Apple M2 8-Core GPU vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU vs Apple M2 10-Core GPU

Apple M2 8-Core GPU

The Apple M2 8-core GPU is an integrated graphics card offering 8 of the 10 cores designed by Apple and integrated in the Apple M2 SoC. It uses the unified memory architecture of the M2 SoC (up to 24 GB LPDDR5-6400 with 100 GB/s bandwidth) and should offer 128 execution units.

The performance is positioned right between the old 8-core model in the M1 GPU and the higher end 10-core model in the M2. The theoretical performance should be around 2.9 Teraflops, as the 8-core version offers the same 1,398 MHz maximum clock rate as the 10-core version. Compared to other iGPUs from AMD and Intel, the M2 benefits greatly from the unified memory architecture and the high bandwidth.

The M2 chip is manufactured in the second generation 5nm process at TSMC (most likely N5P). The power consumption is around 10 Watt (in our tests under load of the MBP13) compared to the 13.5W of the 10-core version.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU (Codename GN21-X4) is an high-end laptop GPU. It is based on the AD107 chip and uses the Ada Lovelace architecture. The RTX 4060 Laptop offers 3072 shaders and uses 8 GB GDDR6 dedicated graphics memory with a clock speed of 16 Gbps (effective) and a 128 Bit memory bus. The TGP (Total Graphics Power) can be configured between 35 and 115 Watt (+ 15-25 Watt Dynamic Boost from the CPU) leading to different performance levels. The boost clock speed ranges from 1470 MHz (at 35 Watt TGP) up to 2370 MHz (115W).

The performance in synthetical benchmarks of an average RTX 4060 is between a mobile RTX 3070 and a mobile RTX 3070 Ti. GPUs with lower power limit (e.g. 45 Watt variants) are ranking clearly lower (75% lower performance in some reviews). The average gaming performance of the RTX 4060 mobile is ideal for highest settings in 1920x1080 for demanding games. Less demanding games can easily run in QHD (like Baldurs Gate 3). See below for detailed benchmarks of our reviews. Enabling DLSS in supported games, can highly improve the framerate.

The RTX 4060 offers 80 tensor cores (4th gen) that enable DLSS 3 including frame generation for supported games. The 20 raytracing cores (4rd gen) on the other hand, will see less use as the RTX 4060 is not that powerful for demanding games to enable raytracing (other than in low resolutions).

The AD107 chip is manufactured in 5nm at TSMC (4N process).

Apple M2 10-Core GPU

The Apple M2 GPU is an integrated graphics card offering 10 cores designed by Apple and integrated in the Apple M2 SoC. It uses the unified memory architecture of the M2 SoC (up to 24 GB LPDDR5-6400 with 100 GB/s bandwidth) and should offer 160 execution units.

According to Apple it offers a 25% higher performance at slightly higher power consumption. The theoretical performance is rated at 3.6 Teraflops and therefore 1 TFLOP higher than the M1 8-core GPU. In our benchmarks, the GPU was able to top the M1 with up to 40%, but still stays behind the 14-core GPU in the M1 Pro. Compared to other iGPUs from AMD and Intel, the M2 benefits greatly from the unified memory architecture and the high bandwidth.

The M2 chip is manufactured in the second generation 5nm process at TSMC (most likely N5P). The power consumption is around 13.5 Watt (in our tests under load of the MBP13) and up to 15W according to Apple.