Apple decided to please with interesting announcements right from the beginning of 2023: an extensive line of branded ARM processors for Mac has been replenished with two models. Today, January 17th, the improved and more powerful M2 Pro and M2 Max chips are introduced, already available in the latest MacBook Pro and Mac mini. Battery life is claimed at 22 hours, which sounds incredible given the level of professional capabilities of the hardware platform.
The Apple M2 Pro is built using a second-generation 5nm process and has 40 billion transistors, nearly 20% more than the M1 Pro. The number of computing cores varies from 10 to 12, of which eight are high-performance and four are energy efficient. The unified memory bandwidth has been increased to 200 GB / s – twice as high as that of the base M2. The amount of RAM can now be up to 32 GB while maintaining low latency.
The GPU in the M2 Pro can be configured with 19 cores, three more than what is offered in the M1 Pro. Graphics processing speed is 30% faster than its predecessor. The L2 cache has also been increased.
The Apple M2 Max comes with 67 billion transistors – 10 billion more than the M1 Max and more than three times the M2. The processor bandwidth reaches 400 GB / s, while the supported amount of unified memory is increased up to 96 GB. As Apple notes, huge files open instantly on computers running the M2 Max, and simultaneous work in several heavy professional programs is now even more incredible, faster and smoother.
The architecture of the M2 Max includes the same 12-core CPU as the M2 Pro and a 38-core graphics accelerator. In the case of the M2 Max, graphics processing is accelerated by up to 30% compared to the capabilities of the M1 Max. Along with 96GB of storage, the latest MacBook Pros can “perform graphics projects that competing systems can’t even handle.” Apple calls the M2 Max “the world’s most powerful and efficient laptop chip.”
Other specifications of the Apple M2 Pro and M2 Max:
- The next generation 16-core Neural Engine is capable of 15.8 trillion operations per second and is 40% faster than the previous generation;
- M2 Pro with a single media engine supports hardware accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes video encoding and decoding and multi-stream playback in 4K and 8K resolutions, including ProRes at very low power consumption;
- M2 Max is equipped with two video encoding engines and two ProRes engines, providing 2 times faster encoding compared to M2 Pro;
- Apple’s upgraded DSP reduces noise better and uses computational video in conjunction with the Neural Engine to improve camera image quality.
Source: Trash Box
Charles Grill is a tech-savvy writer with over 3 years of experience in the field. He writes on a variety of technology-related topics and has a strong focus on the latest advancements in the industry. He is connected with several online news websites and is currently contributing to a technology-focused platform.
