Just when you thought Apple’s silicon couldn’t get any more aggressive, Cupertino has pulled the curtain back on the M6 chip. The M6 powers the new Mac mini and arrives as Apple’s first chip built using a 2-nanometre process. But how does it actually stack up against last year’s already stellar M5? Let’s break it down.
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M6 Moves to 2nm
The biggest story here is the jump from the M5’s 3nm process to TSMC’s bleeding-edge 2nm lithography tech on the M6. For everyday users, this means Apple crammed a significantly higher transistor density into a smaller die (size of the chip). The result? A smaller process allows Apple to fit more transistors into the chip while improving performance and power efficiency.
More CPU Cores, Higher Performance
With the M5, we got up to a 10-core CPU balancing “super” cores and “efficiency” cores. The M6 pushes this further with a 12-core architecture, utilizing a sophisticated mix of two “super” cores, four performance cores, and six efficiency cores.
| M5 | M6 |
|---|---|
| 10-core CPU | 12-core CPU |
| 10-core GPU | 12-core GPU |
| 153GB/s bandwidth | 170GB/s |
| 3nm | 2nm |
| Single Neural Engine | Dual 16-core Neural Engine |
According to Apple, this new silicon achieves a 1.2x boost in multithreaded workflows over the M5, complemented by notable gains in single-threaded speed.
GPU and AI Get a Major Push
While the M5 was no slouch with its 10-core GPU, the M6 brings a 12-core graphics engine. The 12-core GPU now has enhanced neural accelerators. Apple says the new chip can deliver up to four times the AI performance and twice the graphics and storage performance compared with its predecessor.
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Faster Memory
The M5 offers 153GB/s of unified memory bandwidth. M6 raises this to 170GB/s, helping move data between the CPU, GPU and AI hardware more quickly. The M6 also supports up to 32GB of unified memory in the new Mac mini.
M5 Still Has Plenty of Life
If you are already rocking an M5 device, you don’t need to throw it out the window. The M5 remains a powerful chip for productivity, creative work and AI features. However, the M6’s 2nm design, additional CPU cores and stronger AI and graphics hardware make it the more future-ready option, especially for demanding workloads.
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