Apple announces M2 Pro and M2 Max chips
Apple announced that it had launched two new-generation SoCs, M2 Pro and M2 Max, which continue the original architectural design of M2 and are manufactured using the second-generation 5nm process (N5P). It will take energy efficiency to new heights and be available on the new 14-inch/16-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini.
M2 Pro integrates 40 billion transistors, nearly 20% more than M1 Pro and twice as much as M2. It provides 32GB of low-latency unified memory and achieves a unified memory bandwidth of 200GB/s. The CPU part is equipped with 10 or 12 cores, 8 performance cores, and 2 or 4 energy efficiency cores, the GPU is 16 or 19 cores, plus a larger L2 cache, the graphics processing speed has increased by 30% compared to the previous generation chip.
M2 Max integrates 67 billion transistors, more than three times that of M2, provides 96GB of low-latency unified memory, and realizes a unified memory bandwidth of 400GB/s, further improving functions and performance. The CPU part is the same as the M2 Pro, but the performance of the GPU part has been enhanced, providing 32 or 38 cores, and the graphics processing speed has increased by 30% compared with the previous generation chip. According to Apple, the M2 Max is the world’s most powerful and energy-efficient chip in professional-grade notebooks.
Both the M2 Pro and M2 Max include Apple’s next-generation 16-core neural network engine, which can perform up to 15.8 trillion operations per second, which is 40% faster than the previous generation chip. The matching media processing engine can encode and decode H.264, HEVC, and ProRes videos including hardware acceleration, and supports simultaneous playback of multiple 4K or 8K ProRes videos, while maintaining extremely low power consumption, the M2 Max is equipped with 2 video encoding engines and 2 ProRes video engines. In addition, the latest image signal processor can further reduce image noise, and with the support of a neural network engine, it can also use computational video technology to enhance camera quality.
