Apple M6 GPU (12-core) vs M2 Pro GPU (19-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 Pro GPU (19-core) that utilizes 304 pipelines and 2432 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.

Review

General comparison of performance in games, applications, power efficiency, and other metrics
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

Key distinctions and advantages of M2 Pro GPU (19-core) over M6 GPU (12-core)
Reasons to consider the Apple M6 GPU (12-core)
  • Manufactured using a more efficient 2 nm process technology
Reasons to consider the Apple M2 Pro GPU (19-core)
  • 39% higher maximum theoretical performance (6.8 vs 4.9 TFLOPS)
  • Has 20% higher memory bandwidth: 204.8 vs 170 GB/s
  • Has 58% more shading units (2432 vs 1536)

Benchmarks

Graphics cards’ performance in recent benchmarking apps

3D Mark

Multiplatform graphics benchmark suite that directly correlates with performance in modern games
Steel Nomad Lite Score
Solar Bay - 16218
Wild Life Extreme - 12726
Sources: 3DMark [1]

GeekBench 6 GPU Compute

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
Background Blur - 89.7 img/sec
Face Detection - 58 img/sec
Horizon Detection - 1.94 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection - 3.26 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur - 2.19 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching - 0.55 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching - 163 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics - 6139.2 FPS
API - OpenCL
Sources: Geekbench [3]

Cinebench 2024 GPU

Hardware benchmark using Maxon's Cinema 4D rendering engine
Cinebench 2024 GPU

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
Sources: Blender [9] – 207 samples

Artificial Intelligence Tests

Performance in machine learning and artificial intelligence tasks

GeekBench 6 ML

Tests throughput of AI operations in single, half, and quantized precision
GB6 ML Single Precision
GB6 ML Half Precision
GB6 ML Quantized
Image Classification (SP) - 5279
Image Segmentation (HP) - 8089
Image Super Resolution (Q) - 15007
Face Detection (HP) - 19212
Pose Estimation (Q) - 44046
Text Classification (SP) - 2280
Machine Translation (HP) - 1972
Object Detection (SP) - 4941
Depth Estimation (Q) - 22209
Style Transfer (SP) - 79898
Framework - Core ML
Backend - GPU
Sources: Geekbench [9], [10]

Specifications

Technical specifications of Apple M6 GPU (12-core) and M2 Pro GPU (19-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 3050 Laptop
Successor - - Apple M5 Pro GPU (20-core)
Recommended CPU - Apple M6 (12-Core) or above - Apple M2 Pro or above
Used in CPUs - Apple M6 (12-Core) - Apple M2 Pro
Laptop GPU ranking (27th and 70th place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock - 450 MHz
Boost Clock 1600 MHz 1398 MHz
Shading Units 1536 2432
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 96 152
Render Output Units (ROPs) 80 76
Compute Units (Pipelines) 192 304
Tensor Cores No -
Ray-tracing Cores No -
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 128 GPixel/s 106 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 154 GTexel/s 212 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
4.9 TFLOPS
6.8 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface Custom Custom
TGP - 35 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Fabrication Process 2 nm 5 nm
Transistor Count - 26 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 256-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth
170 GB/s
204.8 GB/s

API

CUDA No -
Ray Tracing Yes No
DLSS No No

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