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

Apple M2 Max vs Apple M2

67 out of 100
Apple M2 Max
VS
57 out of 100
Apple M2
Apple M2 Max
Apple M2

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 3.5 GHz Apple M2 Max with 12-cores against the 3.5 GHz Apple M2 with 8-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
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
DeviceFacts Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
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Key Differences

What are the key differences between M2 and Max
Advantages of Apple M2 Max
  • More powerful Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) integrated graphics: 13.6 vs 2.9 TFLOPS
  • Supports up to 96 GB LPDDR5-6400 RAM
  • Around 307.2 GB/s (300%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Has 4 more physical cores
  • Newer - released 7 months later

Test in Benchmarks

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

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
M2 Max
122
Apple M2 +2%
125
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
M2 Max +76%
1022
Apple M2
582
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 +4%
2695
Apple M2
2589
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
M2 Max +47%
14891
Apple M2
10122
File compression 1690 MB/sec 1130 MB/sec
Clang compilation 131.8 Klines/sec 80.4 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 368.6 pages/sec 235.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 382.1 Mpixels/sec 266.1 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 272.7 pages/sec 257.4 pages/sec
Background blur 54.1 images/sec 42.1 images/sec
Photo processing 149.6 images/sec 107 images/sec
Ray tracing 17 Mpixels/sec 10.5 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] โ€“ 693 & 465 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
M2 Max +7%
4136
Apple M2
3883
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
M2 Max +72%
26843
Apple M2
15651
Integer math 57.7 GOps/sec 37 GOps/sec
Floating point math 73.4 GOps/sec 37.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 359M Primes/sec 174M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 41.1M Strings/sec 23.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 15.7 GBytes/sec 9.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 335.2 MBytes/sec 185.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 3849 Frames/sec 1667 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 14.7B Matrices/sec 7.8B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] โ€“ 1034 & 4611 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
M2 Max +132%
253.11
Apple M2
109.19

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 20.4 PPW 32.3 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 297.8 PPW 562.3 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 536.9 PPW 869.5 PPW
Blender / Watt 5.06 PPW 6.07 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 M2
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-03-14 (T)Geekbench 6 CPU2647 / 10245
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-01-05 (AR)Geekbench 6 CPU2655 / 10211
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-10-24 (Shivam)Geekbench 6 CPU2619 / 9900
Add View all (3)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M2 Max and Apple M2

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released January 17, 2023 June 6, 2022
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv8 ARMv8
Codename Apple M2 Apple M2
Integrated GPU Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) Apple M2 GPU
Successor - Apple M5 Max (40-ัore GPU) - Apple M5 (10-Core)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 4
P-Threads 8 4
Base Frequency (P) 3.5 GHz 3.5 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 4 4
E-Threads 4 4
Base Frequency (E) 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz
Total
Total Cores 12 8
Total Threads 12 8
Multiplier 35x -
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 32MB (shared) 16MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors 67 billions 20 billions
Fabrication Process 5 nm 5 nm
TDP (PL1) 50 W 18 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100ยฐC -
Laptop processors ranking (69th and 133rd place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) Apple M2 GPU
GPU Base Clock 450 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1398 MHz 1398 MHz
Shading Units 4864 1024
TMUs 304 64
ROPs 152 32
Execution Units 608 128
TGP 70 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
M2 Max +369%
13.6 TFLOPS
Apple M2
2.9 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M2 GPU (8-core) compared to Max GPU (38-core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-6400 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 96 GB 24 GB
Memory Channels 4 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth 409.6 GB/s 102.4 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

PCI Express Version 4.0 4.0

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
19 (76%)
6 (24%)
Total votes: 25

Competitors

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5. Apple M2 Max vs Apple M4 Max (16-Core)
6. Apple M2 vs Apple M3
7. Apple M2 vs Intel Core i7 12700H (2)
8. Apple M2 vs Apple M2 Pro (2)
9. Apple M2 vs Apple M4 (10-Core)
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Comments

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