Power — Nope, processors in the 12th Gen Intel Line up such as i7-12700H are far more powerful than M2. Even more powerful than the chips M1 Pro and M1 Max in the Pro MacBooks. The 12th gen i7 chips especially the H series can draw much more power than M2 and hence they are more powerful.When it comes to gaming with the Mac, this is where we find the most significant differences between the Intel and M2. The Mac with Intel even lags in mouse movement. On the Mac with M2, everything runs smoothly and instantly.The biggest difference between the processors is their speed. The Intel i7 is faster than the Apple M1, making it better suited for tasks that require a lot of processing power.

Which chip is better than M2 : For example, M2 chips were upgraded to support better graphics, faster speeds (thanks to more transistors on the chip), and support higher memory (up to 24GB). M3 got a newer 3nm design (to make it faster) over M2, it got 25% more transistors and got even more energy-efficient.

How much faster is M2 than i7

PassMark

Integer math	92.4 GOps/sec	36.9 GOps/sec
Floating point math	66.7 GOps/sec	38.2 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers	96M Primes/sec	176M Primes/sec
Random string sorting	34.3M Strings/sec	24.1M Strings/sec
Data encryption	18 GBytes/sec	9.6 GBytes/sec

Is M2 faster than Ryzen 7 : The M2 averaged 28 frames per second (fps) at 1200p while AMD's Ryzen 7 maxed out at 25 fps. The story remained the same across medium and low settings, with the M2 reaching 33 fps on medium to the Ryzen 7 hitting 30 fps. Apple's M2 chip did all this while using 48% less power than the Ryzen 7.

It depends, both CPUs use different architectures, ARM and x86, Although ARM CPUs can be extremely powerful while running optimized software (Especially in M2's case due to Apple's tight software hardware integration) the main focus of ARM chips was always efficiency, hence if you talk in terms of raw performance an i9 …

The Apple M2 chip is equivalent to some chips you'd find in higher-end Windows laptops, like the 12th generation Intel i5 series.

How does Apple M2 compare to Intel

Performance let's start out by taking a look at the m2. Just showing you how much faster it is compared to the m1. Because it's actually a more impressive update than we expected. Starting out withPassMark

Integer math	92.4 GOps/sec	36.9 GOps/sec
Floating point math	66.7 GOps/sec	38.2 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers	96M Primes/sec	176M Primes/sec
Random string sorting	34.3M Strings/sec	24.1M Strings/sec
Data encryption	18 GBytes/sec	9.6 GBytes/sec

Advantage: Core i9 13980HX/RTX 4090 combo

For Geekbench overall, the M2 Max scored 1,993 in single-core performance and 15,173 in multi-core, while the HX posted 2,153 and 28,888. This tells us that the machines are pretty even in single-core performance.

i5: i5 processors tend to have slightly lower base and boost clock speeds compared to i7 processors. i7: i7 processors generally feature higher base and boost clock speeds, providing faster performance especially in demanding applications.

Will M2 be better for gaming : Of course, the chips in the M2 line provide better graphics hardware than their M1 counterparts, increasing core counts dramatically—up to 19 GPU cores on the M2 Pro and a whopping 38 on the M2 Max. Apple claims that the hardware changes will translate into 30% faster graphics performance over the M1 Pro and M1 Max.

Is M2 Max faster than i9 : i9–13900HX is about 40% faster than the M2 Max in terms of Multi-Core performance. That is MASSIVE. And it is more or less the same level in terms of Single-Core.

Is i7 overkill for gaming

Yes, an i7 processor is excellent for gaming. Its high performance ensures smooth gameplay even in demanding games.

If you only plan on using the PC for gaming, then an i5 processor will be just fine. However, if you also plan on using the PC for other things like video editing or streaming, then an i7 processor would be a better choice. The reason being is that the i7 processors are better at handling more strenuous tasks.The M2 is better than the M1, but it's still a marginal upgrade. The M1 Pro is similarly topped by the M2 Pro, and the M2 Max beats out the M1 Max in pretty much every test.

Is M2 powerful enough : Thanks to the performance increases of M2, the new MacBook Air and the 13-inch MacBook Pro are incredibly fast, even compared to Mac laptops with the powerful M1 chip. These new systems use a new higher density NAND that delivers 256GB storage using a single chip.