The rollout of Apple chips continues with the introduction of the next-generation M2 processors unveiled in the new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro. The new M2 Pro and M2 Max arrive six months after Apple introduced the M2 chip in the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro.
“Only Apple builds SoCs like M2 Pro and M2 Max. They deliver incredible professional performance along with industry-leading energy efficiency,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies, in a press release. “With an even more powerful CPU and GPU, support for a larger unified memory system, and an advanced media engine, M2 Pro represents and M2 Max make amazing advances in Apple silicon.”
The M2 Pro and M2 Max offer more CPU cores, GPU cores and memory bandwidth than their predecessors. Let’s take a look at the details of the new chips.
M2 Pro: 12-core CPU, 19-core GPU
Apple
The M2 Pro uses a second-generation 5nm process and offers more CPU and GPU cores, memory bandwidth, and several other upgrades over the M2 and M1 Pro chips. The M2 Pro has 40 billion transitions, which is 20 percent more than the M1 Pro, twice as many as the M2. Apple claims the M2 Pro has a larger L2 cache than the 24MB in the M1 Pro, but doesn’t provide details.
| M1 Pro | M2 | M2 Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU cores | 8 of 10 (6/8 performance, 2 efficiency) | 8 (4 performance, 4 efficiency) | 10 or 12 (6/8 performance, 4 efficiency) |
| GPU cores | 14 or 16 | 8 or 10 | 16 or 19 |
| unified memory | 16GB, 32GB | 8GB, 16GB, 24GB | 16GB, 32GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 200GBps | 100GBps | 200GBps |
| Neural engine | 16 cores | 16 cores | 16 cores |
Like the M1 Pro, the M2 Pro gives video editors an advantage with its built-in media engine that accelerates H.264, HEVC, and ProRes video encoding and decoding. It also offers better power efficiency while playing multiple streams of 4K and 8K ProRes video. And a custom image signal processor works in tandem with the Neural Engine to improve image quality from the built-in 1080p FaceTime camera on the MacBook Pro.
Compared to the M1 Pro, Apple’s benchmarks show that the M2 Pro is 40 percent faster at Adobe Photoshop image processing and 25 percent faster at compiling Xcode code. Apple also offers comparisons to the Core i9 16-inch MacBook Pro, the latest Intel-based laptop; Apple says the M2 Pro is 2.5 times faster in Photoshop and 80 percent faster in Xcode.
M2 Max: 12-core CPU, 38-core GPU
Apple
The M2 Max takes the M2 Pro and goes several steps further, packing 67 billion transistors (10 million more than the M1 Max), additional CPU and GPU cores, and more memory bandwidth.
| M1 Max | M2 Max | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU cores | 10 (8 performance, 2 efficiency) | 12 (8 performance, 4 efficiency) |
| GPU cores | 24 or 32 | 30 or 38 |
| unified memory | 32GB, 64GB | 32GB, 64GB, 96GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 400GBps | 400GBps |
| Neural engine | 16 cores | 16 cores |
Apple says the M2 Max is “the most powerful and efficient chip in the world for a professional laptop.” Note that it has the same media engine as the M2 Pro, but only a single video encode engine and ProRes engines, where the M1 Max offered two of each. To upgrade to 96 GB of memory, you’ll need a MacBook with a 38-core GPU, which costs $3,099 (14-inch) or $3,499 (16-inch), with an additional $800 for the memory upgrade above 32 GB.
