Apple recently announced its newest range of Mac devices, including the Mac Mini and the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro. With this new range, came a major update to the Apple Silicon line-up with the M2 Pro and the M2 Max.
Read on to learn everything you need to know about the Apple M2 Pro…
What is the Apple M2 Pro?
The M2 Pro is Apple’s latest in-house system on a chip (SoC), along with the M2 Max.
The Apple M2 Pro scales up the company’s existing M2 architecture with an up to 12-core CPU and an up to 19-core GPU, as well as up to 32GB of fast unified memory.
It also takes advantage of a faster 16-core Neural Engine and Apple’s media engine.
“Only Apple is building SoCs like M2 Pro and M2 Max. They deliver incredible pro performance along with industry-leading power efficiency,” said Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies Johny Srouji when the chipsets were unveiled this January.
The Apple M2 Pro, in particular, is built to support professional workflows.
Built upon a second-gen 5nm process technology, the M2 Pro consists of 40 billion transistors. That’s twice the number found in the M2 and almost 20% more than the amount in the M1 Pro.
The M2 Pro packs 200GB/s of unified memory bandwidth (again, twice that found in the M2) and up to 32GB of low-latency unified memory.
Users can choose between a 10 or 12-core CPU with up to 8 high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores. This results in CPU performance up to 20% faster than that delivered by the 10-core CPU in the M1 Pro.
The GPU, meanwhile, can be configured with up to 19 cores, which is 3x more than the number found in the M1 Pro, and packs a larger L2 cache. This results in 30% faster graphics performance than the previous Pro chip for improved image processing and gaming.
The 16-core Neural Engine of the Apple M2 Pro is capable of completing 15.8 trillion operations per second, making it 40% faster than the previous generation.
The media engine, meanwhile, includes hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC and ProRes video encoding and decoding. This enables playback of multiple streams of 4K and 8K ProRes video without using large amounts of power.
Finally, the image signal processor offers better noise reduction and enhanced camera quality, while the next-gen Secure Enclave offers best-in-class security.
The Apple M2 Pro sits below the M2 Max in the Apple Silicon line-up, with the latter taking this performance even further as the brand’s most powerful and efficient laptop chip yet.
Which Macs feature the M2 Pro?
The Apple M2 Pro can be found powering Apple’s new Mac Mini and its latest array of 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.