Apple M2 Max-powered MacBook Pros have just become available with the top configuration offering 12 CPU cores, 38 GPU cores, and up to 96 GB of unified memory. Apple did not provide any particular benchmark numbers for the M2 Max and while our review is en route, a new Geekbench score of the device is now available comparing it with the unreleased Nvidia RTX 4070 Laptop GPU.
According to the Geekbench entry, the Mac14.6 system features the 38-GPU core M2 Max with 64 GB of unified RAM and manages a score of 75,139 in the Geekbench OpenCL test. On the other hand, a Samsung laptop powered by an Intel Core i9-13900HK and Nvidia RTX 4070 Laptop GPU has amassed a score of 102,130 in the same test — a 36% increase.
Although Geekbench scores are comparable across platforms, these numbers are just from one sample each and don’t tell the whole story. It is not clear how the performance of the Mac system, likely the new MacBook Pro 16, is overall and whether there is any thermal throttling. Going by past experiences with Apple silicon, thermal throttling is unlikely in a quick benchmark such as Geekbench, but this needs to be confirmed during testing.
Also, the TGP configuration of the Samsung laptop with RTX 4070 is not evident from the Geekbench database. The listed model number of the notebook, NP960XFH, indicates that this could likely be a Galaxy Book 3 Ultra, which Samsung is expected to unveil alongside the Galaxy S23 lineup on February 1.
Geekbench scores aren’t exactly representative of real-world performance either. We’ve seen how Apple cherrypicked the M2 Max’s performance to show it is better than even a Quadro RTX 6000 and an RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU.
Ultimately, it depends on specific workflows and how they have been optimized for the given hardware. Nevertheless, these scores do help in understanding the relative positioning of these GPUs for an overall picture.
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Although a cell and molecular biologist by training, I have been drawn towards computers from a very young age ever since I got my first PC in 1998. My passion for technology grew quite exponentially with the times, and it has been an incredible experience from being a much solicited source for tech advice and troubleshooting among family and friends to join Notebookcheck in 2017 as a professional tech journalist. Now, I am a Lead Editor at Notebookcheck covering news and reviews encompassing a wide gamut of the technology landscape for Indian and global audiences. When I am not hunting for the next big story or taking complex measurements for reviews, you can find me unwinding to a nice read, listening to some soulful music, or trying out a new game.
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