Apple has released updates for its M1 Pro/Max-equipped 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros, which are now available with the new M2 Pro and M2 Max processors.
This news was expected in late 2022 and many of the anticipated features made their appearance including Wi-Fi 6E and support for up to 96GB of Unified Memory on the M2 Max model, against a 64GB cap on the M1 Max.
Better battery life has also been announced for the new MacBook Pros, and the 16-inch model indeed offers up to 22 hours of Apple TV movie playback with its 100 Wh battery – a record for a Mac, according to Apple. . The 14-inch model offers 18 hours of battery life with its smaller 70 Wh battery, but that’s still better than most of its Intel-based competitors.
Scrutinized performance
In addition to the energy efficiency that Apple’s silicon is renowned for, potential buyers will primarily be looking for a performance boost in the new MacBook Pro/Max M2. Until now, the only M2-based MacBook Pro was the 13-inch model, based on the 8-core CPU/10-core GPU M2 chip. The M2 Pro offers 10 or 12 CPU cores, 200 GB/s of memory bandwidth (double the M2), and up to 19 GPU cores, while the M2 Max has a 12-core CPU, 400 GB/s of memory bandwidth and up to 38 GPU cores, as well as up to 96 GB of RAM.
This should translate into significant speed gains for the new MacBook Pros: Apple reports 20% faster rendering of titles and animations, 2.5x faster compilation and 40x frame processing. % faster than the previous M2 generation for the M2 Pro model, as well as 30% faster effect rendering and 30% faster color grading for the M2 Max model.
All this remains to be confirmed by tests, in particular on the performance of the GPU.
Source: ZDNet.com