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

Apple M2 vs M1 Max

57 out of 100
Apple M2
VS
61 out of 100
Apple M1 Max
Apple M2
Apple M1 Max

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 3.5 GHz Apple M2 with 8-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.

  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.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between Max and M2
Advantages of Apple M2
  • Newer - released 7 months later
Advantages of Apple M1 Max
  • Around 307.2 GB/s (300%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More powerful Apple M1 Max GPU (32-core) integrated graphics: 10.6 vs 2.9 TFLOPS
  • Supports up to 64 GB LPDDR5-6400 RAM
  • Has 2 more physical cores

Test in Benchmarks

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

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Apple M2 +13%
125
M1 Max
111
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Apple M2
582
M1 Max +36%
789
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)
Apple M2 +6%
2589
M1 Max
2431
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Apple M2
10122
M1 Max +25%
12673
File compression 1130 MB/sec 1450 MB/sec
Clang compilation 80.4 Klines/sec 105.1 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 235.3 pages/sec 329.2 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 266.1 Mpixels/sec 317 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 257.4 pages/sec 249.6 pages/sec
Background blur 42.1 images/sec 42.2 images/sec
Photo processing 107 images/sec 122.8 images/sec
Ray tracing 10.5 Mpixels/sec 14.9 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 465 & 447 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Apple M2 +1%
3883
M1 Max
3831
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Apple M2
15651
M1 Max +42%
22162
Integer math 37 GOps/sec 46.1 GOps/sec
Floating point math 37.5 GOps/sec 64.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 174M Primes/sec 278M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 23.7M Strings/sec 32.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 9.5 GBytes/sec 12.2 GBytes/sec
Data compression 185.8 MBytes/sec 274.4 MBytes/sec
Physics 1667 Frames/sec 2833 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 7.8B Matrices/sec 12.8B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 4611 & 2398 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Apple M2
109.19
M1 Max +82%
199.2

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 32.3 PPW 15.8 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 562.3 PPW 253.5 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 869.5 PPW 443.2 PPW
Blender / Watt 6.07 PPW 3.98 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Apple M2
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-14 (T)Geekbench 6 CPU2647 / 10245
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-05 (AR)Geekbench 6 CPU2655 / 10211
πŸ“˜ 2025-10-24 (Shivam)Geekbench 6 CPU2619 / 9900
Add View all (3)
Apple M1 Max
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2025-07-04 (Daniel)Geekbench 6 CPU2459 / 13052
Add View all (1)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M2 and M1 Max

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released June 6, 2022 October 18, 2021
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv8 ARMv8
Codename Apple M2 Apple M1
Integrated GPU Apple M2 GPU Apple M1 Max GPU (32-core)
Successor - Apple M5 (10-Core) - Apple M5 Max (40-сore GPU)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 4 8
P-Threads 4 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 8 10
Total Threads 8 10
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 16MB (shared) 24MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors 20 billions 57 billions
Fabrication Process 5 nm 5 nm
TDP (PL1) 18 W 50 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Apple M-Socket
Laptop processors ranking (133rd and 95th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M2 GPU Apple M1 Max GPU (32-core)
GPU Base Clock 500 MHz 450 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1398 MHz 1296 MHz
Shading Units 1024 4096
TMUs 64 256
ROPs 32 128
Execution Units 128 512
TGP 15 W -
iGPU FLOPS
Apple M2
2.9 TFLOPS
M1 Max +266%
10.6 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M1 Max GPU (32-core) compared to M2 GPU (8-core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-6400 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 24 GB 64 GB
Memory Channels 8 4
Max. Memory Bandwidth 102.4 GB/s 409.6 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

PCI Express Version 4.0 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
106 (19.4%)
439 (80.6%)
Total votes: 545

Competitors

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2. Apple M2 vs Apple M4 (10-Core)
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4. Apple M2 vs Intel Core i5 12500H (7)
5. Apple M2 vs Apple M2 Pro (2)
6. Apple M1 Max vs Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
7. Apple M1 Max vs Apple M4 (10-Core) (13)
8. Apple M1 Max vs Apple M4 Max (14-Core)
9. Apple M1 Max vs Apple M3 (4)
10. Apple M1 Max vs Apple M3 Pro
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Comments

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