Apple launched its latest range of 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops this January, offering users a choice of two new chips.
We’ve already broken down everything you need to know about the Apple M2 Pro, but what about the M2 Max?
Scroll down to learn all about the most powerful Apple Silicon laptop chip yet…
What is the Apple M2 Max?
The M2 Max is Apple’s latest system on a chip (SoC), sitting next to the new M2 Pro in the company’s Apple Silicon line-up.
The M2 Max packs a 12-core CPU, up to 38-core GPU and up to 96GB of unified memory. It also takes advantage of the latest 16-core Neural Engine and Apple’s media engine.
“With an even more powerful CPU and GPU, support for a larger unified memory system, and an advanced media engine, M2 Pro and M2 Max represent astonishing advancements in Apple silicon”, wrote Apple’s senior VP of Hardware Technologies Johny Srouji.
In fact, according to Apple, the M2 Max is the world’s most powerful and efficient chip for a pro laptop.
The chipset builds upon the advancements delivered by the M2 Pro, with the same 12-core CPU and a more powerful 38-core GPU with a larger L2 cache. Graphics performance is also up to 30% faster than the M1 Max.
The M2 Max packs 67 billion transistors, which is 10 billion more than the M1 Max and 3x more than the M2.
The 400GB/s of unified memory bandwidth is double the amount found in the M2 Pro and 4x that in the M2. There’s also support for up to 96GB of fast unified memory.
Like the M2 Pro, the M2 Max carries Apple’s next-gen 16-core Neural Engine, which is 40% faster than its predecessor.
The chipset also takes advantage of Apple’s media engine with two video encoding engines and two ProRes engines, making video encoding on laptops powered by the M2 Max twice as fast as doing so on models packing the M2 Pro.
The ISP provides improved noise reduction and better camera quality, while the next-gen Secure Enclave equips the chipset with Apple’s best-in-class security.
Which Macs carry the M2 Max?
The M2 Max can be found in the pricier configurations of Apple’s new 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops.