Apple M2 Max

The Apple M2 Max is an ARM-based (SoC) designed by Apple. It was announced by Apple for updated 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro models in the early morning of January 17, 2023.

Specifications
The M2 Max is manufactured by TSMC to Apple's design specifications. The processor contains 67 billion transistors that are fabricated through a second-generation  (N5P). Dynamic RAM (DRAM) is built onto the package and is shared through Apple's unified memory architecture (UMA) to eliminate the need to copy data from the CPU to GPU, which are both part of the package.

The 12-core CPU (same as in the M2 Pro) contains eight high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, similiar to the architecture used by the Apple M2 and other mobile devices for power efficiency. The GPU contains 38 cores for graphics. However, in some mid-level configurations, eight of the GPU cores are deactivated, indicating the practice of. The Neural Engine contains 16 cores for machine learning performance. The improved bandwidth of the Media Engine can enable real-time playback of multiple 8K video streams.

Preliminary leaks and reports
The M2 Max was developed from improvements incorporated into the Apple M2. In November 2022, Geekbench scores were found to have been posted from an as-yet unknown 3.54 GHz 12-core CPU with 96 GB of memory running an unreleased build of macOS 13.2. Reported performance improvements were modest, in line with that of the Apple M2 over the M1, but total memory capacity was increased by 50%. In December 2022, additional Geekbench scores indicated somewhat higher numbers at an increased of 3.68 GHz.

Performance
Apple stated that performance of the M2 Max was increased by up to 20% for the CPU, 30% for the GPU, and 40% for the Neural Engine over the previous generation Apple M1 Max. The memory controller also operates at 400GB/s, twice as fast as the M2 Pro.

Limitations
DRAM must be ordered in advance in 32, 64, or 96 GB configurations as they are part of the M1 Max's SoC package.

Articles

 * M2 Pro and M2 Max benchmarked against every other current Apple Silicon chip by Ben Lovejoy at AppleInsider (2023-01-27)
 * From A to Ultra: How the M2 Pro and M2 Max stack up to every other Apple chip by Roman Loyola at Macworld (2023-01-27)