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Apple Silicon MacBook Air Q&A
Update Published June 22, 2023
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How fast are the "2022 M2" and "2023 M2" Apple Silicon MacBook Air models compared to one another? How fast are they compared to earlier MacBook Air models and the MacBook Pro?
In the official press release for the "2022 M2" Apple Silicon MacBook Air models -- the MacBook Air "M2" 8 CPU/8 GPU 13-Inch and "M2" 8 CPU/10 GPU 13-Inch -- Apple hypes up the new processor as a primary feature and provides a couple of specific performance claims, as well:
- For intensive workloads like editing complex timelines in Final Cut Pro, performance is nearly 40 percent faster than the previous generation, and up to 15x faster for customers that haven't upgraded to Apple silicon.
- Applying filters and effects in apps like Adobe Photoshop is up to 20 percent faster than before, and up to 5x faster for customers that haven't yet upgraded to Apple silicon.
In general, when details are provided, it is a safe bet that the performance gains compared to previous models are significant.
On the other hand, the press release for the "2023 M2" Apple Silicon MacBook Air -- the MacBook Air "M2" 8 CPU/10 GPU 15-Inch -- which essentially is just a 15" version of its aforementioned 13" predecessors -- Apple throws in some adjectives like "blazing" and "incredible" in reference to performance but ultimately sidesteps the earlier M1 and M2 models alike and makes more general comparisons to much older notebooks:
With the M2 chip, the 15-inch MacBook Air has incredible performance. It's up to 12x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air. When compared to the best-selling 15-inch PC laptop with a Core i7 processor, the new MacBook Air is up to twice as fast.
Accordingly, it would be reasonable to expect the M2-powered MacBook Air models to be of similar performance and collectively much faster than their predecessors. How much faster, though, requires proper testing.
Photo Credit: Apple, Inc. (Apple Silicon 13" & 15" MacBook Air M2)
It also can be worthwhile to compare the M2-powered MacBook Air models to recent MacBook Pro models of similar size.
General Performance Overview
For a useful overview of the performance difference between the "2022 M2" and "2023 M2" Apple Silicon MacBook Air models and other Mac notebooks, EveryMac.com's own Ultimate Mac Comparison makes it quick to compare side-by-side 32-bit and 64-bit Geekbench benchmark averages with all other G3 and later Macs for thousands of possible performance comparisons.
This Q&A combines Geekbench 5 and Geekbench 6 benchmarks with our own independent evaluation for a deeper dive into the performance of these notebooks.
2022 M2 13" MacBook Air M2 vs. 2023 M2 15" Apple Silicon MacBook Air
The Geekbench 6 benchmark demonstrates that the "2022 M2" 13-Inch MacBook Air and "2023 M2" 15-Inch MacBook Air essentially are the same overall speed, with the larger model perhaps ekeing out an extra 1%-2% in multicore tasks.
2020 M1 MacBook Air vs. 2022/2023 M2 Apple Silicon MacBook Air
The Geekbench 5 benchmark demonstrates that overall performance isn't quite as significant a jump between the M1 and M2 as the more graphics-focused examples that Apple uses (as many as three more GPU cores makes a big difference in specific graphics tasks):
| M1 MacBook Air | M2 MacBook Air | Single Core | Multicore |
| "M1" 8 CPU/7 GPU 13" | "M2" 8 CPU/8 GPU 13" | +13% | +22% |
| "M1" 8 CPU/8 GPU 13" | "M2" 8 CPU/10 GPU 13" | +13% | +22% |
Nevertheless, the overall sperformance gains between generations of the Apple Silicon MacBook Air still are notable nevertheless.
Earlier MacBook Air vs. 2022/2023 M2 Apple Silicon MacBook Air
As you would expect, the M2 Apple Silicon MacBook Air models decimate earlier MacBook Air models with older Intel-based processors:
| Intel MacBook Air | M2 MacBook Air | Single Core | Multicore |
| "Core i5" 1.8 13" (2017) | "M2" 8 CPU/8 GPU 13" | +186% |
+546% |
| "Core i5" 1.6 13" (2019) | +155% |
+489% |
|
| "Core i7" 1.2 13" (2020) | +69% |
+200% |
Because most users commonly do not upgrade every year, these kinds of massive performance gains definitely will feel substantial when upgrading from a MacBook Air that is a few years old.
2022/2023 M2 Apple Silicon MacBook Air vs. 13" & 14" MacBook Pro 2022/2023
The M2 Apple Silicon MacBook Air models can hold their own compared to more expensive MacBook Pro models in single core tasks, but get smoked by the professional notebooks in multicore tasks:
| M2 MacBook Air | 13"/14" MacBook Pro | Single Core | Multicore |
| "M2" 8 CPU/8 GPU 13" | "M2" 8 CPU/10 GPU 13" | +1% | +1% |
| "M2 Pro" 10 CPU/16 GPU 14" | +2% | +35% | |
| "M2 Max" 12 CPU/30 GPU 14" | +1% | +68% |
It definitely is worth noting that the M2 Apple Silicon MacBook Air models are substantially cheaper than many of these MacBook Pro options, though.
Performance Summary
Ultimately, the "2022 M2" and "2023 M2" Apple Silicon MacBook Air models are roughly the same speed. The MacBook Air M2 models also provide a significant performance boost compared to their "2020 M1" predecessors and a huge performance boost compared to Intel-powered MacBook Air models from yesteryear.
However, the MacBook Air M2 models fall significantly short of more expensive MacBook Pro M2 Pro and MacBook Pro M2 Max models in multicore tasks.
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In Australia, site sponsor Mac City likewise has a variety of used MacBook Air models sold at low prices and available with a free warranty and fast shipping across Australia.
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