Home / CPU Comparison / Apple M2 or AMD Ryzen 5 5500U: What's better?

Apple M2

vs

AMD Ryzen 5 5500U

CPU Comparison Result

Below are the results of a comparison of Apple M2 and AMD Ryzen 5 5500U processors based on key performance characteristics, as well as power consumption and much more.

Advantages

Apple M2

More Total Cores: 8 (8 vs 6)
Higher Technology: 5 nm (5 nm vs TSMC 7nm FinFET)
Higher Memory Type: Unified LPDDR5-6400 (Unified LPDDR5-6400 vs DDR4 - Up to 3200 MT/s, LPDDR4 - Up to 4266 MT/s)
Newer Launch Date: June 2022 (June 2022 vs January 2021)

Basic

Apple

Label Name

AMD

June 2022

Launch Date

January 2021

Laptop

Platform

Laptop

Apple Avalanche + Apple Blizzard

CPU Architecture

Apple M2

CPU Name

Apple M2

Model Name

The Intel processor number is just one of several factors - along with processor brand, system configurations, and system-level benchmarks - to be considered when choosing the right processor for your computing needs.

Code Name

Lucienne

TSMC

Foundry

Apple M2 series

Generation

OS Support

Windows 11 - 64-Bit Edition, Windows 10 - 64-Bit Edition, RHEL x86 64-Bit, Ubuntu x86 64-Bit *Operating System (OS) support will vary by manufacturer.

CPU Specifications

Performance Cores

Total Cores

Cores is a hardware term that describes the number of independent central processing units in a single computing component (die or chip).

Total Threads

Where applicable, Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology is only available on Performance-cores.

Efficient-cores

Basic Frequency

2.1GHz

Max Turbo Frequency

Max Turbo Frequency is the maximum single-core frequency at which the processor is capable of operating using Intel® Turbo Boost Technology and, if present, Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 and Intel® Thermal Velocity Boost. Frequency is typically measured in gigahertz (GHz), or billion cycles per second.

Up to 4.0GHz

2.42 GHz

Efficient-core Max Turbo Frequency

Maximum E-core turbo frequency derived from Intel® Turbo Boost Technology.

NEON

Instruction Set Extensions

3.48 GHz

Performance-core Max Turbo Frequency

Maximum P-core turbo frequency derived from Intel® Turbo Boost Technology.

ARMv8.6-A, NEON

Extended Instruction Set

P-cores: 192 KB instruction + 128 KB data per core; E-cores: 128 KB instruction + 64 KB data per core

L1 Cache

P-core cluster: 16 MB; E-core cluster: 4 MB

L2 Cache

3MB

8 MB system level cache

L3 Cache

8MB

CPU Socket

The socket is the component that provides the mechanical and electrical connections between the processor and motherboard.

FP6

5 nm

Technology

Lithography refers to the semiconductor technology used to manufacture an integrated circuit, and is reported in nanometer (nm), indicative of the size of features built on the semiconductor.

TSMC 7nm FinFET

TDP

15W

Max. Operating Temperature

Junction Temperature is the maximum temperature allowed at the processor die.

105°C

PCI Express Version

PCI Express Revision is the supported version of the PCI Express standard. Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (or PCIe) is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard for attaching hardware devices to a computer. The different PCI Express versions support different data rates.

PCIe® 3.0

ARMv8.6-A

Instruction Set

The instruction set is a hard program stored inside the CPU that guides and optimizes CPU operations. With these instruction sets, the CPU can run more efficiently. There are many manufacturers that design CPUs, which results in different instruction sets, such as the 8086 instruction set for the Intel camp and the RISC instruction set for the ARM camp. x86, ARM v8, and MIPS are all codes for instruction sets. Instruction sets can be extended; for example, x86 added 64-bit support to create x86-64. Manufacturers developing CPUs that are compatible with a certain instruction set need authorization from the instruction set patent holder. A typical example is Intel authorizing AMD, enabling the latter to develop CPUs compatible with the x86 instruction set.

20 billion

Transistor Count

Memory Specifications

128-bit

Memory Bus Width

Unified LPDDR5-6400

Memory Type

Intel® processors come in four different types: Single Channel, Dual Channel, Triple Channel, and Flex Mode. Maximum supported memory speed may be lower when populating multiple DIMMs per channel on products that support multiple memory channels.

DDR4 - Up to 3200 MT/s, LPDDR4 - Up to 4266 MT/s

LPDDR5-6400

LPDDR5 Speed

24 GB

Max Memory Size

Max memory size refers to the maximum memory capacity supported by the processor.

100 GB/s

Max Memory Bandwidth

Max Memory bandwidth is the maximum rate at which data can be read from or stored into a semiconductor memory by the processor (in GB/s).

6400 MT/s

Maximum Memory Speed

GPU Specifications

Thunderbolt 3 / USB4 with DisplayPort

External Display Standard

Apple M2 GPU

GPU Name

Up to 6K 60Hz external display

Max External Display Resolution

H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW; up to 8K H.264 and HEVC decode; multiple 4K and 8K ProRes streams

Video Decode

H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW; up to 8K H.264 and HEVC decode

Video Encode

Apple media engine with ProRes acceleration

Video Processing Unit

Integrated Graphics Model

An integrated GPU refers to the graphics core that is integrated into the CPU processor. Leveraging the processor's powerful computational capabilities and intelligent power efficiency management, it delivers outstanding graphics performance and a smooth application experience at a lower power consumption.

AMD Radeon™ Graphics

1398 MHz

GPU Max Dynamic Frequency

Graphics Core Count

Graphics Frequency

Graphics max dynamic frequency refers to the maximum opportunistic graphics render clock frequency (in MHz) that can be supported using Intel® HD Graphics with Dynamic Frequency feature.

1800 MHz

One external display up to 6K 60Hz

Number of Displays Supported

Metal, OpenCL

GPU APIs

Up to 3.6 TFLOPS FP32

Graphics Performance

Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW

Media Engine

Video Decode Engines

Video Encode Engines

ProRes Encode/Decode Engines