Apple announced new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips on January 17th, alongside new MacBook Pro and Mac mini models.
According to a press release from Apple, the M2 Pro chip scales up the M2 architecture to offer an up to a 12-core CPU and up to a 19-core GPU alongside up to 32GB of unified memory. The M2 Max, on the other hand, offers up to a 38-core GPU, double the unified memory bandwidth and up to 96GB of unified memory. Moreover, both chips include a faster 160core Neural Engine as well as Apple’s media engine.
Apple says that the M2 Pro chip brings “pro performance to Mac mini for the first time,” while the M2 Pro and Max will boost the power of the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
The new MacBook and Mac mini will be available starting January 24th and are available to order now on Apple’s website. Pricing is as follows:
- MacBook Pro 14-inch
- M2 Pro (10-core CPU, 16-core GPU) with 16GB memory, 512GB SSD – $2,599
- M2 Pro (12-core CPU, 19-core GPU) with 16GB memory, 1TB SSD – $3,299
- M2 Max (12-core CPU, 30-core GPU) with 32GB memory, 1TB SSD – $4,099
- MacBook Pro 16-inch
- M2 Pro (12-core CPU, 19-core GPU) with 16GB memory, 512GB SSD – $3,199
- M2 Pro (12-core CPU, 19-core GPU) with 16GB memory, 1TB SSD – $3,449
- M2 Max (12-core CPU, 38-core GPU) with 32GB memory, 1TB SSD – $4,499
- Mac mini
- M2 Pro (10-core CPU, 16-core GPU) with 16GB memory, 512GB SSD – $1,699
- Variants with the M2 chip are also available
M2 Pro
Apple says the M2 Pro is built on second-gen 5nm process technology and consists of 40 billion transistors, almost 20 percent more than on the M1 Pro and double what was available on the regular M2 chip. The M2 Pro also sports 200GB/s of unified memory bandwidth, double what was available on the M2.
As for the CPU, Apple says it consists of up to eight high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, offering up to 20 percent faster multithreaded CPU performance compared to the 10-core CPU in the M1 Pro. Apple also said heavy Photoshop workloads run “faster than ever,” while compiling in Xcode is up to 2.5x faster than on the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro.
Moving to the GPU, the M2 Pro offers up to 30 percent faster speeds compared to the M1 Pro. Apple says this results in a “huge increase” to image processing performance, and it enables “console-quality gaming.”
M2 Max
Apple’s new M2 Mac chip sports 67 billion transistors, 10 billion more than the M1 Max and over three times more than the M2. It also sports 400GB/s of unified memory bandwidth (double that of the M2 Pro and four times more than the M2), along with up to 96GB of unified memory.
While the M2 Max sports the same 12-core CPU as the M2 Pro, it offers a more powerful GPU with up to 38 cores. Paired with a larger L2 cache, Apple says the M2 Max offers up to 30 percent faster graphics speeds than the M1 Max.
More to come…
Header image credit: Apple
