MacBook Air (2022) with Apple M2 + 8-Core GPU Performance Overview
The MacBook Air (2022), powered by the Apple M2 with 8 cores and 16 GB of unified memory, showcases solid AI performance. It handles a variety of AI workloads efficiently, particularly excelling in image-based tasks like Style Transfer and Pose Estimation. The system leverages both its GPU and Neural Engine to deliver a balanced performance across single, half, and quantized precision scores.
Hardware Specs
- CPU: Apple M2, 8 cores (3.48 GHz)
- RAM: 16 GB Unified Memory
- GPU: Integrated Apple M2 GPU with 10 cores
- Neural Engine: 16-core Neural Engine
Estimated Total Price (2024): $1,199
This reflects the current price for the system in 2024.
Price-to-Performance: 451.2 per $100
The MacBook Air (2022) achieves a price-to-performance ratio of 451.2 per $100, based on its overall single precision GPU benchmark score of 5,419.
Price-to-Performance Calculation:
The price-to-performance ratio is calculated by dividing the single precision GPU benchmark score by the system price, then multiplying by 100.
Calculation: (5419 / 1199) × 100 ≈ 451.2 per $100
MacBook Air (2022) - GPU
The GPU test highlights strong AI performance in image-based tasks such as Style Transfer and Pose Estimation, with impressive scores across the board. The GPU is particularly efficient in single precision tasks, demonstrating the Apple M2’s capability in handling AI workloads.
View the full benchmark test here.
Benchmark Scores
- Single Precision: 5,419
- Half Precision: 5,589
- Quantized: 1,871
Top AI Tasks (Single Precision)
| AI Task | Score | IPS | AI Task | Score | IPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Style Transfer | 35,895 | 46.1 | 4. Depth Estimation | 13,551 | 104.4 |
| 2. Pose Estimation | 19,845 | 23.2 | 5. Face Detection | 8,897 | 105.7 |
| 3. Image Segmentation | 3,627 | 58.8 | 6. Object Detection | 2,777 | 220.3 |
MacBook Air (2022) - CPU
This test measures the AI performance using the Apple M2 CPU. While the CPU performs adequately, the workload shows that tasks such as Style Transfer and Depth Estimation run faster on the GPU. Nonetheless, the CPU still handles most tasks competently, making it a good fallback for when GPU resources are maxed out.
View the full benchmark test here.
Benchmark Scores
- Single Precision: 3,214
- Half Precision: 4,700
- Quantized: 4,063
Top AI Tasks (Single Precision)
| AI Task | Score | IPS | AI Task | Score | IPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Style Transfer | 17,249 | 22.2 | 4. Depth Estimation | 5,365 | 41.3 |
| 2. Pose Estimation | 6,119 | 7.14 | 5. Face Detection | 2,853 | 33.9 |
| 3. Image Super-Resolution | 3,606 | 133.1 | 6. Object Detection | 1,594 | 126.4 |
MacBook Air (2022) - Neural Engine
The Neural Engine accelerates AI workloads, showing particularly high scores in half-precision and quantized tasks. Style Transfer and Pose Estimation perform significantly better with the Neural Engine, highlighting the benefits of Apple’s dedicated AI cores for machine learning tasks.
View the full benchmark test here.
Benchmark Scores
- Single Precision: 2,008
- Half Precision: 12,050
- Quantized: 13,343
Top AI Tasks (Single Precision)
| AI Task | Score | IPS | AI Task | Score | IPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Style Transfer | 10,683 | 13.7 | 4. Depth Estimation | 3,640 | 28.0 |
| 2. Pose Estimation | 5,956 | 6.95 | 5. Object Detection | 1,252 | 99.3 |
| 3. Image Super-Resolution | 3,046 | 112.5 | 6. Face Detection | 2,114 | 25.1 |
Final Summary
The MacBook Air (2022) provides solid AI performance across the board, excelling particularly in tasks that leverage the Neural Engine. It performs well in Style Transfer, Pose Estimation, and Depth Estimation, making it ideal for tasks requiring complex image processing. The Apple M2 delivers consistent results in both GPU and CPU tasks, while the Neural Engine significantly improves performance in half-precision and quantized workloads.