacing the M1 chip, it makes sense that the M1 Pro launched before the M2 processor.
Meanwhile, since the M2 is a direct successor to the M1, we could be waiting around a lot longer, with 9to5Mac suggesting that it could launch in the middle of 2022.
The M2 will run on the second-generation architecture
Rumours suggest the M2 will have a 4nm node instead of the M1 Pro’s 5nm node, as Apple looks to make the jump to its second generation of Apple Silicon.
Having smaller nodes means that Apple is able to fit more transistors on the chip, resulting in faster data transfers. This would mean that the M2’s architecture could be more efficient than that of the M1 and M1 Pro.
However, that does not mean the M2 will be more powerful than the M1 Pro, as the latter processor has so many CPU and GPU cores that it will likely still boast a significant performance advantage.
