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The first Geekbench 5 results for the MacBook Air’s M2 chip have appeared, indicating that users should see the same performance as the new 13-inch MacBook Pro for regular use.
The initial wave of Apple Silicon devices equipped with M2, the upgraded MacBook Air and the upgraded 13-inch MacBook Pro have the potential to differ in performance due to cooling variations. However, an initial benchmark of the MacBook Air M2 seems to indicate that users may not feel much of a difference.
According to the Geekbench 5 result detected by Twitter user “Mr. Macintosh,” the first M2 MacBook Air result has appeared in the online browser of the reference tool. Performed on Friday, the result of the “Mac14.2” indicates a single-core score of 1,899 and a multi-core score of 8,965.
The results are at the same level that AppleInsider found in its review of the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Under the same tests, the MacBook Pro managed 1,928 in the single-core test and 8,990 in the multi-core.
While there is a minimal difference in results between the two chips, benchmarks show that there should be very little difference in performance between the models, at least in terms of everyday use.
Tools like Geekbench are explicitly designed to introduce pauses into the workflow, offering a simulation closer to day-to-day workflows than an extended processing process.
Active cooling of the MacBook Pro would mean it will gain longer processing sessions due to better thermal management than the passively cooled MacBook Air. At the same time, users looking for high performance with minimal acceleration will tend to opt for more powerful systems to get started.
For regular use in low-end processing tasks, the MacBook Air remains the better choice of the two models.