Apple M2 (8-GPU) vs AMD A12-9800

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Apple M2 (8-GPU) CPU1 vs CPU2 AMD A12-9800
Apple M2 (8-GPU) AMD A12-9800

CPU comparison

Apple M2 (8-GPU) or AMD A12-9800 - which processor is faster? In this comparison we look at the differences and analyze which of these two CPUs is better. We compare the technical data and benchmark results.

The Apple M2 (8-GPU) has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.50 GHz. Up to 24 GB of memory is supported in 2 memory channels. The Apple M2 (8-GPU) was released in Q2/2022.

The AMD A12-9800 has 4 cores with 4 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 4.20 GHz. The CPU supports up to 64 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The AMD A12-9800 was released in Q3/2017.
Apple M series (23) Family AMD A (112)
Apple M2 (8) CPU group AMD A12-9800 (1)
2 Generation 7
M2 Architecture Excavator (Bristol Ridge)
Mobile Segment Desktop / Server
Apple M1 Predecessor --
Apple M3 (8-GPU) Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Apple M2 (8-GPU) has 8 CPU cores and can calculate 8 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Apple M2 (8-GPU) is 0.66 GHz (3.50 GHz) while the AMD A12-9800 has 4 CPU cores and 4 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the AMD A12-9800 is at 3.80 GHz (4.20 GHz).

Apple M2 (8-GPU) Characteristic AMD A12-9800
8 Cores 4
8 Threads 4
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture normal
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
0.66 GHz (3.50 GHz)
4x Avalanche
A-Core 3.80 GHz (4.20 GHz)
4x Excavator
0.60 GHz (2.42 GHz)
4x Blizzard
B-Core --

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. Algorithms for ML improve their performance the more data they have collected via software. ML tasks can be processed up to 10,000 times faster than with a classic processor.

Apple M2 (8-GPU) Characteristic AMD A12-9800
Apple Neural Engine AI hardware --
16 Neural cores @ 15.8 TOPS AI specifications --

Internal Graphics

The Apple M2 (8-GPU) or AMD A12-9800 has integrated graphics, called iGPU for short. The iGPU uses the system's main memory as graphics memory and sits on the processor's die.

Apple M2 (8 Core) GPU AMD Radeon R7 - 512 (Bristol Ridge)
0.45 GHz GPU frequency 1.11 GHz
1.40 GHz GPU (Turbo) --
2 GPU Generation 6
5 nm Technology 28 nm
2 Max. displays 2
128 Compute units 8
1024 Shader 512
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
24 GB Max. GPU Memory 2 GB
-- DirectX Version 12

Hardware codec support

A photo or video codec that is accelerated in hardware can greatly accelerate the working speed of a processor and extend the battery life of notebooks or smartphones when playing videos.

Apple M2 (8 Core) GPU AMD Radeon R7 - 512 (Bristol Ridge)
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) No
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) No
Decode / Encode Codec h264 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec VP9 No
Decode Codec VP8 No
No Codec AV1 No
Decode Codec AVC Decode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The Apple M2 (8-GPU) can use up to 24 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 102.4 GB/s. The AMD A12-9800 supports up to 64 GB of memory in 2 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 38.4 GB/s.

Apple M2 (8-GPU) Characteristic AMD A12-9800
LPDDR5-6400 Memory DDR4-2400
24 GB Max. Memory 64 GB
2 (Dual Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
102.4 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 38.4 GB/s
No ECC No
20.00 MB L2 Cache 2.00 MB
-- L3 Cache --
4.0 PCIe version 3.0
-- PCIe lanes 8
-- PCIe Bandwidth 7.9 GB/s

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the Apple M2 (8-GPU) is 20 W, while the AMD A12-9800 has a TDP of 65 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.

Apple M2 (8-GPU) Characteristic AMD A12-9800
20 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 65 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
25 W TDP up --
10 W TDP down --
100 °C Tjunction max. 90 °C

Technical details

The Apple M2 (8-GPU) is manufactured in 5 nm and has 20.00 MB cache. The AMD A12-9800 is manufactured in 28 nm and has a 2.00 MB cache.

Apple M2 (8-GPU) Characteristic AMD A12-9800
5 nm Technology 28 nm
Chiplet Chip design Unknown
Armv8.5-A (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) x86-64 (64 bit)
Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation ISA extensions SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, AVX2, FMA3, FMA4
-- Socket AM4 (PGA 1331)
Apple Virtualization Framework Virtualization AMD-V
Yes AES-NI Yes
macOS, iPadOS Operating systems Windows 10, Linux
Q2/2022 Release date Q3/2017
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the Apple M2 (8-GPU) to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 4.9 stars (51 ratings). Rate now:
Here you can rate the AMD A12-9800 to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 5.0 stars (1 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Apple M2 (8-GPU) (100%)
AMD A12-9800 (37%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Apple M2 (8-GPU) (100%)
AMD A12-9800 (22%)

Cinebench R23 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Apple M2 (8-GPU) Apple M2 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.50 GHz
1592 (100%)
AMD A12-9800 AMD A12-9800
4C 4T @ 4.20 GHz
655 (41%)

Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Apple M2 (8-GPU) Apple M2 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.50 GHz
8558 (100%)
AMD A12-9800 AMD A12-9800
4C 4T @ 3.80 GHz
1979 (23%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Apple M2 (8-GPU) Apple M2 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.50 GHz
1874 (100%)
AMD A12-9800 AMD A12-9800
4C 4T @ 4.20 GHz
607 (32%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Apple M2 (8-GPU) Apple M2 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.50 GHz
8853 (100%)
AMD A12-9800 AMD A12-9800
4C 4T @ 3.80 GHz
1827 (21%)

iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)

The theoretical computing performance of the internal graphics unit of the processor with simple accuracy (32 bit) in GFLOPS. GFLOPS indicates how many billion floating point operations the iGPU can perform per second.
Apple M2 (8-GPU) Apple M2 (8-GPU)
Apple M2 (8 Core) @ 1.40 GHz
2840 (100%)
AMD A12-9800 AMD A12-9800
AMD Radeon R7 - 512 (Bristol Ridge) @ 1.11 GHz
1143 (40%)

Cinebench 2024 (Single-Core)

The Cinebench 2024 benchmark is based on the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxon's 3D program Cinema 4D. The benchmark runs are each 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.
Apple M2 (8-GPU) Apple M2 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.50 GHz
120 (100%)
AMD A12-9800 AMD A12-9800
4C 4T @ 4.20 GHz
0 (0%)

Cinebench 2024 (Multi-Core)

The Multi-Core test of the Cinebench 2024 benchmark uses all cpu cores to render using the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxons Cinema 4D. The benchmark run is 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.
Apple M2 (8-GPU) Apple M2 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.50 GHz
555 (100%)
AMD A12-9800 AMD A12-9800
4C 4T @ 4.20 GHz
0 (0%)

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The single-core benchmark only evaluates the performance of the fastest CPU core, the number of CPU cores in a processor is irrelevant here.
Apple M2 (8-GPU) Apple M2 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.50 GHz
2596 (100%)
AMD A12-9800 AMD A12-9800
4C 4T @ 4.20 GHz
0 (0%)

Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The multi-core benchmark evaluates the performance of all of the processor's CPU cores. Virtual thread improvements such as AMD SMT or Intel's Hyper-Threading have a positive impact on the benchmark result.
Apple M2 (8-GPU) Apple M2 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.50 GHz
10062 (100%)
AMD A12-9800 AMD A12-9800
4C 4T @ 3.80 GHz
0 (0%)

Cinebench R20 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R20 is the successor of Cinebench R15 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Apple M2 (8-GPU) Apple M2 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.50 GHz
0 (0%)
AMD A12-9800 AMD A12-9800
4C 4T @ 4.20 GHz
254 (100%)

Cinebench R20 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R20 is the successor of Cinebench R15 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Apple M2 (8-GPU) Apple M2 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.50 GHz
0 (0%)
AMD A12-9800 AMD A12-9800
4C 4T @ 3.80 GHz
762 (100%)

Estimated results for PassMark CPU Mark

Some of the CPUs listed below have been benchmarked by CPU-monkey. However the majority of CPUs have not been tested and the results have been estimated by a CPU-monkey’s secret proprietary formula. As such they do not accurately reflect the actual Passmark CPU mark values and are not endorsed by PassMark Software Pty Ltd.
Apple M2 (8-GPU) Apple M2 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.50 GHz
15472 (100%)
AMD A12-9800 AMD A12-9800
4C 4T @ 3.80 GHz
0 (0%)

Blender 2.81 (bmw27)

Blender is a free 3D graphics software for rendering (creating) 3D bodies, which can also be textured and animated in the software. The Blender benchmark creates predefined scenes and measures the time (s) required for the entire scene. The shorter the time required, the better. We selected bmw27 as the benchmark scene.
Apple M2 (8-GPU) Apple M2 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.50 GHz
277 (100%)
AMD A12-9800 AMD A12-9800
4C 4T @ 3.80 GHz
0 (0%)

Cinebench R15 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Apple M2 (8-GPU) Apple M2 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.50 GHz
0 (0%)
AMD A12-9800 AMD A12-9800
4C 4T @ 4.20 GHz
100 (100%)

Cinebench R15 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Apple M2 (8-GPU) Apple M2 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.50 GHz
0 (0%)
AMD A12-9800 AMD A12-9800
4C 4T @ 3.80 GHz
326 (100%)

CPU performance per watt (efficiency)

Efficiency of the processor under full load in the Cinebench R23 (multi-core) benchmark. The benchmark result is divided by the average energy required (CPU package power in watts). The higher the value, the more efficient the CPU is under full load.
Apple M2 (8-GPU) Apple M2 (8-GPU)
8,558 CB R23 MC @ 20 W
428 (100%)
AMD A12-9800 AMD A12-9800
3.80 GHz
0 (0%)

Performance for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. The performance is given in the number (trillions) of arithmetic operations per second (TOPS).
Apple M2 (8-GPU) Apple M2 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 0.66 GHz
15.8 (100%)
AMD A12-9800 AMD A12-9800
4C 4T @ 3.80 GHz
0 (0%)

Devices using this processor

Apple M2 (8-GPU) AMD A12-9800
Apple MacBook Air 14 (2022)
Apple MacBook Pro 13 (2022)
Unknown

News and articles for the Apple M2 (8-GPU) and the AMD A12-9800

Most popular processors in the first half of 2022
Most popular processors in the first half of 2022
Posted by Stefan on 2022-07-05
In the past we had repeatedly written about our most popular processors. Since this format was quiet popular, I would like to continue this today and introduce you the most popular processors in the first half of 2022.

With more than 2 million page views per month, CPU-Monkey is one of the biggest comparison sites for processors and is currently available in 16 languages.
Apple M2 Pro with more CPU cores and production in 3 nm ?
Apple M2 Pro with more CPU cores and production in 3 nm ?
Posted by Stefan on 2022-06-28
After Apple surprisingly presented the normal Apple M2 processor as the first successor to the Apple M1 already in June 2022, the Apple M2 Pro and the Apple M2 Max may follow in autumn. The difference in performance compared to the basic version could be even greater this time and range from 25 to 40 percent.

In this article we describe how Apple could realize this and why the price should also go up.
Apple M2 vs Apple M1 - What are the differences?
Apple M2 vs Apple M1 - What are the differences?
Posted by Stefan on 2022-06-09
During WWDC 2022 on June 6th, 2022 Apple surprisingly presented its new Apple M2 processor. This will initially be installed in a completely revised Apple MacBook Air with 13.6 inches, a even thinner form factor and new colors. Apple also updated the already known (old) Apple MacBook Pro 13.3 with touch bar.

Many leakers had counted on Apple not presenting its new second-generation M processor until the fall. But things turned out differently. And there is very likely a reason for that: the improvements in the Apple M2 are limited compared to the predecessor.

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