Home > CPU Comparison > Apple M2 or A18 Pro (MacBook): what's better?

Apple M2 vs A18 Pro (MacBook)

57 out of 100
Apple M2
VS
66 out of 100
Apple A18 Pro (MacBook)
Apple M2
Apple A18 Pro (MacBook)

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 3.5 GHz Apple M2 with 8-cores against the 2 GHz A18 Pro (MacBook) with 6-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
DeviceFacts Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between (MacBook) and M2
Advantages of Apple M2
  • Supports up to 24 GB LPDDR5-6400 RAM
  • Around 42.4 GB/s (71%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Has 2 more physical cores
  • More powerful Apple M2 GPU integrated graphics: 2.9 vs 2.3 TFLOPS
Advantages of Apple A18 Pro (MacBook)
  • Newer - released 2 years and 3 months later
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 5 nanometers
  • 40% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3615 vs 2589 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Apple M2
vs
A18 Pro (MacBook)

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Apple M2
2589
A18 Pro (MacBook) +40%
3615
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Apple M2 +10%
10122
A18 Pro (MacBook)
9225
File compression 1130 MB/sec 1050 MB/sec
Clang compilation 80.4 Klines/sec 58.1 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 235.3 pages/sec 201.6 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 266.1 Mpixels/sec 214.8 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 257.4 pages/sec 318.8 pages/sec
Background blur 42.1 images/sec 41 images/sec
Photo processing 107 images/sec 91.5 images/sec
Ray tracing 10.5 Mpixels/sec 9.18 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 465 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Apple M2
3883
A18 Pro (MacBook) +5%
4078
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Apple M2 +22%
15651
A18 Pro (MacBook)
12812
Integer math 37 GOps/sec 37.5 GOps/sec
Floating point math 37.5 GOps/sec 25.4 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 174M Primes/sec 132M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 23.7M Strings/sec 17.2M Strings/sec
Data encryption 9.5 GBytes/sec 8 GBytes/sec
Data compression 185.8 MBytes/sec 133.5 MBytes/sec
Physics 1667 Frames/sec 1380 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 7.8B Matrices/sec 6.5B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 4611 & 962 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Apple M2 +54%
109.19
A18 Pro (MacBook)
71.04

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 32.3 PPW 70.2 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 562.3 PPW 922.5 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 869.5 PPW 1281.2 PPW
Blender / Watt 6.07 PPW 7.1 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Apple M2
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-14 (T)Geekbench 6 CPU2647 / 10245
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-05 (AR)Geekbench 6 CPU2655 / 10211
πŸ“˜ 2025-10-24 (Shivam)Geekbench 6 CPU2619 / 9900
Add View all (3)
Apple A18 Pro (MacBook)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-10-03 -> RennsportGeekbench 7 CPU3006 / 7807
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-03 -> RennsportGeekbench 6 CPU3505 / 8840
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-24 -> RennsportGeekbench 6 CPU3505 / 8840
Add View all (3)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M2 and A18 Pro (MacBook)

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released June 6, 2022 September 9, 2024
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv8 ARMv9
Codename Apple M2 Apple M4
Model number - APL1V07
Integrated GPU Apple M2 GPU Apple A18 Pro GPU
Successor - Apple M5 (10-Core) -

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 4 2
P-Threads 4 2
Base Frequency (P) 3.5 GHz 2 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) - 4.05 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 4 4
E-Threads 4 4
Base Frequency (E) 2.4 GHz -
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) - 2.42 GHz
Total
Total Cores 8 6
Total Threads 8 6
Multiplier - 40x
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 16MB (shared) 16MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors 20 billions -
Fabrication Process 5 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 18 W 10 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Custom
Laptop processors ranking (133rd and 70th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M2 GPU Apple A18 Pro GPU
GPU Base Clock 500 MHz -
GPU Boost Clock 1398 MHz 1490 MHz
Shading Units 1024 768
TMUs 64 40
ROPs 32 -
Execution Units 128 128
TGP 15 W -
iGPU FLOPS
Apple M2 +26%
2.9 TFLOPS
A18 Pro (MacBook)
2.3 TFLOPS
More info: Apple A18 Pro GPU compared to M2 GPU (8-core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-6400 - LPDDR5x-7500
Max. Memory Size 24 GB 8 GB
Memory Channels 8 4
Max. Memory Bandwidth 102.4 GB/s 60 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

PCI Express Version 4.0 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
32 (50%)
32 (50%)
Total votes: 64

Competitors

1. Apple M2 vs Apple M4 (10-Core)
2. Apple M2 vs Intel Core i5 12500H (7)
3. Apple M2 vs Apple M3
4. Apple M2 vs Apple M2 Pro (2)
5. Apple M2 vs Intel Core i7 12700H (2)
6. Apple A18 Pro (MacBook) vs Apple M5 (8-сore GPU) (2)
7. Apple A18 Pro (MacBook) vs Intel Core Ultra 7 256V
8. Apple A18 Pro (MacBook) vs Apple M1 (2)
9. Apple A18 Pro (MacBook) vs Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite (X2E-88-100)
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple A18 Pro (MacBook) or Apple M2?
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