Memory
The M2 Pro has 32GB of soldered LPDDR5X memory configured at 7467 MT/s. That’s a higher memory transfer rate than any of the mini PCs I’ve reviewed previously, making this part of the testing especially interesting.
A higher advertised transfer rate doesn’t translate directly into an equivalent improvement in application performance. The memory controller, timings, cache behaviour, and the way software accesses data all affect the result. These benchmarks help establish what the system actually delivers.
Memory performance also matters to the Arc B390. With no dedicated VRAM, the GPU uses system memory alongside the processor.
$ phoronix-test-suite benchmark ramspeedRAMspeed measures memory throughput using integer and floating-point operations. The charts report transfer rates in MB/s, with higher results indicating better performance.
The M2 Pro leads both charts, reaching 60,545 MB/s in floating-point and 59,293 MB/s in integer operations. That’s around 27% to 28% ahead of the 356H system, a much larger difference than we saw in the processor tests.
It also beats both Ryzen AI machines. Depending on the test, its advantage is around 13% to 15% over the HX 370 and 16% to 19% over the HX 470. The M2 Pro delivers substantially higher memory throughput here, although that doesn’t imply an equivalent improvement in every application.
$ phoronix-test-suite benchmark tinymembenchtinymembench examines common memory operations. The memset test fills a memory region with a particular value, while memcpy copies data between memory locations. Both charts show throughput, so higher is better.
The M2 Pro tops both charts again. Its memset result of 105,945 MB/s is around 70% ahead of the 356H and more than twice the throughput of either Ryzen AI system. The memcpy result is less dramatic but still strong: 33,807 MB/s puts it around 21% ahead of the 356H and 22% ahead of both Ryzen AI processors.
These results show that the M2 Pro’s advantage varies considerably with the memory operation. They also help explain why its modest CPU gains shouldn’t be taken as a measure of the whole system’s potential.
Next page: Page 4 – Disk and Summary
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction / Processor
Page 2 – Graphics
Page 3 – Memory
Page 4 – Disk and Summary
Complete list of articles in this series:
| MINISFORUM M2 Pro-358H | |
|---|---|
| Introduction | Introduction to the series and interrogation of the machine |
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