Home > CPU Comparison > M2 Max or M1 Pro: what's better?

Apple M2 Max vs M1 Pro

67 out of 100
Apple M2 Max
VS
58 out of 100
Apple M1 Pro
Apple M2 Max
Apple M1 Pro

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 3.5 GHz Apple M2 Max with 12-cores against the 3.2 GHz M1 Pro with 10-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
M2 Max
77
M1 Pro
68
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
M2 Max
47
M1 Pro
35
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
M2 Max
74
M1 Pro
72
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
M2 Max
99
M1 Pro
93
DeviceFacts Final Score
M2 Max
67
M1 Pro
58
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between Pro and Max
Advantages of Apple M2 Max
  • Supports up to 96 GB LPDDR5-6400 RAM
  • More powerful Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) integrated graphics: 13.6 vs 5.3 TFLOPS
  • Supports quad-channel memory
  • Around 204.8 GB/s (100%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Newer - released 1 year and 3 months later
  • Has 2 more physical cores
  • 16% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 2695 vs 2328 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
M2 Max
vs
M1 Pro

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
M2 Max +12%
122
M1 Pro
109
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
M2 Max +28%
1022
M1 Pro
796
Cinebench 2026 (Single) - 444
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 3334
Cinebench Scores (#148th place)
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
M2 Max +16%
2695
M1 Pro
2328
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
M2 Max +45%
14891
M1 Pro
10305
File compression 1690 MB/sec 1230 MB/sec
Clang compilation 131.8 Klines/sec 82.4 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 368.6 pages/sec 249.1 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 382.1 Mpixels/sec 271.3 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 272.7 pages/sec 246.4 pages/sec
Background blur 54.1 images/sec 36.9 images/sec
Photo processing 149.6 images/sec 102.5 images/sec
Ray tracing 17 Mpixels/sec 10.7 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 693 & 593 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
M2 Max +9%
4136
M1 Pro
3795
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
M2 Max +22%
26843
M1 Pro
21934
Integer math 57.7 GOps/sec 45.6 GOps/sec
Floating point math 73.4 GOps/sec 64 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 359M Primes/sec 272M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 41.1M Strings/sec 32.5M Strings/sec
Data encryption 15.7 GBytes/sec 12.2 GBytes/sec
Data compression 335.2 MBytes/sec 272.2 MBytes/sec
Physics 3849 Frames/sec 2696 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 14.7B Matrices/sec 12.6B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 1034 & 2437 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
M2 Max +35%
253.11
M1 Pro
186.87

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 20.4 PPW 26.5 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 297.8 PPW 343.5 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 536.9 PPW 731.1 PPW
Blender / Watt 5.06 PPW 6.23 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Apple M2 Max
No benchmark results yet
Add
Apple M1 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-27 (bbffx)Geekbench 6 CPU2450 / 12944
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-27 (bbffx)Cinebench 2026444 / 3334
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-27 (bbffx)Cinebench 2024115 / 857
πŸ“˜ 2025-02-23 (anon121434)Cinebench 202499 / 682
πŸ“˜ 2025-02-19 (serhii)Cinebench 2024109 / 796
Add View all (7)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M2 Max and M1 Pro

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released January 17, 2023 October 18, 2021
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv8 ARMv8
Codename Apple M2 Apple M1
Integrated GPU Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) Apple M1 Pro GPU (16-core)
Successor - Apple M5 Max (40-сore GPU) - Apple M5 Pro (18-Core)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 8
P-Threads 8 8
Base Frequency (P) 3.5 GHz 3.2 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 4 2
E-Threads 4 2
Base Frequency (E) 2.4 GHz 2.1 GHz
Total
Total Cores 12 10
Total Threads 12 10
Multiplier 35x -
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 32MB (shared) 24MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors 67 billions 33.7 billions
Fabrication Process 5 nm 5 nm
TDP (PL1) 50 W 30 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C -
Laptop processors ranking (69th and 124th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) Apple M1 Pro GPU (16-core)
GPU Base Clock 450 MHz 450 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1398 MHz 1296 MHz
Shading Units 4864 2048
TMUs 304 128
ROPs 152 64
Execution Units 608 256
TGP 70 W 30 W
iGPU FLOPS
M2 Max +157%
13.6 TFLOPS
M1 Pro
5.3 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M1 Pro GPU (16-core) compared to M2 Max GPU (38-core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-6400 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 96 GB 32 GB
Memory Channels 4 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 409.6 GB/s 204.8 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

PCI Express Version 4.0 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
56 (76.7%)
17 (23.3%)
Total votes: 73

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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M1 Pro or M2 Max?
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