Apple M2 Max 38-Core GPU vs AMD Radeon 780M

Apple M2 Max 38-Core GPU

The Apple M2 Max 38-Core-GPU is an integrated graphics card by Apple offering all 38 cores in the M2 Max Chip.

The graphics card has no dedicated graphics memory but can use the fast LPDDR5-6400 unified memory with a 512 bit bus (up to 400 GBit/s).

Thanks to the additional cores and architectural improvements, the M2 Max GPU should clearly best the old M1 Max GPU with 32 cores and therefore be the fastest iGPU currently available.

The GPU is intended to use Apple Metal 2 API and could still be based on the older PowerVR architectures (last used in the Apple A10). A new feature in the MacBook Pro 14 and 16 of 2023 is the support for HDMI 2.1 and 8k output.

The Apple M2 Max is manufactured in the second generation 5nm process at TSMC. According to the internal powermetrics tool, the GPU uses up to 53.6 Watt (performance mode) and the whole chip (including the CPU) up to 89 Watt.

AMD Radeon 780M

The AMD Radeon 780M is an integrated GPU in the Ryzen 7040 series for laptops (Phoenix, e.g. Ryzen 9 7940HS). The iGPU is based on the new RDNA3 architecture and has 12 CUs (= 768 shaders) clocked at up to 3 GHz (depending on the CPU model). As the predecessor Radeon 680M, the 780M supports hardware raytracing, although the performance is too slow to use it in current games.

Thanks to the new architecture and higher clock speeds, the Radeon 780M should be clearly faster then the old Radeon 680M. This means most demanding games should be playable in minimum graphics settings (like Cyberpunk 2077) and less demanding games like Fifa 23 can be played in higher settings and resolutions (1080p). In early 2023, the Radeon 780M is the fastest iGPU on the market.

Thanks to the modern 4nm process and clever power-saving features, the power consumption is comparatively low (according to AMD). The whole chip of the first two models can be configured between 15 - 54 Watt TDP.