Apple has announced two new chips called the M2 Pro and M2 Max. The M2 Pro offers up to a 12-core CPU and up to a 19-core GPU, while the M2 Max builds on the capabilities of the M2 Pro, including an up to 38-core GPU. These chips are successors to the M1 Pro and M1 Max that were announced back in 2021.
These are still based on the 5nm process technology but come with a system-on-a-chip (SoC) architecture featuring a unified memory, better performance per watt, and incredible power efficiency, along with increased memory bandwidth and capacity.
The M2 Pro offers up to 200GB/s of memory bandwidth, with support for up to 32GB of unified memory. The M2 Max offers up to 400GB/s of memory bandwidth — 2x that of M2 Pro and nearly 4x that of M2 — and support for up to 96GB of unified memory. Both chips also feature enhanced custom technologies, including a faster 16-core Neural Engine and Apple’s powerful media engine.
M2 Pro highlights and specifications
- 40 billion transistors, more than 2x the amount in M2.
- New 10- or 12-core CPU, including eight high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, up to 20% faster than M1 Pro’s 10-core CPU.
- Up-to 19-core GPU that is up to 30% faster than M1 Pro
- M2 Pro can be configured with up to 32GB of fast low-latency unified memory, with up to 200GB/s of memory bandwidth
- Apps like Adobe Photoshop run heavy workloads faster than ever, and compiling in Xcode is up to 2.5x faster than on the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro.
M2 Max highlights and specifications
- Features the same powerful 12-core CPU as M2 Pro
- 38-core GPU for up to 30% faster graphics performance than M1 Max.
- 67 billion transistors — 10 billion more than M1 Max and more than 3x that of M2
- Doubles the memory interface compared with M2 Pro for up to 400GB/s, or nearly 4x the memory bandwidth of M2.
- M2 Max can be configured with up to 96GB of fast unified memory.
- M2 Max can tackle graphics-intensive projects that competing systems can’t even run.
- M2 Max is the world’s most powerful and efficient chip for a pro laptop.
Advanced custom technologies in M2 Pro and M2 Max:
- Apple’s next-generation, 16-core Neural Engine, capable of 15.8 trillion operations per second, and up to 40 percent faster than the previous generation.
- M2 Pro has an immensely powerful and efficient media engine, including hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, and ProRes video encode and decode, allowing playback of multiple streams of 4K and 8K ProRes video while using very little power.
- M2 Max features two video encode engines and two ProRes engines, bringing up to 2x faster video encoding than M2 Pro.
- Apple’s latest image signal processor delivers better noise reduction and, along with the Neural Engine, uses computational video to enhance camera image quality.
- A next-generation Secure Enclave is a critical part of Apple’s best-in-class security.
These chips power new MacBook Pro and Mac mini models that will roll out starting from this month.
Regarding the announcements, Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies, said,
Only Apple is building SoCs like M2 Pro and M2 Max. They deliver incredible pro performance along with industry-leading power efficiency. With an even more powerful CPU and GPU, support for a larger unified memory system, and an advanced media engine, M2 Pro and M2 Max represent astonishing advancements in Apple silicon.