Apple’s upcoming “M2 Max” chip was again spotted on Geekbench’s database on Thursday, this time with a more respectable jump in performance compared to its predecessor, the M1 Max.
Last week, the M2 Max chip appeared on Geekbench with a single-core score of 1,853 and a multi-core score of 13,855. The M1 Max chip in the Mac Studio scores 1,755 in single-core and 12,333 in multi-core by comparison, so the earlier benchmarks represented a rather disappointing generation-over-generation performance gain of just 5.5% in Geekbench’s single-core test and 12.3% in the multi-core benchmark.
However, these new benchmark results sing a sweeter song, with a single-core Geekbench 5 score of 2,027 and a multi-core result of 14,888 points. The latest results push the M2 Max ahead of the M1 Max by 15.5% in single-core performance and 20.7% in multi-core performance. utilities That looks more like a generation performance boost.
As we noted when the previous benchmarks surfaced, Apple is likely still working on optimizing the chip, so the numbers may not accurately reflect the performance of the final product. Even these results may not be representative of what Apple will actually launch.
Apple is expected to launch a pair of high-end chips based on the same base as the M2 chip it unveiled earlier this year, but much sturdier. M2 Pro and M2 Max will reportedly ship in early 2023 in new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, and possibly a refreshed Mac mini.
The latest M2 Max benchmarks come from the same configuration as the previous one. They come from a system, labeled only as “Mac 14.6”, with a single M2 Max chip with 12 CPU cores and 96 GB of memory running macOS 13.2.
However, this week’s results come from an M2 Max chip clocked at 3.68 GHz. That’s slightly up from last week when the CPU cores were clocked at 3.54 GHz. The M1 Max, meanwhile, has a CPU clock speed of 3.23 GHz.
It seems Apple is still pushing the next iteration of Apple Silicon to its limits. Who knows, the company may squeeze even more performance out of the M2 Max by the time it debuts next year.
Apple has several new Mac models in the works for next year, including at least one iMac. The Cupertino, California-based tech giant is even reportedly testing an Apple Silicon Mac Pro internally, powered by an incarnation of the M2 chip.