Apple M2 manages to beat AMD's Ryzen 7 6800U in Shadow of the Tomb Raider

The first reviews for the new Apple M2 processor are noting that the CPU core performance improvements over the M1 are mediocre at best with up to 18% gains mostly due to the jump to LPDDR5 memory. However, the iGPU side is where the M2 shines. Granted, it is not more than 50% faster as suggested by some preliminary 3DMark tests, yet it is still a considerable improvement over the M1, to the point where the respectable 35% gains can even cause problems for AMD’s new Radeon 680M in certain games, as revealed by a review provided by Hardware Unboxed.

Thanks to the addition of two more GPU cores and the access to 100 Gbps LPDDR5 RAM, the M2 managed to beat AMD’s Ryzen 7 6800U processor with integrated RDNA2 Radeon 680M GPU by a few FPS in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The 2-3 fps lead actually translates to 8 -10% gains in 1920 x 1200 with SMAAT2X enabled and Medium / High / Highest details. An impressive feat considering the M2 is running at 18 W, while the AMD processor benefits from a 25 W TDP.

This might not be a singular case, but, unfortunately, there are not that many “benchmark” games optimized for macOS, and the M2 is not really targeting gaming laptops either. AMD’s Ryzen 7 6800U is probably still superior overall when it comes to games due to its broader compatibility. Still, these are quite encouraging results for Apple, and they show that gaming on macOS could easily rival the more popular Windows 10 / 11 alternatives, if Apple did take the time to properly code the graphics API.

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