Apple Debuts The M2 Pro And M2 Pro Max Processors

Apple has announced M2 Pro and M2 Max, two next-generation processors that the company says “takes the performance of Apple silicon to new heights.”

M2 Pro

M2 Pro scales up the architecture of M2 to deliver an up to 12-core CPU and up to 19-core GPU, together with up to 32GB of fast unified memory. M2 Max builds on the capabilities of the M2 Pro, including an up to 38-core GPU, double the unified memory bandwidth, and up to 96GB of unified memory. 

Its industry-leading performance per watt makes it the world’s most powerful and power-efficient chip for a pro laptop, according to Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. Both chips also feature enhanced custom technologies, including a faster 16-core Neural Engine and Apple’s media engine. 

Built using a second-generation 5-nanometer process technology, M2 Pro consists of 40 billion transistors — nearly 20% more than M1 Pro, and double the amount in M2. It features 200GB/s of unified memory bandwidth — twice that of M2 — and up to 32GB of low-latency unified memory. 

The next-generation 10- or 12-core CPU consists of up to eight high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, resulting in multithreaded CPU performance that is up to 20% faster than the 10-core CPU in M1 Pro, according to Srouji. 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, he add.

The GPU in M2 Pro can be configured with up to 19 cores — three more than the GPU in M1 Pro — and includes a larger L2 cache. Graphics speeds are purportedly up to 30% faster than that of M1 Pro, resulting in huge increases in image processing performance and enabling console-quality gaming.

M2 Max

With 67 billion transistors — 10 billion more than M1 Max and more than 3x that of M2 — the M2 Max is designed to push the performance and capabilities of Apple silicon even further. Its 400GB/s of unified memory bandwidth is twice that of M2 Pro, 4x that of M2, and supports up to 96GB of fast unified memory. 

The M2 Max features the same next-generation 12-core CPU as M2 Pro. The GPU is even more powerful with up to 38 cores, and is paired with a larger L2 cache. Apple says graphics speeds climb up to 30% faster than M1 Max. According to Apple, the M2 Pro and M2 Max feature updated custom technologies:

• Both M2 Pro and M2 Max include 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.