Apple M2 Professional vs. M2 Max | Savvy Tech

I not too long ago posted my evaluate of the MacBook Professional 16 with M2 Max, which Apple launched in early 2023. Now I lastly have my palms on the much less highly effective (and cheaper) MacBook Professional 16 with Apple’s M2 Professional chip. I ran the varied benchmarks and carried out the varied duties, and even (lastly) linked the battery to the bottom. At the moment, I am right here to speak about how these chips stack up towards one another that can assist you determine which MacBook Professional mannequin is best for you.

Listed here are the benchmarks (scroll proper to see extra):

The sixteen-inch M2 Professional fashions begin at $2,499, whereas the M2 Max fashions begin at $3,099. The bottom mannequin M2 Professional has 16GB of reminiscence and 512TB of storage, whereas the bottom mannequin M2 Max has 32GB of reminiscence. Rising that M2 Professional mannequin as much as 32GB of reminiscence places it at $2,899, giving the M2 Max a premium of round $200 over the M2 Professional for an identical specs. That is a relentless differential, no matter the way you tweak the specs.

Nonetheless, if you wish to transfer as much as the M2 Max with 38 GPU cores (which is the one I examined), you may be at a further $200 premium. That is the one CPU that may be paired with 96GB of RAM: the M2 Max mannequin from 30 cores tops out at 64GB.

I averaged near 14 hours of steady use on the M2 Max mannequin with my workload. I can not assure everybody will get that period of time, particularly since my workload principally includes Chrome tabs, Google docs, and a few streaming, however I feel most individuals will get extra out of the M2 Max than the overwhelming majority of 16-inch laptops in the marketplace.

I averaged nearer to 17 hours straight on the M2 Professional mannequin. In follow, this implies I can run it on battery for 2 to a few days at a time, plugging it in like each every so often. Whereas the M2 chips do not have as nice a battery life delta as their M1 predecessors, the M2 Professional, for my private workload, had round 20 % extra energy per cost than the M2 Max.

For me, this battery life differential wouldn’t be a deal breaker. Sooner or later, lengthy battery is lengthy battery. I typically use a MacBook Air as my private pc, giving me a median of round 13 hours between expenses, and I do not really feel like I would like extra. That stated, should you’re actually searching for a tool that by no means dies, the M2 Professional could also be a bit extra interesting to you. For everybody else, it needs to be one other a part of the calculation: Along with paying additional {dollars} for the M2 Max over the M2 Professional, you are paying for just a few hours of battery life.

The distinction in CPU energy between the M2 Professional and M2 Max relies on which mannequin you select. All 16-inch M2 Professional fashions have 12 CPU cores. In the event you go for a 14-inch MacBook Professional, you may get an M2 Professional with 10 CPU cores, however all 16-inch fashions have 12 CPU cores, no matter whether or not you go for the Professional or Max.

We had the 16-inch mannequin in each instances, so each gadgets had 12-core CPUs. These chips have the identical structure, so should you do principally CPU-heavy work through the day, you may get little or no profit from the Max over the Professional.

You don’t imagine me? Check out the Cinebench and Geekbench ends in the chart above, that are fairly shut collectively (and an identical in some instances).

Now, there is a caveat right here. The M2 Professional fashions have a most of 32 GB of reminiscence, whereas the M2 Max can deal with as much as 96 GB. Individuals who have to spend extra on a 64GB or 96GB mannequin in all probability know who you might be: individuals who work with massive knowledge units, for instance, and who continuously take care of massive quantities of knowledge might have a greater time with a type of ( very costly) M2 Most fashions.

Essentially the most important distinction between these two chips lies within the energy of the GPU. Mainly, you may consider the M2 Max because the M2 Professional with just a few added graphics chops.

All 16-inch M2 Professional items have 19 GPU cores, whereas M2 Max consumers can select between 30 or 38 cores. (Our check unit has 38.)

In Geekbench Compute, which checks GPU energy, we are able to see a greater than 55% enhance in graphics energy, which is adopted by a close to 50% enhance in GPU core rely. In Shadow of the Tomb RaiderA benchmark of GPU-heavy gaming, the M2 Max did near 80 % higher than the M2 Professional. That is a really seen distinction on the 120Hz shows these MacBooks have.

There’s one other huge distinction between these chips that solely a few of you’ll care about, and that is that the M2 Max has two video encoding engines and two ProRes engines, whereas the M2 Professional solely has considered one of every. Which means that video editors particularly can anticipate sooner encoding and playback speeds from the M2 Max. (Precisely how a lot sooner could be inconsistent; extra on that in a minute.)

So these are the uncooked numbers. How does all this work throughout a piece day?

The M2 Max is noticeably sooner at video work. It outperformed the M2 Professional in PugetBench for Premiere Professional. My expertise utilizing it for modifying was blazing quick. It flew by way of replica and exports. If I had been a video editor (assuming my employer footed the invoice), I might positively need considered one of these items.

The M2 Professional wasn’t fairly as constant. I exported the identical 5 minute 4K video a number of instances and was in a position to see a time anyplace from round two and a half minutes to over six minutes. The method did not constantly get sooner or slower as I continued testing; there was no rhyme or cause for the completely different tenses. What I did discover was that the M2 Professional usually obtained hung up on graphics that the M2 Max may shortly get previous. Becca Farsace, our Senior Video Producer, had the identical expertise exporting a distinct video file.

With that stated, the M2 Professional will not be a gradual chip. Adobe Premiere Professional work was nonetheless fairly easy. The M2 Max was barely noisier and warmer than the M2 Professional throughout premiere work (it has a high-power mode particularly designed to maximise efficiency throughout sustained workloads, which the M2 Professional would not). Becca’s advice in our current information to the M2 line was that individuals who work with 3D, animation, 8K content material, and 4K content material for greater than an hour ought to severely think about the M2 Max mannequin. The M2 Professional needs to be nice for everybody else (except cash actually is not a problem).

The distinction wasn’t as marked in Xcode efficiency. The M2 Max accomplished the Xcode Benchmark simply over three seconds sooner than the M2 Professional. That is a distinction, certain, but it surely’s not as huge as, say, the hole between the M2 Professional and M1 Max. I would not anticipate the M2 Max to be a necessity for lighter duties like net design.

I do know there are lots of, many duties that folks would possibly need to use these MacBooks for that are not coated right here. Basically, one of the best ways to method this resolution is to determine: A. how a lot of your workload takes benefit of heavy graphics, and B. whether or not you should get that job completed with each ounce of pace you may get.

Oh, and I do not think about any of you had been contemplating this, however simply in case, no, there’s not a lot level in upgrading to those M2 fashions from the M1 line. The MacBook Professional M1 and M2 had been costly and quick machines, and they need to nonetheless have loads of life left in them. However should you nonetheless have an Intel MacBook Professional and did not go together with the M1 sequence final time round, the M2 Professional or Max MacBook Professional will present a substantial increase in efficiency, temperature, and battery life.