With the discharge of the 2023 MacBook Professional and the 2023 Mac mini, the form of the second technology of Apple silicon on Mac has been revealed. It’s, unsurprisingly, a little bit of a replay of the primary technology: Apple has segmented its chips into a couple of totally different varieties. 

As with the M1 technology, the brand new M2 Professional and M2 Max chips are carefully associated to one another and to the M2 chip launched final summer time. They’re all primarily based on the identical basis, however every chip has some totally different traits. When it comes time to decide on how a lot to pay for a Mac mini or a MacBook Professional, these variations matter.

Spherical 1: M2 vs M1

Earlier than I evaluate the M2 Professional and M2 Max, it’s solely proper to debate the M2, which debuted final June with the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Professional. The CPU and GPU cores within the M2 are the identical ones present in Apple’s A15 chip, which fashioned the idea of the iPhone 13 line. 

Apple’s chips maintain getting incrementally sooner. Normally, every M2 CPU core is about 12 to fifteen % sooner than the equal M1 core. Consequently, the M1-to-M2 transition can’t present the quantum leap provided by Apple’s leap from Intel to its personal processors. As an alternative, the Mac is now on the slow-but-steady progress path that we see yearly with the disclosing of a brand new iPhone processor.

Apple

Nonetheless, Apple does maintain tinkering across the edges from technology to technology. Within the M2, Apple addressed one of many largest failings of the M1 processor: restricted RAM capability. The M2 can help as much as 24GB of unified reminiscence, up from the 16GB limitation that made numerous potential M1 Mac consumers wince. Apple additionally elevated reminiscence bandwidth from 68GB to 100GB per second.

Whereas the M2 saved the identical CPU core configuration of the M1–eight cores, 4 dedicated to efficiency and the opposite 4 to effectivity–it elevated the utmost variety of GPUs accessible on the chip from eight to 10, boosting most graphics efficiency a bit. The subsequent-generation Neural Engine on the M2 is greater than 40 % sooner at machine-learning operations. 

Maybe most importantly, the M2 provided a lift to video encoding. Within the earlier chip technology, Apple added devoted {hardware} to the high-end M1 Professional, Max, and Extremely chips to permit them to encode and decode ProRes video recordsdata rather more effectively. Apple rolled that functionality into the M2, making Macs with M2 processors rather more succesful video editors. 

The M2 is a formidable chip, but it surely actually does pale compared to the M2 Professional and M2 Max. The M2’s 4 efficiency CPU cores make it remarkably highly effective–however the M2 Professional and Max provide twice as many, which doesn’t fairly double CPU efficiency… but it surely’s nonetheless about 1.6 occasions the velocity. After which there’s the GPU facet, the place the M2’s most of 10 GPU cores goes up towards as much as 19 GPU cores on the M2 Professional and a staggering most 38 GPU cores of the M2 Max. 

Apple

And whereas the M2’s 24GB of most RAM is rather a lot higher than the M1’s 16GB, the M2 Professional can go as much as 32GB and the M2 Max can vary as excessive as 96GB. Reminiscence bandwidth on the M2 Professional is twice that of the M2, and on the M2 Max, it’s 4 occasions.

Throw in restricted USB/Thunderbolt ports and video-out help and you may see that there’s nonetheless rather a lot to distinguish the high-end chips from the M2. This isn’t to say that the M2 is in any approach a loser! It’s truly a remarkably highly effective chip. However Apple has designed the M2 Professional and M2 Max for a extra demanding person.

Spherical (M)2: Professional versus Max

As with the M1 Professional and M1 Max, it’s necessary to notice that the M2 Professional and M2 Max are an identical in some ways. Apple presents M2 Professional chips with fewer than 12 CPU cores, however when you get a 12-core mannequin you’ll get precisely the identical 12 cores as provided on the M2 Max. The CPU energy will probably be an identical. Don’t consider me? Have a look:

In all places else, the story is totally different. Apple has restricted the M2 Professional to 19 GPU cores, however the M2 Max can have as many as 38 GPU cores. Because of this when you want graphics horsepower, the M2 Max is the way in which to take it to the max.

Equally, the M2 Professional’s reminiscence maxes out at 32GB, however the M2 Max can deal with as a lot as 96GB. And reminiscence bandwidth on the M2 Max is double that on the M2 Professional. And the M2 Max is best at video encoding at decoding as a result of it’s received two video encoding engines and ProRes video engines to the M2 Professional’s one. That implies that in some video encoding duties, the M2 Max will probably be twice as quick, as our Ultimate Reduce Professional export confirmed.

M2 Professional vs M2 Max: Select correctly

You possibly can principally consider the M2 Max because the M2 Professional with just a little bit additional–and primarily based on Apple’s images of the chips, you’ll be able to take that actually. The 2 chips seem an identical when considered from the highest to the underside of the M2 Professional… however the M2 Max is bigger, persevering with a bit past. In that new space, Apple’s added a second financial institution of GPUs, a further reminiscence bus, and extra video-encoding engines.

So which is able to it’s, Professional or Max? In case your workflows are largely pushed by CPU velocity, the additional GPU cores of the M2 Max chips won’t provide help to, making an M2 Professional a greater purchase. That’s until you want huge quantities of very quick RAM, by which case, once more, the M2 Max is a more sensible choice. Video encoding will probably be sooner on M2 Max, however maybe not sufficient for it to justify the elevated costs.

Apple 16-inch MacBook Professional (2023, M2 Max, 12-core/38-core, 1TB)

Apple 14-inch MacBook Professional (2023, M2 Professional, 12-core/19-core, 1TB)

Learn our comparability of the Mac Studio (M1 Max) and the Mac mini (M2 Professional).