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Apple M1 Max vs Apple M2

Apple M1 Max

► remove from comparison Apple M1 Max

The Apple M1 Max is a System on a Chip (SoC) from Apple that is found in the late 2021 MacBook Pro 14 and 16-inch models. It offers all 10 cores available in the chip divided in eight performance cores (P-cores with 600 - 3220 MHz) and two power-efficiency cores (E-cores with 600 - 2064 MHz). There is no Turbo Boost for single cores or short burst periods. The cores are similar to the cores in the Apple M1.

The big cores (codename Firestorm) offer 192 KB instruction cache, 128 KB data cache, and 24 MB shared L2 cache (up from 12 MB in the M1). The four efficiency cores (codename Icestorm) are a lot smaller and offer only 128 KB instruction cache, 64 KB data cache, and 4 MB shared cache. CPU and GPU can both use the 48 MB SLC (System Level Cache). The efficiency cores (E cluster) clock with 600 - 2064 MHz, the performance cores (P cluster) with 600 - 3228 MHz.

The unified memory (32 or 64 GB LPDDR5-6400) next to the chip is connected by a 512 bit memory controller (200 GB/s bandwidth) and can be used by the GPU and CPU. This is the main difference to the M1 Pro and the CPU performance is quite similar.

The biggest difference to the M1 Pro is the bigger integrated GPU with 24 or 32 cores (up from 16).

Furthermore, the SoC integrates a fast 16 core neural engine, a secure enclave (e.g., for encryption), a unified memory architecture, Thunderbolt 4 controller, an ISP, and media de- and encoders (including two ProRes engines).

The M1 Pro is manufactured in 5 nm at TSMC and integrates 57 billion transistors. The peak power consumption of the chip was advertised around 30W for CPU intensive tasks. 

Apple M2

► remove from comparison Apple M2

The Apple M2 is a System on a Chip (SoC) from Apple that is found in the late 2022 MacBook Air and, MacBook Pro 13. It offers 8 cores divided in four performance cores and four power-efficiency cores. The big cores offer 192 KB instruction cache, 128 KB data cache, and 16 MB shared L2 cache (up from 12 MB). The four efficiency cores are a lot smaller and offer only 128 KB instruction cache, 64 KB data cache, and 4 MB shared cache. The efficiency cores (E cluster) clock with  up to 2,4 GHz, the performance cores (P cluster) with up to 3,5 GHz and therefore higher than the M1 cores. The architecture should be similar to the A15 (iPhone 13) with Avalanche and Blizzard cores.

The chip features a unified memory architecture for the CPU and GPU cores and supports up to 24 GB LPDDR5-6400 for a bandwidth of up to 100GB/s.

According to Apple, the M2 offers a 18% higher CPU performance at the same power consumption level compared to the Apple M1. In our tests, the MacBook Pro 13 with active cooling was able to reach the 18% in Geekbench Multi. In other benchmarks we measured 12 to 15% gains compared to the M1. Therefore, the performance is now near the M1 Pro with 8 cores. The passively cooled MacBook Air may however suffer from throttling in longer load scenarios.

The integrated graphics card in the M2 offers 8 or 10 cores and a peak performance of 3.6 TFLOPs.

Furthermore, the SoC integrates a fast 16 core neural engine with a peak performance of 16 TOPS (for AI hardware acceleration), a secure enclave (e.g., for encryption), Thunderbolt / USB 4 controller, an ISP, and media de- and encoders.

The Apple M2 includes 20 billion transistors (up from the 16 billion of the M1) and is manufactured in the second generation 5nm process at TSMC (most likely N5P). The power consumption is rated at 20W what we also measured under CPU load.

ModelApple M1 MaxApple M2
SeriesApple Apple M-SeriesApple Apple M2
Series: Apple M2
Apple M1 Max « 2.06 - 3.22 GHz10 / 10 cores48 MB L3
Apple M1 Pro compare2.06 - 3.22 GHz10 / 10 cores24 MB L3
Apple M1 Pro 8-Core compare2.06 - 3.22 GHz8 / 8 cores16 MB L3
Apple M1 compare2.06 - 3.22 GHz8 / 8 cores8 MB L3
Apple M2 Max compare2.42 - 3.7 GHz12 / 12 cores48 MB L3
Apple M2 Pro compare2.42 - 3.5 GHz12 / 12 cores24 MB L3
Apple M2 Pro 10-Core compare2.42 - 3.7 GHz10 / 10 cores24 MB L3
Apple M2 « 2.42 - 3.48 GHz8 / 8 cores8 MB L3
Clock2060 - 3220 MHz2424 - 3480 MHz
L1 Cache2.9 MB2 MB
L2 Cache28 MB20 MB
L3 Cache48 MB8 MB
Cores / Threads10 / 108 / 8
Transistors57000 Million20000 Million
Technology5 nm5 nm
FeaturesARMv8 Instruction SetARMv8 Instruction Set
iGPUApple M1 Max 32-Core GPUApple M2 10-Core GPU ( - 1398 MHz)
ArchitectureARMARM
Announced
TDP20 Watt
Manufacturerwww.apple.com

Benchmarks

Cinebench 2024 - CB24 CPU Single Core
100%
1 M2 +
121 Points (84%)
Cinebench 2024 - CB24 CPU Multi Core
100%
1 M2 +
513 Points (10%)
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Multi Core
min: 12385     avg: 12389     median: 12386 (12%)     max: 12396 Points
70%
M2 +
min: 8517     avg: 8654     median: 8667 (8%)     max: 8772 Points
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Single Core
min: 1530     avg: 1533     median: 1533 (65%)     max: 1536 Points
103%
M2 +
min: 1580     avg: 1595     median: 1585 (67%)     max: 1638 Points
Cinebench R20 - Cinebench R20 CPU (Single Core)
min: 390     avg: 393.3     median: 395 (44%)     max: 395 Points
96%
M2 +
min: 216     avg: 370.8     median: 381 (42%)     max: 446 Points
Cinebench R20 - Cinebench R20 CPU (Multi Core)
min: 2735     avg: 2746     median: 2750 (7%)     max: 2753 Points
85%
M2 +
min: 2231     avg: 2325     median: 2324 (6%)     max: 2416 Points
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 CPU Multi 64 Bit
min: 1689     avg: 1691     median: 1691 (11%)     max: 1693 Points
72%
M2 +
min: 1209.9     avg: 1222     median: 1215 (8%)     max: 1243 Points
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 CPU Single 64 Bit
min: 197     avg: 202.3     median: 200 (60%)     max: 210 Points
112%
M2 +
min: 222     avg: 223.8     median: 223 (67%)     max: 229 Points
Blender - Blender 3.3 Classroom CPU *
100%
1 M2 +
min: 540     avg: 620     median: 619.5 (8%)     max: 702 Seconds
Blender - Blender 2.79 BMW27 CPU *
min: 187     avg: 188.7     median: 189 (1%)     max: 190 Seconds
97%
M2 +
min: 549     avg: 614     median: 597 (4%)     max: 713 Seconds
Geekbench 6.2 - Geekbench 6.2 Single-Core
100%
1 M2 +
min: 2593     avg: 2622     median: 2621.5 (80%)     max: 2650 Points
Geekbench 6.2 - Geekbench 6.2 Multi-Core
100%
1 M2 +
min: 10034     avg: 10064     median: 10063.5 (40%)     max: 10093 Points
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.4 64 Bit Single-Core
min: 1764     avg: 1780     median: 1782 (75%)     max: 1795 Points
108%
M2 +
min: 1890     avg: 1918     median: 1917 (81%)     max: 1953 Points
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.4 64 Bit Multi-Core
min: 12563     avg: 12656     median: 12697 (23%)     max: 12708 Points
71%
M2 +
min: 8491     avg: 8839     median: 8961 (16%)     max: 8994 Points
Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Kraken 1.1 Total Score *
min: 404.3     avg: 459.2     median: 482.3 (1%)     max: 491.1 ms
100%
M2 +
min: 440     avg: 452.4     median: 450.9 (1%)     max: 466.8 ms
Octane V2 - Octane V2 Total Score
min: 66938     avg: 68647     median: 68029 (61%)     max: 70973 Points
110%
M2 +
min: 72484     avg: 74097     median: 74614 (67%)     max: 75776 Points
WebXPRT 4 - WebXPRT 4 Score
100%
1 M2 +
min: 223     avg: 235.5     median: 226.5 (65%)     max: 256 Points
WebXPRT 3 - WebXPRT 3 Score
min: 350     avg: 358.7     median: 360 (75%)     max: 366 Points
105%
M2 +
min: 342     avg: 369.1     median: 377 (79%)     max: 387 Points
Antutu v9 - AnTuTu v9 Total Score
100%
1 M2 +
min: 1257990     avg: 1337360     median: 1337360 (81%)     max: 1416730 Points
Antutu v9 - AnTuTu v9 CPU
100%
1 M2 +
min: 294643     avg: 298254     median: 298254 (82%)     max: 301865 Points
CrossMark - CrossMark Overall
min: 1586     avg: 1607     median: 1615 (62%)     max: 1621 Points
94%
M2 +
min: 1496     avg: 1533     median: 1520 (58%)     max: 1585 Points
Power Consumption - Prime95 Power Consumption - external Monitor *
100%
1 M1 Max +
50.8 Watt (9%)
Power Consumption - Cinebench R15 Multi Power Consumption - external Monitor *
100%
1 M1 Max +
53 Watt (10%)
105%
1 M2 +
29 Watt (5%)
Power Consumption - Geekbench 5.5 Power Consumption 150cd *
100%
1 M2 +
min: 9.08     avg: 9.4     median: 9.4 (4%)     max: 9.71 Watt
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption - external Monitor *
100%
1 M1 Max +
11.6 Watt (8%)
107%
1 M2 +
min: 2.03     avg: 2.6     median: 2.4 (2%)     max: 3.98 Watt
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption 150cd 1min *
100%
1 M2 +
min: 2.32     avg: 4.1     median: 4.7 (5%)     max: 5.32 Watt
Power Consumption - Cinebench R15 Multi Power Efficiency - external Monitor
100%
1 M1 Max +
31.9 Points per Watt (24%)
133%
1 M2 +
42.4 Points per Watt (32%)

Average Benchmarks Apple M1 Max → 100% n=13

Average Benchmarks Apple M2 → 94% n=13

- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation

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Redaktion, 2017-09- 8 (Update: 2023-07- 1)