Apple M2 Pro vs M1 Max

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 3.5 GHz Apple M2 Pro with 12-cores against the 3.2 GHz M1 Max with 10-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
84
77
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
51
48
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
96
92
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
100
100
NanoReview Final Score
Generic CPU rating
74
70

Key Differences

What are the key differences between Max and Pro
Advantages of Apple M2 Pro
  • Newer - released 8-months later
  • Has 2 more physical cores
  • 11% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 2674 vs 2410 points
Advantages of Apple M1 Max
  • Supports up to 64 GB LPDDR5-6400 RAM
  • Around 204.8 GB/s (100%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
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Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
vs

Cinebench R23

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench R23 (Single-Core)
M2 Pro +8%
1672
1555
Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core)
M2 Pro +20%
14984
12455

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
M2 Pro +11%
2674
2410
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
12222
M1 Max +4%
12684
File compression 1480 MB/sec 1500 MB/sec
Clang compilation 98.8 Klines/sec 106.4 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 292.7 pages/sec 325.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 316.7 Mpixels/sec 324.6 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 263.2 pages/sec 251.3 pages/sec
Background blur 47.1 images/sec 41.4 images/sec
Photo processing 112.8 images/sec 116 images/sec
Ray tracing 14.4 Mpixels/sec 15.3 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2]

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
M2 Pro +8%
4135
3844
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
M2 Pro +20%
26382
22071
Integer math 58.5 GOps/sec 46.9 GOps/sec
Floating point math 74.4 GOps/sec 65 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 362M Primes/sec 281M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 42.1M Strings/sec 33.1M Strings/sec
Data encryption 15.9 GBytes/sec 12.4 GBytes/sec
Data compression 340.3 MBytes/sec 276.7 MBytes/sec
Physics 3657 Frames/sec 2838 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 12.2B Matrices/sec 11.7B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4]

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M2 Pro and M1 Max

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released January 17, 2023 May 7, 2022
Type Laptop Laptop
instruction set ARMv8 ARMv8
Codename Apple M2 Apple M1
Integrated GPU Apple M2 Pro GPU (19-core) Apple M1 Max GPU (32-core)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 8
P-Threads 8 8
Base Frequency (P) 3.5 GHz 3.2 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 4 2
E-Threads 4 2
Base Frequency (E) 2.4 GHz 2.1 GHz
Total
Total Cores 12 10
Total Threads 12 10
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 32MB (shared) 24MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors 40 billions 57 billions
Fabrication process 5 nm 5 nm
TDP (PL1) 30 W 30 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Apple M-Socket

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M2 Pro GPU (19-core) Apple M1 Max GPU (32-core)
GPU Base Clock 450 MHz 450 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1398 MHz 1296 MHz
Shading Units 2432 4096
TMUs 152 256
ROPs 76 128
TGP 35 W 60 W
Max. Resolution 7680x4320 - 60 Hz 6016x3384 - 60 Hz
iGPU FLOPS
6.8 TFLOPS
10.4 TFLOPS

Memory Support

Memory types - LPDDR5-6400 - LPDDR5-6400
Memory Size 32 GB 64 GB
Max. Memory Channels 4 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth 204.8 GB/s 409.6 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

PCI Express Version 4.0 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
473 (55.5%)
379 (44.5%)
Total votes: 852

Comments

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