Apple M2 Max processor with 12 cores pops up on Geekbench, up to 20% faster than M1 Max

Apple’s M2 processor launched this year with modest improvements over the original M1 model, and, from what the latest leaked Geekbench test results suggest, the M2 Max chips launching in 2023 might not impress too much, either.

The M2 Max is rumored to up the CPU core count from 10 to 12 and the Geekbench 5 leak is confirming this. Base core frequency also appears to be increased from 3.2 to 3.54 GHz (3.7 GHz maximum), but these figures could further increase since the tests were most likely performed on an early engineering sample. Additionally, the jump from TSMC’s N5 to the N3E production nodes should also allow for improved CPU frequencies. Particularly impressive with the latest Geekbench 5 database entry is the 96 GB total system RAM indicated in the specs.

Taking a look at the Geekbench 5 test results, the M2 Max scores 1889 points on the single-core side and 14586 points for the multi-core section, or roughly 10% and 20% performance improvement over the M1 Max. Not exactly a big leap, as the results seem to be similar to Intel’s lower end Alder Lake-H processors with 45 W TDP. By the time the M2 Max launches, Intel and AMD are expected to have the next gen mobile processors ready, so the performance gap could widen in favor of the X86 models. However, Apple still has a chance to beat the match or even beat the competition with the M2 Ultra that is rumored to integrate 24 CPU ARM cores and 96 GPU cores, plus support up to 192 GB of RAM.

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