Home > CPU Comparison > M2 Max or M1 Ultra: what's better?

Apple M2 Max vs M1 Ultra

68 out of 100
Apple M2 Max
VS
71 out of 100
Apple M1 Ultra
Apple M2 Max
Apple M1 Ultra

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 3.5 GHz Apple M2 Max with 12-cores against the 3.2 GHz M1 Ultra with 20-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
NanoReview Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
🔌 Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between Ultra and Max
Advantages of Apple M2 Max
  • Newer - released 10 months later
  • 11% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 2695 vs 2436 points
Advantages of Apple M1 Ultra
  • Around 409.6 GB/s (100%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Has 8 more physical cores
  • More powerful Apple M1 Ultra GPU (64-core) integrated graphics: 21.2 vs 13.6 TFLOPS
  • Supports up to 128 GB LPDDR5-6400 RAM

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
M2 Max
vs
M1 Ultra

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
M2 Max
122
M1 Ultra
n/a
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
M2 Max
1022
M1 Ultra +59%
1625
Cinebench Scores (#148th place)
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
M2 Max +11%
2695
M1 Ultra
2436
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
M2 Max
14891
M1 Ultra +24%
18530
File compression 1690 MB/sec 2000 MB/sec
Clang compilation 131.8 Klines/sec 189 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 368.6 pages/sec 513.5 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 382.1 Mpixels/sec 548.8 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 272.7 pages/sec 250.5 pages/sec
Background blur 54.1 images/sec 42.3 images/sec
Photo processing 149.6 images/sec 151.4 images/sec
Ray tracing 17 Mpixels/sec 27.8 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 693 & 509 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
M2 Max +7%
4136
M1 Ultra
3860
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
M2 Max
26843
M1 Ultra +54%
41392
Integer math 57.7 GOps/sec 92.4 GOps/sec
Floating point math 73.4 GOps/sec 130.1 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 359M Primes/sec 538M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 41.1M Strings/sec 66.8M Strings/sec
Data encryption 15.7 GBytes/sec 24.9 GBytes/sec
Data compression 335.2 MBytes/sec 556.6 MBytes/sec
Physics 3849 Frames/sec 5558 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 14.7B Matrices/sec 25.4B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 1034 & 236 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
M2 Max
253.11
M1 Ultra +61%
406.35

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 20.4 PPW 23.2 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 297.8 PPW 264.7 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 536.9 PPW 591.3 PPW
Blender / Watt 5.06 PPW 5.81 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M2 Max and M1 Ultra

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released January 17, 2023 March 8, 2022
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv8 ARMv8
Codename Apple M2 Apple M1
Model number - APL1106/APL1W06
Integrated GPU Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) Apple M1 Ultra GPU (64-core)
Rival Equivalent - - Intel Core i9 12900K
Successor - Apple M5 Max (40-сore GPU) - Apple M4 Ultra

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 16
P-Threads 8 16
Base Frequency (P) 3.5 GHz 3.2 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 4 4
E-Threads 4 4
Base Frequency (E) 2.4 GHz 2.1 GHz
Total
Total Cores 12 20
Total Threads 12 20
Multiplier 35x -
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 32MB (shared) 48MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors 67 billions 114 billions
Fabrication Process 5 nm 5 nm
TDP (PL1) 50 W 70 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100°C -

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) Apple M1 Ultra GPU (64-core)
GPU Base Clock 450 MHz 450 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1398 MHz 1296 MHz
Shading Units 4864 8192
TMUs 304 512
ROPs 152 256
Execution Units 608 1024
TGP 70 W 120 W
iGPU FLOPS
M2 Max
13.6 TFLOPS
M1 Ultra +56%
21.2 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M1 Ultra GPU (64-core) compared to M2 Max GPU (38-core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-6400 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 96 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 4 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth 409.6 GB/s 819.2 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

PCI Express Version 4.0 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
81 (22.5%)
279 (77.5%)
Total votes: 360

Competitors

1. Apple M2 Max vs Apple M4 (10-Core)
2. Apple M2 Max vs Apple M3 Max
3. Apple M2 Max vs Apple M3 Pro
4. Apple M2 Max vs Apple M4 Max (16-Core)
5. Apple M2 Max vs Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
6. Apple M1 Ultra vs Apple M4 (10-Core) (2)
7. Apple M1 Ultra vs Apple M3 Max
8. Apple M1 Ultra vs Apple M2 Ultra
9. Apple M1 Ultra vs Apple M4 Pro (14-Core)
10. Apple M1 Ultra vs Apple M4 Ultra
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M1 Ultra or M2 Max?
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