Apple Unveils New 14 & 16-inch MacBook Pros Featuring New M2 Pro & M2 Max Chips

Just like the rumors suggested, Apple has unveiled two new MacBook Pro models (14-inch & 16-inch) featuring the latest and greatest Apple Silicon processors – M2 Pro and M2 Max. Though there aren’t any design changes to the laptops’ outer shell, the fact that they now feature far more powerful CPUs speaks volumes of what they are capable of.

The new chips are built on 2nd gen 5nm process technology with the M2 Pro consisting of 40 billion transistors (20% more than M1 Pro), 200GB/S of unified memory bandwidth (2x more than M2) and up to 32GB RAM. Featuring either a 10 or 12-core CPU, the chips offer up to 8 high performance cores and 4 high efficiency cores.

This means that it’s 20% faster than the 10-core CPU in M1 Pro. Apple claims that Xcode runs 2.5x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro. The GPU can be configured to up to 19 cores and larger L2 cache. Graphics speed are up to 30% faster than that of the M1 Pro.

As for the M2 Max, it has 10 billion more transistors (67 billion) than the M1 Max and three times that of the M2. There’s 400GB/s memory bandwidth, which is twice that of the M2 Pro and 4x that of the standard M2. It also supports up to 96GB RAM. The GPU is up to 38 cores and with a larger L2 cache.

M2 Pro and M2 Max feature:

• Both M2 Pro and M2 Max include 16-core Neural Engine, capable of 15.8 trillion operations per second, and up to 40 percent faster than the previous generation.
• M2 Pro has hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, and ProRes video encode and decode, allowing playback of multiple streams of 4K and 8K ProRes video. M2 Max features two video encode engines and two ProRes engines, bringing up to 2x faster video encoding than M2 Pro
• Apple’s latest image signal processor delivers better noise reduction and, along with the Neural Engine, uses computational video to enhance camera image quality.
• A next-generation Secure Enclave is a critical part of Apple’s best-in-class security.

M2 Pro on MacBook Pro:

• Rendering titles and animations in Motion is up to 80 percent faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro and up to 20 percent faster than the previous generation.
• Compiling in Xcode is up to 2.5x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro and nearly 25 percent faster than the previous generation.
• Image processing in Adobe Photoshop is up to 80 percent faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro and up to 40 percent faster than the previous generation.

M2 Max on MacBook Pro:

• Effects rendering in Cinema 4D is up to 6x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro and up to 30 percent faster than the previous generation.
• Color grading in DaVinci Resolve is up to 2x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro and up to 30 percent faster than the previous generation.

The new MacBook Pros also get Wi-Fi 6E, HDMI that supports 8K displays at up to 60Hz and 4k ones at 240Hz. They support up to three Thunderbolt 4 ports for high-speed connection to peripherals, an SDXC card slot, and MagSafe 3 charging.

The new 14-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro starts at $1,999 (US), and $1,849 (US) for education; and the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro starts at $2,499 (US), and $2,299 (US) for education