Apple M2 Pro and M2 Max Can Go Up to 40% Faster Than Its Predecessors
Earlier today, Apple has officially unveiled the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips for their next gen products that will power through your workflow.
Apple M2 Pro
The Apple M2 Pro was created utilizing a second generation 5nm manufacturing technology with over 40 billion transistors, which is twice as many as the M2 and approximately 20% more than the M1 Pro. It also has up to 32GB low-latency unified memory and 200GB/s of unified memory bandwidth.
The multithreaded CPU performance of the 10 / 12-core CPU is reportedly up to 20% faster than the 10-core CPU in the M1 Pro, and it can be configured with up to 19 GPU cores, three more than the M1 Pro, with a larger L2 cache. The 10 /12-core CPU has up to eight high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores. According to Apple, the M2 Pro is capable of compiling up to 2.5x faster in Xcode compared to the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro, with 30% higher graphical performance than the M1 Pro.
Apple M2 Max
The star of the show is clearly the Apple M2 Max, the stronger of the two chops. It’s said to allow up to 96GB of rapid unified memory and has 67 billion transistors, which is 10 billion more than the M1 Max and more than threefold of the M2. It also offers 400GB/s of unified memory bandwidth, bigger L2 cache, a GPU with up to 38 cores, and the same 12-core CPU as the M2 Pro. Apple mentioned that it has 30% faster graphics compared to the M1 Max but still manages a 22-hour battery life, the longest ever in a Mac.
Both the M2 Pro and M2 Max feature Apple’s Secure Enclave and 16-core Neural Engine for added security and faster machine learning tasks. However, the M2 Pro has a media engine for H.264, HEVC and ProRes video encoding and decoding, while the M2 Max has two video encoding engines and two ProRes engines for up to 2x faster video encoding than the M2 Pro.
Pokdepinion: Didn’t expect that much of a leap in performance for the Neural Engine but I do wonder how we can actually make full use of it. I’m pretty sure I don’t even make use of half its power given my work.
According to the Geekbench results the M2 Max provides decent upgrade over prior generation chips and is a very powerful chip delivering exceptional speed and power. If you need a workhorse Laptop system – the true Toyota of the computers, this is the best performance for any designer, professional video/graphics editor or musician. However, with limited budgets M1 chips are still good option to buy as M2 Max did not provide any serious infrastructural design change within the chip. However, the 2024 M3 3nm chips – these will be the ones that will deliver all those features and much more powerful performance boost over M2 generation. If you want the absolute best and can wait – then do wait until the M3 – 3nm chips come out within a year.
The M2 Max with 12-core CPU, 38-core GPU does provide better gaming experience though with the extra cores and new the new Hdmi2.1 port that is able to deliver much higher refresh rates of up to 240Hz when using 4K resolution and 8K at 60Hz – this is the most important upgrade for the new macs + Wifi 6E!
With new 2023 M2 Max chip MacBook Pro ( 12-core CPU, 38-core GPU) gamers should also be able to enjoy this platform as it is able to deliver above 100 FPS gaming experience on many popular games.