Apple M6 (12-Core) vs M2 Max
86
out of 100
VS
67
out of 100
We compared two 12-core laptop CPUs: the 4.79 GHz Apple M6 (12-Core) against the 3.5 GHz M2 Max. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.
Review
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
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
Key Differences
Advantages of Apple M6 (12-Core)
- Newer - released 3 years and 8 months later
- More modern manufacturing process – 2 versus 5 nanometers
- 71% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 4610 vs 2695 points
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 4.9 TFLOPS
- Around 239.6 GB/s (141%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
Test in Benchmarks
Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasksCinebench
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench Scores (91st and 148th place)
GeekBench v6
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
| File compression | - | 1690 MB/sec |
| Clang compilation | - | 131.8 Klines/sec |
| HTML 5 Browser | - | 368.6 pages/sec |
| PDF Renderer | - | 382.1 Mpixels/sec |
| Text processing | - | 272.7 pages/sec |
| Background blur | - | 54.1 images/sec |
| Photo processing | - | 149.6 images/sec |
| Ray tracing | - | 17 Mpixels/sec |
PassMark
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
| Integer math | - | 57.7 GOps/sec |
| Floating point math | - | 73.4 GOps/sec |
| Find prime numbers | - | 359M Primes/sec |
| Random string sorting | - | 41.1M Strings/sec |
| Data encryption | - | 15.7 GBytes/sec |
| Data compression | - | 335.2 MBytes/sec |
| Physics | - | 3849 Frames/sec |
| Extended instructions | - | 14.7B Matrices/sec |
Blender
Blender CPU
Performance Per Watt
| Cinebench 2024 / Watt | - | 20.4 PPW |
| Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt | - | 297.8 PPW |
| Passmark CPU Mark / Watt | - | 536.9 PPW |
| Blender / Watt | - | 5.06 PPW |
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.
Specifications
Full technical specification of Apple M6 (12-Core) and M2 MaxGeneral
| Vendor | Apple | Apple |
| Released | August 25, 2026 | January 17, 2023 |
| Type | Laptop | Laptop |
| Instruction Set | ARMv9 | ARMv8 |
| Codename | Apple M6 | Apple M2 |
| Model number | T8152 | - |
| Integrated GPU | Apple M6 GPU (12-core) | Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) |
| Successor | - | - Apple M5 Max (40-сore GPU) |
CPU
| P-Cores | 6 | 8 |
| P-Threads | 6 | 8 |
| Base Frequency (P) | 4.79 GHz | 3.5 GHz |
| E-Cores | 6 | 4 |
| E-Threads | 6 | 4 |
| Base Frequency (E) | - | 2.4 GHz |
| Total Cores | 12 | 12 |
| Total Threads | 12 | 12 |
| Bus Frequency | 100 MHz | - |
| Multiplier | 47x | 35x |
| L1 Cache | 256K (per core) | 192K (per core) |
| L2 Cache | 8MB (shared) | 32MB (shared) |
| Unlocked Multiplier | No | No |
Package
| Transistors | - | 67 billions |
| Fabrication Process | 2 nm | 5 nm |
| TDP (PL1) | - | 50 W |
| Socket | Apple M-Socket | Apple M-Socket |
| Peak Temperature | - | 100°C |
Laptop processors ranking (10th and 69th place)
iGPU
| Integrated Graphics | Apple M6 GPU (12-core) | Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) |
| GPU Base Clock | - | 450 MHz |
| GPU Boost Clock | 1600 MHz | 1398 MHz |
| Shading Units | 1536 | 4864 |
| TMUs | 96 | 304 |
| ROPs | 80 | 152 |
| Execution Units | 192 | 608 |
| TGP | - | 70 W |
iGPU FLOPS
Memory Support
| Memory Types | - LPDDR5X-10667 | - LPDDR5-6400 |
| Max. Memory Size | 32 GB | 96 GB |
| Memory Channels | 8 | 4 |
| Max. Memory Bandwidth | 170 GB/s | 409.6 GB/s |
| ECC Support | No | No |
Misc
| PCI Express Version | - | 4.0 |
Cast your vote
Total votes: 1