M2 Pro and M2 Max: that’s it, the new Apple silicon chips are here

Apple has just announced the arrival ofnew second generation Apple silicon chips. After the M2 chip seen on MacBook Pro and MacBook Air last year, Apple computers now benefit fromM2 Pro and M2 Max.

Don't miss:

• Apple presents the Mac mini M2: more powerful and more affordable
• Apple unveils new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros

The Apple M2 Pro chip

The new Apple M2 Pro component is logically the successor to the M1 Pro, still offered on the Mac Studio. It is therefore intended to be more powerful than its ancestor, but also obviously much more capable than the M2 chip released last year. Engraved in 5 nm, the component integrates 10 or 12 cores depending on the buyer's choice on the CPU side, and 16 or 19 cores for the GPU part.

Apple announces a performance gain of40% in image processing under Photoshop for an M2 Pro compared to an M1 Pro. In general, the manufacturer plans an increase in computing power of20 %compared to the old generation for the CPU part,30 %for the GPU part.

The Apple M2 Max chip

Same diagram for the M2 Max, following on from the M1 Max: the M2 Max is presented with billions more transistors, a 12-core CPU and a GPU that can go up to 39 cores. In terms of graphics performance, count on a gain of30 %from one “Max” generation to the next. For processor performance, Apple announces a gain of up to40 %.

Which machines benefit from it?

Currently, the following Apple computers can be configured with Apple silicon M2 Pro or M2 Max SoC:

• M2 Pro :on Mac mini, for €1,549 with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage, on MacBook Pro 14″, from €2,399 with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage, and MacBook Pro 16″, for €2,999 with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage
• M2 Max :on MacBook Pro 14″, from €3,469 with 32 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage, and on MacBook Pro 16″, from €3,689 with 32 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage

Remember that the Apple silicon M2 chip is now available on the Mac mini, while the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13″ have already benefited from it since last year. The iMac is still limited to the Apple M1 chip. The Mac Studio does a little better, with the choice of M1 Pro or M1 Max to select in the configurator. For the Mac Pro, it's a return to the world before: only the Intel architecture is offered when purchasing the beast.

Editor-in-chief for iPhon.fr. Pierre is like Indiana Jones, looking for the lost iOS trick. Also a long-time Mac user, Apple devices hold no secrets for him. Contact: pierre[a]iphon.fr.