Apple M6 GPU (12-core) vs M2 Max GPU (38-core)
We compared two integrated laptop graphics cards: the Apple M6 GPU (12-core) with 192 pipelines and 1536 shaders against the 3 years and 8 months older M2 Max GPU (38-core) that utilizes 608 pipelines and 4864 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.
Review
Gaming
Performance in DirectX, OpenCL, and Vulkan games
Workstation
Perf. in 3D modeling, video editing and rendering apps
Energy Efficiency
Power consumption efficiency in different scenarios
DeviceFacts Final Score
Overall video card score
Scores marked with a red asterisk (**) represent initial estimates from early testing.
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Apple M6 GPU (12-core)
- Manufactured using a more efficient 2 nm process technology
Reasons to consider the Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core)
- 2.8x higher maximum theoretical performance (13.6 vs 4.9 TFLOPS)
- Has 2.4x higher memory bandwidth: 409.6 vs 170 GB/s
- Has 3.2x more shading units (4864 vs 1536)
Benchmarks
Graphics cards’ performance in recent benchmarking apps3D Mark
Steel Nomad Lite Score
| Solar Bay | - | 30368 |
| Wild Life Extreme | - | 24948 |
GeekBench 6 GPU Compute
GB6 Compute Score
| Background Blur | - | 149 img/sec |
| Face Detection | - | 98.1 img/sec |
| Horizon Detection | - | 3.8 Gpixels/sec |
| Edge Detection | - | 6.88 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian Blur | - | 4.44 Gpixels/sec |
| Feature Matching | - | 0.73 Gpixels/sec |
| Stereo Matching | - | 264.9 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle Physics | - | 11144.2 FPS |
| API | - | OpenCL |
Cinebench 2024 GPU
Cinebench 2024 GPU
Artificial Intelligence Tests
Performance in machine learning and artificial intelligence tasksGeekBench 6 ML
GB6 ML Single Precision
GB6 ML Half Precision
GB6 ML Quantized
| Image Classification (SP) | - | 6657 |
| Image Segmentation (HP) | - | 13854 |
| Image Super Resolution (Q) | - | 18642 |
| Face Detection (HP) | - | 27965 |
| Pose Estimation (Q) | - | 83144 |
| Text Classification (SP) | - | 2377 |
| Machine Translation (HP) | - | 2052 |
| Object Detection (SP) | - | 6495 |
| Depth Estimation (Q) | - | 31105 |
| Style Transfer (SP) | - | 135686 |
| Framework | - | Core ML |
| Backend | - | GPU |
Specifications
Technical specifications of Apple M6 GPU (12-core) and M2 Max GPU (38-core)General
| Vendor | Apple | Apple |
| Build | Integrated | Integrated |
| Released | August 25, 2026 | January 17, 2023 |
| Case | Laptop | Laptop |
| Purpose | Generic | Professional |
| Segment | Mid-range | High-end |
| Architecture | Apple M GPU | Apple M GPU |
| GPU Codename | Custom | - |
| Rival Equivalent | - Adreno X2-90 | - GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop |
| Successor | - | - Apple M5 Max GPU (40-core) |
| Recommended CPU | - Apple M6 (12-Core) or above | - |
| Used in CPUs | - Apple M6 (12-Core) | - Apple M2 Max |
Laptop GPU ranking (27th and 42nd place)
Graphics Processing Unit
| Base Clock | - | 450 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1600 MHz | 1398 MHz |
| Shading Units | 1536 | 4864 |
| Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) | 96 | 304 |
| Render Output Units (ROPs) | 80 | 152 |
| Compute Units (Pipelines) | 192 | 608 |
| Tensor Cores | No | - |
| Ray-tracing Cores | No | - |
| Instructions Per Cycle | 2 IPC | 2 IPC |
Raw Performance
| Pixel Fill Rate | 128 GPixel/s | 212 GPixel/s |
| Texture Fill Rate | 154 GTexel/s | 425 GTexel/s |
FLOPS (FP32)
Physical
| Interface | Custom | Custom |
| TGP | - | 70 W |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| Fabrication Process | 2 nm | 5 nm |
| Transistor Count | - | 52 billion |
| Max. Temperature | - | 94°C |
Memory
| Memory Type | System Shared | System Shared |
| Memory Clock | 10667 MHz | 6400 MHz |
| Effective Memory Speed | - | 12800 Mbps |
| Bus | 128-bit | 512-bit |
| ECC | No | No |
Memory Bandwidth
API
| CUDA | No | - |
| Ray Tracing | Yes | No |
| DLSS | No | No |
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