Apple M2 vs Apple A14 Bionic

A direct comparison between the Apple M2 and the Apple A14 is unfair, because while the Apple M2 is a processor for notebooks and tablets, the Apple A14 is used in smartphones and the older entry-level tablet, the iPad (10th generation).

Although the two processors share a similar chip design, the Apple M2 relies on newer technology and clearly differentiates itself from the smaller Apple A14 Bionic with more cores and a higher clock speed.

The Apple M2 uses four P-cores (Avalanche) and four smaller E-cores (Blizzard), while the smaller Apple A14 only has two technologically older P-cores and four E-cores. In multi-core applications, the Apple M2 is therefore approximately twice as fast as the Apple A14. However, this difference is hardly noticeable under normal use or simple browsing.

AI performance is quite similar, with 15.8 TOPS for the Apple M2 and 11 TOPS for the Apple A14, although most devices don't have access to Apple AI, for which Apple requires 16 GB of RAM, at least for tablets and notebooks. The biggest performance difference is in graphics, where the Apple M2 is almost five times faster than the Apple A14.

This is especially evident in professional applications or computer games. The Apple A14 is designed as a smartphone chip, and you can definitely notice it. Above all, the thermal budget, at approximately 7 watts, is significantly lower than that of the Apple M2, which can consume up to 20 watts of power.

At the very latest in extreme cases where the CPU and GPU are simultaneously under load, the Apple M2 can no longer be caught in terms of performance, leaving the Apple A14 with no chance. In the vast majority of scenarios, however, this superiority isn't always noticeable, and the Apple A14 is also a powerful processor with sufficient performance for the vast majority of tasks.